Tommorow night

If you’re around the Saarbrücken area tommorow make sure to come check us in full effect at Jamaican Lounge@6null3 alongside the mighty Sensi Movement outta Chemnitz.

Party me say!

Lloyd Barnes & Wackie’s

Today’s New York Times features an article about the great Lloyd Barnes and his Wackie’s Studio in the Bronx.

Read the full article here and look at the pictures here.

New ol’ something #4

I just found some really nice “oldschoolish” Flyers again.

Can’t tell you how much I love this style of Flyerdesign.

They’re awesome!

Check:

Edit: The Flyer above is from a wicked artist from Denmark called “Neue Armut Mitte”, please go check his page and his flickr

and this

Young, gifted and baaad #3

This time we’re heading another time to the north of europe, where the guys from Komposti Sound, out of Helsinki, holding it down for Finland since nearly one decade.

They are known for excellent artist- and soundsystem-bookings in Finland, decent mix-cds, playing gigs all over europe and, of course, their weekly radio-show on Radio Helsinki.

So we don’t waste no time and keep it short and spicy.

Here we go!

# Please introduce your Sound and all the members to the readers.

We are Komposti Sound, also known as Finland’s Finest.

We are the biggest, best and most hard working sound from Scandinavia.

Our crew has five members, out of which three are really active when playing out.

I, Bommitommi, am one of the founding members of the sound. I am – as they tell me – the president of the sound – I am a selector, take care of our sound’s and our club’s bookings and do much of keeping contact with the outside world – like cutting dubplates and such.

I am also a music producer, label owner and mixing engineer by profession and thus do most of our studio work.

My work outside the sound includes mastering, mixing albums, building riddims and producing albums for Finnish artists.

I have also been managing, booking shows and building careers for several artists in Finland, like Raappana and our sound system’s very own Paarma.

I’ve been working with reggae in Finland full-time since the year 2000 or so and am very thankful for being able to stay busy with things I love doing.

Musically I don’t really give myself too strict boundaries apart from good Jamaican music – I love rocksteady ,early 80s dancehall and late 90s/early 2000s one drops very much, but tend to be the one playing the prime time selections at parties with mostly new tunes – which I love as well.

The next founding member, Enrico, is nowadays somewhat of a foundation specialist in our sound. He often plays trademark warmups at our clubs with a selection of his favorite rocksteady, roots & early dancehall selections though he might drop a Bugle or two in between without warning.

Enrico also started MC’ing on our sound one time when one of our full-time MCs went missing for several days and hasn’t stopped since.

Enrico is the other half of our team doing our every Monday radio shows – where, like the clubs, he often playes the first foundation part of the show.

Enrico is still sticking to vinyl even the rest of us have Serato’d ourselves a long time ago.

He also does most of the graphic design for our posters.

Our newest member, VG+, is both an exceptionally good selector and our most active MC.

We invited him to join our sound as a full-time member at September 2008 when we need someone to lift some of the workload off our shoulders.

Only thing it seems it didn’t really work out that way – our bookings have pretty much doubled from since so we all have even more work to do nowadays.

VG+ used to be a member of a Jyvaskyla-based sound called Loudness when he lived there for some years and we booked him to our club as a regular guest after learning he had a skill for selecting good tunes with thought for any crowd as well as hosting himself on the mic.

Him being a selector makes a big difference when MC’ing – he knows all the tunes just as good as the rest of us and is instrumental in keeping the flow of music meaningful, lively and tight when we play.

Bommitommi on the selection and VG+ on the microphone is the lineup you’re most likely to see on stage when checking us out anywhere at prime time.

VG+ also plays a mad soca and daggering selection when needed and can be rightfully called the soca specialist in our sound.

He has been infected by the 90s one drop / rub a dub bug and he’s the one hosting our new every Wednesday club Rub A Dub in Helsinki, focusing on “real reggae music”.

A longtime member and a friend of mine since we were kids, Paarma, is a very well known personality in the Finnish reggae scene. Though not very active in the sound anymore, the guitarist – turned MC – turned artist Paarma has hosted countless sound nights, played shows in backing bands of artists and MC’d festival shows since the late 90s.

Paarma, who released his solo album “Pida Liekkis” in 2005, is nowadays active in several succesful reggae / soul / afrobeat / children’s music bands in Finland.

