Kimberly Dozier is a reporter for CBS news. Most recently she was on assignment in Iraq as a correspondent for CBS news. That was, until a roadside bomb went off killing her two co-workers and wounding others. Suddenly the world is shocked and appalled at this act of violence. Well the world may not realize this so I'm going to clue them in. There's a war going on in Iraq.I know, I know!

Note to Self:If, in the future, you are faced with a choice of courses to take, in order to complete some assinine personal goal you have set yourself, do not choose the courses assessed by written timed examination. Instead, plump for the ones involving essays to write at home.At least when you're writing an essay, there's a sense that something is getting done. You read bits and pieces of

The original image is still present in this Polaroid....any ideas where and what? A Busy week but I'll try to post as much as I can........

After returning from my exam on Saturday my Powerbook G4 was making some odd noises and was completely unresponsive. After powering down and attempting to reboot a few times I knew something was amiss. My hard disk is dead. This is the one time when I hate Apple products. The laptops are notoriously hard for end-users to replace the hard drive! Of course, the new MacBook doesn't suffer from this problem, but I don't own one yet!

Since this is a holiday weekend I can't do anything until the morning when I'm going to call MacResQ to expedite a hard disk replacement/upgrade. I've been straining to fit everything on the puny 40GB disk in my laptop for a while, so I guess an upgrade to a 120GB drive is in the works. Of course, that just means that I need more space in my G4 Sawtooth tower — my old desktop which now serves as a file/backup server — to keep everything backed up.

On a good note, I did have a 3 day old backup of the /Users directory and I had just backed up my iPhoto library to 5 DVDs which now reside safely in the safe deposit box. So, if MacResQ isn't able to resurrect it for me and transfer my data to the new disk I haven't lost anything important. Considering this is the second major hard disk crash I have had this year — the first was in my desktop, which meant reinstalling everything on two brand new 120GB Seagate drives — I'm feeling pretty lucky.

I've been off the road for a long time now. Since returning home from a very busy and crazy Q1 my life has been pretty low-key. One short trip to NYC for work at the beginning of May, but otherwise I've been working in solitary confinement. Er, from my home office.

Don't get me wrong, I like working from home. However, when I work from home for weeks and weeks on end it gets BORING! I like seeing other people and getting out of the house. It truly sucks when you roll off the couch at night, head up to bed and realize you haven't showered, changed clothes or left the house all day long! In fact, I haven't shaved in weeks since I haven't had to see any clients recently! Of course, that will change on Wednesday when I have to drive to Alpharetta to see a client.

I am getting back on the road in a few weeks, however, my travel schedule is going to be brutal. Usually I'm in a city for at least 3 nights, usually 4. However, on this trip I will be in 4 cities a week for two weeks.

ATL - EWR
NY Penn Station - Philadelphia (Amtrak)
Philadelphia - Washington D.C. (Amtrak)
DCA - BOS
BOS - ATL
ATL - TPA
TPA - MIA
MIA - CLT
CLT - ATL

Florida, one of my least favorite places to go any time of year but especially in the summer, should be hot as balls in the latter half of June. Yay.

Last Saturday I took the CISSP exam. When I left the exam I felt like I did pretty well. As the day went on my confidence level dropped further and further. Steph and I have had a lot of stuff going on in our personal life lately which has kept me occupied mentally and cut into some of my studying time. Not to mention all of the training and travel for the Hike for Discovery... I figured I'd do a lot of reading during our travel to and from Arizona. Things didn't work out quite as I had planned though. I used the tests at cccure.org to supplement my studying, however, when I took the test I didn't feel as if the questions I studied with accurately represented what was on the test. In some cases the material online was much more difficult, in other cases it seemed like entirely different material. Hopefully I'll find out in a week or so if I passed so I can add a few more semi-random letters after my name in all of my professional correspondence.

Enough rambling for one night... time to fight the insomnia and try to sleep. Where's that bottle of Ambien anyway...?

It's like iTunes music sharing, except with video. Lanovision is an open-source program that allows you to stream video over (including Divx and Xvid) any LAN. This used to mean only computers in your house, however when combined with Hamachi P2P client, the possibilities are endless. Movie nights can now include folks from all over the country!read more | digg story

A letter from Abraham Lincoln to the young daughter of William McCullough who was killed during a night charge near Coffeeville, Mississippi.Executive MansionWashington, December 23, 1862.Dear FannyIt is with deep grief that I learn of the death of your kind and brave Father; and, especially, that it is affecting your young heart beyond what is common in such cases. In this sad world of ours,

Welcome back Josh and Jen. Can't wait to hang out with you guys....We have missed you guys down here.

