Monday 26 March 2007

Was born yesterday, but stayed up all night.

The program this week kicked off with a contribution from the Circus Klezmer, who performed at the Mueca street art festival that took place last weekend in Puerto de la Cruz. Circus Klezmer hail from Barcelona and presented a breath-stealing display, the juggling of balls, bottles, boxes, bodies, acrobatics, crowd participation, along with the entrancing music that is Klezmer, oh yeah, there is a love story in there too. Coped a CD on the way out.

The festival was also a chance to see the optical illusion work of
Eduardo Ruiz. There is no point talking about it, just look for yourself
http://anamorfosiseduardo.blogspot.com/

If there is any excuse to play the music of former Company Flow man El-P, I am there…last week saw the release of his second solo album, I´ll Sleep When Your Dead, but my copy didn´t arrive until a week later, so I went into the deep-end and drowned in the layered sound of his production and lyrics….my kind of stuff, as if you didn´t know from looking at past playlists. Hailed by many as the Hip Hop album of 2007 and 2008, the stakes have definitely been raised to another level while we are still trying to catch up with his production on the Cannibal Ox album Cold Vein, from what…..2000, 2001?!

Public Enemy main man, Chuck D had El´s on his Air America program so I jacked a copy of that to present to the ears here….it made sense as the track Drive reminded me of material from the first two PE albums. At the end of the interview, Chuck asked El-P to hook him up with 5 or 6 cuts for a new PE joint, I hope that comes to fruition for real! Will try to ask Chuck about that when PE roll into town in three weeks! The full Chuck D interviews El-P is here http://worlds-fair.net/news/?p=334

Damn, now that I think about it, Nick Cave is here a day or two after or before P.E…ain´t gonna be much sleep going on that week! Cave´s new Grinderman project with Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos is spot on preacher sonic blues business. Tension is present and alive with this self-titled album.

Ear Conditioning 27 March 2007
Was born yesterday, but stayed up all night...go tell the women that we are leaving.


Circus Klezmer / Lebedik un frey lekh (Circ d'Hivern)
Beirut / The Gulag Orkestar (4AD)
Ojos de Brujo / Vacileo
Carlinhos
Brown / Pandeiro Deiro (Virgin France)
Dr. Who Dat? / Brazilian Thought (Lex)

Depeche Mode (Live) / John the Revelator (Mute)
Depeche Mode (Live) / Personal Jesus (Mute)
Grinderman / Get It On (Mute)
Grinderman / No Pussy Blues (Mute)
Cabaret Voltaire / Kneel to the Boss (Mute)

Soil n´ Pimp Sessions / No Taboo (Brownswood)
Sabu Martinez / I Remember Carmen (EAB)

Attica Blues / Free Instrumental (Mo´Wax)

Spotlight El-P I´ll Sleep When Your Dead
Chris Rock talks Rap
Cannibal Ox / Ridiculoid Instrumental (Definitive Jux)
Public Enemy / Terminator X Speaks with his Hands (Def Jam)
El-P / Drive (Definitive Jux)
Chuck D interviews El-P for Air America Radio Part 1
El-P / Smithereens · Alternative Mix (Definitive Jux)
Chuck D interviews El-P for Air America Radio Part 2
El-P feat. Trent Reznor / Flyentology · Cassettes Won´t Listen Remix (Definitive Jux)
El-P / Up All Night (Definitive Jux)
El-P / Run the Numbers (Definitive Jux)
El-P / Tasmanian Pain Coaster feat. The Mars Volta (Definitive Jux)

King L Man / Welcome to Europe (Ear Con)
Filastine / Judas Goat (Soot)
Fun-da-mental / I Reject (5 Uncivilized Tribes)
King L Man feat. Scalper & Mr. Sparkes / Speed of Death (Injustice)
Faust / Krautrock (Virgin)
4Hero feat. Ursula Rucker / Awakening (Raw Canvas)

Thanks to Mrs. Audio Shrapnel, Lucy Boughton at Mute International, DJ MAD, Worlds Fair and of course, the singers and players.

Wednesday 21 March 2007

I Can´t Live Without Ears Playlist 20.03.07

Damn, did some rain fall on Tenerife this past week.
Being a mountaineous region the torrent of water carried anything that wasn´t nailed down, towards the waiting sea. The coastline is now brown, the colour of mud, earth, soil, valuable soil.