Paarma was pretty much the first real MC in Finnish sound systems who really put effort into the thing.

Another MC member of our sound, Bongo Rhino / Reino, is also a full-time artist / movie star nowadays.

Well before reaching the age to be able to go legally to clubs, he was hustling his way in by MC’ing / singing and playing bongos on our sound system. His soundsystem-backed soulful singing style is somewhat unique nowadays and has taken him (as well as into countless girl’s hearts) into big success with his soul outfit Reino & the Rhinos who released their debut album in 2008.

Reino also hosts his own Naamantai club on Mondays in Helsinki where he manages to make people first real angry and soon real happy with his selection of good reggae and soul music and his somewhat stress-free-free-to-go-anywhere MC’ing style.

One of the most popular Finnish reggae artists ever, Jukka Poika, also used to be a part of the sound when it was founded, singing & MC’ing on the sound.

He soon after moved to the countryside and has from since kept himself busy releasing albums and living a simple life…

# When was the founding of your Sound and since when do you djing?

Funnily enough, we don’t know exactly the date of birth of our sound as we played the first dance alongside Enrico some time in the year 2000 and soon after started throwing parties of our own.

For the sake of official birthdays we use spring 2001 as our starting point when keeping birthday dances (always the best).

Both me & Enrico have been playing records from our late teens in the 90s and really started focusing on reggae music when we formed Komposti and also started our radio show on Radio Helsinki.

# Can you describe which style your sound plays mostly?

We play quite a lot of things but always the music we love to play.

Though we always play for the crowd we have noticed sticking to things that we know & love always works best.

The typical prime time selection of ours consists of our favorite fresh one drop & dancehall tunes – the Helsinki crowd is very up to date with new things and we love to buss new things we love.

Though we mostly play new Jamaican music, we also features tunes from all over the world – as long as it’s good and it fits the selection.

When it comes to warmup we love to play everything positive in the history of reggae music – a typical night at Reggae Sundays might include rocksteady, early 80s dancehall, early 90s dancehall, late 90s one drop, UK lovers style, 70s roots, fresh one drop, fresh dancehall to soca and daggering.

We try to keep a certain logic within mixing tunes both musically and in carrying a point – though we love reggae and dancehall also as pure music the fact that it is music with a message cannot be overlooked – whether the message was about simply having fun or shining a light pon reality issues.

# Please tell me about the most important cornermarks in the sounds history, like clashes, the baddest dances, etc.

We have had many of them and it’s hard to say which ones are the most important.

Komposti has won the Finnish soundclash championship 3 times out of four, respectively in 2004, 2006 and 2007 and especially when the dub / clash thing was new to us we got a lot of energy from it.

Nowadays it doesn’t feel as important to us though we all enjoy the drama of good speeches and mad dubs a lot still – maybe it’s more that we don’t feel we need to constantly prove ourselves.

I also found the formats and the rules for clashes nowadays a bit limiting and sometimes think that the popularity of dubs & clashing in Europe has taken the clash scene to a bit stiffer and less original direction – I do feel that rules like having to play dub-fi-dub and especially having to play “foundation artists” in dub-fi-dub is what you NEED to do are very forced and are usually only based on very vague concepts of “what they do over there where this originally comes from”.

Honestly, if you look at the kids who go to dances and clashes nowadays Sizzla, Luciano, Bounty Killer and Beres are foundation – even too old sometimes to be interesting .. My nicest “clash” experiences have been some dances where somebody gets challenged and a “war” comes out of the blue unplanned – though alcohol often has a strong influence on this, lol.

We’ve “clashed” Civalizee at our own club both so drunk we barely remembered it the following day (we did record it and it was kinda wicked if funny to rass) – we also “clashed” Panza once by “who can play the sillier dubplate”..

The most important cornermarks honestly for our sound must have been the founding of our regular clubs – especially the latest one, Reggae Sundays which has been soon running for two years.

Over the 100 last Sundays we have hosted dances for tens of big-name international sound systems and artists that have all got a warm reception and strong support at the dance.

From the sound visits I would say last weekend’s dance with Silly Walks with the club as packed as possible was one of the nicest in the history of music.. But then again there were so many other good nights (visits of many others like Rodigan, Mighty Crown, Supersonic, Sentinel, Stone Love, Collie Buddz, Pressure, Konshens etc – and some mad nice shows we played by ourselves or at festivals in Finland) it would be unfair to call one of them the best.

