skipple - photo by ashes57


Skipple was born in Adelaide, South Australia but moved to the UK with his family when he was 11 years old. When he landed in London, the jungle scene was at the height of its power and provided Skipple with an introduction to the sounds of the UK underground. Ever since, he has followed London bass music through Garage, Dubstep and most recently, UK Funky.
 
When garage arrived, Skipple fell in love with the music of Karl ‘Tuff Enuff’ Brown, Ramsey & Fen, MJ Cole and Wookie. He would record pirate radio sets and listen to them in class with the headphones hidden up his sleeve. He started working in a record shop at 15, determined to earn enough money for his first set of decks.  As Garage got darker at the turn of the millennium, Skipple got stuck into the likes of El-B, Zed Bias and later, the off kilter Dubstep of Mala and Kode9. Today all these sounds, in combination with his early love of jazz, soul, funk and hip-hop, inform his incendiary DJ sets that are notoriously 100% pure grooves and positive vibrations.
 
Skipple currently works for Paul Rose’s Hotflush label and can be heard doing his Super Skipple thing on Sub.FM every other Saturday at 5-7pm GMT.





Play list:

1. Ohio Players – Funky Worm [westbound records]
2. Tru Faith and Dub Conspiracy – Dancehall Queen [white label]
3. Donaeo – African Warrior inst. [zephron entertainment]
4. Donaeo – Devil In A Blue Dress [zephron entertainment]
5. Joe – Rut [hessle audio]
6. SIA – Get Me (Groove Chronicles mix) [long lost brother records]
7. D Malice – Gabryelle refix [white label]
8. Mizz Beats – Purple Love [dubplate – forthcoming deep medi]
9. 2000F and J Kamata – You Don’t Know What Love Is [hyperdub]
10. Kode 9 – Black Sun [hyperdub]
11. Allstars – Walk on by [white label]
12. Lil’ Silva – Funky Pulse [white label]
13. The Bug ft Killa P and Flow Dan – Skeng (Kode 9 rmx) [hyperdub]
14. Mala – Forgive [deep medi]
15. KMA Productions – Cape Fear [urban beat]
16. 5 Mob – Panic Stationz [2tuf 4u records]
17. El–Tuff Project – Midnight Jazz [qualifide recordings]
18. Jose James – Desire (Moodymann rmx)
[brownswood recordings]
19. Silkie and Harry Craze – French Knickers [break the habit]

Click here to play the podcast in iTune

Or click here to download the mp3.


www.myspace.com/skippledub
www.hotflushrecordings.com

It comes as no surprise upon listening to the bowel-aching rumble of Kryptic Minds that they got signed by the biggest rumble merchant of them all, Loefah, for his new label, Swamp 81. With support from Youngsta, Skream and Mala, "One Of Us" is a muted and vicious beast, with a swagger that says I could bash the brains from your head at a drop of a needle. "Six Degrees" on the B-side doesn’t deviate to far from the MO, a clanging cowbell habituates a transient world full of menace and oppression. Against the racket of jump up dominating the scene, this is minimal bass-weight heaven.

- Marc Gurney

When I received Donzelle’s album I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that she was from Montreal. I usually like to guess the genre before I listen to something I’ve never heard, but this time I kept my mind shut and loaded it into my Ipod anyways. The first time I gave it a listen I was working out which turned into listening to her album while: driving to work, at work, driving to school, during class – by sneaking my ear buds under my hair—in between classes… Yeah, you get the picture. I pretty much woke up to her album; I played that puppy out. Being the few foreign language artists I’ve heard, Donzelle is a keeper.

      I may not be able to comprehend what she’s saying but the beats are dope. Donzelle brings a fusion of Pop Rock, House, and Electro-funk all in one pretty striped package. In Labiere sur les Gamines the distorted guitars and catchy drum beats are frictionless. So smooth, your head nods naturally. While keeping that raw sound, she transitions over to an Electro-funk beat in Michel. In Hottentote she begins to rap. Having her rap solely in French sounds so dank. I can’t bring myself to unfold on how her voice alone compiles the whole album.

      I have to give big ups to this Montreal girl. Her album is not full on French, she does feature other Montreal artists singing/rapping versus, along with a few of her own in English. I want to say she sounds like a French version of M.I.A; I’m reluctant to even make a comparison like that, so I’ll leave it up to you.  Hopefully her album makes it to a DJ’s hands in the states so they can start blasting this in clubs. Her music is good vibes all around. Predominately, her music is good vibes all around.

-Teresa Del Val

http://www.myspace.com/dtodaondonzelle

    I have to admit I've always listened to Mr Lif's music with a very skeptical ear. My problem with Lif goes back to 1999. He performed at what I believe was called the Freedom Fest, which was basically an excuse for folks to burn trees on Boston Common. Everywhere heads of all backgrounds were rocking tees with the four-eyed MCs logo. Lif was an unknown to me but my interested peaked when the crowd went wild before he even got on stage. What followed was the second or third worst set I've ever witnessed. To his credit Lif claimed to be really sick but at the time his plea fell on deaf ears. He limped from song to song, barley able to spit a bar or two before stopping and begging for the crowd's forgiveness. Could Boston be so saturated with wack-sauce that its premier lyricist couldn't even rap one song in it’s entirety?

