Aldo Skore - Full Faya Sauce Mixtape

Since it was sunny yesterday but actually quite shit today I thought I'd share this to lift your spirits. Aldo Skore of the very ace Chateau LaTeauf has uploaded a new mix to his Mixcloud page, incorporating all manner Jamaican influenced sounds ranging from dancehall and reggae to drum & bass and funky.

Full Faya Sauce_ by Aldo Skore on Mixcloud

Download: Aldo Skore - Full Faya Force Mixtape

Third ever release on Steak House Records out on July 5th!

Bristol/London-based Steak House Records will be putting out its third 12" at the beginning of July, according to their blog. The new release by Baobinga promises to be a "juicy vocal raggastep" bonanaza with vocals from Killa Benz, Spyda, Rubi Dan and a remix from Ghislain Poirier to sweeten the deal.

No doubt it will be a departure from the bass-oriented Baobinga sound we're used to but as far as I'm concerned, if it's ragga it's right. Also, the inclusion of Spyda is really promising - cementing, as I'm sure he will, the EP's future as memorable at the very least.

The record is due out on July 5th on 12" and digital and they promise to have full previews up on their Soundcloud page very soon. In the mean time you can listen to preview clips of all the tracks on the Steak House Myspace.

Cumbia: Scorchio!

Good old DJ /rupture's been busy of late preaching the gospel according to Cumbia and working on new material with Matt Shadetek on a new 12" that comes out very soon and features DJ Kiva and is sure to include Cumbia deliciousness.

DJ /rupture is one of those really solid artists you can really rely on to put out forward-thinking, intelligent music; from jungle to hip-hop and ragga. And on top of all this, he runs a radio show on WFMU that you can catch up on by clicking on that link over yonder. You should definitely listen to the most reason show because it opens with a tune by Einstürzende Neubauten, which makes him sexy by my count.

He's also a really prolific blogger and always has a lot to say about Cumbia on Negrophonic and La Congona, particularly so on the latter. It really is one of the only places to read about Cumbia, and /rupture's an incredibly well-versed teacher. If it isn't the only place to read about Cumbia, it's definitely the best.

Oh, and he asked me to ask you to ask yourselves to add him on Twitter. If you know what a Twitter is his username is @djrupture. Then, once you've done all of those things you should download the following track by Grupo Estrella:

Download: Grupo Estrella - Muevelo

Junglist Massive Inna Di Place

Some kind soul on the interwebs has dug out an old BBC2 documentary about jungle (seriously.) from 1994. The sound quality isn't great but it's pretty good given how old it is. It features some pretty interesting footage of Shy FX and Gunsmoke recording 'Gangster'.

It's also pretty interesting to see how jungle influenced drum & bass and then dubstep and now even UK funky. Basically, this is the golden age of jungle; although there was a revival a few years ago with people like RCola and Paulie Waulnuts. It really is a shame what happened to jungle and drum & bass after this documentary was made.

The documentary marks the period that jungle purists consider to be the point where jungle went bad; the beats got slower, the synths got dancier and eventually you got Dillinja. Before that, however, ragga jungle really kicked off in the UK with people like Tenor Fly, Shy FX and General Levy all doing incredibly well from the surge in interest.

If you're not sure how big this was, it was as big as dubstep is now and it went the same way dubstep will probably go. The documentary itself was clearly made to mark the ascension of jungle drum & bass, but unfortunately it ended up chronicling the end of the genre. Still, it's really funny to see people like Shy FX and Gunsmoke as little whipper snappers trying to explain jungle.

Watch
Part 1 ∙ Part 2 ∙ Part 3
And as a little yuletide treat, here's a classic jungle tune from that era:

Download: Tenor Fly - Don't Dis The Jungle