Twitter is the shitter!

I'm on Twitter, if you want to follow me then add me here.

Taking A Break

I'm busy working on a number of projects at the moment including a clothing line and a record label, so I'm having a bit of trouble finding time to do the blog and I'd rather not do a half-hearted post every other week and as a result I'm going to cease posting for a while. Many thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read my ramblings.

HVW8 feat. Computer Jay at IAA

Suite For Ma Dukes Videos

Very special night indeed.

Suite For Ma Dukes Pictures

As seen on Swindle Magazine.

Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy

Easily one of the greatest records of all-time, and one that still gives me chills when I hear it. Originally on the Blue Lines album this cut sung imperiously by Shara Nelson cut through the musical hemisphere at the turn of the 90's like a daisy-cutter. This is still the blueprint to my youth and something that I have been playing incredibly loudly in recent days. Still love it!

Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy

Adidas Originals House Party

David Axelrod - Holy Thursday

I think this is the first time that I have ever put a David Axelrod track on the blog, which in all truth is incredibly shameful considering how I much I love the man's work. David Axelrod is a master musician who was the man who pushed the likes of Lou Rawls and Cannonball Adderly to the forefront of music during his time as A&R and composer at Capitol Records in the late 60's and early 70's. He has been sampled by just about ever person who has ever made hip hop and probably most famously by DJ Shadow who spearheaded the resurgence in his music by letting the whole world know about him through the grooves of Endtroducing. Holy Thursday is an incredibly beautiful and ambitious track that shows just about everything that is good about Axelrod's work and listening back to it you can definitely hear why so many people have sampled him and why he is so influential. This is meant to be played incredibly loudly.

David Axelrod - Holy Thursday

Edgar Müller

I had never seen work by Edgar Müller before and it is a very interesting take on the street art that you see in cities such as Amsterdam, Barcelona and Venice where people paint images on the streets quite regularly. It must have taken him ages to work out the dimensions on these pieces as well as constant reordering of the focal point. Pretty astonishing stuff.

Edgar Müller was born in Mülheim/Ruhr on 10 July 1968 and grew up in the rural city of Straelen in the outermost west of Germany. His great artistic talent to represent its surroundings graphically and picturesquely turns out early, fascinated by painting from youth. He attends the high school in the neighboring town Geldern where the internationally important competition of the street painters takes place for over 30 years now. Inspired by the transitory works of art which meet him on his way to school Edgar Müller take part to this festival at the age of 16 years for the first time. With 19 years he wins this competition with a copy of the picture "Jesus at Emmaus " (Caravaggio).

Within the years following on this he could decide many other international competitions for himself. Since 1998 Edgar Müller owns the title 'maestro madonnari' (master street painter) whom worldwide only few artists bear. This award will allocate on the best known festival of the street painters in the small Pilgrim town Grazie since 1972 in Italy.

Arround the age of 25 Müller decides to devote himself to street painting completely. He travels all over Europe and denies his cost of living with his transitory art. He gives workshops at schools and is co-organizer and member of committee of different Street-Painting-Festivals. Mueller sets up the first and so far only board for street painters in Germany - an internet forum designed for solidarity of the german street painter community.

Edgar Muellers open studio is the street. He presents the people the excellent works of old masters in their weekday, and draws his perfect copies to the observers feet. He invites his audience to his fascination about the old masters art, her expressed view of the world - seeing and understanding it in depth.

Despite courses among well-known artists and studies to the communication designer Edgar is actually an autodidact. He looks for new representation forms for himself again and again. Inspired by the three-dimensional illusion paintings (particularly by works of Kurt Wenner and Julian Beever) he follows this new art form and creates his own style. Based on his knowledge about traditional painting and modern communication Müller uses a more simple and graphic language for his art. He paints over large areas of urban public life and gives them a new appearance thereby, challenging the perception of the passers-by. The observer becomes a part of the new scenery offered. While proceeding their daylife the people are changing the painting's statement on and on. Numerous publications in press and television draw one's attention to its unusual art.

Suite For Ma Dukes

Last night I had the distinct pleasure of attending an event that completely and utterly affirmed my love for music, Suite For Ma Dukes, an orchestral tribute to the music and memory of J Dilla.


The night kicked off with the legendary J Rocc of the Beat Junkies absolutely killing it after House Shoes had gotten the place all nicely whipped up.


Then the orchestra played with a cast that included the likes of Karriem Riggings, Bilal, Diana 'Decibel' Booker, Amp Fiddler, Talib Kweli, Posdnuos, Dweli, Illa J, Common and loads more all conducted beautifully and with an incredible amount of genuine emotion by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.


The show was shot by B+ and will probably be made available in the coming months but in the meantime check this sneaky film of the finale and the encore that has just surfaced on Youtube.


This was without a doubt a night of music that I would have loved each and every one of you to have been able to experience. I do not have the words to describe how incredible it was.

Tony Allen & Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Documentary

Fela Kuti v Kano - I'm an I.T.T.

This is a more than decent mash-up of Fela's I.T.T. (International Thief Thief) and italo bomb I'm Ready by Kano, and is something that I've never gotten the chance to play out but will probably do so the next time I step up to the decks, whenever that may be. Proper dancefloor tackle for a Saturday.

Fela Kuti v Kano - I'm An I.T.T.

Tony was 18...once!

This was a mix done by my partner-in-crime Paul Hughes for Tony Spaceface's 40th birthday celebrations that apparently went down an absolute storm at the Sally last weekend. Happy birthday Tony, and what a great gift. My 30th is coming up in a week and the gift of music is always welcome. Download the mix here.

Tracklisting - all unashamedly pre-88 party-bangers.

