Dancehall is always reinventing itself but there’s something about the 90s era that continues to fascinate me. In the early 90s dancehall producers were suddenly doing something different – these riddims were coming out which were so raw, minimal, uncompromisingly electronic, but had so much swing, so much bump, they just shattered the mould that Sleng Teng had established and beamed down something from another dimension. Yonatan (my long time collaborator and Addis Ababa's party boss) and I wanted to showcase these riddims, just the B-sides with their insistent pulse of drum and bass, scattered and shuffling percussion, twisted synth lines and shards of vocals. The earliest piece on here is probably 1990 and the latest mid-2000s. There's no tracklist - most of them are just called Version …
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This mix is kindly hosted by the Sofrito crew - check out their site for loads of other mixes for your listening pleasure, party info, etc. Their next London party is on 18 May and ought not to be missed.