Almost every night we play there is a lot we can be thankful for – and in a way I like to think every night is the best or at least has the elements of being the best ever.

We do not linger – we strive to do what we do always a bit better to keep things moving and the people satisfied.

For us travelling abroad to play is always a big motivational factor – all of us enjoy travelling and playing for different audiences and we’ve had the blessing of being able to do so for quite a while.

Over the years, our sound system has taken us to many places, including Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Estonia, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Russia and even China.

Even though I’d honestly say our sound has only reached the level of quality I’m happy with playing abroad some time last year pretty much all the shows have been succesful and we’ve met a lot of new friends on the road.

# Which plans do you have for your sound in the near future and what are the real longtime plans for it?

We strive to keep our own club things and radio shows as high quality as possible and try and push the Finnish scene to a next level still.

In this the focus is on carefully planning the club bookings to provide the best possible program for the best possible dates and having the best possible amount of people there to experience it.

Nowadays we also do some co-operation with bigger Finnish festivals which makes it possible to see some artists we simply couldn’t afford to bring to Finland by ourselves.

Personally, I am still looking forward as a challenge to taking some of my producing-skills to a next level – I have produced music for tens of Finnish artists and put out tens of thousands of copies of succesful albums and I would love to work more with Jamaican artists.

I feel music is a road that we will keep walking. It’s not like a mountain where you climb and climb and then reach the top and feel satisfied but rather something that you will have with you every day till the rest of your life.

We will do our best to keep what we do as good as we can in a positive way and enjoy whatever little is achieved by doing so.

# Which persons, sounds, artists have influenced you musicallywise?

From sound systems, one of the biggest influences for me used to be Supersonic from Germany.

They were actually one of the first big-name sounds we ever booked to play Finland – Panza and Spida have visited many times since.

Panza is nowadays a good friend and I’ve been influenced a lot by his taste in music.

Especially at the time we were voicing a lot of dubs I used to kind of think hype was the biggest and best thing you can achieve when playing sound – massive forwards with proper tune selection and on-point speech.

Sounds like Sentinel and Mighty Crown have definitely been influences in that sort of playing.

I could maybe count in Rodigan to this category though he doesn’t really fear to go down the slow tune road every now and then even in prime time.

Musically I would say my biggest heroes nowadays are selectors who dont worry about going outside the regular box.

Two of my favorite sounds in EU nowadays are Boss Hi Fi from Switzerland and Silly Walks from Germany.

What I enjoy about their playing style is they are able to combine very well known music and something you never heard in a way that no dancer can resist.

Even though I love finding things I never heard before I don’t really like a stamp-collector’s way of looking for rare tunes or even cutting rare to unknown artists on dub just for the sake of being hard-to-find.

To me, when a sound plays, musical appeal always comes first – though now that I think of it of course we often find sometimes clearing the dancefloor several times at first when bussing a new tune … the third or fourth time usually pays off, though.. lol!

I do take influences everywhere but do my best not to copy anybody’s style.

All the sounds mentioned above are important to me because I’ve had the chance to reason about music with the crew, as well as experience the sounds playing.

I do this a lot – discuss music with people – laugh about tunes, find new meanings to things, try to present things I found and dont feel are getting as much exposure as possible. To me this seems like the only way – I am not gonna just check what’s supposed to be hot right now somewhere else (though I also do that), but rather make an effort to adapt things I find love for in the culture and environment surrounding me.

On the artist side there are simply too many great artists to mention – both musically and in person. In my experience being a reggae selector and radio DJ in Europe is quite a thankful thing to do – apart from some Jamaican people thinking you earn a lot – the network in Europe is very positive-minded and most of the Jamaican artists and producers treat you with respect and professionalism.

# What was the first dubplate you ever voiced, and do you still play it?

The first dubplates we voiced were by Finnish artists and in Finnish.

Some of them are kind of legendary still and we do sometimes drop a tune or two to bless a certain dance.

First artists outside Finland to voice were Anthony Johnson, Earl 16 and Cornell Campbell. They don’t really get played that much – but are still very much inside the box

Nowadays our dub cutting style has changed to a much more friendly way though sometimes we still kill idiot sounds when necessary.

