http://www.raggajungle.biz/raggajungle-biz-polls-showcase-0810/

thank you!!!

Also on soundcloud:

Tings Dem Irie by Amadeus

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“Positive Vibes” – Amadeus feat. Jahdan Blakkamore by Amadeus

Big Up to Jahdan for the original voicing with such strong lyrics!

I had the great honor of my tune being played on BBC Radio 1xtra! It was my Dubwize Remix of reggae artist Parly B’s tune “Realise”, and though it wasn’t mentioned properly, meaning they didn’t give me credit, but just called it Parly B’s tune (the original is actually a reggae tune), i’m still very excited about this. It was played yesterday, Sunday, June 27th 2010 on the “Homegrown” show.

Here is the direct link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/homegrown

And i also uploaded the episode for your listening pleasure:

and you can download it here as well.

or at the link above. Time for another Parly B Rmx it seems! Hope you enjoy!

FLYER

SOURCE - Listen to the Story - Morning Edition [7 min 18 sec]

That’s high praise coming from the king’s youngest son, Damian Marley, and it’s one of the genre’s oldest debates: Who really rules classic reggae — Bob Marley or Dennis Brown? Even Bob Marley hailed Brown as the best reggae singer in the world.

The name “crown prince” stuck with Brown for much of his 30-year career, but his fans say he ranks second to no one. Reggae singer Freddie McGregor became friends with Dennis Brown in Kingston, Jamaica, where Brown was born in 1957.

“He was our child prodigy,” McGregor says. “Although I started recording way before Dennis, when Dennis started recording, he immediately became successful.”

They first met at Studio One, the same place Bob Marley got his start. Brown was already being billed as “the boy wonder singing sensation” when he stopped by Studio One to cut his first hit, “No Man Is an Island.” He was 11.

Over the next three decades, he made more than 75 albums packed with hits. Dennis Brown was a force. The key to his success was his voice.

“Dennis Emmanuel Brown,” Damian Marley says. “I would have to say … joy.”

The word “joy” leaps off Marley’s tongue. It’s what Marley says he hears every time a Dennis Brown tune comes on.

“You just have to fall in love with the voice, with the lyrics behind it — it’s just soothing,” says George Burns of VP Records. VP is a mecca for reggae and dance hall fans in Jamaica — Jamaica, Queens, that is. Burns is a DJ who helps run the place. He is practically out of breath, giving Brown props. “You can just listen to one Dennis Brown song after another and don’t get bored. It’s hits after hits after hits.”

“If I Follow My Heart, that was his first album,” Burns says. “I remember, I see my father with it, and I sneak it out, just keep playing it. Oh, my gosh. That was awesome.”

Brown and McGregor shared the stage and studio together. McGregor calls Brown “my brother Dennis.” Dennis, with that incredible voice — “It’s tremolo,” McGregor says. “If you listen to … a church organ, you would always hear tremolo, that sort of vibrato with sounds soulful and deep. That vibrato sound brings out that soulfulness within vocals.”

Brown became an international reggae star. Then, at the age of 42, he died in Kingston, felled partly by a decades-long cocaine addiction.

That was in 1999, but Damian Marley says he still sees and hears Brown’s influence.

“He was one of those persons who made it cool to smile in reggae music,” Marley says. “When I listen to his music, I can hear that he really loved singing. It almost sounds like he smiles while he’s singing.”

That Brown joy is still alive for McGregor.

“I’m looking at a picture of myself and Dennis Brown,” McGregor says. “That was backstage at the National Arena in Kingston, when he was doing a concert. I see that picture every day. Every day, I see that Dennis Brown smile, you know?”

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Originally from Berlin, Amadeus has been pushing the sounds of ragga / jungle / drum & bass for over a decade now. He rose up playing clubs and raves all over Colorado, from massive Roofless Productions and Together Productions raves to popular clubs such as SOMA in Boulder (Mixmag voted Top Ten club in the USA).

His first mix-CD Phonik Boom was released in 2000 and the following release Midsummer Night Sessions (2001) was praised by BPM Magazine as “The music is sooo fine – drum and bass bliss. Props for not being the typical band wagon monkey. If this guy is in your neighborhood give him some props!”, and garnered him runner-up in the North-American DJ contest Unleash The Beats. I recently was able to converse with Amadeus via email and this is what he had to say.

What got you into music in your younger years? What was/is your musical background before ragga-jungle?
I played classical guitar for 13 years at competition level and was even accepted into Peabody Conservatory of Music for it. The school cost was beyond what my family could afford so I went to the University of Colorado, which did not have a great guitar program and I was a double major so I did not pursue the guitar any further. Besides, it was something my father always wanted me to do, but I never truly loved. So when I got my hands on turntables for the first time, I was in love from the first moment I put the needle on a record.

What got you into ragga-jungle?
I got into playing records in 1998 through one of my closest friends, my boy Matt (we had just met at the time). Two months into messing around on the decks, this kid Ed from L.A., a good friend of Matt’s, visited us in Colorado and brought with him all these amazing jungle records, including a lot of ragga jungle and hip hop dnb remixes. I was instantly hooked. So I started collecting both of those styles, but almost instantly preferred the ragga stuff, and that is how it all started.

How do you feel you were received just starting off? Also, what do you feel you did to gain an edge or advantage on other DJs/producers out there?
I’ve gotten a great reception pretty much right from the start. The rest of the Colorado Dnb Scene played mostly hard- and techstep, which turned a lot of people off of drum & bass / jungle as a whole. My sound was so different in comparison, I took great care in making mix CDs and the music electrified me so much, that I was a spaz on stage whenever I played. Mix all those together and you had a performance that really stood out from the rest.

