Kolleidosonic

An Interview with MC Gringo

2008-05-05T14:30:00.002-03:00

Another Maga Bo mini-documentary. An interview with MC Gringo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2008.

Jana Winderen

2008-05-03T22:27:00.003-03:00

I found Jana Winderen via the description of a field trip to Holystone Forest, Northumberland, England she made with Chris Watson to record woodland ambiences (as well as the ants in the earlier post). A fellow sound recordist, sound artist, performer, radio producer, curator and director, she has some amazing and detailed accounts of other sound gathering missions around the world with text and photos (as well as info on all of her other projects). Field Trips/Sounds.
She writes, "You can listen to hydrophone recording from briksdalsbreen calving uder water here (please note that the MP3 compression destorts the file)." ....a glacier at Briksdalsbreen....There are a number of links to other recordings with hydrophones as well.

To answer your comment, Dave........Well, on the ant recording, they used DolphinEAR Hydrophones (although it wasn't underwater). Here's the site for that mic.

The manufacturer says "DolphinEar/PRO may be buried in earth, or sand, for use as a geophone-type microphone. It is also suitable for direct immersion into many hazardous chemical solutions." Hardcore microphones....yep. In other recordings (available on his site), Chris Watson uses a variety of other mics - parabolic mic, a single point stereo Shure mic, a Sennheiser MKH60 and others.

There is another recording of his, "adult cheetah resting in a baobab tree," is a mystery to me (sorry it's only 128! Big up to Grrrt who gave this to me originally!). I imagine that he found out that the leopard was accustomed to lounge in this certain tree. Ahead of time, he wired up a small mic (such as Countryman B6, which is the size of a matchstick head) with a wireless transmitter attached to the tree and then waited. When the leopard showed up, got comfortable and got into its groove purring, Chris was recording already.....

The Guardian article says, "We listen to a recording from Kenya, of vultures consuming a zebra killed by lions. By tying tiny microphones to the ribs and disguising the cables, Watson takes us right inside the animal. It's a mildly horrifying mix of screaming, pecking, flesh ripping and flies buzzing. "I told some schoolkids that this was the last thing they would hear were they to be eaten alive by vultures. As a joke." He laughs - then reveals how three of them burst into tears."

Chris Watson

2008-05-01T01:43:00.006-03:00

"Watson is one of the world's leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena, and here he edits his field recordings into a filmic narrative. The unearthly groaning of ice in an Icelandic glacier is a classic example of, in Watson's words, putting a microphone where you can't put your ears."

Holystone Forest, Northumberland, England
Chris Watson & Jana Winderen with Mike Harding. Sounds of an ant nest recorded by Jana. Very nice photos and tech details of recording.
Chris Watson in Iceland, 2007.

A recording from Ouarzazate, Morocco, "The fall had ruptured his spleen. It took the Land Rover nearly seven hours to reach the George lV hotel, they were desperate, but to late... The feast took place and later the musicians played on the very roof where Nickifi had last spoken to the traitor Dris before he was murdered by the daughters of The Magrha. Friday 13th Sept. 1996. Ouarzazate, Morocco."

An Interview with Daniel Haaksman

2008-04-28T02:44:00.003-03:00

Another Maga Bo mini-documentary. An interview with Daniel Haaksman from Man Recordings made in Rio de Janeiro, 2008. This is the first (of three) interviews with the "white boy gringos of funk." Guess who the others are.......

Curumin - Japan Pop Show

2008-04-22T23:12:00.002-03:00

Veeery nice! Participações do BNegão, Lucas Santtana, Tommy "King of Corn" Guerrero, Marku Ribas, Blackalicious e Lateef the Truth Speaker. Download it here.

Pibes Chorros - "Andrea" - pista vazia.....?!

