Thursday 29 May 2008

The Txola / Festival Musicalia Experience



Last weekend was a busy one in the town/city of La Laguna; Txola Bar on the Friday night, and
the Festival Musicalia the following night. Txola was pumping.....they ran out of beer/cerveza. Pedro, el jefe de Txola has got some plans for some special events in August/Octubre, so keep an eye open...abries un ojo. The folks at Musicalia magazine (Estrella, Pino, Presi Nacho,Urena...que mas?) alongside Dani El Shiva Azul Medina brought La Kinky Beat from Barcelona to deliver their brand of rock·jungle·reggae sounds with force and kinetic energy. Local crew Tropico28 stepped up with their new line-up to give a taster of their forthcoming album, which I have been told should surface in two weeks. I did contribute to a song for their album, but their producer/beat-man did a runner with the files when he left the group, so who knows what the hell he´s done with them! Oh, i´m digressing....back to Musicalia Festival....the idea was to raise money for the next issue of the magazine, it has no advertising you see. Hopefully they will have got a few euros together, although I do think they had the price of the beer was a bit low....a bargain, one euro!
A very good deal, and it was free entrance. I don´t think people are really aware of the difficulties that exist trying to put on a festival of this magnitude...dealing with the council, a sexist and incompetent sound company.....then there´s the matter of posters being ripped and defaced by supporters of the Platano Rock festival that was taking place the same day in Santa Cruz. Come on people.....there ain´t no need for that shit, grow the fuck up. I was sorry to hear that the Platano Rock festival was cancelled at the last minute because of some bureaucratic police nonsense. GAF ,who I really like were due to take the stage, as were Marvel Hill, but the police, miserable fuckers seemed to be working on somebody else´s behalf who doesn´t like gigs happening if he ain´t a part of it or getting paid. Yes, it´s like that in these parts....fuckin´ third world shit going on here brothers and sisters.

The weekend before last, Fun-da-mental did a show in Prague. Always nice to be in Prague, we just don´t get to spend any proper time there.....pisses me right off! Before parting ways at the airport, bassman Lloyd gave me his copy of Naomi Klein´s latest book The Shock Doctrine. Fucking put me in a right mood. I know enough about what goes on, but jesus h ucking hell....unts like Bush, Dick ´So´ Cheney, Condoskeeza Rice, Rumsfeld, are worse than I thought....and that is real Bad. In all seriousness, they should be fucking made to walk around Baghdad totally naked and left to their own devices for a few hours, then publicly hanged, shot, pissed and shat upon, then burned alive for good measure. No need to privatize the killing, totally open to the public....a real public service. I am deadly serious. That ´Let God sort them out´stuff is bollocks. Kill them NOW, let t! I hate to pray for bad things to happen to people, but they deserve it, and you know it! Those motherfuckers have been preying on the weak and defenseless for too long, and they´ll go down in history as great figures too....you watch.

Change the channel.

Yes, The Bug album is going to be released in July, and the title is, as I hoped, London Zoo...very appropriate. This person is doing the album artwork. Next single will be featuring Tippa Irie on one side and FlowDan pon the flip. Can you handle it?! Soon see eh?


Before I split, if your into Cumbia check out Vampiros DJ....I did, bought me a couple CD´s one from him, and the other being the Sonido Martines mix he did for DJ /Rupture´s radio program last year. I´ ve been really trying to turn people onto the rebajadas sound.....it´s lively, fresh, and represents what is going on in the Southern hemishere. I have a radio interview at Radio Club Tenerife tomorrow (Friday at 11am) they want to talk about mixing Canarian folklore music with contemporary sounds, and methinks what Vampiros, El Hijo de la Cumbia, Sonido, Oro 11 etc., and without a doubt, El Guincho, are very good markers as to what is possible. More as it happens.

