Babylon Falling-Blog-

Went up in the hills above Kingston to check in with Shiah Coore today. We talked about his growth as an artist, from frontman for his childhood band The Shepherds to the discovery of his love for the bass guitar, the experience of growing up amongst music royalty, his full embrace of Rastafari right out of highschool, the years abroad studying at Berklee College of Music, his company Yardcoore, life on the road touring with his longtime friend and collaborator Damian ‘Junior Gong’ Marley, the state of music education in Jamaica today, and much much more. It was a great conversation that I’m sure we will continue sometime in the future. Until we edit the footage from the day here are a few shots taken by Shaun after the interview when Shiah was giving us a little tour of his home studio and talking about his gear with Shivu. Enjoy.

Hit up Shiah on his myspace page at myspace.com/shepydads

Also check Shaun’s flickr page for a few more of his shots from the day at flickr.com/photos/shaunroberts

Babylon Falling picked as BEST BOOKSTORE FOR ASPIRING ACTIVISTS in this years Best of the Bay from the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

That’s love! I only wish I was in the city this week. Love to all the customers that have supported over the past year and love to the enlightened cats over at the Guardian. I’m touched for real.

Mark Twain said, “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read,” which means that if you ever want to actually learn anything from books, you’re gonna have to get some decent lit. But you don’t need to waste your time surfing on Amazon or searching through library stacks (gasp!) — the rebel academics at Babylon Falling have already done all the work for you. If you really want to learn how to be as subversive as Che Guevara or Chuck D, pop into Babylon and check out its selection of revolutionary literature, graphic novels, art, and music. Babylon also carries a huge assortment of toys, artwork, clothing, and DVDs to complement its collection of more than 3,000 book titles. Plus, it hosts readings, art shows, and signings by literate revolutionaries from the Bay Area and beyond. Babylon will never fall if its citizens learn to read good. You can quote us on that.

Link Here - Just keep scrolling…

We re-connected with Sylvan Morris today down at Dynamic Sounds. Seated behind the boards in the old studio where he presided as in house producer and mixer for a quarter century and lent his personal touch (and ear) to literally thousands of songs, Mr. Morris spoke with us about his youth, his perspective, and his role in the development of the sound so many people have come to know as dub.

We talked about a lot today but what struck me the most is his positivity towards those vampires who have directly profited from his groundbreaking work as engineer and producer for some of the most important (& highest earning) records to come out of Jamaica. Never losing sight of what is most important, the music and the message, Mr. Morris repeatedly invoked the old aphorism that says truth cannot be suppressed forever. It’s hard to do the visit today justice in a blog post so I’ll just leave it at that for now.

In the same way that Sylvan Morris the man represents an archetype that is so rare nowadays these photos below, the first by Shaun and the next three taken by Kensey, really capture the mood of this old studio, that is already a vestige of a bygone era.

These next three were taken by Shaun. Don’t forget to check out his flickr page, here, where he’s been posting a few shots from each day.

Back at Dynamic Sounds this morning we did some quick filming and then spent some time talking to some of the old heads who’ve been around since the beginning.

Here you see the feet of Sylvan Morris. Over the course of a short conversation today in the parking lot of Dynamic Sounds he shattered a lot of widely held (by myself as well) misconceptions about the evolution of Reggae music in Jamaica. We will be talking at length with him in the coming week. His page on Roots Archives here.

Following a nice lunch of fried chicken with stew pork gravy we headed uptown to talk to the remix king DJ Karim. Karim spoke to us about the growth of his career over the years from selector for Renaissance, doing remixes for almost everyone in the business, to producer (a wide range of credits, extending from staples of the Jamaican music scene like Sizzla, Bounty Killer, Sean Paul, Mavado, and Elephant Man all the way to rapper/reggaeton artist NORE), and now to heading up Stainless Records and working on breaking new talent like his current protege Ice Cold.

After the interview he took us step by step through the process of constructing a beat. And here’s a teaser clip that Shaun put together from today’s session with Karim. So dope!

via Shaun’s Flickr page here

The updates will fall off for a couple days as I head to other side of the island on Friday. I’ll be back to the updates early early Monday morning with some photos from Fully Loaded which takes place on Sunday. Until then you can continue to check Shaun’s daily updates on his Flickr page. Here.

Spent the afternoon at Dynamic Sounds down on Bell Road.

We will be going back in the morning to go record shopping, check out the record pressing plant, and talk with the manager. For those of you who don’t know about Dynamic Sounds there’s a mini article on the history - here and a list of songs and albums recorded at the studio here

We also ran into the legendary producer, singer, and record store owner Derrick Harriot. He was down there dropping off labels for the latest release at the pressing plant in the back. We should be going up to talk with him at his store sometime this week.

You can read more on Derrick Harriot here