Not a combination you often hear but it all works out real nice. DigitalDubs, who I first heard here are a the first ever full pelt dub soundsystem from Rio. Funk Carioca breaks clashing with massive Jamaican basslines. Their latest Funk Milk riddim features loads of awesome MCs like MC Catra to Rankin Joe from Brazil, Jamaica and the UK, and is particularly heavy. Its out now to buy. Also check out their new 7" on Man Recordings featuring MC Duda Do Borel. Here is an exclusive track from Funk Milk for Ghetto Bassquake featuring the UK's legendary Tippa Irie.
Chase & Status first came to my attention a few years ago when I came acrossBlowtorch while on a grime hunt in East London. It sounded like the Taliban making dark 4x4 Narrowsesque garage. Incredible. Now they are dropping prolapse inducing Indian dubstep.
People say that 2012 will be a year of transformation. Scientists are trying to create Black Holes to answer some questions about where we come from that have the potential to send us back there. We've created monster hurricanes that have shown the worst in our own humanity and our leaders'. Ivorians made a song and dance about Bird Flu (video above.) Everyone seems to be scared of Sarah Palin.
The end of the world has been our minds since we got on it. These guys made a song, and I remixed it:
Also featured this addition is Chancha via Circuito of Zizek crew up in Buenos Aires. His hypnotic Cumbia has been floating around the net for awhile, so now you can capture it in physical form for your turntable!
Pic: San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua from Vamanos Flickr
What happens when musicians don't just sing about rebel movements. They actually ARE the rebels.
When I started this blog I was thinking alot about revolutionary music. I'm not talking about Bob Marley, Public Enemy, The Clash or Rage Against the Machine - all amazing artists but real revolutionary music.
No doubt that much of the music covered on this blog is feet first party music, straight up booty & bass. Often developing from impoverished communities in recent political and social instability where music has become a channel for escape. But I still have an enormous respect for artists that call for, demand change. Music can be a gift AND a weapon.
Carlos Mejía Godoy is a Nicaraguan singer songwriter and was a strong supporter of the Sandinista revolutionary party (FSLN) that overthrew the Contra (CIA) backed Somoza regime in the 1980s. So much so, that some of his lyrics were instrumental in the Sandinista rebels forwarding their course. His songs weren't just tributes to fallen insurgent soldiers but sometimes instructions on rebel techniques, how to clean a rifle, or simply funny lyrics laughing at the enemy.
The Sandinsitas were mostly young campesinos, country kids thrust into war out of necessity and survival, to protect their own land and freedom. The guitar and accordion became a way of uniting companeros in a musically enriched rebellion, spreading military instruction and the overall fight for freedom.
Carlos & Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy - Raiti Bocay
There are few comparisons to be drawn with baile funk, kuduro, cumbia, grime etc.. but its sometimes good to think about the real situations that these artists are up against as we download their latest bangers through the comfort of our broadband. Everyone knows the best music often comes from emotions of rage, frustration and anger. I'm not saying every artist is knee deep in a hellish civil war but there is an unmistakable urgency in many of these sounds.
On that, its kuduro time.
DJ Zizisso - The Revolution 2008
Peep some amazing photos of the Sandinistas at Marcelo Montecino's Flickr.
The Homie Uproot Andy just released a mixtape. I've been really feelin' his remixes of Afro Columbian tunes, and when we met up in NY, he put me on to some real dope original Afro Colombian folk tracks.
The mix is called Guacharaca Migration. He told me that the instrument Guacharaca (what you here as a main percussive instrument in Cumbia/Vallenato) was named after a bird in Colombia and made to sound like the bird's call. The title is great (animals to instruments to computers) and LOL at the intro where you can here the original bird call makin' a real nice Cumbia groove. Click on album artwork below to download:
Plus, I am super gladee for him let me post some un dj-mixed tracks up here. First is his Merengue/Soca/Roots Reggae remix of Kingston Town by Albarosie.
And here is a remix of Aki Special by African Highlife royalty, Prince Nico Mbarga, with the original so you can be the life of your next West African dance party.
There's something about African Reggae that, when you listen to it abroad, it makes you feel like you're instantly being transported to Africa.
Just listen to these tracks by the African Reggae Masters:
Alpha Blondy
Lucky Dube (R.I.P.)
Tiken Jah Fakoly
Even Akon manages to conjure green gardens and Utopian living with his Mama Africa. Whenever it gets thrown on at a party, and the intro of, "so much, so much, love!" comes on, people go mad with pride, joy, who knows what else emotion.
(The screaming girls get a little much for me.)
That song is not originally Akon's. The person behind it is Hakim, fomerly of The Boys (one of my favorite groups from my flat top days) who are still recording and performing under the name Suns of Light and who in the 90's moved from California to The Gambia. The song, originally titled So Much Love, appeared on their album Millenium Music. I have to say, I'm quite amazed by this group, a real repatriation story, they went from doing New Edition style boy band pop, to doing Roots Reggae, Soul, and Mbalax tunes in The Gambia (although I did see that Hakim and Akon produced a couple tracks on the new NKOTB album.)
Lately I've been feeling that transport feeling from a reggae one drop out of Sierra Leone that really hits that spot where my the pit in my stomach and the bottom of my heart meet. The first track is by Khady Black in collaboration with Suns of Light, and Sierra Leonean singer, Emmerson. Watching You feat. Suns of Light and Emmerson, by Khady Black
Khady Black is currently touring the U.S., England, and Canada, and considers herself a sort of social activist in country that's in dire need of exactly that.
The second is a track by globally minded Alonzo, that perhaps is influenced by Akon, but is Sierra Leone based recording artist on the label Kallboxx Records.
With special guests The Mangrove Steel Band. SEVEN Times winners of the UK Panorama festival. Among many others they have previously played for the Queen!
Other guests include myself.....I haven't played for the Queen though. Well once, but she said wasn't into TROPICAL FIRE !! Too bad your highness, too bad...
Fresh from the Zizek cumbia powerhouse, a hot new mixtape of straight grillin Argentinian parilla heat from El Remolon. One of the more dubbed out minimal electro pioneers of the scene. The album is released this week and live dates in Europe in November.
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