Month: May 2008

SUMMER MIX, GNAWA, GONG

okay, its only late May, so other contenders will surely emerge. But for now – mix of summer! Chief Boima & Sogui So Good : Baobab Connection vol. 2. thanks Lamin!, who posts some excerpts & writes: “Boima continues with his versions and refixes, and Sogui So Good picks up right where Boima left, proceeding to drop straight dance floor pleasing jams that will make the staunchest African two-stepper actually shake his bones, rather than just sway from side to side.”

bc2covernn8

[c’est un monde de l’photoshop]

several folks have asked me about the Gnawa Diffusion album Bab El Oued Kingston (containing sample-source for Trim’s “Thief in the Night”) – it’s well-down gnawa fusion – especially the 2nd half – with a few excursions into chaabi territory like in “Gazel au fond de la nuit”. The singer’s voice shines throughout.

[audio:Gnawa_Diffusion_Syndikaina.mp3]

Gnawa Diffusion – Syndikaina

GnawaDiffusion

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Hyssop posts the sample-source for Nas’ Oochie Wally – turns out it’s Gong!! – alongside an excerpt from my related Gold Teeth Thief mix moment.

TROPICAL SUBSTITUTE DATA

i will not be at this party (Jahdan & I will be throwing down in Madrid then). but the last one was FUN, CONSENSUS FUN. June 6th, Glasslands, Brooklyn. Soot & Dutty Artz present:june6

& if I were there I’d play this song

[audio:Celso_Pina_Cumbia_Engolilla.mp3]
Celso Pi̱a РCumbia Engolilla

and a bit later on, same production crew helping out,

[audio:Julieta_Venegas_Eres_para_mi(SonideroNacionalCumbowRmx).mp3]
Julieta Venegas ft. Anita Tijoux – Eres Para Mi (Sonidero Nacional cumbow rmx)

Venegas knows not to argue with the wind. Geko tipped my hand on this remix of the Mexican pop star.

Julieta Venegas-Limon Y Sal-Frontal

UPCOMING

nearly forgot! – I’ll by DJing at Remor in Girona (Barcelona) this Saturday May 24, and then on Saturday May 31 I’ll be at the Novara Jazz Festival in Italy, and the Saturday after that you can catch me live featuring Jahdan Blakkamoore at Madrid’s La Casa Encendida for only 3 euros!

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& now for youtube:

turntable rebajada from Sonido Martines. I like this one because the visuals are as simple as the rebajada itself – yet more disorienting. Andres Landero ground down to 33.

… which leads us to a cumbia utopia – in the sense of an impossible, impossibly pleasant location. I’m not just referring to the pretty girls dressed in haltertops or asymetrical synthetics who are dancing on a computer-generated plane with that radiant horseshoe crab in the foreground as brass notes flare near a pre-peak-oil fantasy truck sold on eBay by Mad Max, now sober, turned beekeeper to support his love of honey – although that is a part of it. There is also a sense of rescuing. And, as always, the cumbia itself. Herself? Spanish, a gendered language.

BAGHDAD, NEW MEXICO

baghdad.jpg

[audio:Rahim_Alhaj_Baghdad_New_Mexico.mp3]
Rahim al-Haj – Baghdad, New Mexico

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On the CD’s back cover Bill Frisell says “I hope many people will have the chance to hear his new album, Home Again, made up of his own very personal compositions.” But despite the ominous signs, it’s not a bad album. Solo oud with plenty of strumming, downright banjoesque at times.

Forged endorsement is an interesting concept. Let’s save that for another post. Also, we’re starting a blog about ___ that will be bilingual, despite the fact i’m a lazy and unfaithful translator.

haj photo
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Andy was the first person to ask me about the last song featured in Masala’s post, which I hadn’t recognized when I first heard it, Do You Think I’m Sexy version from Sonido’s Rebajadas mix. Since then a lot of people have asked.

ALLO BAMAKO / GAZA AUTO-TUNE

Mode Raw is blogging over at Dutty Artz! check his Gaza Thugs post on “auto-tune gun ballads” in Kingston, that mixtape is craziness.

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allo bamako

following the Mande Variations piece, here’s some more Malian music. I’m embedding this using a different ‘content delivery system’, let me know if this is an improvement. I think it’s easier to stream/pause?

[audio:Djelimady_Tounkara_Affair_Social.mp3]

Djelimady Tounkara – Affair Social

When my neighbor attempts to sing opera, I reach for this. 70s sweetness from Djelimady Tounkara & the Super Rail Band. It’s from a new label, Oriki, buyable.

VIVA EL GUINCHO

el guincho

[El Guincho in his BCN apartment with girlfriend, Fader 54]

A feature article I wrote on Spanish musician El Guincho is in the current issue of Fader magazine – look for Aaliyah gracing the cover.

