This is the archive of gabba.cc, one of the first mp3 blogs.
Back in 1980 everyone from Talking Heads was encouraged to go off and make a solo album. Their underrated rhythm section Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, set off for Jamaica to record with Lee Perry at Island Records' studios. Perry didn't show so they had a go themselves, cutting and pasting sessions musicians they turned out a track that went number one across the world but still sounds off-beat twenty five years down the line.

Out on Fest-Platten, one of Germany's best kept secrets. You can sense a nervousness behind this track, it's in the pauses, the delays, the elasticity of the acid. It almost sounds like live rave.

"..this one's going out to anyone who's on the verge of a US tour. Ian Curtis never got this far. good luck guys" - nick

Far from bringing the terror promised this is very easy listening, and no less enjoyable for that. It's as if the emcees rap at 78 with backing vocals pitched up to 45, making it sound more like Kanye West than even he dares, but because they all rhyme like they've had a few too many in the studio it gives me a loose g-funk flashback instead. If you don't like it so laid-back you'd be better off with hum drum off the same true story album.

Platinum pop. I couldn't resist a seductive RnB production from Lil Jon. He keeps a low profile, his signature squawk's muffled in the background - everything about his distinctive production is muted on this track, like sweetening the krunk synths that went primetime with Yeah. Ciara's presented riding along on a pure tone melody line, it takes the lead, whistling and cooing like a polished up theremin.

Acid Pulpit. There was a strange moment at the end of the 80s when the Buttholes were the greatest band on the planet, they had a reputation for on tour antics: extra-terrestrials on-stage, s3x-change operation visuals, crashing their tour bus onto Michael Stipe's lawn then setting it on fire; but it's the performances they ought to be remembered for.

Sounding dated in just the right way, classic detroit techno from Juan Atkins' new (recorded in 1999, released in 2004?) EP.

Fresh! Electro thats just pop enough to put ernest electro lovers off.

Pulsing and shimmering like arora borealis, Jonson matches Larry Heards balance of understatement and effervescence. Lighter than air his mobius melody blissfully floats above a metronomic tap, so full of life it almost breathes. Jonson promises much.

I'm getting predictable, here's another electro track with a little too much pop, this time from Belgian Stijn. With so many pop acts re-branding there output for the 80s obsessed audience this shows that the European underground are still one step ahead. For those of you missing out on downloads because of our bandwidth woes, click the speaker "stream" icon below to download a 33 meg mix featuring this and another highly recommended tracks from the excellent flexx records in Belgium.

Its time to give it a name and a compilation, so here's one of the Kano tracks from the first "grime" compilation (The rephlex one doesn't really count). Kano's UK references are up to standard, but its Davinche's increasingly great production that does it for me, and why isn't Davinche's "grimey" on the compilation?

Organ-techno, an almost slapstick effort from the new Vitalic EP, just add a DJ Otzi style chorus, and they could have a massive summer hit. The whole EP is worth tracking down, almost cynically aimed at the dance floor ( check ""http://217.158.65.110/MP3/SF158148-01-01-01.mp3" target=new>Fanfares" especially), but with dynamics its hard to beat.

John Peel R.I.P.
without john there would be no gabba, without john I wouldn't have the friends I do, he inspired me as a teenager, broadened my taste and generally enriched my love of music. I can hardly express my debt to him.

I didn't really need to hear this to post it, the title is enough alone. I'm kinda obsessed with mobile phone culture, so heres some dancehall on the Simm card Riddim, mobiles are the new lighters!

For the 0.09% of you who are in the West Midlands tonight, why not go to the Rainbow in digbeth, where I'll be playing this loud enough to put a crowd of about 20 people off talking to each other..

Nostalgiacore from Isound and Dj Scud and no amen in sight.

Hiphop from the new Petey Pablo record, dueling banjos (or are they sitars?) minimal 808 beats and Petey and Bubba hollering at each other whilst racing through the deep south on motorbikes.



Music for cruising the block - grooves don't get slinkier than this and sometimes it makes more sense without emcees.

I've been loving the new Bobby O re-issue , lots of drum machine cheese, screaming vocals and synth, so heres a track from it, now use the disc link below and buy it from boomkat, what are you waiting for?

Metal. Jennifer Herrema from Royal Trux, returns on her own as RTX. She brought the rock to the partnership with Hegerty and duly turns everything up to 11 on this track, distorting her vocals in a metal haze.

bubblekrunk. another crunk RnB mutation, nivea doesn't know if she wants to hang with that unsavory crowd in the background or bounce along with her lolipop.

Devin stops for a moment to think..... hip-hop is rarely this contemplative.

Blasteroid motors to a cresendo of distorted electro house: strafing guitars, stunted and soaring organs, like a dark rock ritual. Using the same set the controls for the heart of the sun sound that connects Vitalic and Alter Ego, without being so blunt, but like label mates Ada it thumps in all the right places.

A curio. Its been Kanye's year, this is (almost) one of his productions re-imagined as a Desi track, I'm still undecided as to its merits, but it did make me think "what the f**k is that" when I first heard it, if thats reason enough to share here.

School yard dancehall perfection. Jagwa pon Lenky's Bubble Up riddim, all hand claps and squelches, expect the Sean Paul cut of this to be a huge hit in '05.

Orchestral grime. Crazy Titch over Imp Batch's Gype riddim, makes me think of someone shouting over the twee computor game soundtrack.

Haunted doo-wop. After all that new music, here's something from a long time ago, if not from another galaxy. If your unfamiliar with Sun Ra, this isn't exactly the kind of music he's remembered for, recorded early in his career before he formed The Arkestra or started using electronics its a pop dop-wop track with an unnerving vocal and atmosphere that suggest the cosmic heights he would reach later.

Eno-esque coda. The silence and feedback crescendo, James Murphy's band know how to make an exit. an elegant way to end an album.

Reggaeton Signature. Short attention span Puerto Rican dancehall, just to prove you can do almost anything with "Sweet Dreams" and it'll sound good.

I. Can't. Stop. Listening. To. This. (The Out Hud album is out on kranky in march).

laidback sheffield electro - where the people look good / where the music is loud. this sounds best coming through in a mix. so anthemic, with such a familiar ripped-off sound, you're convinced you've heard it before

Pitch shifted strip club pop. Theres something really sinister about Cee-Lo's production on this track, the melted bass drum and disconnected vocal aint exactly "bling".

Classic metal, with a few nips and tucks, courtesy of the mighty Twitch, a fearless DJ with a knowledge of music that's second to none (and more importantly plays them out)

Cut and Paste Folk. Consitently inventive, The Books were performance artists before their sonic experimentation was released as audio, and here's a snippet from another strong album, to follow the previous ones.

Theres no real logical place to start gabba again, so partly as a poetic attempt to give the new uploads a greater meaning and partly because these 4 tracks randomly grabbed my attention in the past 2 months, heres the first of 4 ocean themed uploads, first some classic motor city techno, Model 500 above water and driving through the city.

Martin Denny sadly passed away in april, this is a from his 1966 album of the same title, Denny pioneered the post war hawaiian/america exotica scene and is always the kind of thing I dream of finding amoungst the Bert Kaempfert and James Last in a charity shop.

Exotica from a different place and decade, underwater san-fran hi-nrg from 1981.

Classic submarine bounce from the kings of the ocean.

bad music >, misterjib uploads banned for 1 week!