Out now, Mother Tongue's 'Message is Love'.

Vinyl: https://www.rushhour.nl/record/vinyl/message-love
Bandcamp: https://rushhourmusic.bandcamp.com/album/message-is-love

The United Kingdom has long been an ardent supporter and consumer of African-American music. Dating back to the electrifying earliest performances of blues artists like Big Bill Broonzy during the early 1950s – an influence on Eric Clapton and John Lennon – right through to the dawn of Chicago house and onwards. In fan clubs, like the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society, started by soul writer Dave Godin, to the numerous fan magazines that have documented dance music culture from Blues & Soul to Mixmag, there has been an extended obsession with black music culture.

This lineage continued into the house era, our generation’s defining dance genre, and one with which British producers were swift to adopt. This record is a prime example of this. Although Mother Tongue was a one-off project, its history is rooted in this long-standing culture stretching back decades. The main man behind Mother Tongue was a drummer and record producer named Richie Stevens. Stevens was steeped in music and the industry, thanks to his father, John Stevens, also a professional drummer. Stevens senior played in numerous jazz ensembles during the 1960s and onwards, including performing with Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and was a session player with John Martyn (among numerous others) during Martyn’s finest period (it’s John’s drumming you can hear on ‘Big Muff’).

His son, Richie, was playing professionally while still a teenager for the Dennis Bovell Dub Band and has subsequently backed everyone from Tina Turner and Simply Red to Hugh Masekela and George Clinton. He is also a long-term collaborator with Boy George. But the story of Mother Tongue begins with a band called Well Red. This group, effectively a studio creation by Richie and his then manager Martin Poole, recruited vocalist Lorenzo Hall, a fixture on the London reggae scene and sold the concept to Virgin Records. Well Red yielded two albums – Motion and Respect Due – but never really got the crossover success their songs perhaps deserved. “Virgin were very supportive of us,” recalls Poole, today. “They gave us a lot of money. They pumped money into it, and it never quite paid off, but we did okay. We recouped and got to make a second album with George Clinton. It was a good move, recording with him. It did us a lot of good here and in America. We did pretty well in the US. We were very well-supported over there.”

This same team, working in a tiny studio near Richie’s house in Wood Green, north London, called The Watershed, produced ‘Message Is Love’. It features the vocals of Syn-Dee (Sindy Finn) and Lovebase (Louise Porter), who co-wrote the track with Richie and Alan Lane, another Stevens collaborator, and Ian ‘Spy’ Austin, who’d previously played in the same reggae band, The Instigators, as Lorenzo Hall from Well Red. “Remember it well,” says Martin Poole. “We were just writing it there and then in the studio. It was me, Richie, Spy, and I think Syn-Dee was there as well. When I got home later, Richie played it to me over the phone and I said, ‘That just sounds brilliant,’ from how we'd started it off, you know?” Thanks to their experience in the studio with Well Red, they managed to produce a song that has the timeless feel of all good music.

Mother Tongue was the opening track on a compilation called On The Loose Volume 1 on their own Furious Fish Records. Every track on the album, despite having different artist credits, was done by Stevens and Poole, often using a rotating cast of characters that had also appeared on ‘Message Of Love’. Although it did not sell especially well at the time, it’s become a collector’s item over the years. This is the first time Mother Tongue has appeared as a 12-inch single, a long overdue (but very welcome) happening.

(Notes by Bill Brewster)

Mother Tongue - Message Is Love

The Demon at Rashomon

Buy here!

A genre fluid set with sounds of break and bounce performed by Paris-based DJ Fanny

FANNY VILH |EP. 006

Hi peeps, here's my Breaks rework of Slacker's (R.i.p) wicked bootleg of this awesome tune. An incredible producer who is still sorely missed. I hope you like my take on his Breaks remix.

The Prodigy 'Slack My Bitch Up' J. Rainbow Vs Slacker Edit

Xlr8r Review 8/10
Toronto's Gregory "Lowfish" De Rocher survived a childhood hearing problem
and the demise of Canadian manufactured 12" vinyl ( a costly complication for his and partner Jason Amm's Suction Label) De Rocher brings his accessible breed of electro to his new Satamile LP, steeped more in dubby, early detroit beat structures ("Torsion") and catchy, big room synth overlays ("Wahawa") than the lean, techno driven styles of other electro greats like Anthony Rother. Which does not render these cuts any less enjoyable: "Bitter," one of Burns's leanest tracks, delivers an electro masterpiece by locking a minimal 3/4 electro baseline into rhythmic nirvana with a simple wee-eeeer melody. Its all expertly produced stuff, made for kicking up your 2 a.m. DJ set a notch or two. 
Words by Janet Tzou

9. 8_0p by Lowfish

VICTOR TEC

Hynotize 02.01.25

Summers over - (UKG Free DL)

Made with Elliot 

https://on.soundcloud.com/heM3lJwkEJxe6O95NC

Mix and Master By MäNTA-

https://on.soundcloud.com/cJ5zRj2CLVRW5KeJMF

Vacay

This is a chordy instrumental booty track.  Shuttle Bus is from the 4 track DJ Guy - Ghost Dick! release on Global Fire.  It's available on digital only from all good outlets from May 25th, 2009.

DJ Guy - Shuttle Bus (Global Fire, GFIRE 003)

Stanton Warriors - Superstar

I've been DJing since 1985 and play a range of styles Old Skool, Breaks, all things House, Balearic etc. I love making my own edits and remixes, especially old skool. I ran & still run numerous club nights. Played at some amazing clubs and outdoor parties throughout Europe & Asia and was heavily involved in the U.K rave/free party scene and hugely inspired by D.i.Y and their ethos of parties/music. I also used to run a label & dance record shop in the 90's. I recently won the Sasha classics FB group DJ  competition and supported Ian Ossia and DJ Vertigo in Leicester/Manchester. Hit me up for edits here or DM for more exclusives! N-joy! Xx
 https://jrainbow.bandcamp.com/

The Prodigy 'Slack My Bitch Up' J. Rainbow Vs Slacker Edit

Jamie Rainbow