As I've said many times, I love Peter Fox. His album Stadtaffe is quite simply one of the finest ever made, his live shows succeed in taking live hip hop to the stadium scale more successfully than almost anyone else, his band Seeed is responsible for some of the best reggae of the last ten years - not just in Germany or Europe, but on the world stage. He's my freakin hero OK?

With that in mind it's no surprise that I'm loving this mashup, taking Peter's vocal from its original dramatic context to somewhere much more mellow, the chord structure of the riddim lending it a kind of melancholy feeling...

Mashup-Germany - Guten Morgen Berlin by MashupGermany

New riddim from one of my favourite labels: Germaican Records. The Question riddim is a reworking of one of the most classic riddims ever, can't claim to know the history of it but it's one that pops up throughout the history of reggae... Dr Ring Ding's voicing, Polish Vodka, is typically silly but it's the highlight of the riddim for me with it's happy-and-you-know-it mash up. The Las Balkanieras voicing is a bit dissapointing for me as I was expecting their vocal to sound a little, well, Balkan.

Question? Riddim Megamix by upliftmentintl

Question Riddim at iTunes

Pretty awesome album here, released this week by Green Queen Music... Diaspora's A Jamaican In Cairo sets out to create "a very modern fusion from a very ancient diffusion" by combining Reggae and traditional Arabic & North African sounds...

Buy it on mp3: A Jamaican In Cairo at Juno

Buy it on CD: A Jamaican In Cairo at HMV

Grab the title track for free:

Diaspora: "A Jamaican In Cairo" (Free-Download) by greenqueenmusic

had to check this one out in case it had anything to do with Seeed's Waterpumpee, which was their original voicing (with Anthony B) of their Doctor's Darling riddim, which gave us the massive hit Tanya Stephens - It's a Pity. Especially as one of the voicings comes from Gentleman, suggesting a German connection...

Well it's not anything to do with Waterpumpee, but it's still pretty great, and it is a reworking of another old riddim, and it's really bugging me that I can't figure out what it is... I'm thinking it's from a Big Youth song which I only have on vinyl, and all my vinyl is packed away in an attic at the moment. I love the endless reworking and self-referencing in reggae (or rather the overt reworking & self referencing, because of course that's the basis of all music) but man it bugs me when I can't figure out what the reference is...

John John - Water Pumpin Riddim

This weeks riddim of the week (well ok since I missed last week, riddim of the fortnight) from Massive B contains one of the most classic basslines in history...

Massive B - 210 Computa Riddim

Don't know where that bassline came from originally but it's been reused approximatley a squillion times, always to devastating effect... here's a couple of examples that spring to mind:

heavy heavy roots: kenny knots / bush chemists - good sensimiella

classic classic rave: SL2 - Way in my Brain

There's some good pop music around at the moment! Well there always is really, among the endless churning out of tripe (which I think is probably necessary to turn up the gems) but there's at least two tracks around at the moment which are totally rockin, the first being Tinie Tempah's Pass Out which I correctly predicted would be huuuuuge (at this point I'm retiring from the chart predicitons business with a 100% success rate). The second is Rude Boy by Rihanna - I've never been a fan of her previous stuff but that hook is just pure wickedness. Seems like everyone and his dog has done a remix (my dog is in the studio right now) - here's a little selection:

Heavy dancehall / reggaeton grind: Rihanna & Agent Sasco - Rude Boy Remix (usershare link). I think Agent Sasco replies "like a bus" to Rihanna's "is you big enough?" - that's pretty big

Bleepy IDMesque dancehall: Rihanna - Rude Boy - Murlo Remix (via Palms Out

More after the jump...

So there's probably going to be a whole other dude posting on the blog soon - robbiefelixawesome (or maybe he wants a new name now), the original Untimely collaborator, the one guy who can regularly out-awesome me in terms of new / unexpected / crazy / and, well, untimely sounds... Which I'm excited about, as I think I get a bit too sucked into the whole Ghettotech (whatever that is) thing, which should only be a part of the whole Untimely thing (whatever that is).

Here's our original Untimely mix, back when the full Untimely Skank Sound System name was still in use... no fancy DJ tricks - in fact very little actual mixing at all per se - but this is one of my favourite mixes I've ever recorded. Tune after tune!

Untimely Skank Sound System - Summer 07 Mix

Tracklisting after the jump...

Been getting a whole bunch of hits from Kenya today since my post on Muthoni The Drummer Queen (still my hero) yesterday so I thought I'd return the favour and check out some more Kenyan stuff... here's a little selection of links to what I've come across (all with downloads!):

Two tunes via Ghetto Bassquake, both called Hey Baby:

Chiwawa - Hey Baby - raw Swahili hip hop..

Marya feat. Colonel Mustapha-Hey Baby - Cheery afro-pop..

This week's riddim of the week comes from Leftside:

Leftside - Official Riddim / Welcome to JA

Mainly as an excuse to post some other Leftside stuff, cos I'm loving him at the moment...

Leftside & Esco - Wine Up Pon Her containing the timeless piece of advice which rest assured I will be passing onto my grandchildren: 'if yuh see a hot gyal jus wine up pon her'

Gran Faada - Party Hard in which Leftside's elderly alter ego invites you to 'fling way yuh pride!'

This weeks riddim comes courtesy of Da Grynch and it's a real simple, old skool, relentless, squelchy roots steppa.

Da Grynch - Come Down Riddim

Here's a vocal for your delectation also:

Tippa Irie - Tippa Pon De Mic