July is going to be a bangin month around here, I have a tidal wave of great content to start posting here! I’m back from one of the BEST MUTANT FESTS EVER and I’m feeling super jazzed about this summer. I have a stack of killer albums on rotation that I’m trying to review as quickly as possible, I’m finally catching up on all the concert reviews of the last 6 months and I finally started using my flickr account. BIG TINGS!
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I wonder if Koda’s Oakland crib is littered with bruised and battered amen breaks, too chopped and screwed to run away? Perhaps that’s why I’m sneaking them out of the Bay Area for a much-deserved break. The new EP, Keep On Destroying Amens Volume 1, features 15 killer jungle choons in a 112MB zipper – 100% FREE and as legal as jungle gets. ([More →])

Venetian Snares, recently emerged from his studio with a fresh barrage of breakcore madness, eager to bully our eardrums (again). Dentrimentalist will be unleashed via Planet Mu on July 15th only to spread like a morbidly-popular plague of zombie strippers. If nasty breakcore is what you seek, look no further and listen to 2 MENTAL selections right now! Here’s the audio for “Gentleman” and “Poo Yourself Jason” off Detrimentalist:

Venetian Snares – “Gentleman”:

“Poo Yourself Jason” from Detrimentalist:

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POP LEVI – NEVER NEVER LOVE
new album out 14th JULY on Counter Records
new single “Dita Dimoné” drops 23rd JUNE

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South Rakkas Crew – San Francisco, CA – June 7, 2008

The South Rakkas show in San Francisco last Saturday night was HOT! It’s been years since I’ve seen so many hot ladies at a show (I think there were close to 10 ladies for every 1 guy in the house), everyone was having a great time and South Rakkas were BLAZING! They truly brought the spirit of Miami with them, especially the energy of the dancehall. It was a beautiful night, and I don’t really have much of a review coz you really just had to be there! But, here are a few photos anyway and I’ll be adding a short video and more photos soon:
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New tradition here at HearingTest - Starting today, I am publishing raw press releases as I receive them. Ideally, this will deliver the breaking news to you faster, without the frills that take extra time and delay publishing.

You Can See The Difference In A Glance

The press releases look different than the articles I write (at least on the site they do), so it will be easy to tell them apart at a glance. The headline for press releases end with [Press Release] and the URL has -pr at the end. Also, the text of press releases are enclosed in blockquotes, shown here in dark brown. That way, you can tell just by looking at the page whether it is a press release or original content.

Now it won’t be so quiet around here when I’m busy doing interviews and writing feature articles!
Enjoy!

GREENSLEEVES RELEASES ‘THE JOURNEY – THE VERY BEST OF SIZZLA’ THE ULTIMATE CD/DVD COLLECTION OF THE REGGAE ICON’S MOST PRIZED WORK AVAILABLE JUNE 26, 2008
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RICHIE SPICE’S LATEST ALBUM GIDEON BOOT DEBUTS AT #1 ON REGGAE BILLBOARD CHART
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REGGAE SOUNDS TAKE OVER GRAND THEFT AUTO IV AIRWAVES
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Press release about Etana and the release of her debut album on June 26th:
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It’s been too long since I posted here! Hopefully the lack of new content has given y’all a chance to dig through the archives, coz there’s a LOT of great stuff in there. I still add new tunes to the player every week, so be sure to check that out regularly. This site is just over a year old, but it’s been a crazy busy year. I’ll do my best to get some news up here this week and next, but things are going to stay quiet until the end of June. – Sorry about that – June is the biggest month of the year for me personally and professionally. This year, it’s straight festivals every weekend and trying to maintain my 9-5 M-F while writing the follow up to the Reggae Scrapbook in my “free time”. Whew! But the real reason I haven’t been writing and posting about all of it is because I’ve been toiling away behind the curtain to bring you some SUPER FLY new features! Oh I can’t wait to launch the improved music page, it’s gonna be the coolest thing on the web! (In my humble opinion,yes…)

Anyway, I’ll be reporting live from the Harmony Festival this weekend in Santa Rosa, Cali, then I’ll be away from internet and cell phone coverage for a full week at the Autonomous Mutant Festival! Half work, half vacation, it’s the best week of the whole year for me, so I’m very excited. After that, I’m gonna try to hit the SNWMF coz BUJU is playing! That’s going to be so hot! I’ll be interviewing loads of fantastic musicians every weekend, so when I recover in July, there will be a tsunami of great stories to upload.

Drop me a line if you’ll be at any of these festivals. Perhaps we can combine our super powers on some project! Keep checking the music player for fresh tunes every week and get ready for the wave of great posts that will be uploaded at the end of this month. BIG TINGS A GWA’AN!!
Bless Up!

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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We’re spinning 2 songs off the upcoming new Nas album called Nigger and I am really diggin both. Listen to “War Is Necessary” and “Be A Nigger Too.” Then, on July 1st, grab your copy of Nigger coz it’s gonna be the album of choice for BBQ’s this summer!

Nas – “War Is Necessary” and “Be A Nigger Too” Audio

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Album Cover + Tracklist for Nigger:

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Earlier this month, I interviewed Elephant Man, Jamaica’s wildest entertainer. We discussed his new album, Let’s Get Physical on Diddy’s Bad Boy Records label, and Ele revealed a few juicy tidbits that haven’t made headlines yet. So, of course, I’m happy to share them with you! He mentioned that the next single off Let’s Get Physical will be his collaboration with Chris Brown. Man, the ladies are just mad about this barely-legal RnB star! I get so many emails and comments about Chris! The song he did with Elephant Man is called “Feel The Steam” and you can listen to it here:

Elephant Man + Chris Brown – “Feel The Steam”

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Lil Wayne hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart today with “Lollipop” featuring Static/Major. It’s Weezy’s 1st time on the Billboard throne! The Lolli-li-lolli-song was downloaded 183,000 times this week!

The #1 Tune In America – “Lollipop”

Billboard.com