Roots Manuva was the first time that I heard an authentically British hip hop voice. Something that made sense... Lyrics like "Taskmaster burst the bionic zit-splitterBreakneck speeds we down ten pints of bitter" are not the sort of things that come out of New York rapper. It's a bit like how all American films seem … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2001
Category: Projects
And so we enter my fourth millennium and one of the few guitar-based albums to enter my noggin in my mid twenties and thirties. Badly Drawn Boy’s The Hour of Bewilderbeast is touching, sweet, whimsical. Almost folk music. And it captures a feel of my time back then. It’s only now though that I’ve realised … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2000
It's hard to remember that 21 years ago the run up to the end of the millennium was a Really Big Thing (even if there was mathematical dispute about whether December 31st 1999 actually was the end of the millennium or not). Prince had told us that it was time to party like it was … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1999
This week I've learned: do I spend too much energy trying to make other people happy?we really should have turned the WB-40 Donate Page on earlier.the relentless tide of meetings is starting to get to all of us.football eh? Ask me again after the 12.30 kickoff on Saturday.being asked by someone to mentor them is … Continue reading Weeknote 489: bolt upright
Making Bones is an album I'd completely forgotten about until making this list, and more is the pity. A mix of hip hop, drum and bass and a heavy side helping of jazz. Pretty much perfectly sums up my listening in the late 90s. https://open.spotify.com/album/43T9blwnSifY6kro3uZUFe?si=9VtBsZpHSse4FVRqY3YEHw You can see the #51for50 project to date here: https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/category/projects/51-for-50/
This week I have learned: I think my core purpose in life is bringing communities of people together. I certainly get an immense sense of pride from doing it.That 29 years after I founded the Student Radio Association with a bunch of other folk in a draughty lecture hall at Loughborough University, the organisation is … Continue reading Weeknote 488: rock turning
In 1997 there was a Gilles Peterson show that I had recorded (in the days when he broadcast at lord only knows what o’clock) from which I ended up going out and buying three albums. One I can’t remember, one was by the delightful Japanese group United Future Organisation and the third was Roni Size’s … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1997
In my hip-hop obsessed teens, alongside the Run DMCs and Mantronixs, I had a special thing for the cut-up merchants like Double Dee and Steinski and I guess to an extent people like The Art of Noise. Beats and pieces sampled and scratched together to produce audio collages. Roll forward into my music-obsessed twenties, and … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1996
This week I have learned: getting out into the countryside was nice after two months.how nice it was to be contacted out of the blue by someone asking a little bit about something I was involved in the foundation of 29 years ago.how a £12 bit of software can transform your image.what a lot of … Continue reading Weeknote 485: Memories
I'm still of the view that Drum & Bass is the "newest" form of music that has emerged in my music-aware years of life. It stems from earlier club music, and took a path less annoying than genres like Happy Hardcore. It had roots in hip hop and funk. But it was new. And it … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 1995