2008-04-21T21:14:00.003-03:00

I had my first experience with digital cumbia on a (very sorry visa changing) trip to Buenos Aires in 2001. I spent most of my time traipsing all over town - to go by foot is cheap, ya know? Plenty of memories of sitting in plazas watching kids play futbol and trying to stay warm (it was august) while wondering how the hell I was gonna get back to Rio....anyway, that's another story all together. I always got curious when a car would pass cranking this super cheesy synthesized cumbia at really high volume - big bass and the characteristic chi-chi-chick sound.
On one of my excursions, I found myself lost in the view from a bridge. Eventually, I looked down and found "Sex, drugs and cumbia" scratched into the railing of the bridge. I decided I had to find out at least a little more about this. I found plenty of house music and electronic music stores, but the cumbia selection was even more cheesy than what I found coming out of the cars. At one of the shops, the guy pulled out the Pibes Chorros CD, Arriba las Manos, shaking his head, saying, "these peopel are very bad." I bought it on the spot. I became completely enamoured with the first track, "Andrea." When I finally got back to Rio, I managed to completely clear the dance floor every time I played this track......anyway, it still sounds great! ;-)

Cumbia Clandestina

2008-04-19T01:40:00.004-03:00

Super big up to Soul Cocina for the Cumbia Clandestina mix that I just had the pleasure of listening to. Beautiful.

check it here:

part 1
part 2
part 3

And read the post here. I'm looking forward to checking the tracklist. ;-)

NYC and DC Flyers

2008-04-03T03:24:00.004-03:00

Thursday in NYC!
friday in MTL (flyer below) and then,
Saturday the 5th in Washington DC at Eighteenth Street Lounge:

New Maga Bo Mixtape - Os Cacos for Blogariddims

2008-03-26T18:58:00.004-03:00

My new mixtape, Os Cacos (as in recolha os cacos, pick up the pieces...) is now up on Blogariddims. Listen to it here.

50 minutes of transnational bass - dubstep grime cumbia hip hop ragga kuduro baile funk dub chaabi soca crunk.

1. Archetype - Innasekt
2. Baile de Almut - Radio Tarifa
3. Freestyle live on radio in houston - Dizee Rascal
4. Punisher (Loefah's SE25 Remix) - DJ Pinch
5. Cheeky Violin Remix - Low Deep
6. Alleyways feat. Neon - Don Fletcher vs. Maga Bo
7. Say More Fire - Aaron Spectre
8. Chab Rassi - Cheikha Remitti
9. 50,000 Watts (Loefah Remix) - Matty G
10. Why Do You Do This? - Klass A
11. Nqayi feat. Teba - Maga Bo
12. Xoyma - Positive Black Soul
13. Xoyma feat. Red Rat - Positive Black Soul
14. Doi Festival (Ghislain Poirier) - Bunji Garlin and JMC Triveni
15. Keeping a Session - Daddy Freddy meets the Rootsman
16. Now Thing - Sly and Lenky
17. Amen break
18. Cumbia Murguera - Chancha VIa Circuito
19. Popotla Sound Machine - Kampion
20. Daleduro feat. Luisao - Carolina Santantonin
21. Don't Guimenin - Ruffman
22. Bloody Potato - DJ Elected
23. We All Go Die Tonite feat. MC Shade - Candie Hank
24. J Adore Whiskey - Candie Hank
25. Applejuice - Krazy Baldhead
26. Princesa 3 - Chancha VIa Circuito
27. Soy el Control - El Hijo de la Cumbia
28. ? - Up, Bustle and Out
29. Kick it Complex - Bassnectar
30. D-Boy Stance - Big Boi/Konkrete
31. Cumvia Slew (Bosquiman vs. Oro11 Remix) - Bosquiman vs. Vampiros
32. Sudaka Invasor - Frikstailers
33. E Dai feat. Speed Freaks - Sonar Calibrado
34. Break - Chancha VIa Circuito
35. Here We Go - Kalil (DJ Eddy)
36. Kriola - Orquestra e Coro
37. Bad Man Pull Up - Crazy Froggy (Hard Slam Riddim)
38. Reggaetron - Pepepe
39. Belselama (Said Qutbs Lawnmower Filastine Remix) - Malorix
40. NYE Riddim - Dub Gabriel
41. Cagnie - Waraba
42. Ben Allou - El Halka and El Twachi
43. Defense (The Soca-Anthem Remix) - Pitbull feat. Machel Montano HD and Lil Jon
44. Tamborzao/Volt Mix
45. Aquecimento Macumba - Electro Jack Juninho Carioca
46. Bonde do Role Remix Riddim - Ghislain Poirier
47. Track 20 - Funk Proibidao Vila Kenedy
48. System Boot - Plug
49. Ya Se Acabo - Pitbull
50. Tchiriri - Costuleta and DJ Znobia
51. Os Marteleiros (Instrumental) - Helder o Rei do Kuduro
52. Leh Jani - Omar Souleyman
53. Alo - Os Vagabundos

