The Underground Strikes Back! Pie & Ears.

I knew he wouldn't be able to stay away for long before the pull of the Force dragged him back again.
Yes, SCENES returns to the blogosphere with Pie And Ears and brings together the best elements of 'The Underground Strikes Back' and 'Dead Men Walking' blogs.

It's up and running now over at http://pieandears.blogspot.com so get it into your RSS reader and visit on the reg-reg.

More about → The Underground Strikes Back! Pie & Ears.

The Underground is Striking Back!

My man SCENES - previously of great blog TUSB - is still busy creating and devastating with some supreme mixes.
You may have caught his previous 60-minute mixes on the site before - there are 21 of them - and so we at ABU! are proud to bestow upon you the latest and greatest for ya lugs.


And remember, Scenes "aims to dig out the good, and sift out the weak shit... so you don't have to".

Here is the tracklisting for this editions goodie bag of beats:

01.   Don't Need - Wax and EOM
02.   Senseless Senses - First Name Basis
03.   Bag Of Money - Action Bronson
04.   Kill Em With The Beat- Elemental Zazen
05.   Roaches - Slept On Fam
06.   Vocal Scalpel - J-Love
07.   Elements - Guest House
08.   Here Comes The Pusher - DJ Format
09.   The Madness - Action Bronson
10.   6 Feet Deep - Bannon
11.   What Would I Do? - Beneficence
12.   Let It Flow - Thaimex
13.   The Sound- Stylee Cee
14.   With My Real People - Beneficence
15.   Puzzle Ring - Guest House
16.   Just Leave Em Be - Sir Beans OBE
17.   Shiraz - Action Bronson
18.   Funly Hit Instrumental- EOM

Download Volume 22 here.

And there's more good news from the King Zilla who I'll let take the mic for this brief announcement himself.

"Some other good news is that a new blog which will be the successor to Underground Strikes Back will be called USB 2.0, and will be up and running soon.
It will be a mix of my 2 older blogs with downloads and photos from my net travels.
I am also exploring options of a Sunday morning radio show and I'm currently looking for a host".

So there it is, folks.  And any mixtape maestro that claims to love your bingo wings cannot be bad, can he?! And those Mike Allen-alike scratches are the icing on the bun.

My personal pick here is the Thaimex track. The Stylee C cut straight after is very nice, too with some classic breaks beefing up the place.

More about → The Underground is Striking Back!

Planet B-Boy (2008) / B-Boy Championships 2010

I watched this the other night (thanks, SCENES).

This video below is the full version of the Japanese crew, Ichigeki's showcase from the Battle Of The Year 2005.
It is regarded as the best performance and to this day has not been surpassed by any crew since.



Also, read this idiot's take on the 'fad' of b-boying.

Download Planet B-Boy here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

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 Cico and the rest of the Vagabonds crew

And The B-Boy Championships 2010 have come to a close.
This year's winners were the Vagabonds from France.
B-Boy Cico set a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive hand spins (1990’s) in front of an 8,000 strong crowd.
For any that missed all the action, Channel 4 will be airing a six-part series, ‘Sony Ericsson World B-Boy Series’ from Sunday, 7th November.
The full story available here.


More Content:


Images on Flickr: http://bit.ly/dw8Wrx

B-Boy Championships Website: http://www.bboychampionships.com/

More about → Planet B-Boy (2008) / B-Boy Championships 2010

Juice Fanzine

Around 1992 I began producing my own home-made hip hop magazine.
It was called Juice and the first issue was a few A4 sheets stapled together embarking on a more 'newsletter' territory.
This was before home PC's were big, and even before I had a word processor. In fact I did the early issues on an electric typewriter.
All the images were cut out of other magazines and some logos were created by friends - mainly those with a 'writing' bent. The  cut 'n' paste action was done literally with scissors and a Pritt Stick. And I went through stencil transfers like nobody's business.
I managed to speak to a few artists such as the Krispy 3 and Katch 22 - who I interviewed at the Kold Sweat studios - and met some good people in the process. Some would become life-long friends. One in particular who would introduce me to the ways of the spraycan and night time adventures along train tracks....

This was a great time to be doing this - and I think I subconsciously knew it was the right time - as it was hip hop's Golden Age and the music was pouring out at a tremendous rate. In fact there are some classic jams in this issue's Review section. Little did I know how they would come to be revered in years to come.
I remember that I was into the music so much with such an undying appetite because there was really so many well-produced tracks around that I could never do this at any other time. This fanzine was of it's time for me. Never again will I have the voraciousness for hip hop in it's current form. And the time it took to put it all together could only be painstakingly done with a passion.


The readership wasn't high and was probably in the heady heights of 100 sales. The promotion was low-profile yet I got mentions on local press and radio as well as a shout on Kiss FM's Max & Dave's rap show.
The magazine was bought either direct from me or from my local specialist record shop, Dance 2 Records in Guildford. I heard from someone a few years ago that one copy sold for a lot of money in Japan on ebay.

As well as the magazine, I produced a 90-minute cassette tape which consisted of remixes and dj mixes and whatever else I could find to put on it.
Some of these were my contributions under various guises while others were from the Juice readership.

It all lasted for 2 years until another interest came into my life and sadly the mag was put on the backburner.

I have digitized the last issue ('Numba') 6 and the tape that came along with it.
Quite a few people have requested me to do this so I hope you enjoy it. And if you were involved with it at any stage please get in touch, it'd be great to get in contact again (and find out if you still have your copy!)

Tracklisting:

Link-a-rama

Download The Mag
Download The Tape

More about → Juice Fanzine