My concert review of the Mad Professor show at Mighty in San Francisco is looooong overdue. Things have been crazy at my “day job” so the reviews were the first thing to get put on the back burner. So, enjoy these photos from the concert on March 15, 2008 and this short review:
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Daft Punk have some sweet gear in their pyramid! Most of it is matching too. This is where Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo create their electronic magic and make humans dance on command! Jump ahead to get an enlarged robot eye view of a Daft Punk concert: ([More →])

Another peek into Grand Theft Auto IV with the introduction of Manny Escuela, local reggaeton warrior:

GTA IV hits the streets April 29th via Rockstar Games. HearingTest will be posting updates until then as part of the 10 Year Anniversary Celebration of Grand Theft Auto video games!

We get a new peek into Grand Theft Auto IV today with the introduction of Playboy X. He sounds like he might be from Jamaica, New York or round about. Poor Vico doesn’t seem to understand a word of it…

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Mavado recorded a dubplate special for Barack Obama on Baby G’s Mission Riddim! Meanwhile, his remix with Jay-Z is topping the charts and he recorded music for Grand Theft Auto IV. Life is treating David Brooks pretty well in ‘08! ([More →])

The 4th and final preview of the new Grand Theft Auto IV video game features Mavado’s BIG tune, “Real McKoy”! GTA 4 hits the streets April 29th.

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The 3rd preview of Grand Theft Auto IV introduces our hero to Liberty City’s lovely ladies. It looks like this version might serve Hot Coffee right out of the box!

The GTA 10 Year Anniversary celebration continues on HearingTest until the game’s release on April 29th. Get your fingers in shape by clicking over here regularly…

Meet Vico. He’s fresh off the boat from Russia and ready to live the American dream. Too bad nobody told him it’s really just a nightmare…

“Looking For That Special Someone” in Liberty City:

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Grand Theft Auto IV is seriously going to blur the line between virtual and reality when it’s released on April 29th! The newest game in the Liberty City Stories features the most advanced animation, audio environment and game engine ever. But it’s the interactive storytelling and depth of character development that makes GTA 4 revolutionary. Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself:

Trailer #1 For Grand Theft Auto IV: “Things Will Be Different”

From now until April 29th, HearingTest is celebrating the 10 Year Anniversary of Grand Theft Auto and the upcoming release of GTA 4. We’ll be discussing the game’s evolution from Gameboy to multi-player PC, listening to our favorite radio stations and basically geeking out on GTA’s past present and (especially) future, so check back regularly!
Until then, better start stretching yer thumbs, son!

Reggae music lost another champion of the island sound: Joe Gibbs, legendary producer, recording engineer, label founder and manager died of a heart attack at the age of 65. Gibbs created one of my favorite reggae tunes of all time - “Two Sevens Clash” - recorded by Culture in 1977. Gibbs also created many of the big roots and rock-steady riddims of the late 60’s and early 70’s and continued to produce hit after hit throughout the 80’s dancehall era. ([More →])

The continued popularity of Drum N Bass is greatly due to the tireless efforts of UK’s DJ Grooverider. He’s one half of the BBC Radio show “Fabio and Grooverider” and has promoted UK dance music for as long as I can remember (since the ’90s at least). Unfortunately, he has been sitting in a Dubai airport jail for three months for pot possession and was sentenced this week to a full 4 years in jail! ([More →])

I found a fantastic resource for digitally mobile music fans - Fina. Have you heard of it? They have a super selection of DRM-FREE tunes for download as high quality 320kbps mp3s. They’re run by Thrill Jockey and feature music on Constellation, Badman, Arts + Crafts, Sonic Youth Records, Fat Cat, Editions Mego, Hometapes, No Quarter, Rune Grammofon, Smalltown Supertown and Superjazz, Ersatz Audio, Miamsah, Mosz and Duplex Planet and so many more! ([More →])

A brand new documentary on reggae culture will reveal what really gwaan behind the scenes, on the road, backstage and inna di yard. The 90-minute flick is called “Reggae Uncensored” and features personal interviews with Buju Banton, Ninjaman, Sean Paul, Mavado, Beenie Man, Damien Marley, Macka Diamond, Sizzla, Junior Reid and many many more. The story is helped along by the doc’s host Chyna and English subtitles for the patois-challenged. ([More →])

I live in the kind of haus where random zines and propaganda often appear and disappear like time-traveling nomadic visitors. This week, an issue of Cyclic Defrost from January 2005 appeared on the kitchen table. Cyclic Defrost, one of the most exciting and well produced zines on experimental music culture, is based in Australia; and the fact that I picked up an issue from January 2005 and thought it was something fresh will attest to how ahead of the game their content is. This particular issue featured an interview with DJ/Rupture about his travels, his music, his influences, etc. A Boston-native who was living in Barcelona at the time of the interview, Rupture is an extremely active experimentalist who mashes everything from world music to breakcore and makes it sound good. Rupture recently teamed up with one of NYC’s hottest producers, Matt Shadetek, to form the multi-media platform that we often Big Up on this site: Dutty Artz. ([More →])

David Katz, a music journalist and Lee Perry’s biographer, wrote a good review of the reggae book that I contributed to: “The Reggae Scrapbook”. The review was published in Riddim Magazine in Germany. Riddim was briefly published in english, distributed in the US and immediately became my favorite publication about reggae music. Many of the dub and dancehall artists I wish I had space for in the Reggae Scrapbook are regularly featured in Riddim. Unfortunately, the publishers halted the american edition and haven’t returned to it yet, so you can only get the magazine in german. Roger Steffens was kind enuff to email a copy of this review to me, so I thought I should publish it here for those who would otherwise never get a chance to read it. If you do speak german and you love reggae music, I highly recommend Riddim Magazine. In the meantime, here is David Katz’ book review of the Reggae Scrapbook by Roger Steffens, Peter Simon, Roy Sweetland and me, Molli Fire! ([More →])