A Dub / Reggae Mix

Dub: Classic Dub & Reggae sounds by X-Amt on Mixcloud

A mix put together for my son's 18th Birthday party. I would like to say this was done using my vinyl collection, but I gave away my vinyl decks (to my son!) some time ago (I still have one deck and all the vinyl though). Reggae definitely seems to sound better from vinyl, but this was put together using the digital versions I have, I had to re-buy some of my favourites. It is focussed mainly on the dub side of things, but there are some other classics in there too that I thought the younger dudes at the party would enjoy. I still remember listening to David Rodigan's reggae radio shows on Radio London and Capital Radio back in the late 1970's and early 80's, where he would introduce me to Jah Shaka, Mad Professor (both not present in this mix, erroneously), Eek-A-Mouse, Barrington Levy and loads more. I owe a lot to Rodigan, he gave me an education. I later discovered Lee "Scratch" Perry's incredible body of work, plus Adrian Sherwood and his On-U-Sound label via John Peel.

All these sounds have had a huge influence on me, from my early solo work as Head To Head back in the late 1980's, to dubbing up Back To The Planet and others, right through to current work with X-Amount. I used to try and stand behind Adrian Sherwood at his gigs, and I learnt a lot watching him work (I even met him once when we supported African Headcharge, but I got tongue tied and star-struck). I can remember him floating hi-hats around the building.

I know this is not a definitive list in this mix, there are plenty of artists missing, but it will serve as a good start point for my son and his mates (though I suspect that they are already away) and it was great to re-visit some of these wonderful sounds.

I put the mix together on my laptop using Algoriddim's DJay software - I couldn't resist using the FX here and there..

Simon x

A recording of last week's gig

X-Amount - Live At The Winchester Gate, Salisbury: 26-10-12 by X-Amt on Mixcloud

Here is a high-quality recording of our gig last week at The Winchester Gate in Salisbury. More detail to follow soon..

X-Amount Gig

Dear People's of the Republic Of Salisbury.
Thanks for your support and enthusiasm to our first gig in years
A&S x



Sent from my iPhone

New track, free download - Hobo

You may have already spotted it.. we are playing a gig this Friday (26th October) in Salisbury. I was trying to work out the last time that we played in front of an audience as X-Amount.. the last time the full band played was in Camden in the 1990's. We did have a gig arranged at Glastonbury in about 1997, but it didn't happen because our MMT8s went on the blink. Before that we played as a duo in the Lewisham Labour Club for the South East London Musicians Collective. That must have been in the first half of the 90's, so it could be as long as 20 years ago! Unless any of you know any different..

Of course we have done recent live performances on Simple's radio show online, but this is our first gig on stage, in front of an audience for a very long time.

We are just about ready now. We have put together a vague visual accompaniment, using some colour manipulated photos (one of them is used for the artwork above) that I have put together and a computer program that reacts to sound. We will play about 8 tunes in a continuous mix that features our new "shortwave instrument" that is basically a sampler full of shortwave and backwards noises that get filtered and dubbed up using a Korg PadKontrol. We have added a load of voices too - Felix Baumgartner, Bob Cobbing, Charles Bukowski, and others.

It should be fun.

And to celebrate, we have a tune to give away for you.

"Hobo", is an edit of a laptop jam we did this year. It did feature in the last gig on Simple's Show, but this version has had a minor tweak. We may do a remix, or a new version at some point..there are plans coming together for the next audio onslaught.

Hopefully, we will see some of you in Salisbury on Friday.

Hope so. Hope you like the freebie

Simon & Andi xx

PS: Click here for The Facebook Event Link for Friday's gig

X-Amount play live in Salisbury

We will be supporting a band called 'Dreams Divide' in Salisbury on Friday October 26th. This is the first time we have played in front of a live audience for a very long time. Yes, we have done internet gigs, sometimes with a handful of people present, but this is the first time in a long time in front of a proper crowd (if we get one).

For us, this is quite exciting, it was nice to be asked to do it, but must admit we were disappointed with the posters - it looks like they are supplying X-Amount of David from Dreams Divide's manhood. We think the people of Salisbury will have trouble working out that there is a support act playing, Andi didn't even spot it first time he looked.. ah well, apparently posters don't account for much these days anyhow.

The set for this is coming together, it will be a mixture of some of our favourites plus some new ones. I have created a shortwave radio instrument especially for the show and there will be some interesting voices added and other weird additions..

Do come along if you are in or near Salisbury at the time. Here is a link to the Facebook Event page:

Dreams Divide & X-Amount live in Salisbury

A Broadcast To The Trees

We are proud to be part of Frenchbloke's "Broadcast To The Trees" this weekend. He says: "I’m being let loose for 24 hours with a(legal) FM Transmitter..The broadcast to the forest will be around October 6th.. to a limited radius in the Galloway Forest.  There will be no archiving or streaming and not a hope of it turning up on-line (unless some madman brings a radio tape recorder to a forest). You really have to appear in the vicinity to hear it."

So, our music along with an amazing list of other contributors (including DJ Food, Herbaliser, Carter Tutti etc etc) will be played to a forest in Scotland. A dark skies park, no less. Hardly anyone will hear it - except for the trees.. what a brilliant idea..

More info and full list of contributors here:

A Broadcast To The Trees

And here: The Dark Outside

pic from Frenchbloke's Twitter page

Photographs of The Heygate Estate

Photographs of the Heygate Estate, Elephant & Castle, Walworth, Southwark, South London. Soon to be demolished (it is now mostly boarded up), it is a stark, yet strangely beautiful view of urban decay. It was built in the 1970's and is a good example of post-war, 'neo-brutalist' architecture. Designed by Tim Tinker, it had an optimistic beginning, but soon had a reputation for crime and violence.

It has featured in several feature films including "Attack The Block", "Harry Brown" (with Michael Caine), "Shank" and scenes in "Hereafter" by Clint Eastwood. It was also a regular location for TV dramas "The Bill" and "Spooks".

I could see comparisons with other 1970's architecture in London, like the Barbican Centre, so it was a little sad that the place had dilapidated and had also failed it's residents. Yet, a strange beauty lies in its decay.

Below is a slide show of photographs that I took there last week (you can go full screen by clicking the icon in the bottom right of the viewer).

Simon.