Maga Bo North America Tour Dates

2008-03-24T14:26:00.002-03:00

March 29, Six Degrees Records Showcase, Opium Garden, Winter Music Conference, Miami, FL
March 31, Beat Research, Enormous Room, Boston, MA
April 1, NuBlu, New York City, NY
April 2, WMFU 91.1 NYC with DJ /rupture 7-8 pm
April 3, Sutra Lounge, New York City, NY
April 4, Baile MTL, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
April 5, Eighteenth Street Lounge, Washington DC
April 8, KEXP 90.3, WoPop with Darek Mazzone
April 8, Nectar, Seattle, WA
April 11, Tormenta Tropical, Tehama 58, San Francisco, CA
April 12, The Walnut Room, Denver, CO

And, here are some flyers......

Maga Bo - Fire feat. Xuman

2008-03-12T20:35:00.005-03:00

Here is the first video clip to accompany my upcoming album, Archipelagoes, and 12" vinyl on Soot Records. "Fire feat. Xuman" was filmed and edited in Guediawaye, Dakar, Senegal by Ceptik on an almost non-existent budget with the help and enthusiasm of a bunch of friends (Big up Still crew, Xuman, Omar and Fatou Kande, Edouard Manga, Etienne Senghor and Warustudio!), a super trashed Mercedes and a video camera on loan. Xuman is one third of the heavyweight group Pee Froiss. Stay tuned for 2 more clips coming soon - "Saye Mbott feat. ALIF," filmed in Dakar and "Nqayi feat. Teba," filmed in Cape Town.

Shook Magazine - Addis Ababa

2008-02-01T13:29:00.000-02:00

Shook is a new magazine stepping on where Straight No Chaser stepped off headed up by Mr. Jez Smadja. They just released No. 1 Vol. 1. Here's an article of my mine originally written for them grabbed off of their blog.

On his travels to Ethiopia, the cradle of civilisation, Maga Bo delivers the verdict on the latest styles emering from this ancient kingdom and sheds some light on the music industry as the country enters a new millennium. For the full article, check the latest issue of SHOOK. Here's a little extra we couldn't squueze in.

ELECTRONICS MERKATO

Lined by a zinc fence on one side and busy thoroughfare on the other, the electronic recycling and repair market in the Merkato area of Addis Ababa commands the entire sidewalk for 2 blocks. Freelance, self-taught electronics repairmen salvage all manner of appliances from telephones and flashlights to cassette and DVD players. Squatting down in front of a sea of chopped up circuit boards, wires, random electronic components, and gads of dissected radios and televisions, a man presses a radio to one ear in a feeble attempt to block out the noise all around and makes an adjustment with a screwdriver. Next to him, a shelf unit comprised of a stack of skeletons of television sets bursts with excess electronic pieces. He even sells jewelry - several necklaces with cassette capstan cogs as beads are on display. His neighbor deals exclusively in speakers - mix and match to taste. Another strictly deals with video equipment. Chat leaves are scattered all over the pavement and amongst the electronics. I am offered tea. A man says hello and shakes my hand. "This side very cheap, not like over there." He motions to the row of electronic appliance stores which line the opposite side of the road extending in both directions. "Very good workers here." And resourceful, too. Rummaging through the electronic component scrap heap, he finds what he's looking for, quickly unscrews the back of the radio, jacks into the pirate electrical lead that the whole row of workers share with his soldering iron and proceeds to bring the radio back to life.

Prakash Poudel

2008-01-22T19:14:00.000-02:00

Just got a commentary from Lapax, who wrote in to clarify the mysterious Nepalese cry style tune (based on a Papa San track called "Maddy Maddy Cry" (thanks to Vamanos for that clarification)) that I posted some months ago:

"It's actually a comedy/parody song by a nepali singer - prakash poudel.

