WEST AFRICAN APHASIA AND THE BROOKLYN NIGHT

The (admittedly loose) theme of yesterday’s radio show was West African Aphasia – songs whose titular information was missing, largely due to bad xerox CD-r packaging.

Bootleg african CDs go for around $2 each up in Harlem – VERY AFFORDABLE.

here’s some soukous from Afro-Rhythme’s Soukouss Vibration vol. 6. The back info is illegible, the front simply says “Ancien Combattant”, with an image of a sun setting over miles of ocean… but the image has been copied so much (or so badly) that it now looks like a nuclear explosion over a dark, blood-red sea.

[audio:soukouss_vibration_excerpt.mp3]

Soukouss Vibration – tracks 5 + 6 soukouss medley

this Saturday I’ll be dropping beats late (like 3:30am) at the Lose Yr Sh1t! Brooklyn loft party, alongside dutty hermano Geko Jones, and $mall Change & co. Party goes til the sun returns, apparently there’s a nice roofdeck, etc.

Fact is, when you DJ late at a loft party, the guidelines and expectations – already loose – become looser; expect surprises. Plus its my b-day 2 days later so, as Lil Jon says, “Yeeeaaah”.

LYS eflyer

MAGA BO ON THE HUDSON

I miss NYC’s tropical months – Britain is cold and grey. Today (Friday) JD & I will be warming tings up in Belfast while bredren Maga Bo rocks New York City’s legendary @ Turntables on the Hudson, accompanied by special guest Blanquito Man pon di mic. Blanquito Man featured in Celso Pina’s cumbia-dub-crossover MEGAHIT ‘Sobre el Rio’, which appeared not only in the ‘Americans, don’t leave home!’ movie Babel, but also on every subsequent cumbia mixtape of Mexican extraction. Just the other day I was listening to one and thinking to myself, wow this is so great, they havent used ‘Sobre el Rio’, then 3 minutes later it came in… at least it gets the chopped & screwed rebajada-ed treament:

[audio:Choppaholix – Choppacumbia – Track17.mp3]

Celso Pina – Sobre El Rio (Choppaholix edit)

Maga Bo is about to release an album on Soot called Archipelagoes and its a whopper. He also bunkered up with us to produce and record several tunes on Jah Dan’s forthcoming album.

here’s the 2nd video from Archipelagoes. this tune stars all-female Dakar crew A.L.I.F. He explained the lyrics to me, i think they’re talking about how awesome they are.

SAKHODOUGOU

[audio:08_Kakande_Dununya.mp3]

Kakande – Dununya (from Dununya)

nowadays, cello to balafon, Brooklyn.

and then, guitar as balafon, 1970s Guinea.

[audio:13_Balla et ses Balladins_Sakhodougou.mp3]

Balla et ses Balladins – Sakhodougou (from The Syliphone Years, buyable here or here)

 

You can think about a song – a good song – as a miraculous moment when all the dissonances that frame a person’s life drop out of sight long enough to see how it looks without them. So when a band you like hits that groove, sometimes all you can do is listen, because that moment will be leaving.

AFRICAN CIA

TOURIST. NATIVE. BOY. GIRL. the poverty of either/or


you make a border real by policing it

“Interdependency cannot be reduced to a mere question of mutual enslavement*. It also consists in creating a ground that belongs to no one, not even to the ‘creator’ … Essential difference allows those who rely on it to rest reassuringly on its gamut of fixed notions. Any mutation in identity, in essence, in regularity, and even in physical place poses a problem, if not a threat, in terms of classification and contrl. If you can’t locate the other, how are you to locate your-self?” – Trinh T. Minh-Ha

* although this has its perks

africa migration

Some CIA affiliates came to the Fiesta Soot in Paris and gave me incredible music. CIA = Clan des Indigènes Accablés of United States of Africa = WOW now synthy-grimey African beat manifestations. Boomeranged to the back of yr head via velocities emanating outward from Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) and Paris (Sarkoziland) for the summer. we are all in Babylon Residence.

[audio:hard_nasty.mp3]

Nasty – Jreste une Hard

[audio:manusa_jfuck.mp3]

Manusa – Jfuck

the comp these are from is available as a free download, creative-commons-licensed: CIA History Part 2.

Stay loud, stay free, stay interpenetrated & (at least) three.

ciahpart2ciahpart2

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

+ + +

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.

RADIO & LOW-SLUNG MIXES

today’s show will be from 6-8pm! i’m sick but 7 Second Delay is sicker, so i’ll be filling in for their slot. next week: special guest MAGA BO. click for his North American tour dates.

here’s the first of 3 DIY on-location videos Maga Bo did for his upcoming album (myspace for preview), this one in Dakar with Xuman of Pee Froiss fame:

[youtube: Maga Bo – Fire ft. Xuman]

& 2 low-end mixes, fresh from my inboxxx:

Squinchy Jones – Nintendub (a dubstep / rap / 8bit mix from Houston )

Ruff E Nuff – untitled 6th birthday mix (dancehall / raggajungle/ dubstep / rap crew mix, shout to Geroyche)

FADE TO AFRICA

 

blklogofacesco0

Hello kitty kitty kitty … Are you an orphan? Are you Sudanese? Chadian? Are you a sub-Saharan African suffering from mild mental retardation? Are you an African woman suffering from the African male? Would you like an Oxfam biscuit? Organic antiretrovirals? Have you been raped? You might not know it, but you are an orphan, a refugee. Can we fly 103 of you to France to be loved? We can breastfeed you. We can make you a Darfur orphan. Even if you are not. If you are black and under 10 years old, please come talk to us.
Come kitty kitty.

— Binyavanga Wainaina, from “Oxfamming the whole black world

plus

i’ll be dropping a guest DJ set @ The Let Out w/ The Fader crew on East Village Radio tonite (friday), sometime in the 2nd half of the show, which runs 6-8pm. This is a warmup. I’ll be playing all African jams. Warming up for what? the Fader Africa issue release party!! – details & date said quietly, but: Johannesburg’s Blk Jks (an African ‘rock’ band who sound waaay better than all the ‘African-sounding’ rock bands), Eddie Stats , me, and more…

[Blk Jks “Lakeside” video]

AWESOME TAPES FROM AFRICA (VIA WFMU)

a big shout to The Fader, who reminded me that tonite’s special guest on my radio show is Brian from the Awesome Tapes From Africa blog. (yeah, i’m in France, and kinda sick too; he was kind enough to come down a few weeks ago & pre-record the show).

Brian is super-knowledgeable about this stuff & has a killer selection in store for us… listen in 15min or catch the archive. PLUS, next week, a live DJ set from Fool’s Gold nonstop DJ-alchemist Nick Catchdubs, fresh from his label’s debut US tour!

MAKING OF

 

magabo-alif

[Maga Bo video shoot w/ ALIF, Waru Studio]

Maga Bo video shoot! (2nd post there, i can’t direct link)

MB also contributed a great photo-essay for an XLR8R article on ‘New Whirled World Music’ (profiling him, Diplo, and a few others), the issue is downloadable.

speaking of soot-style, La Fiesta Soot in NYC will happen on Oct. 5 at the Bowery Poetry Club w/ sound reinforced by Funkworthy FM’s reggae system. In addition to Filastine, Maga Bo, and myself, there will be sets by Matt Shadetek (spinning 100% Eurotrance!) and Reaganomics.

I would post the flyer but i can’t find my designer, so it doesn’t exist yet. Are you my designer?

 

magabo-alif2

[Maga Bo video shoot: ALIF]


magabo-car