THE SOUNDS OF NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL 2014

Floats, dancers, steel drums and over forty sound systems shaking the ground and perforating eardrums with everything from soca to dub, reggae, jazz, house and calypso — it’s time for Notting Hill Carnival 2014.
What will those mighty speaker stacks be blasting out this year?
To be honest, I’ve no idea! To hear from those that know check Heatwave’s always essential Carnival mix but I’ve bundled up eighty personal Music Like Dirt carnival selections into handy playlists for your listening pleasure:

Soundcloud (at the top of the page) / Whyd (bottom of the page) / Spotify (Web / URI)

Here’s a few standouts:

DJ VADIM

A favourite in these parts since the Jazz Fudge days and on something of a personal mission to provide a Notting Hill playlist of his own productions and bootlegs.  Aside from Mary J meeting Dre in the dancehall (below) his Soundcloud is well worth a trip for bootlegs of Spice (Pon Di Bassline) and Govenor Tiggy (Well Done).   June also saw the release of his Dubcatcher LP with two tracks featuring Demolition Man featuring on my Notting Hill picks.

CUTTY RANKS

Veteran Dancehall Deejay Cutty Ranks has teamed up with Curtis Lynch for ‘I Don’t Believe It’ which fires through the history of some of Jamaica’s shadier individuals from the past over a classic dancehall rhythm.

HEMPOLICS – Green Line

There are a few cover versions in this years playlist and The Hempolics come correct with a version of “Green Line”, a song originally recorded by Garnett Silk. It features Dandelion from UK-reggae outfit The Drop and is a taster for their “Kiss, Cuddle & Torture” LP due spring 2015.

F**K THE SUMMER UP

Cruising the street in matching balaclavas like the Brooklyn branch of the Ulster Defence League,  Leikeli47 (pronounced “lah-KAY-lee”) and her friend have come to f**k your summer up.  Personally they can come and piss on my lawn as much as they like as long as they continue to release low slung hip-hop nuggets as good as this.

RAGGA TWINS

London and proud, The Ragga Twins wander the banks of the River Lea and the streets of Hackney delivering a summer anthem perfect for carnival consumption. It’s fantastic to hear the Twins in such rude musical health almost 25 years on from their Shut Up and Dance days.

RONGOROCK

Sometime Ragga Twin collaborator DJ WrongTom’s label RongoRock is up to release number three now with volume two of their brilliant Spikey Dread compilation almost complete too (hurry up!).
On “No Human”, Daddy Gadman rides the Suzy rhythm (last heard on the Wrongtom Meets Deemas J album) tackling human rights and bringing them down to street level.
I’ve also included a WrongTom dubbed up cover of the Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Everywhere’ as if we didn’t have enough covers already.

CHRONIXXX

Fresh from ‘The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon‘, Chronixx is bringing conscious reggae back to the masses with tracks like “Smile Jamaica” and “Rastaman Wheel Out”. The latter from his Billboard Reggae chart topping album “Dread & Terrible”.

REGGAE ROYALTY

What’s not to like about a reggae cover version…yes ok sometimes plenty but Lorde’s ‘Royal’ seems a perfect fit for a reggae beat. Now where’s that Coldplay dubplate.

SEAN PAUL – GIMME THE LIGHT

Banx & Ranx rework Sean Paul’s signature tune.