WOOFAH

I'm a bit late on this one, but for anyone who might not have heard, issue #1 of Woofah magazine is now available. This is the brainchild of John Eden & Paul Meme, fellow bloggers who've been in my links bar from day one. Bloggers producing printed material? Believe it. I'm all about oldskool formats, its just that there's very little on the magazine racks that interests me these days. But this little A5 b&w reggae-grime-dubstep publication hits the spot, featuring interviews and reviews written by a bunch of cool people, several of whom cut their teeth in the blog world. Highlights include Paul STN's interview with Pinch, Matt B's interview with Iration Steppas' Mark Iration (which includes some fascinating reflections on Mark's time in Ital Rockers, during the whole Northern Bleep 'n Bass period), and Dan Hancox talking to Skepta (discussing among other things the origins and impact of that "Stageshow Rhythm" - as featured in my Blogariddim mix).

Seasoned Grime commentator Simon Hampson contributes an intriguing look at some of the freshest new talent to emerge (nice to see a bit of focus on the producers for a change) whilst Eden and Meme trawl through the latest mixtapes with the rabid enthusiasm of the newly converted. Droid and Paul Autonomic turn-in some solid reviews, whilst Howard Slater single-handedly kicks-off the Shackleton backlash. Ouch!

There's plenty of humour too, with a strip cartoon by Woebot and an hilarious piece of grime fiction by Martin C (no, not that Martin C, apparently) that had me laughing like a drain. Photo contributions from, among others, my old mucker Jack Rampling and the lovely Georgina Cook. My only complaints would be that the text is sometimes hard to read when overlaid on images and that there's maybe a wee bit too much unused page space - nearly a third of the rather meagre dubstep reviews page is blank space! (No doubt they'll have no shortage of things to write about when all the review material starts flowing into John's PO Box, or failing that get Doppleganger to draw some of his cool cartoons!) But these are very minor gripes in what is a very impressive debut issue. Order yours today - I can personally vouch for the speedy delivery. Big-up all concerned!