We’ve done quite a bit of an effort to bless the regulars at our dances in Helsinki with dubs with true meaning to the massive – sometimes tunes that are barely known anywhere else get mad forwards in Helsinki just through us building local anthems of them.

I do think seriously though – even we love to introduce ourselves with some dubs and get all hypey hypey every now and then – that any sound that needs dubplates to mash up a dance should keep on practicing..

Alright, thank you Tommi for your time!

If you want to know more about Komposti check their myspace page and for mixes, videos etc go to their Facebook Group here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13746370076

A few new videos…

Some good vids been released during the last days, check them:

Bear with me from upcoming Star Maikal X on Don Corleons Changez Riddim

The excellent video to Tarrus Riley & Konshens’ Big Tune Good Girl gone bad

Assassins Same thing again

Battle of the Legends Outcome

Seems like King Jammys have won the Battle of the Legends Clash last Friday in NYC during the Dub fi Dub Segment, without winning one regular round.

I found a excellent review of the clash by Mark Cadbury here.

Check it:

Ok here is my attempt at Journalism.. King Jammy’s won the clash in the tune fe tune segment. They did not I repeat did not win any other rounds besides tune fe tune there was no elimination until the tune fe tune segment had already began so Jammy’s saved most of their big tunes. This Proved to be great strategy. They actually during some of their juggling rounds got boos earlier.

Ok Clash started 1 am

Rodigan 1st

Scorpio 2nd

DownBeat 3rd

Jammy’s 4th

Rodigan’s 1st round

1st tune Peter Hunnigale-Thank you lord for blessing Rodigan
2nd tune Lucian “Give Rodign strength oh jah”
3rd tune Kaschief Lindo “Kill dem Rodigian”
4th Tune Wayne Wade
5th tune Horace Andy “you trying to conquer Papa Rodigan”
6th tune- Horace Andy and Freddie Mcgregor “Stop that train”
7th tune Carnell Campbell -Gorgon
8th tune Alton Ellis Cry eternally
9th tune- Alton Ellis Rock steady
10th Bitty Mcclean
11th tune Beres hammond- Serious
12th tune Shaggy (not to great of a forward)
13th tune Gregory Love Overdue
End of Rodi first round- Nice round pretty decent.

Next up Scorpio

Mr. Scorpio playd the Jamaica national Anthem then went into
Beres Hammond-Step Aside Black Scorpio come fe tek over”
then played Dennis Brown Revolution
John Holt’s Stealing and Pick up you sound and throw it away
Derrick Morgan- Blazing Fire
Culture- Jah Jah see dem ah come
Bunny Wailer -rule dancehall
2 Michael Prophet
Tristan Palmer
Bush Man pon Sleng Teng segment
Philip Frazier
Capelton
Bounty
Ended round with Bush Man “Fiya pon ah weak heart”

Scorpio was full of vibes opening round!

Next up DownBeat

Half Pint- Play by DownBeat alone
Hopeton lindo – territory
Half Pint – Greetings
Ken Booth- Move away
Gladiators – step right back
Dennis Brown- On trodding though the jungle with chalice riddim
Sluggy- lightnign and thunder
Pincher- enemies pon downbeat borderline
Far East segment featuring
Barrington Levy
Barry Brown
Gregory “I heard you said to me you wanna be the number”
Shabba
Johnny Osbourne- “Downbeat playing in the ghetto tonight
Malibu
Ended first round with Briggy on the Shenk I Shenk riddim
Also a nice round.

Next up King Jammy’s

Johnny Osbourne- Ooooh what a la la Jammy’s in yuh area
Nitty Gritty Good Morning soundboy
Nicodemus
Freddir Mcgregor= Push Come to Shove
Leroy Gibbons
Johnny Clarke
Pad Anthony- ah murder
2 Dennis Walks
Barrington Levy- Sound Killa
Morgan Heritage

Black Scorpio declared winner of 1st round

2nd round David Rodigan

Rodigan I call this round the Bounty Killer round for Rodi he started beating out the Bounty Killers on the sleng teng and also “Kill or Be kill” “Not another word” “Dead this time” then played anthems by Shine Head, Likkle Roy and Johnny Osborune’s “Reasons”. Played Dennis Brown’s “Rodigan gonna get himself together”. Ended the round with 2 Slim Smith that were “specials” but did not call “name”