Absolutely amazing pictures from a storm chaser in Nebraska. I always wanted to do this when I was a kid. Often I would hop on my bike when a thunderstorm was coming just to watch it. Definitely check this out. Click on read more to go to the site.read more | digg story

I hope everybody has a good and safe Memorial day weekend. I'll be doing my partying with some friends in good old Lakeland. May God continue to Bless our troops and our County.

Audio

Grails – Black Sabbath - Temporary Residence Records
Pierre Bastien – Gig – Rephlex
Sunburned Hand of the Man – The main vein – Very Friendly
Tujiko Noriko – Magpies and mornings – Room 40
Bonde do Role – Melo de tabac – Mad Decent
Anthony Burr & Skuli Sverrisson – Except in memory – The Worker’s Institute
The Gentleman Losers – Light fandango – Buro
Corker Conboy – Blue skies – Blueeyesmusic
Paavoharju – Pepe – Miasmah.com
Arrows Made of Desire – Souvenirs from another planet – Tag Team Records
Calexico – Dance of death – Vanguard
Vialka – Kang Ding Town – Apes Riot Records
TV-Resistori – Sheikki sheikki – Fonal Records
Blood on the Wall - Renunite on Ice - Fat Cat Records
vetiver - You May Be So Blue - Fat Cat Records
The Mutts - Dog on Dog - Fat Cat
The Aquarians - Funky Aquarius (Aquarius Horns) - Pressure Sounds
Yahweh - Powers - Earthquake -EQCD008
Janet Kray - Rock the Rhythm - Kickin Reggae - KICKCD136
Justin Hinds - The Higher the Monkey Climbs - Sanctuary
Herman - No More Version - Pressure Sounds
India Mill - My Fury - www.india-mill.co.uk
Pilzin Sox - Alice Floats Away - PUMF - PUMF 553
WHen People Become Numbers - Toni n Gut - http://www.myspace.com/xwhenpeoplebecomenumbersx
Dan Reeder - The Tulips on the Table - Oh Boy Records
Camera Obscura - Tears for Affairs - Elefant Records
Rod Stern and his Raging Fingers - If You Don't Stop - Tapestry Records

779 Film. Do you think there is a big difference between this stuff and Time Zero? I have only done two so time will tell. Looking back at this image and Visions Blossom(post: may 16, 2006) I can tell a big difference but I'm not saying its a bad thing. These two images have given me a little hope for the future. I do know the image sticks out a lot more with Polaroid 779. But it's not transparent like Time Zero, so you have to work around the image that is on the film. It will have to work....it's....well...it's working.........maybe?

Looks like a different kind of business model. They actually let you become an on-line retailer of music (including top 40 type things, not just indy) for points to buy stuff. Only problem? The files are in Windows Media Audio that's got DRM (digital rights management) on it. In other words, you can only burn a song to CD 5 times total, at less than CD quality audio. Additionally you can't

"Now seriously y'all, I know what I'm talkin about! Stop laughing!"Natalie, Natalie, Natalie. What can I say? Let me help you help yourself. You see Natalie, some people are so stupid, that they don't realize how stupid they are, because they are so stupid. I can see you're struggling with this concept. Let me explain.You see, when you get on stage and bash the president in front of your

Now, continuing on in the vein of tech items (I will post more than tech related stuff, trust me, even I get sick of it. I pulled a muscle between my shoulder and neck today, and it hurts a lot. Ouch! There, that wasn't tech.) It's been reported that Windows Vista can be had in a public release beta.For the uninitiated among us, that means that Microsoft has released a test-version only of

I've been missing my blood-letting appointments recently owing to my local session being organised on days when I was having a lecture, or getting lost in France. So I thought I'd be pro-active, and go to a session in town near my office, during my lunch break.I have never had a problem giving blood before. The only self-criticism is my irritating allergy to the plasters. My body seems to have

I figured it out the other day. For this show, I cooked up 63 Polaroids in about 2 1/2 weeks. I have never produced that much work at one time, even when I was in school I never did that. Thought I would share that with you guys. I'm going to post a lot of flower shots, I'm trying to get them out of my system. I keep saying I'm never going to shoot another one but what did I do this weekend.....shot another one!!!!!!!!............ nature......if only I was color blind.....wait....I am.