      Over the years Mr Lif has proved me to be mostly wrong. I never thought he was as dope as a lot of people say he is, but he was certainly a lot better than the rapper I saw. His latest "I Heard it Today" follows that same format. The first interesting aspect of this project is that Lif released this via his own Bloodbot Tactical Enterprises imprint. Could this be the beginning of Def Jux's move to Rawkus status? Next I wondered how Lif would present his first album of the age of Obama since Bush era politics provided so much material. Lif tackles these issues right away as he asserts he still doesn't trust the government despite its friendlier face. "What About Us?" eloquently points out the economic inequalities that still segregate America. Lif's ability to express complex thoughts in easy to grasp rhymes is put to good use, as is a great Biggie sample. "Breathe", a collabo with Bahamadia also worked for me as this joint reminded me of her classic "uknowhowedo." "Breathe" was much better than Lif's work with Vinny Paz and Dumbtron, "Folklore" seemed out of place on this album. Other standouts were “Collapse These Walls” and the title track. The former's minimal beat provided the canvas for LIf to let you know that he's "awestruck by the fact that we're all fucked" and he can "take a thought and expand it/until it becomes a mode of transit."
The rest of the album was sort of like ‘meh’ to me. I wouldn't call those songs filler, they're above that level but they didn't strike a chord either.  Lif's ability to spit deep thoughts and ill rhymes simultaneously is clearly evident, and it's refreshing that an MC like him has such a huge following in the Soulja Boy Tell 'Em era.

Perhaps only Redman can claim to have introduced more seventies babies to the world of reefer than Cypress Hill. Their innovative left coast Hip-Hip earned them a legion of glassy eyed followers the world over. I always liked the Hill’s music and live shows but I always felt they were more than the sum of their parts. I certainly didn’t expect to hear a B-Real solo album in 2009 that puts him in the class of originators that still put out decent music today.
“Smoke N Mirrors” presents B Real as an MC that stays true to his roots while occasionally changing up his sound. The first three tracks are definitely the type of West Coast gangster music that you’d expect from him. He even named one of the better ones “Gangsta Music” so as to avoid any confusion. I might not bump this type of music regularly but I can appreciate why some heads would. The most interesting tracks present an opportunity for B-Real to expand his sound. “Everything U Want” is a manual for career longevity featuring Buckshot that sounds more like East New York then East L.A. “6 Minutes” is an Alchemist produced heater where the topic is, once again, how to achieve longevity. Both tracks have a more east-centric sound but the stony MC’s flow comes off just as well.  The versatility he shows here makes it clear why B Real has had so much success, for so long in this fickle rap game.
For the rest of “Smoke N Mirrors” the sound is closer to what you’d expect. A lot of bass and synth creates the type of joints that dudes ride to. B-Real’s new music is just as good as the better music put out by those who followed in his footsteps. Sen Dog even does some spittin in Sanglish with his boy for ol’ times sake on “1 Life”. I was, however, disappointed by a couple of songs with high profile guests. Snoop Dogg’s showcase joint was just okay and “When We’re F*****g” featuring Too Short and Kurupt was actually a really disappointing ending to an otherwise solid album.

It’s been too long since one of Daniel Dumile’s alter egos has put out any music. Most recent conversations about him center on what type of narcotics he was on when he sent his hypeman Ben Grimm to lip sync his rhymes. Just when it seemed like we’ve heard the last of DOOM & company he returns with “Born Like This”, an eclectic offering that’s equal parts old school boom bap, obscure cultural references, and rhymes plucked from the depths of left field.

    “Born Like This” gets off to a shaky start. The gospel sample is well received, though it should’ve remained as the outro. We are, however, introduced to a narrator that is, in a word, wack. Instead of cutting and pasting samples from old cartoons to narrate this album, DOOM wrote his own and then gave them to a very annoying person to read. The album is undermined every time one of these “skits” appears. Luckily “Gazillion Ear” is the second track. Over a brilliant J.Dilla banger DOOM rolls out the new flow. One of the reasons that he dropped the MF could be that he no longer has mad flows. The lyrical dexterity that he exhibited in his younger days has run its course. Much like how Jordan fine tuned his jumper when he could no longer fly over defenders, DOOM has refined a straight forward delivery that he employs regardless of beat or tempo. “Gazilion Ear” presents the perfect chance for switching the flow but the Villain demurs. “Once sold an in-bred skinhead a nigger joke/ Plus a brand new chrome smoker with the triggers broke/I thought I told him firing pins was separate?” Not as limber but as funny and creative as ever. “Ballskin” is okay but Raekwon’s turn on “Yessir!” is good enough to make me wish DOOM did more production work for some of the older gods in the game. A reunion with Madlib resulted in “Absolutley,” an instant classic that’s a villain’s take on crime and punishment. “It’s real spooky like a real trife movie/Remember the part when Terminator killed Tookie?” By the time I was enjoying “Rap Ambush” (produced by Jake One) I realized that the use of talented contributors was a big part of the why I liked this album from the first spin.

