Hailing from the town of Bristol, England Massive Attack are part of the Bristol invasion into the early nineties music scene blending electronic, ambient, jazz, hip-hop , soul etc into a new sound called trip-hop. Along with fellow Bristalites Portishead and Tricky, they really revolutionised the sound of England and did as much, if not more (in my opinion a lot more), than the whole BritPop explosion did during the mid-nineties to bring international attention to England’s music once again.

Safe From Harm was the third single from their debut album Blue Lines and is probably not the most well known song, we’ll have to give that to Unfinished Symphony, from what is a truely exceptional album in terms of production, experimentation and courage, yes courage in a sense of bravery to try something new. I’ve alway’s liked Massive Attack, even up to this day so I was somewhat dissappointed when I saw them live at the electric picnic 07 but that was probably more because of the high expectation from me as opposed to the performance of the band itself.

With vocalist Shara Nelson at the helm and 3D providing the ‘hop’ element the song’s beat is heavily, if not totally, sampled from the great jazz Panamanian drummer Billy Cobham’s song Stratus, well the begining of Cobham’s song anyway. The song quickly gets into the rythm with great intent. The song always reminds me of a human’s or animal’s instinct to protect those they love when Nelson sings the line

‘if you hurt what’s mine, I’ll sure as hell retaliate’

and could be extended even further to include inanimate objects that are very important to someone. To me the line totally encapsulates human behaviour in society in general whether they are trying to protect loved ones or trying to surive. The line is almost a Darwinian statement and is repeated a number of times throughout the song. Another line that I like in the song is

‘I was lookin’ back to see if you were lookin back at me To see me lookin back at you’

The line doesn’t necessarily hold any meaning for me but instead it’s the dichotomy betweens 3D’s rapper’s voice and Nelson’s beautiful voice that intrigue’s me and really bring the song to a higher level. Here is the origional video of the song which is itself pretty cool.

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Posthumously released after the death of 2Pac on a best-of
compilation,this song for me, takes a completely different
direction in terms of context than the normal gun-totting,
gansta rapping bravado of the time. Thankfully, from what I
can see, the whole east-coast vs west-coast rap war has now
subsided, music was never meant to influence people in
such a way.

In this song, Tupac reflects on the black community and the
social status of his neighborhood and those like it at the time.
He doesn’t paint a pretty picture at all and reminds me a lot of
the way the city of Baltimore, Maryland (incidently named after
a town in west Cork) is protrayed in the tv series The Wire and
it does lead to some very grim listening:

‘I’m tired of bein’ poor and even worse I’m black.
My stomach hurts, so I’m lookin’ for a purse to snatch.
Cops give a damn about a negro? Pull the trigger, kill a nigga,
he’s a hero Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares?
One less hungry mouth on the welfare.
first ship ‘em dope let ‘em deal the brothers.
Give ‘em guns, step back and watch ‘em kill each other.’

As you can see the cops don’t come out too rosy in this song.
What I really like about the song is his admittance that the way
of life described is probably not the best way to live but
sometimes is what they’ve got to do to survive but as the title
suggests tupac encourages changes in their life’s to make it
better and to get out of the cycle of violence they find
themselves in. My favourite lines in the song are
( Bruce Hornsby’s song “The way it is” is sampled a lot.):

‘And as long as I stay black, I gotta stay strapped, I never get
to lay back ‘Cause I always got to worry ’bout the pay backs.
Some buck that I roughed up way back… comin’ back after all
these years, ra ta tat tat tat, That’s the way it is.’

According to Tupac and seeing the day thats in it with Obama winning

‘It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other.
And although it seems heaven sent,
we ain’t ready to see a black President’

The time is now so let’s hope he’s does make a change cause like
it or not, what America does effects most western countries.
Check out a video of the song here.

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From time to time I take a breather from listening to my usual bands and create a random playlist of songs from the archives. These songs are generally from artists I don’t normally listen to, haven’t listened to for a long time or just a recommended song given to me by a friend. The end result of the most recent playlist comes this song by rapper/artist Jay-Z. I don’t know too much about him apart from the controversy caused by the organiser’s of Glastonbury when they choose him as a headline act at this years festival.

Most of the time I find it very difficult to interpret what exactly the hip-hop guys are rapping about but for the most part, based on the songs I’ve listened to (and its very limited), they generally rap about one of three things:

Ladies

Where They Grew Up

Money

Dirt of Your Shoulder probably falls under or between the second and third categories where he raps about coming from nowhere and is now playing in large cities like London. Also he talks about the cheese (money). One thing I’ll say about rappers is that they are never shy in their lyrics and never seem to lack any confidence about themselves either so ‘Dirt Off Your Shoulder’ is probably a response to the begrudgers and the naysayers that doubt him so do what the man says ‘You gotta get, that, dirt off your shoulder ‘ and check the song out here.