Coach’s daughter (whose name I cannot remember) was dating this really pansy guy who was a mime. He was so pansy. He wore, I think, a helmet whenever he went out running because he was afraid of getting hurt. Also, I think he got nose bleeds all the time and Coach’s daughter would always dote over him and make sure he was okay and be hell of worried about his nose. But worst of all, from Coach’s point of view, he was a mime. Clearly if you are the head football coach at a Big-10 (I think it was the Big-10 or at least some fictional equivalent of the Big-10) college you do not want your daughter dating some pansy, nose-bleeding, effeminate mime. Also, the mime’s name was, I’m pretty sure, Stuart. Not only did the writers take the time to make him a weakly feeble mime, they also gave him a name that they knew football coaches the world over would detest; no one who is a football coach likes a guy named Stuart.

So much hilarity ensued when Stuart tried to show Coach how good he was for Coach’s daughter, and how strong he really could be. It was sort of tragic though, because he always failed, no matter how hard he tried.

Even though it was technically tragic I do not think it was sad, however. That guy was a real douche bag.

Maybe some of you know this, but my current day job is working at an IT support center at a University in the United States. In that capacity I encounter folks with all levels of knowledge regarding computer usage and maintenance. Some I would expect to have little knowledge, and yet there are others who I am shocked to find have almost no knowledge of basic operating system functions, be it on

This is me at Mayfaire. Those three pictures ( I like to call them the 3 bee's) where the highlight of my show...at least for me. Each picture is made up of 16 Polaroids. There is a huge love hate relationship with them. A lot going on...Since I ran out of time, I only got to scan one of them, (I will post Bogart for you sometime this week) I will have to take a picture of the Lauren Bacall Polaroid. Brando sold, to a guy that bought six smaller ones last year. He was the first one in my booth this year. Its always pretty exciting to know someone is collecting your work. Thanks to all the people that bought some work from me.

No, it's not what you think.

When we were in Scottsdale we passed by a restaurant being built called Pink Taco. Mark and I both commented on the name, finding it out of place for the chic suburbs. I promptly forgot about it.

While watching Saturday Night Live they made mention of the Pink Taco and the problems they are having with the local community in Scottsdale. Of course this reminded me about the restaurant and prompted me to post.

Do I have anything to add to this? No. I just think its a pretty damn funny name for a restaurant. Or a strip club with a Mexican theme.

Spoiler Alert. If you are the only person alive yet to read The Da Vinci Code (I know, I'm exaggerating), then don't despair: it should take you about 5 mins to read and understand everything in there. Then you can get on with reading my review.*****************************Literary Interlude.I have read enough high quality fiction to know that The Da Vinci Code does not belong in that category

Audio

Gary is in the studio to talk about Darwen Music Live

Blackdown – Lata – Keysound cdr
Aki2 – Distillers riddim – Werk cdr
D1 – Golden bullet – Ammunition cdr
Benga – Dominion – Benga Beats
Polmo Polpo – Reqiuem for a fox – Constellation
Amjad Ali Khan – Rainbows adorn you – The Essential Guide
Early B – History of Jamaica – Roots
Bongo Herman – African jump – Roots
Scientist – beaming – Auralux
Hi Tech Roots Dynamics – Wicked rule dub – Log On!!
Adrian Sherwood – Lifestyles of the sick and shameless track 1 – On U cdr*
65 Days of Static - Drove THrough Ghosts to Get Here - Montreme Records
I am John Pancreas - Sharpened Sticks - Euphonium
The Baghdaddies - Random Acts of Kindness - Baghdaddies
Gone Beggin' - Never - Sunbird -
Ian Dury - Sweet Gene Vincent - Repertoire
How to Swim - - A Little Orgasm of Disappointment - Electric Honey
Southpaw - underwater Jesus - Goldrush
Derek Morgan - Blazing Fire - Sanctuary Records
John Holt - Ali Baba - Trojan

I absolutely despise Triton. Why? Bundled ads, unstable operation, and an annoying user interface. I had one friend try to convince me that the interface wasn't really that bad, but after trying a few different clients I have no doubt in my mind that Triton is a pain to use and not worth your time, plain and simple.Try Googling "Triton sucks" and see what comes up. First of all, the menus are

I've been going to the gym fairly regularly for about 5 years. However, I only really started to enjoy it when I discovered the free-weights room. Previously I had worked myself into a lather of boredom on the treadmill/elliptical step.Thus far I have been very lucky and not done myself any damage. However, in the vein of the 'you're not a horse-rider until you've had a dozen falls', I knew it

Well, wouldn't you know it, as soon as I start a new blog I've already got some news to report.It looks as if MySpace is experiencing some technical type difficulties this morning. I received a message saying I had a message from "Anna" waiting in my inbox. So when I tried to log in, no dice. I'm wondering if "Anna" was really just a mass attack on MySpace aimed at causing a DDOS. Who knows?