It's about a teenager telling his mom that he can't live without this girl that he likes and she's the only one he can live with..

Not sure if the beats and the music is based on some other song, but there you go.."

Cape of Good Dope; An Interview with Fletcher aka DJ Dope

2008-01-11T12:34:00.000-02:00

I was recently in Cape Town, on my way home from Ethiopia, and stopped in to hook up with my good friends from African Dope Records, play a couple gigs and shoot a video with Teba for my upcoming full length album, Archipelagoes, on Soot Records.

Once again, I had the pleasure to stay at my man Fletcher's house in Bo Kaap. It was a short stay that left me wishing I had more time there (as usual), full of tons and tons of music and tech talk, good food, and outings in the city and mountains. Here is another mini-documentary/interview in my slowly (but surely) growing series. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for Fletcher's video/music production work in the coming future.....

What the kids are doing in Ethiopia

2008-01-10T10:40:00.000-02:00

Getting back to Ethiopia for a minute. Here are a few videos gleaned from youtube. "What the kids are doing," as Diplo would say, these days in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia Telecommunications has a monopoly on the cellular, fixed phone and internet market. The relatively common cybercafes a stocked with groups of computers all connected to a dial up connection. Excruciatingly slow! The one solution I found was to log in at the Sheraton Hotel for $20/hr. They have a 128 kbps connection. However, it is impossible to login to myspace from Ethiopia, which seems to account for the lack of Ethiopian (or for that matter Eritrean) presence on myspace. Thanks to the Ethiopian diaspora, we have some of this stuff available online.

The first one is my favorite. Tewodros (aka Tedy) and Abraham - gurageton. I heard about this track and searched and searched asking all the street vendors I saw if they had anything from Tedy. Everybody knew him, but nobody had any CDs. The only thing I found was a VCD compilation put out by AS Records. I'm loving the combination of styles in the dancing in this one. Sort of Rize goes to Addis and learns iskista. Or vice versa.

The next up is another one off track (at least at this point) by Mary Abebe called Ahun Naw. Again on a mutated reggaeton tip. I like the otherworldy keys. Super catchy hook too. I found this track on the same VCD that I found the Gurageton track on. Unfortunately, both of them come as video files. Although I managed to extract the video and create an MP3, the quality is pretty bad. :-( So, I'm not posting the audio for these.....

Lastly, a video of Jonny Ragga's track, "Abshewi." Although there is a burgeoning reggae scene in Ethiopia (almost exclusively in Addis), there is very little released music available. Jonny Ragga is practically a house hold name there. His record, "Give me the key," on Mango Records, can be found from most street vendors and record shops. Here's an MP3 of "Give me the key," the video clip of which can also be found on youtube. This is a 192kbps rip. Sorry for the digital hiccough at the beginning. The original CD has the same thing.....

A busca periférica de sons periféricos

2008-01-08T11:07:00.000-02:00

Following the lead of DJ /rupture and Wayne&Wax, here is the complete text of Camilo Rocha's interview with me (while I was in Ethiopia recently) for an article in the Folha de São Paulo. As Camilo noted in his comments on Wayne&Wax's page, the resulting aticle was a somewhat superficial look at "Globalista Ghettotech International Urban whatever whatever music culture," mainly do to lack of space. But, hurrah! This is one of the first attempts at covering these topics within the Brazilian media, which on the whole, isn't very open to covering underground, peripheral issues locally and especially not on an international level. I also feel that it's an extremely pertinent discussion for that Brazilian music scene, which, while often on the exploited end of things, is also on the exploiting end of things (even within the same scene, i.e. baile funk and hip hop, or for that matter, the burgeoning ragga/dub scene and the techno brega movement in Belem do Pará).

Sorry, anglophones, but it's in portuguese.....guess you'll have to run it through the babelfish thang.....and, just in case you're wondering, that's Marcelinho FROM the Moon, not Marcelinho THE Moon. ;-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CR - O que vc está fazendo na Etiópia?

