Photography of Big Youth and Johnny Rotten by Dennis Morris
Ever since WILDLIFE! told us that he would be working on a release »clashing Jamaican artistes and british Punk rockers together« in an interview back in late 2010, I had been anxious for it to hit the streets.
One week ago, that time had finally come and »Roxy Reboot« was well worth the wait.
WILDLIFE! managed to track down Knox (The Vibrators), TV Smith (The Adverts), Charlie Harper (UK Subs), Duncan Reid & Honest John Plain (The Boys) – all legendary figures from the UK’s first punk rock movement to reinterpret their favourite reggae classics. Simultaneously, he collaborated with Ward 21, Natalie Storm, Serocee and Terry Lynn who reinterpret some influential punk classics.
The result is a 2013 version of what it sounded like when punk rock and reggae met in London 35 years ago and it’s as original, raw, and powerful as it gets. You can feel the passion only very personal projects carry in every single of the eight tunes on »Roxy Reboot« – my personal favourites being »Kingdom Rise Kingdom Fall« and »Pissheadsville«.
Via some link on Facebook I came across a site called »Everybody loves Reggae« and it’s great. It features Reggae versions of artists from all kinds of musical backgrounds – from Annie Lenox to Jonny Cash, from PJ Harvey to Nina Hagen, from Primal Scream to Bob Dylan.
Today, they posted Dizzee Rascal playing »Can’t Tek No More« with Brinsley Forde on »Later with Jools Holland« on September 25, 2009.
There’s really only one rule to this – NO SAMPLES! Ok, maybe two rules. You should also change the tempo. We don’t want a 100 bpm dancehall mix. We’ve already got that, it’s called the original. Other than that, get as crazy as possible. Don’t feel like you need to use the full vocals. You can chop, screw, speed up, slow down, reverse, etc. It can be electro, house, techno, pop, moombahton, dubstep, polka… whatever. We’re going to pick the best remix and release it. Please do not post your remixes online until we’ve picked the winner, which will be available exclsuively on an upcoming digital release. You won’t get paid but if you feel like it’s a good look, let’s do this! Please send all remix submissions to federationsound@gmail.com with REMIX ME in the subject.