Every Saga Has a Beginning...I've officially retired from Xanga and am setting up shop here. I'm going to be signing up with Verizon as well so I can start doing what's known as "moblogging" meaning I can take pictures with my camera phone wherever I happen to be and post them here immediately for all to see. Also, you can just go to mattbthompson.com from now on and end up here. This won't be

I was going to post a picture of my booth but Cannon never sent me the picture.....Anywhoooooo.... This one was done this month. Looks like its a fitting Polaroid for the times because tomorrow....I'll be fishing in the Gulf. Yup no....well maybe a I'll post a few more times this weekend..... Take care

In the Urban Household, a swift but quality dinner is a vital part of one's life in one of the busiest cities in the world. I have a half-hour threshhold when it comes to cooking mid-week food. And since 'convenience foods' are the anti-christ this normally results in something really basic I can shove in the oven on one baking tray and pull out half an hour later, combine with swiftly-boiled

Mayfaire by the Lake was a great Success. I sold a lot of work and got a lot of ideas for the future. Its always exciting to see and hear people talk about your work. The people that help me pull this show off, I would like to give a big thank you. My father, Cannon Kirby(for helping me cut matts, set up booth), Ryan Wilson(for printing my flyers.) I'm sure there are a few that I"m leaving out but I can't remember right now.

This Polaroid, is the first one done with the new film(Type 779). I will get into some detail about it later. This one sold to the Kirby's.. It went to a good home.........

May Visions blossom for you this week.

I’ve previously made a couple references to the tall basketball coach chick that Dauber totally had a thing for. This created some hilarious situations on Coach because Coach really didn’t get along with the basketball coach chick. I think maybe the whole point of contention was that she thought women were good athletes and Coach was a sexist asshole. Anyway, it probably made for some pretty funny material when, for instance, she would be addressing Dauber and Coach was in the room and she would say something to Dauber that was just totally ordinary, but Coach would overhear what they were talking about and turn the phrase so that it was insulting and sexist. Then the basketball chick would like, maybe, roll her eyes and kind of mug at the camera, but Coach would just be hell of nonchalant, and not even look up from his paperwork. Man, Coach always played it so smooth, even when he was at his most sexist.

I think that chick had a southern accent or something.

Firstly, and most importantly, I passed my viva! What a bloody relief. Plus, I got 'pass, with special commendation', whatever that means: it doesn't appear on any of the available grades anywhere in the paperwork.Secondly, American 'Idol': I was very disappointed to see Paris go home last week, as I would personally have put her in the finale. I didn't think she deserved to go, especially

Audio

Main Ingredient - Evening of Love
Taana Gardner - Heartbeat - Rhino
Sweet G - Boogie Feelin' Rap - Queen Constance Records
Kashmere Stage Band - Super Strut - Now Again Records
Kool and the Gang - Steppin into Love - Keepin the Funk Alive
Gwen Gutherie - Should have been you - Rhino
Wild Sugar - Bring It Here - The Sound of Brooklyn Records
Introducing Totured Soul - Always in Heaven When I'm With You (Spinna Mix) - R2 Records
3 Flow - Sending Out -
Little Kids Music - Let the Rhythm Hit 'em (Soul Samba Mix) -
Teena Marie - Make it Hot - cash Money Records
Eddie Kendricks - Keep on Truckin (Unreleased Version) - Soul Jazz
Unified Tribe - Keep on Keepin On - iam
Lab Addicts - Move all night - www.soulchoonz.com
The Isley Brothers - You're My Star - Def Soul
Masa Collective - Love is Everywhere - Especial
Wanda Walden - Don't you want my love - Electra

Today I decided that I'd try and get some of my masters project data-collection done before meeting the Scotsman for dinner. I require average daily circulation figures for all UK National daily and Sunday newspapers, for the year 2005. Doesn't sound that hard, does it?The body responsible for putting together this information reliably and without fraud is the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Well its here...... Mayfair By the Lake. This is my second one and I'm really looking forward to it. If you in town you should drop by and say hi. I got most of my work done...didn't finish one piece but o well. Time is a bitch....... more to come on the event.

As is usually the case, the night before a big... anything really... I can't fall asleep. Instead I found Frappr and mapped out all of the places I have been in the time I've been at Foundstone. Some was for fun, most for work, but I've been a lot of places in the past 15 months!