MB - Acabei de fazer som direto para um documentário sobre o lobo etíope nas montanhas Bale no sul de Etiópia. Uma grande parte das minhas viagens são financiadas pelos trabalhos que eu faço como técnico de som. Depois do trabalho remunerado, eu fico um tempo sozinho para pesquisar a música, conheçer músicos, gravar, produzir e fazer colaborações. Hoje é o meu primeiro dia sozinho (como produtor músical) em Addis Ababa e estou começando correr atrás uns músicos já indicados pelos amigos. Eu pretendo gravar com uns músicos tradicionais e talvez uns MCs de ragga, mas o meu foco principal é para pesquisar a música etiópe.

CR - Quais foram suas últimas viagens musicais?

MB - Escutar Jon Hassell e Brian Eno em quando eu estava sobrevoando o oceano atlântico para África. ;-) Senegal, Marrocos, Zanzibar, África do Sul - os resultados vão sair no meu disco chamado "Archipelagoes," que vai ser lançado na Soot Records (do DJ /rupture) em janeiro.

CR - Como vc começou a se interessar por sons e ritmos de diversos lugares do mundo?

MB - Acredito que foi atraves dos festivais no meio dos anos 80 em Seattle, quando eu vi as performances de King Sunny Ade, Sonny Okosuns, Thomas Mapfumo, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, e outros. Ao mesmo tempo, estava tocando batera numa banda de punk hardcore e mergulhando no mundo de reggae. Quase toda semana tinha uma banda jamaicana tocando por aí. Virei mestre de furar as boates e bares (ainda não tinha 21 anos) ou escalar muros e grades para entrar sem pagar. Nessa epoca, eu começei ouvir hip hop tambem. Mixtapes com Mantronix e Run DMC. Começei ver que todo tipo de música é interconectada. Aos 18 anos fiz minha primeira viagem sozinho para Jamaica. Queria conheçer Reggae Sunsplash, fumar um, ir a praia e sei lá...... O que aconteceu foi que o meu mundo mudou completamente. Descobrí que mesmo que a música é uma idioma universal, tambem é uma idioma com sutilezas locais que só podem ser melhor entendidas dentro dos contextos originais.

CR - Como é sua relação com os músicos/produtores com quem trabalha pelo mundo? Como faz o contato? Que acordo tem para pagamentos e direitos autorais?

MB - A maioria das pessoas com quem eu trabalho são indicadas pelos amigos ou cuja música já conheço e admiro. Eu simplesmente vou me apresentando para as pessoas que eu acho interessante. É tudo muito casual. A amizade e afinidade vem muito antes dos negocios. Se não rolar um vibe legal, a música não rola. Todos meus trabalhos são parceirias onde os direitos autorais e qualquer pagamento no futuro são divididos igualmente. Com músicos que não são envolvidos no processo de composição e apenas estão interpretando, eu pago um cachê e/ou faço uma gravação ou produção em troco. Tem muito pouco dinheiro envolvido e é necessário ser muito criativo em utilizar os recursos disponíveis. Por exemplo, a maioria das minhas produções são gravadas em hoteis baratos ou nas casas dos músicos e frequentamente com equipamento emprestado.

CR - Que projetos vc está fazendo no Rio atualmente?

MB - O Rio é onde eu produzo, componho e cuido dos meus trabalhos. No momento estou preparando pro lançamento do meu disco que vai sair em janeiro na Soot, criando batidas para o meu próximo disco que vai ser 100% em parceiria com músicos cariocas e administrando a transição de um programa online de música brasileira que eu tenho produzido há uns anos. Alem de tudo isso, fiz uma proposta para dar aulas sobre produção digital na sede de Afroreggae em Parada de Lucas que devem começar ano que vem.

CR - Pq resolveu morar no Rio? Qdo veio morar aqui? O que gosta na cidade?

MB - Me mudei pro Rio em 1999 e me amarro. Agradeço todo dia por ter o previlegio de poder morar no Rio. Estava fugindo da chuva e frio de Seattle e a falta de uma cena músical interessante (não sou roqueiro). Estava buscando uma cidade grande, perto do mar, com floresta, clima tropical, música boa onde eu me sentí em casa. Achei tudo isso.

CR - Vc toca bastante no Rio? Como é a aceitação dos brasileiros para a mistura musical que vc faz?

