As you have probably noticed, I’ve been missing more and more weeks over the last few months. A bunch of changes to my life have made it harder and harder for me to get reliable, and further recent changes have made it harder still.
So, I am cancelling the podcast.
I do still, clearly, love music, and so am working on something else instead. Regular listeners would know I have a particular interest in a few countries musically - Sweden obviously, Brazil, Iceland and Jamaica. Of those for, I believe Jamaica has something unique. Sweden is making some great music, but so do many other countries. Brazil had a long history of music, the evolution of it’s musical styles and how they have been impacted by the broader political and social landscape in Brazil has been well studied. Brazillian music has made some, but not massive in roads into main stream Western music. Iceland is kinda interesting. However, of all of them, Jamaican music (and there is far more to Jamaican music than Reggae) I believe it the least understood. It has a fascinating history and development. It has interacted with, borrowed from and lent to other countries music, without ever losing its sense of identity, and its influence on mainstream western music is enormous, far, far bigger than most people realise. It could be argued that all current mainstream music has its origins in either rock (a whole other story) and/or Jamaican music.
So, I plan to argue that 
I’m working on a documentary (I’d say rockumentary but I may need to be medicated afterwards). It’s still in it’s early days yet, but the likely outcome will be two shows. One will be focussed on the history of Jamaican music - Augustus Pablo, Lee Perry/Black Ark, Coxsonne Dodd. The other will take a look at Jamaican music in context of broader western music and the influences - how Mento/Ska/Rocksteady/Dancehall and of course reggae fed western music and how western music fed that. Of course DJ Kool Herc, Lee Perry and the great Count Machuki will all play a role in that.
I’m not sure how much I’ll dig into the broader social context, although there will definitely be references to it, as music and society are so intertwined. It would certainly be negligent to not mention Ras Tafari, AKA Emperor Haile Selassie I, and his impact on both the society and the music. If you don’t know, the name gives away his relationship to Jamaica: he is the (sort of) god of Rastafaris.
Not sure when this will be finished, but it’ll take a few months. You can probably guess there’s a lot to do in order to research thoroughly, make sure I place the right emphasis, and to source some of the footage, much of which is old - they didn’t have a lot of cameras in Jamaica in the 50’s during the Mento-era for example.
Thanks for listening! For those aching for a weekly dose of new music, I highly recommend you listen to DJ Trouble, who does a weekly 3 hour show. Frankly, her worst shows are at about the same level as my best.