in next weeks’ news– my band Nettle will perform at Berlin’s Transmediale this wednesday jan 31., with renaissance badboy Daniel Perlin on joining us on video.
the night, Crossings, looks promising:The A-Trio (with everyone’s favorite Beiruiti cartoonist/blogger/free improv musico, Mazen Kerbaj), the Sublime Frequencies crew (why yes, SubFreq used my friends’ music and images on their Radio Morocco CD with no attribution or permission or payment whatsoever!), and the Staalplaat Soundsystem.
& i’ll be in Hamburg on Feb 2 (golden pudel. w/ DJ Nron), and Barcelona on Feb 3. Reboot party @ Can Kadena.
here’s a song from Sublime Frequencies’ Choubi Choubi! Folk and Pop Sounds from Iraq compilation. The blown-out cassette compression/distortion gives it a raucous, strangely solid sound. For fans of Muslimgauze! Muslimgauze’s Bryn Jones orientalized the Middle East, yes, but he also fetishized the poor (re)production quality of its cheap tapes, re-creating that sound quality obsessively. The two activities seem related. Ventriloquism. Distortion & distance, tapes loops & tiny strings. I’ve been guilty, too.