MB - Fora de tocar na festa de Digitaldubs de vez em quando, eu toco muito raramente no Brasil. Muito infelizmente. Não tenho achado uma grande receptividade pro meu trabalho no Rio ou no Brasil em geral. Parece que eu tô sempre fora das padrões do mercado. Não toco o mesmo estilo a noite toda. É dificil descrever o que eu faço e nada disso facilita bookings. Conheço a maioria das pessoas envolvidas nas cenas de hip hop, DnB, reggae e dub (faço um pouco de todos esses estilos) e me identifico com elas, mas não me sinto que eu faço parte das cenas delas. Se eu não tenho sentido uma aceitação do publico, na mesma medida, eu tenho achado uma boa recepção na parte dos músicos que sempre são mais antenados e abertas em geral. Umas das pessoas com quem eu tenho colaborado são o BNegão, Mr. Catra, Speed Freaks, Marcelo Yuka, Pivete, Marcelinho da Lua, Digitaldubs e Marechal.

CR - Como vê essa popularização do "global ghettotech" (como o chamou Wayne&Wax)? Pq há tanto interesse e projeção desses estilos nos últimos anos?

MB - Acho bom e ruim ao mesmo tempo. É um sinal de que há um interesse em conheçer "o outro" que é bom, mas ao mesmo tempo, muitas vezes rola uma objetificação e exotização que dificulta conhecimento de verdade. Mas, acho que essa parte ruim faz parte do processo de culturas se encontrar e começar interagir. Batidas eletrônicas são os pontos de encontro. É o campo onde todo mundo pode se entender. O computador, que já foi chamado do primeiro "universal folk instrument," é acessível ao todo mundo. Então, o volume de música produzida que pode ser encaixada nesse "global ghettotech" está aumentando no mundo todo e a morte das gravadoras tradicionais e o crescimento da distribuição de música no internet estão ajudando essa popularização.

CR - Muita gente vê com desconfiança a idéia de músicos estrangeiros pegando a música brasileira e a exportando. O que vc acha disso?

MB - A exportação de música sem dar credito e/ou pagamento pro artista é, obviamente, sempre errada, mas, desconfiança de que exatamente? Da qualidade do resultado? De ser uma forma de roubo cultural? Acho ridiculo. Vamos falar, então, do inverso - do hip hop brasileiro, reggae brasileiro ou agora, tem pessoas até fazendo dubstep brasileiro. Todas esses estilos estão sendo exportados pro Brasil e estão ficando brasileirados. E, a maioria foram, são, e vão ser, pobre imitações. Mas, que beleza!! Vamos lá!! É assim que a música desenvolve, evolue e cresce. E, é a mesma coisa com o samba gringo. Na maioria das vezes, é simplificado até o ponto de ser uma bobagem, uma piada, mas quase sem exeção, é atraves de imitação que novos estilos e inovações surgem. O espírito da música não tem dono.

CR - Que sons, DJs, produtores e artistas tem empolgado você ultimamente?

MB - Acho a cumbia muito interessante. É muito maleável e aberta. Capaz de absorvir quase qualquer estilo e manter a identidade dela. Sou fã de Z'Africa Brasil pelos flows legais e batidas diferentes e muito brasileiras. Boxcutter, Benga e Jahcoozi pelas produções inovadoras. O disco do The Refugee All Stars é bonito pra caramba, muito astral.

Good Copy Bad Copy

2007-12-28T18:10:00.000-02:00

Just found out (thanks to Camilo Rocha for the tip! - check the Techno Brega) about "Good Copy Bad Copy," a documentary by Danish directors Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke, dealing with issues of copyright, piracy and sampling culture. Filmed in the USA, Nigeria, Brazil, Sweden and Russia, it has interviews with Lawrence Lessig, GirlTalk, DJ Dangermouse, and others. It's light but serious, fun and important. It's a free download and well worth watching.