Good round for Rodi

Black Scorpio 2nd round

Played a tune Hallelujah
then Shaggy’s Church Heathen
Then did something I thought was the turning point for his sound he played Allison Hinds “roll it gyal” in sound style of which DID NOT get a Forward.
Johnny Osbourne No Ice Cream sound
Gregory
Briggy on the Real Rock (nice forward for the tune but the Allison Hinds tune I think messed up his round in the middle)
Scorpio played- Demus Sound Killer
John Holt- Up Park Camp
Freddie Mcgregor- On the Up Park Camp
Buju- Sound fe dead
Bounty Killer – Up park Camp
2nd round for Scorpio was decent but not as strong as his 1 st round

next up DownBeat
DownBeat plays Junior Murvin
Counteracts Rodigan’s Bitty Mcclean
Proceeds to rinse Marcia Griffiths segment HUGE FORWARDS!
Ken Parker HUGE FORWARD!
Luciano-Onward Christians soldiers
ends round with Leroy Smart Ballistic affair

Big round for DownBeat

next up King Jammy’s

starts round off with 2 Garnetts
Admiral tibbett hich got no forward
Taurus Riley
Bounty Killer
Jr. Gong
Courtney Melody
Sanchez on the Vanity riddim
Cocoa t and Josey wales on the vanity
Jammy’s got BOOS!

Downbeat declared winner of 2nd round

3rd round in between rounds Skyjuice from Metro Media makes a cameo appearance and plays “Dem ah go tired fe see we face”..

Rodi 3rd round

Tanya Stevens “What a war”
Barrignton levy- Sound Killa (which he played back but nobody made a stink about
Barrignton Levy- What kind of world
Sanchez
Fred Mcgregor
Gregory Issaces and Louie Culture
Bob and Marcia
Errol Dunkley
Then Proceeds to play 2 Garnett Silk 45′s! Got a nice forward but annoyed some of the clash participates.
This round was kind of shakey for Rodigan

Next up Scorpio

Lloyd Parks “officially”
Dawn Penn “No No No”
Dobby Dobson- Nice forwards
Alton Ellis
Ends round with Buju

Scorpio gwan good this round

DownBeat 3rd round

Played a Dennis Brown Xclusive special but not calling the sound name
Played d Brown’s Revolution
Then went into the Pressure and Slide riddim segment with Johnny Osbourne, Sugar Minott which mashed up the place huge forwards.
played Roy Richards
Morgan Heritage
Keith and Tex – Tonight
d brown- Tonight
Sluggy
Buju
ended 3rd round with Mighty Diamonds “Tear off the roof”

BIG FORWARD!
Jammy’s 3rd round
Jr. Reid
Alton Ellis
Half Pint
Freddie mcgregor
2 robert Lee
Major Christie
Jr. Cat

JAMMY’S flopped this round.

3rd round declared to DownBeat

Tune fe tune ok sorry bout this guys but my phone battery died..

What I can tell you is that King Jammy’s took all 6 tunes in the first half of the tune fe tune they played Tenor saw’s, Nitty Gritty which eliminated Rodigan. Then as the tune fe tune progressed jack Scorpio was eliminated. Then it came down to DownBeat and King Jammy’s. Jammy’s played a Burning Spear which Tony Screw said was a fake which I agree it sounded suspect to me also. Then played something that he said was a Burning Spear intro. Nevertheless King Jammy’s edged out DownBeat and took the trophy. It was a great night of music Jammy’s you used a good strategy to win this dance.

Sweet Jamaica Riddim

London-based, and Tippa Irie owned, Studio & Label “Lockdown Productions” just about to release their brandnew riddim called “Sweet Jamaica” trough all major download-stores, for example at itunes or mp3.soundquake.com.

Here’s the Megamix, hosted by Tipps himself

(click image to download)

Edit: Please check also the second part of the megamix:

megamix2

Jamaican Lounge Preview

Because of the Easter Holidays we’re playing on the second floor at 6null3 also today and next wednesday! Make sure to show up.

Then, Friday next week, we have the guys from Germanys most blunted Sound, Sensi Movement out of Chemnitz, as guests at Jamaican Lounge. Its gonna be fire for sure.

On May the 1st we have our special May Dance where the first 50 guests getting our brandnew Roots’n'Culture Mix CD for free!

So better line up early.