Thoughtless construction has played it´s part as well. Before man came to this spot, nature had decided where rain water was going to travel once it hit the land, but man has come along and decided that he knows better, hence buildings are being erected on top of these channels or barancos, as they are known. Question, where is the rain supposed to go? Little mudslides are not uncommon, and it may only be a matter of time before the world is going to know about Tenerife, because news of a major mudslide that is going to be on the headlines for about ten minutes, then it will be back to normal celebrity runnings.

The intense rain knocked out transmission for about half of Tuesday´s program, but we kept rolling as the program is repeated on Saturday nights.

News of the week, Public Enemy are coming to Tenerife, playing about fifteen minutes from our spot.....hoping to get Chuck D, Griff, Flavor on the program for some knowledge. Holding tight!

Right, to this week´s tuneage.....ever heard of Welcome Nsomi? He be responsible for Umabatha, the Zulu theatrical version of Macbeth.....that´s right. You wanna hear that don´t ya? I did too, so I bought it right away, no hesitation.

Cris and Airtor (Tropico28) of Neith and Soco Project braved the elements and join me for half an hour of interview and presentation of four tracks from their two projects.

Samy Birnbach, aka DJ Morpheus, the man responsible for the quality compilations Freezone, , sent me a link to an interview he did with Jonty Skrufff
www.skrufff.com He spoke about Minimal Compact, the group he formed in Amsterdam and also his latest compilation for TigerSushi. ´I Can´t Live Without My Radio´ featuring the likes of Age of Change, Heaven 17, 23 Skidoo, 400 Blows, The Residents and more, including World Domination Enterprises, which I threw in. For the interview http://www.trackitdown.net/news/101178.html

I can´t remember exactly when I first heard Sabu Martinez, but it was in Honest Jons record shop, Portobello Road. He was something wasn´t he?
http://www.hipwax.com/sabu/sabubio.html

Candidate for the best band name ever? Well, it´s gotta be Matt Johnson´s The The.....and the music is good too!

This week saw the release of the second solo album by one of my favourite producers, El-P....the album, brutally titled I´ll Sleep When Your Dead....hence another excuse to play some of his work....a remix by Cassettes Won´t Listen of his collaboration with Trent NIN Reznor, and El´s remix for TV on the Radio´s ´28 Hours´. Where is Zach man? Oh yeah, prepping the return of Rage Against the Machine. So in the meanwhile we have his collab´ with DJ Shadow. Cris and Aitor where still in the studio when I dropped this and it caught them like a Tyson uppercut, BAM!!!

Umabatha · The Zulu Macbeth (EMI)
Whitefield Brothers / Yakuba (Soul Fire)
Olatunji / Gin Go La Ba (CBS)
John Lurie / Are You Warm Enough · Taken from the Down by Law album (Crammed)

Os Mutantes / Cantor de Mambo (Luaka Bop)
Mustafa Ozkent / Silifke (Finders Keepers)
Earl Hines & His Orchestra / Sweet Ella May · Taken from That´s What I Call Sweet Music / American Dance Orchestras of the 1920´s Compiled and illustrated by Roger Crumb (Songbook)
http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/old-ft/essays/1999/03/crumb

Sabu Martinez / I Remember Carmen
Attica Blues / Free · Instrumental (Mo´Wax)
Max Roach / Drums Unlimited (Atlantic)
Photek / KJZ (Science)

DJ Nu-Mark & Pomo / The Way I Think (Genuine)
Ove Naxx / Wabisabi Violence (Soot)
Mark Stewart / Consume · The Program Mix courtesy of No-U Turn (Mute)
World Domination Enterprises / I Can´t Live Without My Radio (Product Inc./TigerSushi)

Theme from The Six Million Dollar Man (TVT)
Uptown Bollywood Nights · Bombay the Hard Way LP (Motel Records)
The The / Sweet Bird of Truth (Some Bizarre/Sony) www.thethe.com
The The / Giant
(Some Bizarre/Sony)

´Neith´ and ´Soco Project´ Session featuring
Cris - vocalist
Aitor - producer
Cris and Aitor occupy the chairs and project their thoughts into the mics about their latest productions in Neith and Soco Project. http://www.myspace.com/socoproject

Zach de la Rocha · DJ Shadow / March of Death (mp3)
TV on the Radio / 28 Hours · El-P Remix (Interscope)
El-P feat. Trent Reznor / Flyentology · Cassettes Won´t Listen Remix (DefJux)
Mr. Scratch / 100% Vocals · Live on German TV (mp3)
Rjd2 / One Day (DefJux)


Ear Conditioning is repeated Saturday 24h00
Radio Pimienta 100.3FM

Fancy a live dose of this unpredictable bag, I´ll be playing at the OCA Festival in La Orotava, April 14 and at Proxmias en Santa Cruz, May 25, courtesy of the folks at Colectivo Drone. Don´t be shy, I don´t bite.....unless you have some gofio attatched to your wrist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gofio

All the beats




















Wednesday 14 March 2007

Savour the flavour

Ear Conditioning
Playlist 13.03.07


Fellow Radio Pimienta presenter MAD (Mextura2) introduced me to the work of a local horn player who recorded an album, A Canary man in Boston, so a piece from that album kicked off this week´s program.