Modern Traditional Amharic Music

2007-12-20T14:42:00.000-02:00

Some "modern traditional" Amharic music I got in Addis Ababa. On my first record buying excursion in Addis, I was really disappointed by what I heard at the record shops. Fortunately, most of the shops are very helpful, friendly and willing to play samples of CDs. I was disappointed with the production - the preset sounds, the looped beats with very little variation, the fake saxophones and electric pianos and cheesy sound effects. After spending some weeks riding in local minibuses, taxis and buses, I gained a new perspective on this "modern traditional" music - it sounds TOTALLY different coming out of a crackling and distorted speaker while cruising around Addis (or while chewing chat on bus headed for Harar for that matter). A cheap and easy subsitute for travelling all the way to Ethiopia to hear it in context maybe to plug your CD player into a distortion pedal, close your eyes and will yourself to Piassa........

I don't know the artist, title or album of either of these tracks - I can't read Amharic........so, I'm just including the covers and tracklists. Track 9 from the above CD and it's released on the Picolo Music label. Track 3 from the CD below (auto-tune set to pentatonic!) is released on the Master Sounds label.

If there is somebody out there who reads Amharic and would be willing to enlighten me as to the names of the tracks and artists, I'd be very grateful! Thanks!

Masinqo; Interview with Eritbu Agegnehu Askenaw

2007-12-19T13:28:00.000-02:00

I've just completed another mini-documentary/interview..........this time on Eritbu Agegnehu Askenaw aka Solomon, who is an azmari based in Addis Ababa and has a residency at the club Duka in the Kazanthis neighborhood. You can hear the audio only version of his performance in yesterday's post.

Ethiopia

2007-12-11T19:52:00.000-02:00

Beyaynet - I wished that everyday was wednesday or friday.
I've spent the last 5 weeks or so in Ethiopia doing location sound for a documentary on the Ethiopian Wolf, producing, recording and researching music and making another of my own mini-documentaries (will post soon!).
Eritbu Agegnehu Askenaw

This is a track that I recorded with Eritbu Agegnehu Askenaw aka Solomon in Addis Ababa. This is from the recording for the mini-doc. Solomon is an azmari, or minstrel, who plays in a club called Duka in the Kazanthis neighborhood of Addis. I'd been invited by a friend to go to Duka and we had arranged to meet there. I showed up on time and waited and waited and waited. My friend never showed up and in the meantime, Solomon focused most of his attention on me, making jabs and jokes in English and a LOT of stuff in Amharic that went completely over my head and had everybody else there laughing their heads off. And, looking at me.....

Anyway, we had a chat afterwards and he turned out to be incredibly sweet and open to recording and doing a small interview. That, I'll post soon.....for now, have a listen to his track......

Não se acostume como esse cotidiano violento, não!

2007-09-29T15:07:00.000-03:00

"Não se acostume com esse cotidiano violento,
esta não é a minha vida,
esta não é a sua vida."
"Don't get used to this everyday violence,
this is not my life,
this is not your life."
- Raçionais MCs in "A Formula Mágica da Paz" from Sobrevivendo no Inferno.

I saw this written on the back of someone's shirt in the metrô the other day and realized just how pervasive it is to get accustomed to violence. Surrounded by it everyday - wherever you are - in the media, in the newspaper, in music, in cinema, in our language, in our governments, our police, our neighbors, our families, and within ourselves.

I went up to the baile in Cantagalo the other night to say hello my man, Sany Pitbull ( He's gotta be one of the sweetest guys on the planet.). Then, I took my usual walk around to check things out. On the upper balcony, a couple guys moved away and I took their place at the railing to get a better view of the baile. Before I knew it, I was being forcefully pushed out of the way by a guy with a big handgun sticking out of the waist of his pants. He moved in and sat on the railing to role a multi-paper joint. At the time, I didn't really think much of it. He was just a traficante exercising his privilege and position.

I am choosing to illustrate this incident for three reasons. First, it is an example of how power, authority or position can enable us to behave in a subtly violent way, which perpetuates and supports violence on a larger scale. Second, it shows an incident within the stereotypically demonized context of a baile funk, which actually happens all the time, all over the place, all over the world and in all stratum of society. The gun is only an inconsequential prop. As they say, "o pobre rouba e o resto desvia (the poor rob, while the rest merely divert funds)." Third, because it illustrates (albeit in a very literal sense) how violence is self-medicating. It occurs in a manner which is just sufficiently self-aware to seek to cover up (or hide from) its effects. To get used to it. We are all guilty of this perpetuating violence in this way.