Many times I’ve heard people say: “I didn’t even know jungle / dnb could sound like this!” which I took as a great compliment, since I really put a lot of care, time, love, money and effort into my sets and selections, and thus managed to pull people into the sound. The other element was that Matt and I played a lot of college parties in all different styles, from top 40 to house to hip hop to 80s, anything really, which taught me a ton about crowd control, planning your selection, looking at the dance floor and adjusting my sets accordingly to keep the energy at a high level. To this day I still play clubs with all styles of music, and to this day it helps me keep myself sharp.

I highly suggest that DJs go outside of the realm of ragga jungle or drum & bass, and hone their skills in how to make a crowd dance. I see too many jungle heads playing with their heads down, in a slight panic, rushing through sets, hoping their records will find a good reception, without ever taking the time to look up and see what the crowd is really doing and which tunes they’re reacting to in what way. Being a DJ is being an entertainer for the people who want to dance, not the other way around.

How do you, as a musician, today differ from the musician you were when you first started off?
I think I’ve really found my sound over the years, specializing in dubwise and ragga drum n’ bass over pure ragga jungle and have a much greater network, thus greater access to quality tunes. In addition, I enhance my sets with a sampler and interesting intros, which makes for a more complete performance in my mind. And I’ve started producing, of course. Other than that, the same love for the sound still comes across, and I approach the music with the same enthusiasm. I mean we all get jaded the older we get, but that fire is still burning.

What past projects are you particularly proud of or best known for?
First of all my sound: I’ve carved it out over the years to become what it is today: a blend of dubwise and ragga drum & bass, with a little side dish of ragga jungle. Purely dance floor driven tunes, remixes that all reggae heads know but not too obscure so that the average Joe or a person who’s never heard ragga dnb / jungle would get turned off. Despite the heavily Amen-based second wave of new school ragga jungle and the ever increasing popularity of dubstep, I’ve managed to navigate ahead and remain true to my sound. When people see my name, they know what to expect. I am not trying to put down anyone meddling in new sounds, I’m just happy that I was able to carve out an identity over the years and am still true to that.

Other than that, I’d have to say, hands down, my mixes. I spend a lot of time on them, countless hours of searching for good tunes, and mixing from the gut, meaning making sure that tunes vibe together. I can spend weeks rearranging tunes and waiting for new releases just to fill what I feel is a void in a mix. It’s the single most praised part of my career, has brought in many people to the sounds of ragga dnb / jungle and they’re getting only better (in my opinion).

My mixes travel the globe via internet and get tons of downloads, which I’m very grateful for. Last time I checked, which was about a year ago if not longer, my mix Bridge Over Babylon had over 50,000 downloads, and my mix in the B2B Sessions series, hosted by MC XYZ, has had more downloads than any of the other previous editions, at least the ones I was able to track online. An old mix of mine, back from 2001, Midsummer Night’s Sessions, won second place in BPM magazine’s Unleash the Beats competition, out of hundreds and hundreds of entries in all styles, from all over North America… i think you see the pattern here.

Thirdly, I’m very proud of having the chance to tour Europe for the past five years (including 2009), and being able to play the sounds I love to hundreds of people as well as meeting ragga junglists worldwide as far as the Black Sea.

I do have to also mention the Survival Story project I did two years ago. It was a double CD of previously unreleased ragga jungle tunes from producers worldwide, which I released on my own buck, and became a runaway success and sold really well… until it started appearing on torrents. Luckily I was able to make my money back beforehand. Either way it had a massive impact, and put a lot of producers you still buy tunes from today, on the ragga jungle map. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this project and it makes me proud knowing I was able to push forward and contribute something to the sound and scene that I love.

And last but not least, the fact that my most recent tune Realise was voted number one in the raggajungle.biz November ’09 showcase (my first time being part of it), which was exciting because I’m still working to better my production, and it goes to show that I’m moving into the right direction.

What projects do you have coming up that you are excited for?
I just released my latest mix Roots Run Deep (get it at www.amadj.com), and will post up my Euro Tour 2009 Blog soon, complete with pics and videos from a very successful tour. I just have to edit a few videos, but keep checking the site and it will be up there shortly! The last tour blog (2008) got a lot of attention, so I’m excited to follow it up with this year’s adventures. Other than that, I’m working hard to get my production skills to the next level, aiming to release an EP next year. I’ve made tunes in the past, but I’m still not at the level I’d like to be at, and have not officially released a tune yet, so after 12 years in the game, I think it’s about time!

Is there anything additional you wish to add that wasn’t touched on?
I’d like to give shout outs to the people who taught me how to work the decks, especially Matt (DJ Balance), as well as all the producers that keep sending me dope tunes and all the promoters, in the US, Canada and Europe who took a chance on me, and keep booking me over the years. Most of them have become great friends, and I’m very thankful for that, as well as shouts to everyone I’ve met through this sound, fellow DJs, radio hosts, dancers, crews etc. There are really too many to name, and I do not want to leave anyone out.

Also big shouts to Ragga-Jungle.com (Rhyghin, Archangel and crew, who’ve kept it going over the years, despite all the drama) as well as Raggajungle.Biz (Mashup and D.I.S.), two places that are essential to this sound, and are giving everyone a place to meet, share and mingle with fellow ragga jungle enthusiasts. No one in the RJ scene is making any real money, it’s all love, which makes it that much more meaningful.

So big shouts to everyone who is doing their part, including Ragga Scum, who pushes ragga jungle through these series of interviews! This selfless dedication to the sound, the (mostly) positive people who always put in more than they get out of it, as well as the smiles of the people who feel the fire when the Amens and basslines drop, have pushed me through the years and will remain a constant source of motivation.