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A nice warm-up for our New Year's blast-off will be this Tuesday, Dec. 28 at the Mercury Lounge here in Ottawa. Zattar has been kind enough to host my Palm Squad and Disorganised bredren for December and I'll be closing the month out with a blast. Got lots and lots of dance-heavy rawness and re-edits in the box and looking forward.
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Was asked for a blurb by Hipster & Poser and this is what I had to say:

On the 28th, you can expect to hear everything from brand new super heavy funk to hip house to bruckbeat. I love that there's been a bit of a return to uptempo beats in hip hop, and other dance genres are starting to incorporate emcees in a non-"I Like To Move It" type way. Plus the Funk Carioca (Brazilian electro rap) shit is taking over. The Funktion thing is going to be all about connecting the dots between super disco breaks, golden age Doug Lazy ness and the new new shit.

playlist highlights:
Bugz in the Attic - "Booty La La"
Mos Def feat. Vinia Mojica - "The Magnificent"
Amilckar & Chocolate - "Som de preto"
Stezo - "Freak the Funk"
Monie Love - "Down to Earth (Cool As. . . . . . Mix)"
James Brown - "Give It Up or Turn It Loose"
Blackalicious - "Make You Feel That Way (Pho's 'Good' remix)"
Michael Jackson - "Bad (Pho's Ma-ma-makossa re-edit)"

Benji on BBC dropped some of the best of 2004 this week: the one Sa-Ra tune that I truly love, the Ty/Roots Manuva refix, that weird Nas joint where he forgets what Ra's last album was called, that "Council Estate of Mind" tune that I'll track down one of these days, and of course, the Booty La La.

Great selection as always, looking forward to more cream of the crop next week.

An intelligent and gripping piece by Dan Frosch called Soldier's Heart. There's nothing realer than what watching death and destruction does to change a man.

Found the link at Jeff Chang's blog. If I'm not mistaken, he's the "Zen" who used to run Solesides records back in the seminal Shadow, early Blackalicious, Latyrx days. Looks like he has a new book project coming through. Can't Stop Won't Stop has the makings of a (long overdue) hip hop version of Love Saves the Day.

Should be heavy if he dug as deep as the likes of this!

Here's "the one" One Thing (realaudio) again, plus another collabo between the two: Talking About. Sweet white label ruffness from seoul sister #1. Hope I can get my hands on these somehow, these are some of those "all crowds" tunes.

This time on a Chemical Brothers cut - Galvanize (MP3). Sounds pretty strong to me, except for that horrible breakdown in the middle. Tip's getting hungry again, please don't feed him.

Supermarket in Kensington Market seems to be playing host to all my favourite T-dot deejayss these days: Fase, Son of S.O.U.L., Movement DJs, Moonstarr, Allsgood. Looking forward to checking it the next time I'm in town. . .

FUTURA, SMARCUS, Che Jen and more have put together a kids It's Just a Plant.

Nas & AZ rock the phased-out break on Serious (MP3). Not on "Street's Disciple" says Spine mag. . .

Had to share Charlie Dark (Blacktronica)'s Xmas email missive for those not on the mailing list. The beat generation are becoming (good) mamas & papas and it is great to watch. Drk's message from here on in:

I'd like to take this time to thank everyone who sent their best wishes, cards, texts, emails etc to me on the night at the news that i've just become a father for the first time. Brand new week old baby daughter who is taking great pride in keeping me up during the night. Let's just say that it's a learning curve which i'm gradually becomming used to. The good thing is that i can now spend the midnight hours playing grand theft auto which is my new game of the month!!

ps. Advice to all new fathers. Make sure that the super hi tech ultra lite pram that you buy will fit into the boot of your car before you take it home form the shop!!

2. Practice putting the car seat into the car before the baby arrives. This will save arguments in the hospital car park.

3. if you want your child to be born to the sounds of your specially prepared mix tape, do not use an i-pod as the batteries will die at the crucial moment and you will be forced to turn on the hospital radio. Insuring that your daughter will be born to the sounds of some dire girl band rather than Love Supreme as planned!!

4. Start saving now! Babies are not cheap and there will always be another time to buy that ultra rare Nas 12" on coloured plastic.

5. Hip Hop videos will never look the same again after you've held you daughter in your arms for the first time. Infact the radio versions of your favourite tunes will become very important as you try to teach her about the merits of Biggie Smalls and his placein the Hip Hop legacy.

however if this does not work for you then log onto www.punkrockbaby.com and order 'HIP HOP BABY'-Lullaby versions of Hip Hop classics complete with favourites such as 'Whitelines,California Love, Ready or Not and the 50cent classic P.I.M.P'( I kid you not as i'm listening to it right now as i type)

6.It's not like the movies!!

7. That collection of unworn sneakers and your priceless star wars collection will eventually have to be moved into storage or played with at some point. The words do not open and play as this toy is very rare mean nothing to an inquisitive child. sell nw on ebay while you have the chance.

8.LEARN TO SPELL!!

Good newness on Benji B this week. The Sa-Ra stuff is good but I don't feel a lot of it in my bones - well here's one that digs deep. Benji kicks off with Gang Starr affiliate Krumb Snatcha over some Sa-Ra. Play loud. Nice to see them working on the gullier side of things. . .

The ONE though, comes in at about 17 minutes. Amerie "One Thing" with Rich Harrison on production. He's coming through as the next "name" mainstream producer to watch for - did Crazy in Love, and a couple joints from the new Amerie that will apparently never see the light of day due to clearance issues. Very simple, a sweet sweet slice of ruff soul that shits on all the weak tunes that get described with such adjectives. This is out somewhere on white vinyl.

Act fast, the new show goes up around 5pm EST on Thursday.

P.S. Jesse Mowgli tells me that J Da Flex's 1Xtra show is the biz as well. Word is he's been caning a gang of different Bugz "Booty La La" remixes!

If you're in Ottawa, tomorrow the thing is Vertigo's anniversary shindig at Shanghai. Gunnar'n'them brought that spot back to life and it's been a pleasure making the weekly stop there for the last fifty-two. I hear that DJ's on the night are Magnificent, Frame, and D-mass, all heat so I'm there.

When:
Wednesday, December 8th, 9PM

Where:
Shanghai Bar & Restaurant
651 Somerset St. W. (at Bronson)

What:
Free eats
Giveaways
The best music from us and Ottawa's favourite DJs
The biggest party of the year

But catch it while you can. A sweet new Chad West Beat for Freeway: Mello. Free and Peedi Crakk are two who always bring it these days. . .

Not many updates lately because of preparations for this Friday's Disorganised and our NYE party.

A couple quick links that have been getting rotation. The Dopplebanger site has some of the better urban vox / rock loop mash-ups, including the Mobb Deep vs. Rapture joint. The one D-mass put it best: "awwwww, that's a guilty pleasure". . .

Thanks to Zattar for the link to the Solid Steel archives - Diplo did it last summer. This guy is in the upper echelon of on-point party-rocking deejays. We saw him a couple weeks ago in Montreal and he did hardly anything from his myriad of mix-CDs, and hardly anything from here either. All new new shit - now that's a hard-working man. Listen for the Giorgio Moroder into Organ Donor into Innagaddadivida. . .