And May the 15th it’s all about understanding amongst nations, when Fyah Box Sound from Lisboa/Portugal comes to juggle with us.

See ya!

Audio available for the Uptown Skankin’ Clash Final

Due to some stressful days i’ve just forgot to post up the Audios Mr. Smoka from Guns-E-Num finally released last week.

As I mentionend here before, it’s been a very exciting clash and well worth a listen.

(Give it a pree by clicking on the image)

Thanks to Jaspo & Raggakings for the download also.

Young, gifted and baaad! #2

The second part of this column will feature none other than the notorious danish champion sound Firehouse from Copenhagen.

The 8 guys from Firehouse are playing together since 2005 and are known worldwide for their unique, one of a kind early digital mix-cds and of course their incredible hardhitting riddims, two of them produces under the name of Maffi.

Here we go with the questions:

# Please introduce your Sound and all the members to the readers.
Our sound name is Firehouse Sound. We consist of 8 members who have all kinds of different roles and jobs within the system. We started out in may 2005 by coincidence. Originally, we were three different low ranking sound systems, however, after a while of putting on some shows together we decided to join forces and turned the three sounds into the killing machine known as Firehouse.

J-G is the front man on the mic, but he’s also an important selector. He specializes in modern and 80′s dancehall but also carries some killer early 90′s tracks in his box.

Trojan is the handy man who takes care of a long line of different practical challenges like booking, networking and setting people straight if they complain too much. He used to select slackness dancehall and murder music, he then turned righteous so now he only plays Tiger and Major Mackerel tunes.

Troels Egern is our main dancehall selector and secondary deejay. He mostly plays 90′s dancehall and has an affinity with the pepperseed riddim that can’t be challenged. He’s also a recording artist and lyricist who makes lots of Danish dancehall tunes – mostly about guns and weed. His name actually means Troels Squirrel.

Restless G was gone for two years when he was busy travelling the jungles of Bolivia and planting the seeds of a sound system scene in La Paz. After his return, he instantly catched up with the rest of us. Now he’s a solid dancehall selector who also plays a couple of oldies tunes from time to time.

Moog is a musician who’s part of Firehouse’ own producer team: Maffi. He’s the central spine and an implacable part of our riddim builder corps. Moog is also known as Demarkus.

Junior is a selector who has specialized in 80′s dancehall music. Although, he has started collecting tunes from the early 90′s as well, he’s been digging deep in the 80′s crates for years now. He also makes up the second half of Maffi and creates riddims and tunes together with Moog.

Dubmonkey used to be a very active selector. He also played an instrumental role in designing our distinct graphic style, but then he sold all his records and moved to Japan to get a ph.d. in cell physiology.

Ronald Rocksteady used to be our regular rocksteady selector, now he has two kids and a job.
Every now and then he manages to escape everyday life to spin some seriously bad rocksteady tunes.

# When was the founding of your Sound and since when do all of you djing?
Firehouse actually started after a failed attempt at making a dancehall club in Copenhagen back in may, 2005. Nobody really came to the club and in the end the only people in the club were the selectors booked for the night. We started talking and began hanging out shortly after.
Shortly after, we started the sound business by pulling a sound system into the streets and playing tunes until the police shut us down. It was a major hit, and all of a sudden we were booked several times a week. Before we knew it, we were a sound.

# Can you describe which style your sound plays mostly?

We’re mostly known for playing 80′s dancehall, but actually we play all kinds of dancehall – from sleng teng till beauty and the beast riddim. You won’t hear much roots music at our shows since it’s not really what we play. We’re a dancehall sound, basically. Nu roots is a no go. None of us likes it, and none of us plays it. It’s just straight up dancehall. We like it when the girls are wining and we’re not to fond of the rasta stomp – so we’re definitely aiming for the first and trying to avoid the latter!

One thing that makes us a bit different from most other European sound is our conservative, some would say elitist, approach to vinyl. We play original pressings as a general rule. Basically, we like to play original pressings, because we’re very tired of hearing most European sound systems playing the same reissued tunes again and again. We prefer to dig deep and find tunes no one ever really plays anymore – perhaps never did. In other words, we breathe new life into long forgotten obscure tunes from back in the 80s; tunes that never get the chance to mash up the dance anymore. So much great music is overlooked – but not by Firehouse!