One of the things I love about London is that you can have lived in it for years (in my case, 16 of them) and still be amazed at things that pop out at you if you choose a slightly different route to work, wander down a side-street on a whim, or just open the A-Z and pay proper attention to what's in your local area instead of heading into 'town' constantly.This weekend, Cowboy and I took a trip

One of the things that I find most irritating in life is being subtly harrassed as I walk down the street. Sometimes, it isn't even that subtle. Last week, for instance, as tromped my way down the road to get something to eat for lunch, a lurking component of the bacterial infection known as homo molestus said something to the effect of 'ah, baby, very nice, very nice' as I walked past him. As

Mayfair By the Lake is in Full Swing. Thats why there has been not so many post. If anyone can speak French...let me know! I wrote down what the saying said, but now I can't find it.....So I as of now, I have no idea what this Polaroid says. Well might be the last post for the week...Enjoy and lets hope they don't find me in Full Swing before this whole thing is said and done..............peace

So, most of the time during an episode of Coach we would see Coach in his office. People would usually enter the office from a door that was sort of in the middle of the wall perpendicular to Coach’s desk. However, there was another door that was on the wall parallel to Coach’s desk (kind of off to the left). I don’t know where that door went. I remember all sorts of people coming out of that door, but never people outside the Minnesota State football program. Like, Luther or Dauber (or both) would come out of that door all the time, and I think maybe players would as well, and I seem to remember the Athletic Director coming out of the door, but you’d never see Christine or Coach’s daughter or that basketball Coach that Dauber had a thing for come through the door. These people always entered through the main, regular door.

The thing that is bugging me is that I remember one time Coach went through the side-door and it was like some sort of empty meeting room thing to draw out plays in. Maybe there was like a chalkboard or something. I think the team had their pre-game conference in there. So what the hell were all of those people doing coming through that door? What the hell?

My best guess is that Luther and Dauber didn’t actually have an office, so they spent all their time in that other room, probably just coming up with zany things to run in and yell at Coach in a way that was confusing upon delivery but that obviously held some other soon to be explained meaning. That way, they’d come in and say: “Hayden, we’ve got to blah blah blah…” where the blah blah blah was some sort of non-sequitur sentence that made the audience laugh and then Coach would deliver some flippant one liner (probably insulting Luther and/or Dauber’s masculinity) and the audience would laugh at this too. Then Luther would explain what they were actually talking about. This would help progress the plot of the show probably.

Audio

Abbassi All Stars - In this Time Dub - Lush Records -
Burial Mix - Let Jah Love Come (Sweet Substance Remix)
Cibelle - Noite de Carnaval (Matthew Herbert Dub) -Crammed Discs
Ether - Intimo Personelles - Mousikelab
Richard H Kirk - Casa ne Dada - Dust Science
Monolog - Enklave - Tender Productions
AmmonContact - A Zillion Tambourines (featuring Kamau Daaood) - Ninja Tune
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup - I wan't my lovin - Sanctuary Records
Justin Hinds - The Higher Monkey climbs - Sanctuary Records
Empty Vessels - Monkey - Parlour
Ralf Band - Women of Japan - Skint
Nine Black Alps - Over the Ocean - AKoustik Anarkhy
Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken - Elefant records
Sunshine Rockers - I Ain't Losing any Sleep - City Rockers
Colcut - True Skool - Ninja Tune - Zencds178p
Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra - Toumani - World Circuit
Momo Wandel Soumah - Felenko Yefe - Network
James William Hindle - Hiding Away - Early Winter Recordings
The Late Cord - My Most Meaningful Relationships are with dead people - 4AD
The Eighteenth Day of May - Hide and Seek - Hannibal Records
Harlassen - A Way Now - Sustain Release
Sun City Girls - Instant Archaeology - Abduction
Koji Asano - Violin and Viola Suites (Suite No. 5) - Solstice
The Hope Bilster - Happiness Strings - 4AD
The Hope Bilster - Sideways Seven - 4AD
Zelienople Ink - Pace Car - Loose Thread Recordings

I did it! I've just got back from a day that felt longer than my last meeting with The Provincials, but I made it, I didn't die, and I think I only made a mild fool of myself, in a sort of court-jester way.While I was ill, I'd built this whole Masters Dissertation Viva experience up into a huge plate of horror with a side of pain, but what I'd forgotten was that my supervisors are genuinely nice

