From its roots as a positive reaction to the race riots that blighted Notting Hill in 1958, Notting Hill Carnival has evolved through the first outdoor event with steel bands in the mid 60’s and the addition of more reggae groups and the iconic sound systems in the 70’s.

Music has always been at its core and as the largest street party in Europe, the two million revellers take in everything from Soca, Calypso, dub through to drum’n’bass.

Here’s a selection of 300 NEW tunes you may hear on the streets of Notting Hill over August bank holiday weekend. Obviously, Carnival will always have its classic tracks that never fail to get the crowds jumping but as this blog has always been dedicated to new tunes this playlist is strictly 2019 tunes only (well maybe a couple from last year).

PLAYLISTS:
(300 #NOTTINGHILL TRACKS)

👂🔊LISTEN ON
APPLE MUSIC OR SPOTIFY OR YOUTUBE

CHOPSTICK DUBPLATE – TOAST REMIX

This summer Koffee had a hefty Glastonbury crowd swaying to her tunes with the kind of wild abandon only middle class white people who only listen to ‘reggae’ once a year can muster. Glasto probably wasn’t the ‘culmination’ of Koffee’s richly deserved crossover year though, that would obviously be getting to be the ‘featuring’ on a Bieber and Ed Sheeran track. This time last year she was still going under the moniker ‘Original Koffee’, now she’s had a several massive singles and her debut ‘Toast’ has been reissued and remixed by the likes of Guernsey-born electronic producer Mura Masa.

Just in time for Carnival, Chopstick Dubplate – who have their brilliant ‘Uber Ride version’ on my playlist – released their own ‘Toast’ remix for free download.
“We don’t mean to brag, we don’t mean to boast,but we like hot Koffee with a breakfast Toast!
Free download

“Welcome  to London
That’s how we function”

JSTAR – RISE UP (Wrongtom Remix)

Dub don Wrongtom apparently spends his days ‘playing with tape echo and watching B-movies in his makeshift studio hidden away in a converted nunnery’ but they’re far from wasted days as evidenced by this years ‘Wrongtom meets…’ anthology of his finest original material and remixes to date.

Flowdan’s love letter to weed; ‘Bob Marley’ is ‘re-envisioned as a dub-poetry rework, echoing the tradition of spoken word, reggae-rhythmic heroes like Linton Kwesi Johnson and Benjamin Zephaniah’. It also goes without saying that Flowdan is an incredible MC, just check out ‘Welcome To London’ among many and also it has to be said his original ‘Bob Marley’ was pretty dubby and splendid to begin with.
At one point I had a dozen of the album’s 25 tracks on my playlist and the solid gold remixes keep coming so his redub of JStar’s already excellent ‘Rise Up’ can be added to that. Rise up also features Manasah and Red Astaire mixes.



JULS — SLOW DOWN ft. Agent Sasco

SPICE – COOL IT

Spice is pretty much untouchable at the top of the Dancehall table, and Cool It kicked off 2019 in typical fashion. Always known for a decent publicity stunt and prop, Spice handed out air conditioning units to fans who needed to ‘cool it’ at her birthday party. When Spice and her dancers set off a ‘craze’ of pouring ice cubes over your nether regions in support of “Cool It’, the Jamaican Star website assured worried readers with the headline, ‘Ice won’t harm the vagina’ – Doctor says Team Spice’s ‘Cool It’ stunt is safe’. On Instagram Spice disagreed saying all the ice had given her a cold but that her “butt looks good wet”.
Spice will bring her stunts, a prop or two and over a decades worth of killer tunes to Carnival at the Red Bull Sound System.

DADDY FREDDY – Bun Dem Out feat. Action Fire & Blackout JA

Legendary Jamaican dancehall veteran Daddy Freddy leads the charge with the first offering from brand-new south London label ‘Bun Dem Out Records’, which is also the name of the first single ‘Bun Dem Out’.

Freddys high-energy critique of the current state of social and global affairs is righteously backed by notorious raggamuffin vocalists Action Fire & Blackout JA. In Freddy’s own words ‘Bun Dem Out is a reality tune. It is about fighting against oppression, the system and all ungodly unethical things. We bun out politicians, we bun out peadophiles, we bun out rapists and we Bun out racism’.

This coupled with Sleepy Time Ghost’s crisp & weighty production culminates to an end result that will shake sound systems and dance floors alike worldwide.

Beenie Man – Go Fi Mi Money

Skinny Fabulous, Machel Montano & Bunji Garlin – Famalay

The hit song was played three hundred and forty-six (346) times on the road for Carnival Monday and Tuesday. This is Bunji Garlin and Skinny Fabulous’ first road march win in Trinidad, and tenth win for Machel Montano.

Savannah Grass by Kes took the second spot, after it was played two hundred and seven (207) times.

Jet Star Meets Hospital

Buy or Stream here: HospitalRecords.lnk.to/JetStarso

The world of classic reggae, dancehall and bashment collides with drum & bass for a set of stellar remixes on the ‘Jet Star Meets Hospital’ compilation. The album features sixteen first-class reworks from London Electricity, S.P.Y, Danny Byrd, Nu:Tone, Urbandawn and more; all taking a 170BPM step-out on iconic reggae artists such as Barrington Levy, Alton Ellis, John Holt, Beenie Man, Horace Andy and more.

From dancehall classic to dancefloor banger, Hospital mainstay and esteemed soul-selector Nu:Tone applies his production savviness to Barrington Levy’s seminal reggae anthem, ‘Here I Come’. Stimulated from the ground up with a warm, rolling bassline and kitted out with skittering amens to boot.