The Jane´s Addiction selection is from a concert recording. The opening salvo is, I believe, a recording of African percussion during which the band take up their instruments and positions in
preparation for ´Up the Beach´. Imagine going to see JA and them having the Burundi drummers play first...yeah, now you get the idea.

Classic blues material staked it´s claim to a piece of the airwaves, featuring a selection from Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters and Howlin´Wolf. My man Skip McDonald of Tackhead/On U was on hand to back it up with a taste from his latest album, Stone Cold Ohio.

Last week found George W. in Latin America, "Our Nation has a vital interest in helping the young democracies in our neighborhood succeed. When our neighbors prosper, they create more vibrant markets for our goods and services. When our neighbors have a hopeful future in their own countries, they can find work at home and are less likely to migrate to our country illegally. And when our neighbors feel the blessings of liberty in their daily lives, the appeal of radicalism declines, and our hemisphere becomes more secure.

I ain´t sayin´ anything, just let him tell it, you are intelligent enough to think for yourself.

Whenever I play the Big Band RTS contribution from the Balkan Express album, I get that warm glow feeling, and a smile stretching from here to there. Macedonian Jazz interlocking with AfroCuban rhythms, 100% knockout punch! I was given this record on my first visit to Serbia in 2001, I was invited to play with the band Neocekivana sila koja se iznenada pojavljuje i resava stvar, or you can call them Sila, if you want. The name translates as ´The unexpected force that suddenly arrives and solves the thing´.....yes, I thought so too...one of the best band names ever!
Getting back on track, Boris, the band´s engineer and sample maestro gave me the Balkan Express album, Jazz /Fusion gems from Yugoslavian vaults. I was told that the man that put the compilation together, Zeljko Kerleta,
basically saved a lot of jazz recordings from the old state TV/Radio station after the fall of the Yugoslavian regime. Imagine the BBC or TVE throwing out tapes upon tapes of recordings and you happen to pass a skip/rubbish container with all these tapes in them, what would you do? Saved!!!

Here goes....
Intro / The Original Broadcaster
Rene Gonzalez / Skunk No. 11 (Na)
Aatavu Chand / Dancing is Beautiful (Luaka Bop)
Natacha Atlas / Duden · Spooky Remix (Nation)
U-Cef feat. Damon Albarn / Stick (cdr)
Jane´s Addiction / Up the Beach · Live
The Melvins / Civilised Worm (Ipecac)

Bo Diddley / Bo Diddley (Chess)
Howlin´Wolf / Do the Do (Dejavu)
Muddy Waters / Hoochie Coochie Man (Chess)
Little Axe / Jive Talk (RealWorld)
African Head Charge / The Big Country (OnU Sound)

U Roy / African Message (Virgin)
U Roy / Natty don´t fear (Virgin)
African Simba / Read Up (Ayamba 7")
Lee ´Scratch´ Perry / Flames of the Dragon
George W. Bush / Radio message announcing his Latin American trip. http://www.whitehouse.gov/radio/

Panda One
/ Panda One meets Sly 99 (Counterflow)
Busdriver / Less Yes´s More No´s (-Anti)

Channel 4 (UK) news report of Iraqi beatings

Fumin´/ Doin´ it well (UD White´s)
Vision & The Riddle / Engineer http://www.myspace.com/visionandtheriddle
Beirut / Elephant Gun (mp3)
Rjd2 / Get It (mp3)
Wesley Willis Fiasco / The Frogs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-y5shVARFY

Big Band RTS / Ne ga se prodavaj (Cosmic Sounds London)
http://www.cosmicsounds-london.com

Osama bin Laden
"If the forces of global evil have been unable to achieve their aims in a square mile of Tora Bora, against a small group of muhajedin, how can they achieve them against the Islamic world?"


Everliven Sound
/ Prophesize the Coming (Subverse)

Turbulence / Notorious (Ghetto Arc)
I Wayne / Living in Love (Ghetto Arc)
Richie Spice / Marijuana (Ghetto Arc)
Panda Bear / Comfy
Hugo Chavez / Democracia

We now return to the normal programming.