    But despite the welcome changes DOOM is at his best here when he relied on two tried and true motifs. Rhyming about and sampling comics makes “Batty Boys” a keeper, even if it isn’t that much of a stretch to question the true nature of Batman and Robin’s relationship. If only he had taken the time to use these samples to narrate the entire album. “Cellz” follows the blueprint of “Beef Rapp.” It opens with a reading of Charles Butkowski  “Dinosauria, We.” The poem expresses the themes of this album perfectly. So much so that it could have been the opening track. “Crime pays, no medical nor dental/Unless you catch retirement, county, state, or federal,” DOOM states matter of factly.  A couple of solid joints follow before something strange happens. Rather then doing another song (or rearranging the ones he has) DOOM ends the album with a skit and an outro he already used as the intro. Despite the shaky beginning and end, this is one of DOOM’s better albums. Perhaps with a little more attention to detail this could’ve been up there with “Madvillainy” and “Operation:Doomsday.” As it stands this is DOOM’s fourth best album. Hopefully it won’t be half a decade before his next good one.
    
http://www.myspace.com/mfdoom

 They’ve been described as “alt-country” by some, but “controlled chaos” may be the best phrase to summarize Golden Boots’ new album, “Winter of Our Discotheque”, from Park The Van Records. The 10-song LP has some hit-or-miss qualities from track to track, but one almost gets the feeling that is exactly what the band wanted it to be. This album is very much daring at times, with synths joining the Sunbelt-twinged twang of acoustics and conventional electric guitar and percussion. At other times “Winter” is somewhat pedestrian and incomplete.
     
  The band is made up of Philadelphia natives-come-Tucson residents Dimitri Manos and Ryan Eggleston, and the two vastly different regions of influence are reflected in the music. It's the range of sounds and unabashed, almost experimental, use of varied instruments one would expect to hear from the artistic pockets scattered throughout the City of Brotherly Love, but coated in a mellow, light-country feel that is unmistakably Southwestern in influence.

  Golden Boots manages to confuse as much as entertain, but that may well be the fault of this listener; searching for a specific meaning or drive rather than simply letting it be. The fact of the matter is the only real goal appears to be taking low key melodies and wrapping them in a new, more experimentally unique package. I say that in as complimentary a way as possible, as the end result impresses on at least a handful of “Winter Of Our Discotheque’s” tracks.

  The album's fourth track, "Black and Blue" and the following number, "Ghosts" (The group's video single from this recent release), stand out as rhythmically entrancing, well-paced rides to a melancholy slice of nowhere, and are easily Golden Boots at their current best. I only say their 'current' best because these guys are musicians still growing, reaching and honing their craft; still incomplete. The take-it-or-leave-it "Winter of Our Discotheque", while enjoyable at parts, gives that same incomplete impression. Still, within moments of scanning the radio dial, you could do far worse.


 -Jared K. Watson


http://www.myspace.com/goldenboots

Ever since I first heard them on “The Borrowed Ladder” I’ve been telling everyone that would listen about the work Asaviour, Jehst, and DJ IQ been putting in over in the UK. Those able to get past the accents (no easy task for American ears) enjoys their well crafted rhymes and beats that put them near the top of Britain’s Hip-Hop scene. Savvy and IQ have grown musically since I last heard them. The tracks have a bigger, more diverse sound and the Savvy’s flow displays even more dexterity. The evolution of their sound is apparent all over this album. “Sucker or Savvy” is an easy going banger with a lot of slick bars, “Sound of the slums/Sound of the ‘burbs/Sound of middle England if you keep my pockets jingling,” among them. “Beefy” is also a good example of how both have expanded. A guitar riff helps paint a backdrop that enables Asaviour to “travel from the picturesque to the macabre in one bar.”  “Scientists of Sound” and “Golden” were the high water marks to me. These songs represent both the growth and potential of both artists.

While “Nextweek” featuring Dubbledge and “Gatheround” with Jehst are two of the better joints these two do much better without guest MCs.  I don’t want to say that the other cats are wack so I’ll say that Asaviour and Jehst are just that much better. A more miserly approach to sharing the mic would’ve been well received. Even with this flaw “The A Loop Theory” is still a good look. Asaviour is one of the best lyricists you (probably) never heard of and IQ’s production is quickly catching up to his acumen as a turntablist. Fans of well made Hip-Hop should do themselves a favor and get familiar with how these Brits get busy.

http://www.myspace.com/thealooptheory