So, considering the fact that Coach was a football coach, one would expect him to have been on the phone quite a bit. I mean, certainly he’d have to be talking to that bald athletic director boss of his quite a bit on the phone, and probably he’d also be calling up recruits on the phone, and probably making dinner plans with Christine on the phone, and you can imagine that after Luther did some screwy thing that made coach mad he’d call Luther up on the phone and be like: “Get in my office right now Luther!” and then Luther would come in sheepishly and make some hilarious jokes, but for some reason I can’t seem to remember any phones whatsoever from the show. In fact, if we think about the places where we see Coach (usually either his office or in the Coach Haven) we realize that about half the time there does not even exist the POSSIBILITY of a phone call (the Coach Haven being hell of rustic). I wonder if maybe Craig T. Nelson was a terrible actor on the phone; like he just couldn’t act natural and he never knew what to do with the other hand (the one not holding the phone) and his intonation sounded hell of stilted because he wasn’t actually talking to anybody else. But this doesn’t seem that logical, because I bet there could have been hilarious situations where Dauber was in the office and Coach gets a call about some stupid zany thing that he did and you can just see Coach getting madder and madder while he’s looking at Dauber and Dauber’s just looking more and more guilty and maybe like sinking in to his chair or looking at some trophies or something on the wall. Man, that would have been hilarious.

So what the hell, Coach. What do you have against phones?

I'm ill. Not (although my hypochondriac self obviously thinks I have M.E. or something) seriously ill, thankfully, but I have such poor quality focus and physical incapability that it has prevented me from devoting the hours of work necessary to my dissertation viva.It started on Saturday with a vague feeling of being under the weather and a sort of 'lump' feeling at the back of my throat.

This one was finished for the new show coming up in less than two weeks. Let me know your thoughts... its a little different from the rest of the collages.

DENNIS BOVELL
ALL OVER THE WORLD
EMI CD
Dennis Bovell has been on the verge of reissuing all his early UK dub classics, only tantalisingly heard of late via the excellent Pressure Sounds retrospective “Decibel” from 2003. Signing to EMI has allowed Dennis to plan to dub us all over again but in the meantime here comes the obligatory solo album. Unsurprisingly his voice has matured, sounding confident and soulful as a solo performer. Past production highlights were the Slits, Fela, Marvin Gaye and latterly LKJ; on the debit side were Bananarama, Wet Wet Wet and Boomtown Rats. So Dennis has done his time as journeyman and is now entitled to stretch out strictly on his own terms. Also part of Dennis’ CV was playing one of the main roles in the creation of UK Lovers Rock, not surprising then that much of the material here is of the lighter or plainly good natured variety that tends not to hit the button with unreconstructed roots fans. Reworks of ‘Bettah’ and ‘Raindrops’ are followed by an adaptation of his “Man In Me” guitar line, the Bob Dylan tune, reapplied to the album’s strongest tune “Picking Up The Pieces” (not the same song as the Royal’s classic of almost the same title!). The tune reappears as a hidden dub “Dub Piece’ after the final track. Might be fun but best wait for the promised dubs.

BRAIN DAMAGE
SPOKEN DUB MANIFESTO VOL.1
JARRING EFFECTS CD
Dub poetry, once flourishing with the work of Mutabaruka, Jean Binta Breeze, Oku Onuara, Michael Smith and in the UK Linton Kwesi Johnson, was swept away overnight by an army of hip hop zombies cruising into corporate positions. Brain Damage, out of France, reinvents the genre on eleven collaborations with vocalists, poets and writers of different tastes and origins to create this first Spoken Dub Manifesto. They are Martin Nathan and Raphael Talis whose previous releases have been on that post-Illbient industrial dubbing tip, literally, but on this new one the unlikely works with the loose frameworks of scripted and improvised spoken word bringing a discipline absent from their earlier work. As a big believer in the weakness of lyric in modern music and an immediate convert to the potential of spoken message/ramble over backing tracks, after first hearing the Velvet’s “The Gift’’ (from 1968’s “White Light White Heat”) to find an album full of pretensions equally as engaging is rare. Remarkably Mark Stewart’s contribution, “Mad Truth’, is the most accessible and its good to hear that carefully cultivated but comfortable paranoia once more, as it is to come across ‘Pure Scenario’ with the voice of Ted Milton (from the revivified Blurt) possessing an edge of appealing inbuilt irascibility. Black Sifichi attempts an amusing pass at Burroughsian delivery whereas the eminent scholar of yodels, Bart Plantenga goes the whole hog with a story to match Bad Shot Bill. Mentor to all of these, Hakim Bey, is fittingly sampled for the last track “Final Enclosure”.