A few weeks ago, 10 armed, masked men entered a building on Rua Piragibe Frota Aguiar (one block from my house), which is just at the beginning of the road leading up to Cantagalo, and assaulted the residents of 2 different apartments. 2 of the doormen and the wife of one of them were tied up and locked in the garbage collection area of the building while the third porteiro was forced to greet arriving residents where they were then assaulted by the bandits.

When it was discovered that one of the residents was a doctor for the PM (Polícia Militar), the robbers tortured her, using pliers to pull out her teeth and fingernails.
The next day, 50 Military Police invaded Cantagalo with the objective of catching those responsible. The police never said how they knew that the robbers were at Cantagalo. After several hours of intense shooting, they came down the hill after having killed 2 suspects, arrested 6, seized multiple guns (one of which was a PM issue with the serial number scraped off....), a large quantity of marijuana and cocaine in small sacks, money, jewelry.
Then, to top it off, the police said (O Globo Online) that their actions reflected the desires of society.

Anyway, just some thoughts I had while on the metrô......

Maga Bo North America Tour!

2007-09-27T12:51:00.000-03:00

New York CityOctober 4 Mehanata aka The Bulgarian Bar, New York City, NY with Joroboro.

October 5 Fiesta Soot at The Bowery Poetry Club, New York City, NY with DJ /rupture, Filastine, Matt Shadetek, Geko Jones and Reaganomics.
October 6 Pop Montreal at Coda Club, Montreal, Quebec with DJ /rupture, Filastine and Masala.
October 9 Bouncement at Sonotheque, Chicago, IL with DJ C, Murderbot, Zebo and Zulu on the mic.
October 11 Baltic Room, Seattle, WA with DJ Collage.
October 12 Madrone Lounge, San Francisco, CA with Janaka Selekta and The Worker.
October 13 Atlas at Holocene, Portland, OR with Anjali, The Incredible Kid and E3.
October 15 Beat Research at the Enormous Room, Boston, MA with Wayne&Wax and DJ Flack.

Pop Montreal

Bouncement in Chicago

Interview with Xuman and Keyti

2007-09-10T18:52:00.000-03:00

My mini-documentary based on interviews with Xuman, from Pee Froiss, and Keyti from Dakar All Stars and R.A.P.A.D.I.O. It covers hip hop and language in Senegal, sampling, cultural exchange and beyond.... Filmed in Dakar in August, 2007.

Xuman has a new record out called "Gunman." You can also check his website.

Keyti is currently at work on his solo record. Photo by Sandy Haessner

Omar Souleyman - Leh Jani

2007-08-27T15:31:00.000-03:00

My new favorite song. And a video to go with it.....

Originally released on cassette in Syria, this was re-released on CD on Sublime Frequencies. There is a pretty comprehensive bio on the youtube page. Apparently, he just relocated to Columbus, Ohio. His myspace page is classic - obviously, it's the music that matters. ;-) Thanks to Ramesh for the tip!

Record Shopping in Casablanca

2007-08-20T19:39:00.000-03:00

On the way back from Dakar, I had 9 hours in Casablanca before catching a flight to Lisbon. I spent the day walking around the Ancient Medina in search of small CD/cassette/DVD shops. I found lots of pirate materials as well as original discs. most of the pirated stuff was local Moroccan stuff. I even found a copied version of Bigg's (he's one of the guys on my newest record) newest record with a photo that I took during our recording session in 2005 on the cover. Nice. Pirate discs were going for 15 dirhams/1.5 euros or originals for 20 dh. Here is an interesting gnawa hip hop track from the pirate comp, "Raiss Tijanni; Morrocan [sic] Hip-Hop & Rap 2007" ......track 18 (there is no artist name or song title on the cover). I think it's Fnaire. name checks cheb i sabbah.....oh and according to a shouting voice in the background says that it's a remix....and this, a samba-esque cheesy drum machine/live druming thing that does some cool stuff, from a CD entitled, "Derbouka" (again, there is no artist or song information). You can find more photos on my flickr site.