Ear Conditioning, Tuesday 20h00 - 22h00
Repeated Saturday 24h00 - 02h00
Radio Pimienta 100.3FM

Wednesday 7 March 2007

ID Please

Ear Conditioning Playlist
06.03.2007

The hand gently guided me in the direction of Checkpoint 303, a project formed by Palestinian sound catcher Yosh and Paris-based Tunisian MoCha. Their music is inspired by the sounds that surround millions in the Middle East. Screeching sounds of bullets that echo injustice, revolt, despair and sadness. www.checkpoint303.free.fr
´Hawiya Dhay´a´ uses a sample recorded during a rally in Ramallah. The voice at the beginning announcing that somebody has lost their i.d. and drivers license....metaphorical "Fi hawiya dhay´a" (there is a lost i.d.) comes at you several times throughout.
The group opened the Massive Attack /Hoping Foundation shows last month in the UK
http://www.newstatesman.com/200702050033

DJ/Rupture once again, posted for all visitors to www.negrophonic.com an excellent slice of Middle Eastern musical brilliance with Asena, "a Turkish bellybancer with impeccable taste in backing musicians." In lieu of Radio Pimienta not being online yet, I´d suggest clicking on that red bit above and checking for yerself.

Martin Manxto, a friend from the Basque Country who I know from my time in the UK, sent me a package with a heap of goodies, including some that he sent me before, (thanks Martin, the library at Radio Pimienta appreciates the double copies!)....so Rude HiFi got an airing as did Zack de la Rocha´s ´Burn Hollywood Burn´, and two joints from Dam, who seem to be getting a lot of props at the moment, good for them!

Super cool John Lurie (Lounge Lizards) surfaced with his Marvin Pontiac project www.strangeandbeautiful.com The liner notes to this project state that Marvin Pontiac died after being hit by a bus, although I am sure the guy I exchanged money with for this record said that it was just a gag. Regardless, the music is...is..ah..damn, somebody once said you can´t write about music, you have to hear it. Right now, I don´t have the vocabulary to describe. Let´s go with ´Simple ditties, weighed down with lyrics by a man who´se vision was far from impaired but nonetheless, he was for a time, resident in an institution for the not so sane.´ He refused to have his photo taken, and only descretely taken two photos exist.

Since stating last year that "Hip hop is dead", Nas has stirred a debate that has seen anybody connected with the genre throwing in their two cents worth of opinion. I think I know what he mean´t but I will leave that for another time, but I had to dig out his classic first (I think!) joint...


Barry Adamson / Preface (Mute)
Marvin Pontiac / Small Car (strangeandbeautiful)
Mustafa Ozkent / Dolana (Finderskeepers)
El Jilguyero de Cienfuegoes / Amor, no soy el de antes (Sonora Cubana)
Los Tigres del Norte / Jefe de Jefes (cdr)
Orquesta de Julio Cuevas / Defiendete (Sonora Cubana)

Dam / Mukadine
Al Kassam / Al Filistini (Venture)
Dam / Ng´ayer burka · Change Tomorrow
Mr. Lif / Red October (mp3)
Mr. Lif and Cannibal Ox / Brothers Remix (DefJux)
Checkpoint 303 / Hawiya Dhay´a (mp3)
Asena / Warda (mp3)

Donna Summer / I Feel Love (Casablanca)
The Bug vs. Rootsman & Mexican / www · Kid606 Remix (Shockout)
Turbulence / Notorious (GhettoArc)
Living Colour / Hemp feat. Andy Fairley (Sony)
SeƱor Coconut / Home Computer (Multicolor)
Sensai vs. Cachete / Shelembeh (Main Squeeze)

Radar / Radar saves Tibet (Om)
DJ Ghetto / Ghetto on the cut (Bomb)
Nas / The World is Yours (Sony) · QTip remix
Peanut Butter Wolf & Madlib / Rawcore · from the Constant Elevation compilation (Astralwerks)
El-P / Day after the day after · Constant Elevation (Astralwerks)

The Cramps / TV Set (emi)
The Cramps / Human Fly (emi)
Barry Adamson / It´s business as usual (Mute)
Code Talker / A fistful of nerves (Flo)
Zack de la Rocha / Burn Hollywood Burn · feat. Chuck D, Black Thought, ?uestlove on the boards · from the Bamboozled soundtrack
Rude HiFi /Ezln in dub (Metak)
Consolidated / Murder One (Nettwerk)

Radio Pimienta 100.3FM
La Orotava, Tenerife
Ear Conditioning is repeated Saturday 24h00
earconditioning@radiopimienta.org