It’s downloadable (Fader 54 – PDF, my piece starts on page 57), but I encourage you to seek out the print version, as your computer monitor can’t do justice to the photography therein…

Shout to D.Watts, our Canary Islands pointman, who tipped me off about the Guinch waaay before everybody, and hats off to Fader familia, who gave me the go-ahead to write a (lengthy) piece on him well before the interwebs hype (or XL signing!!) happened.

& then there’s Aaliyah.. aah! We breathe a collective sigh.

f54cover cover

SAATCHI GAVE ME HIS CREDIT CARD

visa-home-equity

Saatchi gave me his credit card. Visa Platinum. “You’re poor Rupture,” he said. “Take this. Buy anything you want. It’ll turn into art.”

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If I’m gonna be rich, I’ve gotta be open-minded – Wiley ‘Living in London’

Wiley – Where You Gonna Run To? (produced by Wiley)

Grime Wave, on first listen great – all new tunes to my ears – the most cohesive Wiley CD release to date? Wiley cares more about his individual vision than making money, is unruly in business, seems compulsively himself. “On this album, I put a hundred percent in / so if I sell a hundred thousand, you know I meant it… I was getting held back so I left Big Dada.” (Big Dada is one of his former labels.)

plus

Wiley – Wearing My Rolex (pirate soundsystem bassline mix)

the Grime Wave CD is buyable, sort of.

gw mgw m

SONIDEROS LISTEN UP

For his recent Europe tour, Sonido Martines re-booted 2 cumbia mix CDs he was involved with, Las Rebajadas Van A Brooklin and La Sonidera Colombiana. I snagged a few copies for the curious…

[Vampiros]

they come with color inserts in a slimline case, CD-r w/ color label. (Harlem hiphop mix style)

LA SONIDERA COLOMBIANA ORTO SABOR VAM. DJ

La Sonidera Colombiana: a 71 minute mix of upbeat new cumbia by DJ Vampiros – Highly Awesome!! Tracklist legible in the album artwork scan below.

U.S. people – $8 which includes shipping: SOLD OUT!!

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rest of world – $9.50 which include shipping: SOLD OUT!!!

LA SONIDERA COLOMBIANA ORTO SABOR VAM. DJ

Sonido Martines says: “En los mercados de buenos aires donde se comercializan copias en cdr y mixtapes de djs cumbieros, principalmente la feria de bajo flores y la salada (entre muchos otros) suele escucharse en los parlantes el pisatemas de “vampiros dee jay” en muchos de los puestos. Sus mezclas, que suelen referirse a un estilo en particular por cd, se han difundido mucho en los ultimos años. Con este esperado mixtape vampiros propone mezclar barrios y contextos latinoamericanos muy similares pero desconocidos entre si, barrios entre los que los gigas de data suelen viajar mas en buses que por el p2p. Desde nueva cumbia argentina, cumbia villera, mashups de barrios altos hasta sonideras mejicanas de estados unidos y edits oscuros rebajados y clasicos colombianos, la sonidera colombiana es sin duda una impecable manera de mezclar los sonidos del gigante cumbiero continental.”(i’ll translate this soon….)

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REBAJADAS VAN BROOKLIN

Las Rebajadas Van a Brooklin first aired on my radio show. It’s a long half-hour of that slowed-down syrupy cumbia sound we love.

U.S. people – $8 which includes shipping: SOLD OUT

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rest of world – $9.50 which includes shipping: SOLD OUT!

CHARTRES-TOPPER

in addition the 2nd day of Musique Action tonite, a last-minute Rupture solo DJ set will go down in Chartes (Orleans) tomorrow, and I’ll rejoin The Ex + Getatchew Saturday in Kortrijk, Belgium.

Outside our hotel there’s a Turkish restaurant where they’re listening to music on the room speakers & simultaneously blasting saz pieces from laptop’s YouTube link.

Expect more polyrhythm/cacaophony as our attention spans shatter along digital fault-lines.

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havent had time to listen, but: new Boy Better Know mixtape, as blogged by Prancehall, who also knows.

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the cumbia bug is infectious! Time to release more spores:

Afrosound – Ponchito de Colores

I’ve got multiple versions of this song, here’s the weirdest one– whoop whoop, plus someone quacks the bassline. This version is by Afrsound (thanks Sonido). All the others are from Ecuator. At this moment, a stronger blogger could resist the urge for ‘cute alpaca foto’…

Alpacas-Andes-Ecuador-Photographic-Print-C13062736
…as it’s downright SUMMERY in France, time for a romantic cumbia sonidera from the kung-fu-influenced Mexican-Peruvian Grupo Ginnsu outta NUEVA YORK, with wah on the guitar. (Ginnsu’s website is noisy but kinda crazy.)

Grupo Ginnsu – Cumbia de los Patos

(“Ducks’ cumbia”? am i missing something?)

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