Did you know that Sacramento is the capital city of California? This week’s Join the Dots guest hails from Elk Grove, a small city just outside the capital, where he works as a journalist on the local paper (check the staff shots page).

I first ran into Cameron Macdonald when we were both writing for Stylusmagazine a few years ago, but over the past five or so years he’s written informed and irreverent pieces for The Wire, XLR8R, Grooves, Pitchfork and Punk Planet. Probably quite a few others too. Listen on Thursday night from 9 until 11pm on FBI 94.5 in Sydney or streamed on www.fbiradio.com.

Lisa Pryor constructs a tower of love hearts for FBI in the SMH.

Ready and waiting: Boy Brightlulb (Darwin), the Drake Equation (Brisbane), Ebb (Sweden), the Machine Elves of Hyperspace (Sydney), Cinematic Orchestra (UK) and Fall For Days (Sydney). Some good, some great, some passable. Find them at Cyclic Defrost.

Popfrenzy gets around to releasing Mist and Sea’s debut Unless on July 23, according to Mess and Noise. Interview with former Underground Lover Vince Giarruso and Prettyboy Crossoverer Jason Sweeney in Cyclic Defrost.

PS. If you want to write for Cyclic, take a look here.

Will Ashon, yes the guy behind the label behind guys like Roots Manuva, Ty, Clouddead, Spankrock, New Flesh and TTC, is a writer. Of course, we knew he wrote about hip hop for Muzik, Hip Hop Connection and The Source, and set up Big Dada in 1997. I’ve been a fan ever since it grew out of the Ninja Tune camp.

I’m curious. He wrote Clear Water commuting between home and the label. On his Palm Pilot if you believe the publishers. BBC collective says it’s a typically Martin Amis style novel from a young British author.

Ike Yard – Cherish 8
Ike Yard – NCR (Funkstorung mix)
Funkstorung – Test
Disjunction Reunion – Tangible
The Raveonettes – Love in a Trashcan (Funkstorung remix)
Apparat – Holdon (Chris De Luca & Phon.o rmx)
Ellen Allien – Alles Sehn
Colleen – Bubbles Which on the Water Swim
Underlapper – Tapioca (Part Timer remix)
Steven Heath – The Bellow of the Blast
Antimc – Bellies Full of Rain (feat Busdriver)
Clouddead – Dead Dogs Two (Boards of Canada remix)
Vedette – Tape Track Lights
Tape feat RQM – Minimal (Cuebism remix)
Filewile feat RQM – Damn (Jahcoozi remix)
Firewire – No One There
Nic Dalton with the Gloomchasers Orchestra – There’s Nobody Coming Over
Nic Dalton with the Gloomchasers Orchestra – There’s No One Waiting in the Wings
Anthony Rochester – Unputdownable
Anthony Rochester – Sweet Child o’ Mine
Night Radio – Lilly
Ruff Squwad – Just Died in Your Arms Tonight (radio rip)
Rude Boy – Volkstanz (Make It Ruff)
Rude Boy – Are You Down (With The Underground)
Thief – Fallen

It wouldn’t be the first time Smiths fans got all worked up over not very much. Apparently they’re sending death threats to NY-based DJ/producer Mark Ronson. He’s covered ‘Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One’ inna R&B style, with Melbourne’s Daniel Merriweather on vocals, and a bit of the Supremes for good measure.

One of the gladi-touters wants to stab Ronson in the eye.

Ronson’s rumoured to be Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson’s son, but apparently it’s false as he’s actually the scion of a socialite and a real-estate supremo.

Merriweather’s ‘She’s Got Me’ was a favourite in 2004 – the 8 Bit remix was so hot – though he’s been invisible since, so it’s cool to hear his voice again.

Mark Ronson featuring Daniel Merriweather – Stop Me (via Cub Pop)

As album ideas go it’s lacking spark, but at some point if you like a song then you’re going to like an interesting cover of the song, and I like it.

Emmy with Art of Fighting in Mess and Noise.

I was a sucker for the tougher end of 2step and UK/speed garage in the ’90s. So I’ve been expecting dubstep/grime (so many things about these two sounds overlap, even if purists don’t want to recognise) to explode since I heard my first Tempa release. I think it was ‘Sholay.’ It could have been any one of a handful of white label 12″s that found their way into Sydney six or seven years ago with little to no fanfare. There’s been a lot of hype/discussion since Burial’s record crossed over last year. With Skream, and some big events in Australia, it’s changed the game for the people involved here. It’s also got old hands struggling to articulate opinions.

(I have no idea what those two guys are doing to Wiley’s beat in that video, but I can’t look away.)

Burial’s album-ness seemed to be the convincing factor for a lot of the indie kids working at taste-making mags and websites. The unfortunate other side of the coin is that the non-album producing heads get dismissed out of hand, or if they do mistakenly try their hands at the long play format, they get slated for filler.

I think this misses the point, dubstep (and grime) makes sense on 12″s and DJ mixes. It’s club music. Heavy bass sound system music. It’s much closer to techno in that respect, and like techno, there are very few great albums – it’s all about the tracks. It’s not the emotion-charged electronic music that connects when you’re tuning in on the lounge chair; it’s stripped right back, dub pressure, but with techno’s coiled spring coiling ever tighter without release.

All music has antecedents – dubstep’s might be jungle, speed garage, techno, dub, Leftfield, Techno Animal/Scorn/The Bug, Stereotyp, Massive Attack/Tricky and dancehall; grime’s might include many of dubstep’s with UK hip hop thrown in the mix – but the amalgam’s now become a whole new sound. The heaviness and pressure of it just overwhelms me at times, and the flow of some grime MCs is thrilling. And, incredibly, they keeps evolving.

This month’s issue of The Wire tackles dubstep headlong with a Derek Walmsley dubstep primer – one major difference between the step-siblings is that like techno, dubstep’s abstraction gives academic music observers so much to discuss, as distinct from grime’s literal voice. Also in the next Wire is Emmy Hennings’s first contribution, a DVD review, which I for one am looking forward to reading.

Some friends opened this costume shop on Edgeware Road, Newtown, on Friday night. Good food, drinks – the usual launch business – 200%‘s different to the usual party shop though.

Hooked up with the guys from Jimmy Sing’s, and featuring blood-nosed boxers and deco babes, the shop’s all about one-off special costumes, and, apparently, art.

Cool idea, I want to see how it plays out.