BURIAL
BURIAL
HYPERDUB CD
The cover image on this debut album from label Hyperdub and artist Burial is an aerial shot of a night bound city scape, almost as if captured from a descending alien craft. Not so strange as the music down on the ground scraping a jagged line from the darker second generation of Detroit tekno, through electro swoop and surge to the glitch and newer penetrations into lower depths of sub-bass vibration from Berlin and the inescapable decay of the new in the d&b of Sao Paulo. Or maybe this is what Laibach would have had to sound like devoid of natural brass, drum, voice – and movement; and perhaps this is the alter ego of label boss Kode9 attempting to stretch the newly birthed dubstep genre back away from any tunnelled dance inclinations into more consciously open soundscapes. Burial’s assumed parallel dimension is ‘set in a near future underwater South London’, clearly depopulated and legitimately more dangerous than now. Building on the earlier “South London Boroughs EP” that contributes three of its tracks to form the foundation of this set Burial sets every element so far back into the mix that volume serves to increase the intensity of the drone, evident from early in on the second track, “Distant Lights”, convincing me that something else is happening here and driven home by “Night Bus” music through the deserted streets of the Bladerunner set and “You Hurt Me” a tortured Prince forced to cry and perform by David Lynch. It’s all fizzing, unsettling, deranged in some non-specific, unfathomable fashion.

CAPLETON
TIME OF DECISION
OBSERVER 7” SINGLE
Out of Jamaica an essential street tune from DJ Capleton, who now must considered in the old school category as per the dominant hip hop taxonomy of these things. On the original Niney the Observer’s famous bespectacled label this is a conscious chant on top of a loop of Dennis Brown’s classic “Wolf & Leopards” rhythm – specifically the horn refrain. As if that was not enough also around on the same label at the moment is an I Roy seven inch on the same rhythm previously used by the DJ for the raw "Sister Maggie Breast", this later more righteous effort is unknown to me - maybe it's of posthumous manufacture - entitled 'Step on the Dragon', and a must for the many fans of this most intelligent and witty practitioner of the art of the DJ.

CONGOS AND FRIENDS
FISHERMAN STYLE
BLOOD & FIRE CD/2LP
One riddim albums may have established themselves in reggae’s own peculiar demimonde but to the world at large they may as well not exist. This latest from Blood and Fire - their 50th release - collects 24 versions of Lee Perry's "Bring The Mackaback", as used by The Congos for the "Fisherman" track from the peerless Heart Of The Congos. All takes were voiced in Jamaica with the edit and mixdown by Rhythm & Sound and mastered at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin. The methodology employed by Mark and Moritz was construction of a different edit of the dub for each individual track including the original vocal version coming in for spring clean – and sounding crisper than ever. But it’s the choice of artist here that convinces, with old school (Big Youth, U Roy and Jazzbo) versus nu roots DJs (Country Culture, Ricky Chaplin and Early One), legendary vocalists (Horace Andy, Max Romeo and Freddie McGregor) versus today’s younger guns (Lutan Fyah, Lucan I and Paul St.Hilaire) plus a lovely harmonica version from Mr.Raggamonica, though its got to be said that emotion does not really make up for Greg Isaacs voice sounding finally shot on “Spot and Beat the Bank”.

FATMAN PRESENTS PRINCE JAMMY VS. CRUCIAL BUNNY
DUB CONTEST
AURALUX CD/LP
Ken “Fatman” Gordon’s Fatman Hi-Fi ruled across North London in the late seventies thanks to a supply of exclusives and dubplates direct from Kingston, Jamaica. Fatman hailed from Waterhouse area of Kingston, home to King Tubby’s legendary studio and it was this connection that forged the link for Tubby and his disciples direct into the London reggae market. This excellent re-release of an album not seen around since its limited appearance in 1979 is one in a series from the era that featured dubmaster clashes between Tubby’s studio and Channel One. “Crucial Bunny” Graham, aka “Bunny Tom Tom”, was one of the in-house engineers at Channel One studio; the same who inspired Talking Heads’ Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth to christen their offshoot band Tom Tom Club. As per convention for a clash each mixer takes a side with Jammy on first with four relatively well-known rhythms, including “Jammy's A No Fool” an aggressively propelled drum and bass take Johnny Clarke's “Play Fool Fe Catch Wise”, “Jammy's A Shine” takes Black Uhuru's cut of the Wailers' “Sun Is Shining” into ultra-reverb before taking the bass line on a slow walk home, whilst “Jammy's A Satta” is as expected a dubbing of Johnny Clarke's version of “Satta Massa Ganna”. On the flip Bunny may sound more interesting as the rhythms are less familiar, but the Channel One boy remains unphased in the presence of royalty with honours turning out even. Included are four previously unreleased bonus tracks for the CD version of this release, separately available on a 12 inch EP, with a Jammy’s controlled dubwise trombone mix of Delroy Wilson's cover of the Wailers' “Put It On”, again expertly mixed by Jammy and featuring loads of emotive trombone.

