B Is For Blog

Soul Jazz Records are to publish Dancehall: The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture this Autumn, a new book documenting the birth of one of the most important, innovative sounds of recent times. Billing itself as a “visual history”, through the photography and words of author Beth Lesser it details the creatively explosive meeting of politics, technology, drugs, fashion, and violence that characterised Jamaican music in the early Eightiess. Artists such as Prince Jammy, Nitty Gritty, Gregory Isaacs, and Eek-A-Mouse all make appearances.

The book will be followed out the blocks by a new Soul Jazz CD compilation charting similar territory.

Scottish indie pop godheads Belle and Sebastian will release a 14-track collection of songs recorded for BBC sessions between 1996 and 2001 this November.

The album includes tracks from the 1996 sessions for Mark Radcliffe’s The Graveyard Shift, an alternative version of ‘Lazy Painter Jane’, and the apparently definitive recording of ‘Slow Graffiti’. It also feature a clutch of material from two John Peel sessions in 2001 - the first session captured some of Isobel Campbell’s last performances with the band, and the second a Christmas special with covers of The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, and Thin Lizzy. (more…)

Some exhibitions coming up at Here gallery in Bristol featuring some of our wonderful illustrators.

Xmas exhibition featuring Ben Newman and Stuart Kolakovic, 5th-end of december

Ben Newman solo show, 29th Sep - 27th Oct

www.thingsfromhere.co.uk

Wiley & Beanie Man - Rolex It Up (’Wearing My Rolex’ The Heatwave Refix)

There’s not a number two chart hit electro smash that couldn’t be improved by the presence of dancehall monster Beenie Man. Having proved this way back in 2004 with their version of ‘Trick Me’ by Kelis, this week Brit production titans The Heatwave have returned to underscore their point with a refix of Wiley’s ‘Wearing My Rolex’ which drags the original out of it’s dingy winter basement into the sweltering joy of our sweaty English..errr…Indian summer. Joy! Download high quality versions of both and more from their website, which you’ll be magically redirected to if you click here.