This upcoming weekend sees Jstar join forces with London promoter's of anything alternative and the kitchen sink, Wormfood, in London for a double night of partying. Friday 16th November; down in Hootenanny in Brixton, South London

A night of Afrobeat, hippo loops and bass shaking reggae. After their recent trip to Kenya's Rift Valley Festival Jstar reunites with Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyata for their album launch, and believe me we had a great time in Africa;  plus support from Afriquoi and Native Sun.

Free until 9pm, £3 after 9. 8pm – 3 am

 Please note that due to recent restrictions there is no entry after 11 pm at Hootenanny's!



On Saturday 17th at Passing Clouds in Dalston, North London, the Wormfood 5th Birthday party gets in full swing with Joe & Sekou again, Sashi and Wildbeans, The Turbans, Daddy Fe and Unity Crew (Im hoping this is the old school reggae crew!)
 £7  8pm – 5am

Yo Yo Yo ! After a busy summer of touring and Djing ( I even got to play with Diplo in Copenhagen!), there are 3 or 4 fresh Jstar remixes being released! This is the first – from Romanian Gypsy band Mahala Rai Banda – inna Jstar reggae hiphop basswise style! Preview it on my Soundcloud page  – http://soundcloud.com/jstar-1 

Mahala Rai Banda vs. Jstar / Balkan Reggae (Jstar remix) by Jstar

You need to start making this at least 90 minutes before you're eating (or earlier) because you're going to make your own pastry!! (its easy)
Preparation time: 25 minutes plus chilling time
Cooking time: 50-55 minutes

INGREDIENTS for the PASTRY

350g plain flour
175g butter – (leave it out for a bit to make it softer)
60 ml water (approximately)
Lemon Zest ( few gratings of a lemon rind)
pinch of salt
1 egg – beaten ( to glaze the pie!  mmmm!)

for INSIDE THE PIE

1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 red pepper – finely chopped
1 red chilli  finely chopped
500g potatoes – peeled and diced nice and small – if they are too big they wont cook so well!
a few Anchovies
1 x tin of tuna fish
300ml white wine
2 (about 8 desert spoons) tablespoons tomato puree a handful of chopped parsley
4 teaspoons of paprika ( i like the smoked one)
thyme – 1 tsp
salt n pepper to taste
olive oil

Instructions

Pastry Making

(click images to see larger)

1. In a large bowl, chop the butter up into chunks, add some salt and lemon zest,
2. work with your fingers while keeping adding flour until it turns into fine breadcrumbs. Add enough of the cold water to make a soft dough.
3. Wrap the finished dough in clingfilm or clean plastic bag and put in the fridge for an hour to chill.

PIE FILLING

Heat some oil in a big frying pan, add the onions, garlic, chilli, anchovies pepper and chopped potatoes. Stir and cook slowly to sweat and soften everything for 15-20 minutes.

Pour yourself a nice cold glass of wine, and chuck in 300ml of it over the pan with the tomato puree, parsley, paprika and thyme. Season with a little salt and pepper, cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Add a little water if  looks like its getting dry. Remove from the heat and stir in the tuna.

PUT THE OVEN ON!

Preheat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5 – do it now!
Grease up a pie dish or flan tin using a bit of the paper that the butter came in / or some greaseproof paper.

ROLL OUT THE DOUGH

1. Grab the pastry out of the fridge (you didn't drink too many glasses of wine did you?). Spread a little flour on a clean surface Save 1/3 of the dough for the top of the flan. Roll out the rest – if you dont have a rolling pin, use the chilled wine bottle (see picture – make sure the cork or lid is on, and put some flour on the bottle to stop the pastry sticking to it!)

Make a ball, squash down with your hand, roll it out up down, left right, working round.

2. Put the rolled dough in the greased dish/tin for the pie.

3. Spread the filling into the pastry in the tin, Dampen the edges of the pastry (this will help seal it up) Roll out the rest of the pastry to make the lid. Lay over the top of the pie and seal the edges by crimping with your fingers. Trim off any excess pastry.

4. Brush with beaten egg and prick with a fork. Cook for about 50 minutes.

After baking it should look like this…

Serve with Craime Fraiche and Salad, and extra pepper sauce if you like it spicey!

Volume 2 will come soon!

The slo-velution starts here…
Let your mind drift to this all vinyl summer mix of cosmic downbeat and smokers delights.
Pour a cold one, sit on the porch or listen in the bath
More diggin from Jstar's vinyl basement

Listen online please, and then download for you ipod/ music player

http://www.mediafire.com/?bpz2cuftjq8tawj

Here's another Jstar giveaway from the archives!

Whether you are having summer or winter right now, this should help set the mood….

Originally, "I heard it dub" was a strictly limited DJ only 7", beautifully mastered for speakerbox crispness;  here's a full high quality digital version in case you have worn your record out…

Soundcloud followers and Jstar subscribers get these and other exclusives first!

Recently I have been in the studio at some very strange hours, in between my addiction of HBO series Game of Thrones, organising tours for Major Lazer, and cooking Ackee & Saltfish amongst other things.

Balancing out my recent adventures into Drumstep and DnB for Max Powa, some hefty digital reggae riddims are soon to be released, much in the vain of recent work with Dreadsquad and Mr Dero/ Mad Professor

The next remix track is called 'In a Zion' with reggae legend Linval Thompson on vocals, on Vibration Lab Records. My riddim is appropriatly called 'Zion Throne'! Bless!

Here's a taster of recent Jstar work, and what Vibration Lab are up to with the likes of RSD, Adam Prescott, Radikal Guru and Riddim Tuffa

I'd like to say I don't know much about Busysquits, but I do – not only is he a massive music fan, he's never going to be put in a box or be part any scene. His choices seem to tap into some quintessentially deep UK proto-rave culture, steeped in ragga, junglist, electronica and ambience. His mixes occasionally include some deranged and simple beatloops that he conjured up when not doing whatever he does (and he looks like one badman). No one apart from me seems to listen to his mixtapes/ selections, so I'm inviting you to take a listen….

Vintage SUAD, (Shut Up and Dance), breaks, rave revamps, and ex-smokers delights

Now his Powa Cuts record label have asked me to do a remix of reggae legend Horace Andy's "Do You Love' alongside UK dubstep producer Adam Prescott and Gold

Check out the Jstar Drumstep remix at soundcloud, and on Youtube

Do You Love Max Powa ft Horace Andy (Jstar Remix) by Jstar

Here's this months April download, in addition to all you who go the newsletter (Jstar chronic-les volume 1 complete with UK No Diggity Studio recut)

This is a refix of Jstar release JS008 from back on 2005 (!!); Snoop Dogg and the 'Cure' Riddim from Germaican reggae outfit, Seeed

A full high quality free download as usual!