Buying 2 Step from a one handed man

So in Stoke Newington last week I came across a shop I'd not spotted before: The Bosnia Herzegovina Charity Hospice. If your ever in the area, I highly encourage you to check it out, it's just round the corner from the overground station and packed with good stuff. There's clothes hanging from the ceiling, jammed onto racks, spilling out the walls, on the floor, everywhere. And they had boxes of vinyl which I feverishly scrabbled through.
In doing so I came across two garage bangers, first the MJ Cole remix of De La Soul's It Ain't All Good, which, whilst it isn't that rare (hip hop tracks are always massively over pressed), is a wicked dance tune, and then, yikes ! Roxy vs El-B doing 'Cuba'. All the Nu Garage kids love El-B and rightly so, he was making dubsteppy skippy garage back in 2001 before grime even had a name, and this track is a dark delight.
I took the records up to the counter and was a little perturbed by the 6"2 Bosnian (I assume) blokes lack of a right hand. In its place he had a kind of rejigged mannequins dummy hand. I only noticed the hand when he passed me my records, and as I took the bag it got snared in this gammy plastic appendage, so I was sort of tugging on the bag, and he was trying to release it but this hand looked fucking ancient and it just wasn't opening. I mean the poor sod. And, probably cos of nerves, I started laughing, then he laughed to, and the hand popped open. Maybe he engendered the whole affair to help wile away the hours keeping shop.
Still I imagine he could do with a new hand, so do pass by and spend some cash.
Anyway here's the El-B tune (download links after the videos)



And here's the MJ Cole



Roxy vs El-B Cuba
De La Soul Aint All Good (MJ Cole mix)

New-Ro 'She's A Nymphomaniac'

Drum machines are amazing. I think they’re one of mankinds greatest inventions. I was born in 1979 and it’s funny to think that if I’d popped out a decade earlier then I would have had a childhood almost entirely devoid of hearing the boom of an 808. As it was pretty much everything I grew up with rode in on sampled kicks and mechanical snares. I think you could argue that the emergence of sampling was a bigger break with the past than Rock N Roll had ever offered. House and Hip Hop as close to Year Zero as anything was ever going to get. The freedom for one artist to create an orchestra single handed allowed a clarity of focus that is lost in collaboration. Hmmm. Probably need to think about this a bit more to be honest. One undeniable truth is that the rise of the drum machine produced a staggering amount of brilliant music through the 80s and beyond; when I trawl through flea markets and discarded stacks of records cluttering up car boots it’s amazing to see how many tracks I end up finding that I 1) Don’t know anything whatsoever about and 2) absolutely love.
Here is a fine example, found on a rainy day in Ramsgate, New Ro’s ‘She’s A Nymphomaniac’. It’s a sleazy Jamie Principle-ish acid house affair on the United Sounds of America label. As far as I can tell, this came out of New York in ’89 and was produced by a guy called Larry Anderson. If anyone knows if any of his other tracks are any cop, I’d love to hear from em. It’s got so much to it that I love, the faux sexy vocals, the little orgasmic cries, the nagging synth hooks and the melancholic bleeps. Mint. Hope you enjoy.

New-Ro - She's A Nympomaniac

We announce The Charity Shoppe Manifesto and play a few records to celebrate...

CHARITY SHOPPE: THE MANIFESTO RATIFICATION PARTY
W/ JOHN & ON AND NASTY MCQUAID
THURS MARCH 18TH

THE QUEEN OF HOXTON, CURTAIN RD.
9PM-2AM FREE ENTRY.

In early 2009, having sat surrounded in their respective abodes by all manner of weird and wonderful pound shop vinyls for several years, DJs John & On and Nasty Mcquaid decided that it was time to (literally) dust off the best of them and start a party where they played only from this rather crackly collection of hot wax. They also invited others to bring along their best charity shop finds to be played and marveled at.

A year of parties at The London Fields has seen much table and bar-top dancing, fisticuffs, Whitney Houston being jammed together with Shalamar, The Pet Shop Boys with Big Band covers of Michael Jackson and other such oddities that somehow just work. Now they are finally branching out with events outside of the intimate bubble that is Hackney's Mare St and its surrounds.

It starts with an announcement of The Charity Shoppe Manifesto and a party at The Queen of Hoxton in its honour...

THE CHARITY SHOPPE MANIFESTO:

• ALL RECORDS PLAYED MUST HAVE COME FROM A CHARITABLE OUTLET, FLEA MARKET OR FOUND FORLORN ON THE STREET.
• ALL RECORDS PLAYED MUST HAVE COST THE OWNER NO MORE THAN TWO ENGLISH POUNDS.
• ALL & SUNDRY ARE WELCOME TO BRING ALONG THEIR OWN CHARITY SHOP GEMS TO BE PLAYED (SUBJECT TO A LAX VETTING PROCESS).
• CHARITY SHOPPE IS AN EQUAL-OPPORTUNITIES EVENT, NO GENRES OF MUSIC ARE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST.
• MARVIN GAYE IS GOD.

ALL MUSIC, GOOD AND BAD, WAS LOVED ONCE BY SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE.

X

The Psychedelic World of Phil Collins

Here is a list of fun facts about Phil Collins:


1) He played a character named ‘Phil’ in Miami Vice. Phil looks really weird and kinda evil (the Miami Vice Phil, not the real one, obviously.)

2) He donated a song to the tribute album for famous Formula One butterfingers Ayrton Senna
3) There was a bizarre, amazing album of Phil covers released by RnB stars called ‘Urban Renewal’. You should hear Ol’ Dirty Bastards version of Susudio. Actually, you can, here it is—
Weird.
4) On the Face Value album he covers the Beatles psychedelic block rocking masterpiece ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, washes it down with a load of synth ambience and spits out a strange (yet by no means unpleasant) trip through the lysergic nether reaches of his pristine balding skull. I bought it the other day from the charity shop endearingly called ‘Charity Shop’ situated on Hackney High Street, and by golly I’m glad I did.
Here it is ---

Phil Collins - Tomorrow Never Knows

MARCIA GRIFFITHS COVERS THE 'MAC

I found this in Deptford market. I’d been up all night battering K and decided that, as sleep wasn’t a friend, a possibility or an aspiration, I should have a mooch through other peoples’ crap. Thank God for that. I saw the cover, and having always been a fan of Ms Griffiths, thought I’d take a punt. I’ve done this loads of time and ended up with shite heartless 80s lovers reggae, which now clutters up my discogs account. Fortunately the one in ten rule applied (one good record for every ten stinkers) and this turned out to be Marcia covering Fleetwood Mac’s all time smash out ‘Everywhere’. I took it back to my shop, put it on the turntable and played it through. Then I put it back to the start and ran through it again. I had a tiny bump and ran it through again. I ran it through again. I ran it through again. The cycle courier who lived upstairs came down and said ‘i love this song’ and we listened to it together another 6 times.I welled up at one point. Now I close the night at Charity Shoppe with it and everyone sings along. I hope it gives the readers of this page as much pleasure as it’s given me.

Marcia Griffiths - Everywhere