Love International - Dance On The Groove
Izit - Stories (stories mix)
Mano Negra - king kong five
Cry Sisco - Afrodizziact
Duke of Burlington - Flash 83 (dub)
Chris Rea - Josephine (version francais)
Evo e - Esta Amor
Dizzi Heights - Would I Find Love
Kongas - Anikan-o (tom moulton mix)
Mascara - Baja (dub)
Its Immaterial - Driving Away From Home (dead mans curve)
Scarlet Fantastic - No Memory (extra sensory mix)

Marlena Shaw - Woman Of The Ghetto

The first female to be signed to Blue Note, who are celebrating their 70th anniversary this year, Marlena Shaw's deep take on soul mesmerized players and punters alike as she charged up the charts all in her own inimitable style. This cut, Woman Of The Ghetto, was famously being sampled in the 90's by Blueboy on their hit track Remember Me which seemed to be everywhere when it was released on Guidance, and was also sampled by St. Germain on one of my favourite cuts of all-time Rose Rouge at the turn on the century both of which if you haven't heard before you really should seek out. In addition to her time on Blue Note, Marlena has released records on Chess, Cadet, Columbia, Soul Brother, Verve and South Bay the majority of which are absolutely essential for any self-respecting record collector. Marlena was recently honored at the World Wide Awards in London and she continues to seduce with her sultry and dulcet tones the world over. Look beyond the dime-a-dozen pop strumpets littering the airwaves and sink your lugs into the real deal. This is one to play ear-bursting loud.

Marlena Shaw - Woman Of The Ghetto

Joe Crepusculo - Gabriela - El Guincho remix

I know absolutely nothing about Joe Crepusculo beyond, and to be honest this is a guess, that he is Spanish and that his work can be at times very hard to digest, so it is with a huge sigh of relief that El Guincho has gotten his hands on a track and turned into what is admittedly just the right side of cod reggae with an incredibly full sounding reworking. This is just the sort of thing that the Balearic (slowly becoming a dirty word) massive should eat up. One for those days when the sun is shining.

Joe Crepusculo - Gabriela - El Guincho remix

Koushik - Lying In The Sun

Koushik Ghosh is an interesting cat, not content with simply making hip hop he blends a health does of psychedelia in and the results at time are quite breathtaking. He's worked with a number of artists such as Madvillian, Manitoba, Four Tet and many more and has found a home on the increasingly psych-friendly label Stones Throw who have just recently released a great 45 of his. This track, Lying In The Sun, taken from his must have album Out My Window is an adventurous take on the beats cannon and sounds absolutely incredible in the sun, which finally peaked its head out today after a few days of snow. Buy the album, trust me.

Koushik - Lying In The Sun

Daptone Records Broken Into

I've been asked to post this on the blog.

Friends and associates,As you may have heard through the grapevine by now, Daptone was broken into last night. Unfortunately, there was a lot of equipment (mics, pre-amps, monitors, turntables, guitars, amps, computers, etc.) stolen and damaged. It is going to take us a while to go through everything and take full stock of what was stolen, and we are not supposed to touch anything until the cops come back to collect fingerprints so we can only guess what’s missing from some mic drawers and cabinets.

And, no, we did not have insurance. We had been shopping around with different companies earlier this month but had not signed a check, so nothing was insured. We are working on replacing the gate in front, installing an alarm system, and getting insurance, but it is President’s day so it’s not going as quickly as we would have liked. Nydia’s computer was stolen (which wasn’t backed up) and the modems/ phone system was ripped out, so we’ll be relatively out of commission for a few days.

I would like to ask for everyone’s help first in keeping an eye out for all of our stuff showing up on ebay/craigslist/local music shops, and secondly (and more realistically) keeping an eye out for good deals on headphones, mics, pre-amps, etc. I could really use a heads up on any kind of studio package for sale or studio equipment to be possibly bought or borrowed as soon as possible. We have a session scheduled for Friday to lay down some music for (I know this sounds surreal) Rod Stewart, and I’m going to have to get the studio running by then. I know I’m going to need to find headphones, cables, mics, and pre-amps by then. I’m not sure what else yet.

Upon first glance we are definitely missing:
Fender Super Guitar Amp in case
Fender Deluxe Guitar Amp
A whole bunch of headphones and wires
Nydia’s HP laptop computer
One Desktop MacIntosh Computer
One Purple Audio API style lunchbox with
four Purple Audio Biz mic pre-amps
2 Yamaha NS10 monitors
Vintage Harmony Rocket Guitar
One steel string acoustic guitar
Martin Tenor sax in a gig bag
Technics 1200 turntable
Ion USB turntable
Teac Receiver/stereo amp
Sony dual deck CD burner/player
All of our modem/phone system stuff was ripped out and taken.
A whole bunch of condensor and dynamic microphones (I still need to figure out exactly what’s missing)
The power supply for my Trident console was tossed and the board was moved (probably not gently) so the status of that is still questionable.
A baldwin organ was tossed and is probably broken.
Lacie External hard drive.

Over the next few days, as we sort out the rubble, we are going to figure out what else we lost.

We are putting in a roll down front gate, alarm system, and finally getting our insurance happening this week. We are also going to hire a security guard to watch the house for tonight as the cops and alarm guy seemed pretty confident that they will be back with a truck now that they’ve seen what’s in here.

Thanks for keeping eyes open for us. AND PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ALONG TO ANYONE YOU THINK MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP US.

Thankfully, we all still have our health, ambition, tape machines, and sense of humor in tact. You can slow us down, but you can’t stop us. Sleep well knowing we here at Daptone will continue to…

Keep putting Soul up,

Gabriel Roth

You know what to do people! Keep an eye & ear out… any dodgy gear going for.

If you know anything contact the boys through their website.