# Please tell me about the most important cornermarks in the sounds history, like clashes, the baddest dances, etc.
We have had a long line of events that has changed us as a sound, made us stronger and more focused, but if we should pin down four events that really made a difference, these would be the ones:

1. The Mastermind Computer Style mixtape series. Three years ago we put out the first mixtape in a row of (soon to be) three. The Mastermind mixes consist of the best 80′s digital gems, and as the series has developed the tunes have increasingly become more and more obscure. The mixtapes have received worldwide recognition from the US and Europe to Japan. We still get feedback from people from various places around the world, who like the mixes. In Denmark a minor 80′s digital scene has developed among young teenagers, who have started collecting these tunes.

The third one is available from now at Firehouse.dk, or left click here.

2. DSCM 07. The Danish Sound Clash Championship in 2007 was a great success. Even though we didn’t win it, we still feel that we made a great perfomance that changed things for us. It was the first time we started playing serious dubs, and we hadn’t tried playing for 1300 people before. We consider first round of the clash one of our finest moments.

Check out the videos of this clash:

3. The notorious private parties of 2005-6. During a year we had four private parties at a flat in central Copenhagen. It doesn’t sound like much, but when we threw a party it seemed it was the only place to be in town. Hundreds of people came for each party and we had a line that went 20 meters down the street. We had the biggest sound system set up, thousands of cheap beers and joints. Everything was perfect. The only problem was the sheer amount of people wanting to be part of it. We tried keeping the last party a secret just to keep the amount of guests as low as possible, but alas, hundreds of people still came and the party continued till 8 in the morning. Those parties were the best we ever attended.

4. The Maffi label. Our newly launched internationally distributed reggae label, Maffi, is one of our proudest achievements. The label is run together with Jahtari from Leipzig and so far we’ve put out two singles. The last 7″ Solo Banton’s “Talk to Me” was # 1 on Ernie B’s best seller list. Jan Disrupt mixes the tunes (and does the math) while Maffi provides the riddims. 2009 is gonna be a really good year for the label as we have nuff bad tunes lined up for release.

# Which plans do you have for your sound in the near future and what are the real longtime plans for it?
Well, we’re going to Japan this December to clash an old local sound system. Of course, we plan on killing them. But in the meantime we have a minor tour in Germany this May, and lots of gigs in Denmark. We would like to play more around Europe. Clashing, of course, would be cool, and we plan on winning a Nordic sound clash whenever it’s going down.
Other than killing small drum pan sounds from Finland and Sweden, we plan to put out more mixtapes. We have two to three mixes planned that we’re focusing on.
As always, the main themes will be obscurity and quality – we’re not compromising on either!
Then we plan to put out more tunes and play gigs around the world. Playing in Raytown, Kingston is a distant, yet appealing, future goal.
Also, one day killing Mighty Crown would be nice. But then, making tunes with Super Cat and bringing Tenor Saw back from the grave would also be really cool, yet it doesn’t really seem realistic.
One day, we plan to leave our sound to a new and younger generation of selectors and operators. We’re currently training different prospects so they will be able to take over one day (hopefully it’ll take long).

# Which persons, sounds, artists have influenced you musicallywise?
Super Cat is a major influence. Other than him we’re inspired by sounds like Stereo Mars. Danny Dread for example was a bad operator back in the day. I don’t think we can really mention any current sounds that we really admire or have been inspired by. We mostly look back in time to get the inspiration we need. A sound like High Tension in Kingston has meant a lot to us, but they’re also really old school. King Addies, Black Scorpio and local Danish sound Sky Juice are also worth mentioning here.

# What was the first dubplate you ever voiced, and do you still play it?
Our first dubplate was made by a competing Danish sound, Rootsman Hi Fi, it was in Danish and we don’t really play it any more – even though we should. It’s actually a very good dub!
They actually voiced two for us – one on the Bellyas and one on the Stalag-riddim. Both have very funny and original lyrics and they were a great inspiration for us to start working on our own tunes. Rootsman eventually beat us in the Danish Soundclash Championship but next time we will definitely execute them. Unfortunately, we promised not to use their dub against them – which we now bitterly regret.

So everyone make sure to check out the new Mastermind Computer Style v 3.0 Mix and, of course, the old ones if you didn’t do that already.

Thanks for the nice Interview Firehouse, and big up the whole of you.