check these

still can barely pull my head above all this prep for teaching (though the classes are going well, i should say). so my posts are perhaps becoming more blog-like in that they don't contain thousands of words per post, just lots of neat links. anyways, hope to get all prolix again before too long. meantime, check these:

1) christopher porter digs deep to bring dizzy reece back into light. i can remember really digging reece's work back in my previous incarnation as a jazz-buff. didn't even know he was jamaican back then. i guess as a born-again jamaican-music-buff i should turn my ears once more to his sweet trumpet tone and quirky compositions. you should too. some great info and audio courtesy of CP.

2) pete murder tone delivers the first part of an interview series with russ d of the disciples, one of the more prominent and consistent UK soundsystems/production-teams over the last x-amount of years. great to see some light shed on this scene. big ups to pete for much technical/musical illumination.

3) lots of great interviews/articles and audio available over at hyperdub, which is run by kode9, dubstep DJ and ruffneck-academic (to borrow simon's phrase, which brought my syllabus more hits than i may have wanted). i especially love the mixes arranged by bpm. some great interviews, too. my students (in both classes) will be reading a bunch of these this semester.

4) finally, elena oumano has a piece in this week's voice that weighs in on the dancehall/homophobia debate with nuff perspective. seriously, she comes at this very complex issue from almost every angle. a really balanced, informed, sensitive portrayal. oumano does such a good job representing all the sides in the argument, she makes me wish everyone involved would read it--nothing like considering other perspectives to work toward mediation. (definitely looking forward to her dancehall book whenever that's due.)

likkle more soon come (to mangle two jamaican phrases, signifying nothing).