AUGUSTUS PABLO MEETS LEE PERRY & THE WAILERS BAND
RARE DUBS 1970 – 1971
JAMAICAN RECORDINGS CD/LP
Another one out of the blue from this conduit label for the stranger and more dubious offerings out of Bunny Lee’s office, but this has a headline that any other imprint would claim as the Holy Grail. All the rhythms are genuinely from the era when the Wailers were working with Perry to produce the likes of “Soul Rebel”, “Put It On”, “Keep On Moving’ et al, when the producer used Randy’s Studio 17 but the only track here to exhibit any previous appearance is the dub of “Rainbow Country”. As it is these tracks are certainly more quasi dubstrumental, with no contemporary dubbing effects, scarce melodica and usually at the opening of the tune and a strangely lethargic feeling almost as if the beats have been slowed, and the totally out of tune version of “Put It On” has a bizarrely strangled “Guantanamero” melody – surely this one was never meant to escape.

LINVAL THOMPSON
INNA DE YARD
MAKASOUND CD
Linval Thompson recorded the first Jamaican sides Lee Perry and Phill Pratt, but 1976 was his big year with “Don’t Cut Off Your Dreadlocks” cut for Bunny Lee. He then turned to production recording the likes of Freddie McGregor, Johnny Osbourne, Big Joe, The Viceroys, Eek-A-Mouse, Barrington Levy who all gave him international chart success and a main source for many ensuing dub sets. He’s recorded almost nothing in two decades apart from occasional sessions recently with neighbour Fattis Burrell (aka Exterminator). This set comes from the “Inna De Yard” acoustic series session masterminded by Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, in addition to takes on classics such as “Jah Jah Dreader Than Dread”, “Train To Zion” and the rarely aired “Inna De Hills” Linval also comes up with some new pieces, the best is “Hit Them With The One Drop” accompanied by an astonishingly droopy trombone.

DELROY WILLIAMS
I STAND BLACK
MAKASOUND CD
French revival label Makasound is rapidly emerging as a new force in the retrieval of both classic and obscure Jamaican music. This album has been unavailable since its original release around 1982 despite its reputation as one of Augustus Pablo’s strongest outputs as a producer. Williams had spent his early years as an artist at Studio One where Clement Dodd had included him in the group called the Madlads – after the US Stax outfit, their cover version of Curtis Mayfield’s “Ten To One” remains a favourite from the label. Impressed by “Ten To One” Pablo invited the young singer to meet and together they came up with “I Stand Black”, originally released as a single but eventually becoming the centrepiece of Delroy Williams’ debut album of the same name. The songs on the album are driven by a Rastafarian, community-based perspective, “Mountain Top” after a hilltop meditation, “All The Time” evoking a close friend who drank too much (an extended vocal version of Pablo’s “555 Crown Street”, and “Think Twice” warning of the dangers of impulsive reactions. But the standout track here is the truly outstanding “Babylon Boy”, clocking in at over seven and a half minutes replete with a glorious dub version with a beautiful descending slurred brass riff over a desolate piano tinkle.

WILLY WILLIAMS / JACKIE MITTO
COME ALONG / RIDDIM
STINE-JAC 7”
Only previously available on a ten inch single this much sought after tune, aka “Repatriation Song”’ has become available once more but only as a Jamaican import, the vinyl might look shiny but it carries the usual pits and bumps that denotes it origin as downtown Kingston. Willy Williams is best known for his utilisation of the stalwart “Real Rock” rhythm on “Armagideon Time” single and album cut for Clement Dodd at Studio One back in 1982, although the earlier “Messenger Man” from two years earlier and revived last year by Blood and Fire proved he was a lot more versatile. The vocal side is punctuated by heavy organ stabs from Mittoo under Williams’ seductively lugubrious delivery, but the dub on the flip is one of those unbelievably abstract affairs. Mittoo’s keyboard opens the track acapella, stark and church-like before the echoed vocal enters and a snatch of the rhythm drifting in and out leaving the main feature being the consistent vocal and dubbed organ rendering the version totally non-danceable except for those who can keep the sway in their head.