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Or ‘White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)’ by Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel, to give it its full title. But by all accounts, the Flashmaster had nada to do with this classic early hip-hop cut. In the early ’80s, Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel tried to bring a What’s Goin’ On-type social consciousness to the rap party, which until then was about girls, parties and generally getting down. Lyrics dealing with inner-city violence, crime, unemployment, Reaganomics and the scourge of cocaine (the subject matter of this song) suddenly became de rigeur in rap and hip-hop. Until the Beasties came along, that is.

‘White Lines’ kicks in with one of the funkiest bass lines ever. There is only two notes in it, but it’s driving, insistent force tells you that a message is on the way. The ironic danciness of an anti-cocaine song (”Rang dang diggedy dang di-dang”) makes the message hit home that bit harder. Melle Mel spins lines that show his disgust for the drug, with the payoff: “White lines blow away”.

Once the poppy part of the song is out of the way, it’s time to get down to some serious talk:

“Little Jack Horner sitting on the corner
With no shoes and clothes
This ain’t funny, but he took his money
And sniffed it up his nose”

This was a time before crack cocaine decimated entire neighbourhoods in urban America, and Melle Mel’s lyrics are very prescient. Here’s the video on YouTube - directed by a young Spike Lee and starring a young Larry Fishburne. If you like this also check out the Grandmaster Flash cut ‘The Message’ - pure gold.

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Like some of his contempories Ben Harper seems to have much more success in the US than Europe, I’m thinking of Dave Matthews here. I’m not sure why that is except that it may simply be the fact that musical tastes differ somewhat when it comes to jam bands. The Grateful dead could also be included here.

I like Ben Harper, especially his acoustic, laid back stuff as his voice really complements that musical genre, I’m thinking of his live album Live From Mars here. When he gets into the Guitar driven songs, his musical style can be very varied, I think his voice is a bit weak to successfully pull it off. A more baritone voice is needed but then that’s just my musically taste. I would definitely go see him concert.

Generally his music references religion to some degree which reminds of another American band called Iron and Wine but the similarities end there. The song is taken from Ben Harper’s third album Fight the Power - the album title informs you of much of the lyrical content of that album. I’m going to avoid the obvious suggestions of drug use in the song and instead take it in a general context kinda way which he is basically saying be who you want and if you cause no one harm then “your alright with me” which is fair enough with me too. I especially like the lyrics in the second verse

‘My choice is what i chose to do
and if I’m causin no harm,
it shouldn’t bother you.
Your choice is who you chose to be,
and if your causin no harm,
then your alright with me.’

Acompanied by some bongo’s or similar percussion instrument and an acoustic guitar, it is this genre of style that really lends itself to Harper’s voice but I commend his creativity and bravery in attempting various other musical styles. Have a listen for yourself and let me know what you think.

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Taken from the the album with an absolute class name ‘When Life give you lemons, you paint that shit gold’ by the the American hip-hop artists Atmospshere who hail from the US state of Minnesota - from my limited hop-hop knowledge, Minnesota is not a state you would usually associate with hip-hop.

The song speaks of a person walking down the street and thinks they notice an old flame walking down the other side of the street as described at the start of the first verse:

‘I thought I saw you yesterday
But I didn’t stop, ’cause you was walkin’ the opposite way
I guess I coulda’ shouted out ya name
But even if it was you, I don’t know what I would say
We could sit and reminisce about the old school’

This unintended encounter brings the memories flooding back of the relationship he enjoyed with that person and for the most part, being remorseful about his contribution:

‘Break it down and explain these mistakes I make’
and
‘I’m shook, I know, I pushed when I shoulda’ pulled’
and finally
‘I’m sorry, it’s official I was a fist-full, I didn’t keep it simple ‘

In the chorus he readily admits that he misses it all and seems to want it back.

‘Looked just like you
Strange thangs my imagination might do
Take a breath, reflect on what we been through
Or am I just goin’ crazy ’cause I miss you?
‘

This is a thoroughly enjoyable, catchy song helped enourmously by the sampling of a well known song used throughout. The video is here. If anybody knows the name of the song sampled can you let me know?

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Second song off the British band Faithless 6th studio album and their first album to go to number one in the charts. This song joins a long list of anti-war / protest songs that have appeared in recent years. Although not a new theme in the music industry - think ‘Masters of War’ (Bob Dylan), ‘War’ (Edwin Starr) , ‘This Land Is Your Land’ (Woody Guthrie), ‘People Have The Power’ (Patti Smith), etc. They seem to be appearing more and more these last few years, especially since the whole Iraq invasion.

Most of the verses in the song tell the story of a father going to war and explaining this to the young son as he is putting him to bed, informing him that he has to go away and that he is the man of the house now.

