Category: st. elsewhere

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]

THE LEAK STARTS HERE

“Doing experimental music is kind of easy. Doing something more joyful is harder.” – Ghislain Poirier

2 weeks from now, Ghis will stop by my radio show while on tour; until then, here’s leaked heat from his brand-new bootleg CD: Bounce Le Remix vol. 3!

Ghislain Poirier – Lil Mama refixxx (320kbps)

of special interest on vol. 3 are some insane soca refixes, although this jam takes the Lip Gloss acapella and adds a riddim as minimal as the original — which necessitates serious focus since the original was just a compressed, brash beat. Ersatz steel drum massive, STAND TALL.

bounce3low2

AWESOME TAPES FROM THAILAND

thaiclassicalmusic

yesterday on the Feb. 20 radio show, Brian of Awesome Tapes From Africa came through (again!) to share an hour’s worth of Thai cassettes from his time there. Lots of nice feedback from this show already. Artwork cover scans.

thaik7

My artist’s talk/lecture at the Eindhoven Univ. of Technology happens today – 8:30, free, followed by a duo set with Andy Moor on guitar. Andy & I just finished editing our upcoming live CD which will be officially released in a few months, containing some pieces from the previous cd-rs and about 30 minutes of unreleased material from 2007 concerts.

over at Dutty Artz, i encourage you to check out this post on ‘The Craziest Riddim’, which is a story about how Team Shadetek’s “Brooklyn Anthem ft 77Klash & Jah Dan” single has gone viral among NYC teens, with no fewer than 66 youtube vids featuring kids dancing to it!!! The seminal one, by Ambush crew (a boy and a girl dancing in some room, with swordplay), has received more youtube hits than the ‘actual’ video for the song itself. Totally unprecedented & awesome, i’ll try to write more on the song’s fantastic migration. Plus i love how the hive mind re-named the instrumental with that super superlative: craziest.

more in a bit. Computer death has put a kink in my mp3 posting.

TRAVEL LOCKDOWN

Sigh.

U.A.E., home of Dubai, sends a tourist to prison for 4 years [BBC]– because he had 0.003g of cannabis stuck to his shoe. At a pre-outrage level, i find it amazing that 0.003g of anything can be legally illegal. As the BBC reports, the mandatory 4-year sentence can be levied to those with bloodstream or urine traces and other micro-amounts (or instrument misreadings!!). I won’t even mention the Swiss doing his 4 years for having breadroll poppyseed crumbs on his clothing etc. Secret Dubai Diary tells it like it (always) is.

Meanwhile George Bush — no stranger to drug & alcohol law evasion — is trying to put armed men on an transatlantic flights [Guardian] and bullying European airlines for other ridiculousness. Anyone who’ll feel safer with a patriotic American cop packing heat on an airplane, please use the emergency exit.

Seriously, as someone who travels a lot and knows many individuals (including some amazing musicians) who simply won’t enter the USA because of the fingerprinting and photos and rigamarole, it is crushing to watch borders tighten, suspicion a coral reef turning us island.

* * *

returning to Dubs: On thursday April 3rd, I will be participate in a panel discussion at Harvard University about “the unique challenges the landscape of places like Dubai present to our ability to talk about or theorize them.” Followed by a low-key afterparty with… Details soon.

Next thursday, feb 21 I’ll be giving a talk on globalization & music at the Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands). followed by a duo set with Andy Moor on guitar.

and on saturday feb 23, i’ll be DJing on a boat in Copenhagen. I’ve never been to Copenhagen! Reports say the boat people are good people. A small crew of New Yorkers are coming out for this, should be lively.

* * *

Yes, DA TV #3 just lept out! This one focuses on Dexplicit, club footage preceding an interview excerpt. i broadcast the interview on my radio show last week [streamable in its entirety, edited podcast version of the show goes out this wed.] Cincinnati listener DJ Empirical taped the show, then removed the most of words and music, leaving us with 2 weird minutes: um, uh, mmm, er.

CANTERURIAS

 

ceciliabarraza

[Cecilia Barraza, foto from ceciliabarraza.com]

Living in Spain you hear flamenco go — or get pushed — in a lot of directions. Few are as enticing as what I’ve been hearing in Peru, via this compilation.

Cecilia Barraza – Canterurias (Songs)

This is beautiful music & I need to know more about it, este criollismo, this Peruvian music that sounds more like sweet, lightly funky flamenco than anything “Afro-“. ¿Alan?

You can buy Afro-Peruvian Classics: Black Soul from Peru as mp3s from Calabash.

“Authentic fun from start to finish– though the last cut, a vanity item from producer David Byrne, is a bit off– his Spanish is… not comfortable.” Thus notes an accurate Amazon reviewer…

AFRICOLOMBIA

 

Cartulas

another big shoutout to our peripatetic South American point-man, Sonido Martines — his latest heads-up comes in the form of a deadly recommendation:

http://africolombia.blogspot.com/

…is EXACTLY the blog I wanted to exist right now, but didnt know existed, until now. The subtitle — Africa – Colombia – Cultura – Música — just about covers it, a treasure trove of mp3s & album cover scans and INFORMATION. Syllart rubbing elbows with Cartegena cumbias & other forms of tropical? si señor. ¡Adelante!

seguimos