REGGAE RUNNINGS - 17 December 2008

By Jesse I


2008 was great for reggae in Melbourne, with more international tours than we’ve seen before in a single year, and more local nights happening than ever before.

Melbourne’s longest running reggae night More Fire passed the 7 year mark, and went from strength to strength with a change of venues to Miss Libertine, while Pressure Drop continued strongly at Laundry, and Heartical Hi-Fi’s Basement Sessions keep on shaking the foundations of the Night Owl bar. Ring The Alarm at Laundry showed that Melbourne can sustain a mid-week reggae night through winter, something we actually haven’t seen for many years. The night has just moved from Wednesdays to Thursdays – I’m there every week alongside residents Ras Crucial and Ranking Yoni, plus weekly guest DJs, and entry is still free.

A personal highlight for me this year was the 45 Shoot Out series at La Di Da. These nights pitted four selectors against each other each month in a fight to the metaphorical death, contestants battling only with their tunes and speech on the mic. Night Nurse took out the first one in an upset win over Ranking Yoni, Steve Austin and Al Good, while other winners included Redbelly (defeating Armagideon Time, Nich Power and Bellyas), Troublemaker (defeating Maruza, Sista Sara and Fee), and Steve Austin (defeating Mega Vibe, Dangerous and Tiger). The series is taking a break for new years, but hopefully should return in February.

Globally, it was an interesting year for Jamaican music, with the shift away from vinyl more noticeable than ever. Traditionally, the format of choice for reggae and dancehall selectors has always been the 7” single, but this year saw the production of records in Jamaica slow right down. Over the last few years, new riddims could often be found online in MP3 format for months before they were given a vinyl release - this year however, more and more riddims simply never came out on vinyl at all. Jamaican music has always been shaped largely by economics, and with CD burning as cheap as it is now, and file-sharing essentially free, it’s no surprise they aren’t playing vinyl in JA anymore. Thankfully the export market is keeping the format alive, and the European roots labels seem to be putting out as much as ever – but it is now obvious – if you want to be playing all of the freshest riddims out of Jamaica today, you just can’t rely on vinyl alone. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on the local reggae scene – if nothing else it will certainly make the gap between the DJ and the collector a lot larger.

Big up to Meska from Germany’s Sentinel Sound, who mashed up Miss Libertine last Saturday night. This was one of the best sets I’ve ever heard a guest selector play in Melbourne, one massive dubplate after another, tunes ranging from classic roots anthems to up-to-the-time dancehall, all mixed quickly and on point. Next month’s More Fire at Miss Libertine takes place on January 10, with resident sound Chant Down joined by original MC Damajah, plus Stick Mareebo, Nukc, SoFire, and Gaza.

This Friday night Heartical Hi-Fi are holding a Basement Sessions Xmas Bash at the Night Owl bar. Resident sound crew Uptight, Cassawarrior, and Boover Banton will be joined by guest selectors Systa BB and Dangerous for an all-night festive shakedown of heavyweight dubwise vibes.