“Son, I have the duty, calling on me
You and your sister be brave my little soldier
And don’t dare forget all I told ya
Your the mister of the house now remember this”

Continuing in the next verse, the boy struggles to understand the implications of his father going to war and the negative impact it’s having in his own young life. Whether he comes home or not, we never find out.

“I’ll defend my dad he’s the best of all men
and whatever he’s doing he’s doing the right thing.
It’s frightening, but it makes me mad,
Why do all of these people seem to hate my dad?”

The song is not all about the above story, the last verses are more generic in their content dealing with varying topics of protest and questioning the purpose and reasoning behind war. ‘Mass Destruction’ in these two verses and the chorus is more metaphoric in tone. All in all I think this is a really, really good song. Whether it stands the test of time like some better known ant-war/protest songs remains to be seen. Faithless performed a great acoustic version of this song on the radio station KCRW which can be found here. Also the official video of the song can be found on the band’s website. Flash is required.

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“Drunk already, maybe drink got spiked” is the line that perfectly sums up this song from Jamie T’s debut album, Panic Prevention. I really like this album, and wasn’t sure whether ‘Calm Down Dearest’ or ‘Alicia Quays’ would be the best one to write about. In the end, I picked this, because it’s the song that got me into Wimbledon’s finest, and also because the video’s a riot. You can hear more of his songs on his MySpace page.

‘Calm Down Dearest’ is (I think) just a song about a night out in London, and is vintage Jamie T, with some witty lines that sum up his worldview: “This is a good time to start dancin’ to this song, man”, “Drink your can, walk it drunk down the strand”, “Racking and stacking them lines”, and so on. His lyrics are affectionate nods to ATM queues, drink-fuelled weekends, waking up on the subway, going “twos on a cigarette”, and other vignettes of modern English life.

Musically, ‘Calm Down Dearest’ is actually quite poppy, in a lo-fi way. It’s got a good reggae-ish feel, with bassy keyboard chords and a nice bass line. The strings used in the song feel right, as opposed to something like ‘Dry Your Eyes’.

I like the Panic Prevention album, and it’ll be interesting to see what Jamie T comes up with next. Anyway, here’s the video for the song - for some reason I crack up whenever I watch this.

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Saul Williams is an interesting kind of fella. I first heard of him when I was lazying around reading an In Dublin magazine a few years ago where a brief article compelled me to check this guy out. He played in the Crawdaddy venue on Harcourt street ( a location I have mixed feelings about ). This song was played as part of the encore set and received a great reception, making me walk way to find out more about him. Why do musicians perform encores nowadays anyway?

This song has a very angry resonance to it from the opening two lines “I want my money back, I’m down here drowning in your fat. You got me on my knees praying for everything you lack” right to the end with a combination of spoken word and a vocal delivery that gives this song a cutting edge where the artist is speaking out against social injustice that he perceives in the world. Definitely the two lines that stand out for me are “I gotta list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you’re gonna know where I stand” which enforces the idea that he ain’t going to take it lying down and that he is going to stand up and fight it. I think these lines can define many situations where one would like to stand up and fight. If you haven’t yet heard this song, I strongly urge you to do so if you get a chance. Its available from his second album called Saul williams.

note: Apparently this song is the theme song for a new Nike ad in the US. As far as I’m concerned an artist can do whatever they like with their own music. It doesn’t take away anything from the song for me…see the video here.

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Paul’s Boutique is still a criminally underrated gem of an album, and ‘Hey Ladies’ is probably the strongest song on it (although hands up for ‘Shake Your Rump’ and ‘Egg Man’ - hell yeah).

Released just before all those highly-strung musicians brought a court case against sampling, Paul’s Boutique contained over 100 different song samples, from artists like The Beatles, Curtis Mayfield, Led Zeppelin, James Brown and Pink Floyd. There are also loads of different TV and movie samples just thrown into songs seemingly at random. But everything fits together, and it’s a great album to listen to and try to guess the riff.

On ‘Hey Ladies’ alone, there are samples from all over the place. For 1989, it’s an extremely funky song, and mirrors in a way what the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays were doing over in Manchester. It’s not a million miles removed from what Public Enemy were doing, either.

Groovy bongo drums, choppy guitar (’mickey guitar’ as a friend of mine calls it, ‘mickey’ being Irish slang for a certain body part), and some great little bass riffs are dotted all over this tune, while the Beasties trade skits about the type of ‘ladeeez’ they like.

The video for ‘Hey Ladies’ is also very cool, done in a retro-70’s disco style, very Saturday Night Fever. You’ve gotta love that yellow suit and hat. Actually, the Beasties also released ‘Shadrach’ off of Paul’s Boutique, and the video for that is absolutely class - it seems to be hand-drawn.

Anyway, check out the ‘Hey Ladies’ video. A song like that simply couldn’t be made today - with all those samples on the song, the band would get lawsuits from all over. But, samples aside, it’s just a really good song, and a great way to kick off any summer party.

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