Ear Conditioning / 27 mayo
DJ Food
· Valves / Journeyman remix (Ninja Tune)
Badawi · Bedouin Raid (Asphodel)
Amir Sulaiman · Danger
Overtone · Give It Again (Rosebud)
Os Campiones · Dos (Sou Jazz)
Afronaught · Golpe Tuyo Calinda (Bitasweet)
Naomi Klein · Shock Doctrine
Stereotyp featuring Edu K & Joyce Muniz · Jece Valadáo (MAN Recordings)
Megablast · El Ninjo / Luv Lite Massive Remix feat. DJ Collage (Stereo Deluxe)
Stereotyp (?) · Police and Soldier (Giguptight)
Music from the Ivory Coast · Gueglo (Radio France)
Congo Natty · Jungle Souljah (Congo Natty)

Vamprios DJ · Selection from La Sonidera Colombiana Mix CD
La chancha via circuito / Oro 11 · Damas Gratis Dub
Sonido Martines · Cumbia ron the Bronx
El Hijo de la Cumbia · Cumbia de los barrios
El Hijo de la Cumbia · Mara Tomaza
Karos · Por que te quiero

DJ Food · Scratch yer Head (Ninja Tune)
Murga Las Salamanquesas · Himno (Gofio)
Murga Ni Quito Ni Pongo · Pout -Purri (Gofio)
Rude Hi-Fi . Elzn in Dub
Zapotec Indians · Firework Music (Folkways)
Yaqui Indians · Deer Dance (Folkways)
Bio-Muse · Hurrey Hurra
Coki · The End (dmz)
Rusko · Cockney Thug
The Bug feat. FlowDan · Jah War /Loefah remix (Ninja Tune)
The Bug featuring Warrior Queen · Poison Dart (Ninja Tune)
Kode 9 · Stung (Soul Jazz)

Ear Conditioning at Radio Norte 89.4FM
Tuesday / martes 20h00
Repetidos sabado / repeated Saturday 23h00
! Tropico Photo by Encarneviva
Thanks to Arka/Tropico28 for the radio link

Thursday 8 May 2008

Dub, Instrumentals, Refixes and so on..

Ear Conditioning

This weeks program (May 6) was put together by 8 Islas Sistema Sonido. Sixty minutes of reggae, dancehall and such. I don´t have a tracklisting yet, but should it surface, I will share.
In the meanwhile, following is the playlist from last weeks (April 29) sonic adventure....lots of space with dub and instrumental versions flowing, a couple comedians thrown in to take the edge off, plus a handful of remixes.

For those who are new to Canarian music, I kicked off the program with Silbo Gomero, a language of whistling that people on the island of La Gomero use(d) to communicate with each other in the mountainous terrain. Words have been turned into an understandable whistle form...yes, amazing.

Speaking of Canarian music, well the El Guincho show here two weeks ago, caused enough ruptions on some of the online forums in Tenerife. There seem to be plenty haters here, people saying he..s all hype, but those that know, know that ain..t the truth. His concert was marred by rough monitor sound on-stage which threw him off course for a bit, but he pulled through, and had enough people shuffling and bobbing about. What killed me was people complaining about how repetitive or boring they found it.....while they were dancing. Methinks some people just like to complain for the sake of opening their mouth. I have been acting as a co-curator of the Clandestino Festival in Sweden, and really look forward to getting another dose in a few weeks....yep, one of the first things I proposed was the ..Guinch... His remix of Architecture in Helsinki is on the cumbia tip, which fits nicely with the following DJ Negro material that I..ve really been eating up. Oh, Blind Idiot God are back!

Playlist

  • Iaso Sayo · Siete Estrellas (ZetaRecords)
  • Creation Rebel · Starship Africa / Space Movements 1 (On-U)
  • Richard Pryor · Africa (Warners)
  • African Head Charge · You Learn (On-U)
  • Jimmy´s Chant · DJ Tools (Indigenous Resistance)
  • Supersoul · So Real So True
  • Coki · The End (dmz)
  • Blind Idiot God · Major Key Dub (Enemy)
  • Kid 606 · Attitude (TigerBeat6)
  • Manolo Vieira · Economista (Clodmodel)
  • Sofa Surfers · Raffinere (Klein)
  • Tigerstyle · El Tiburon
  • Fun-da-mental · Red Light Tabla (Nation)
  • Amit · Swaztika (Commercial Suicide)
  • Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan meets State Of Bengal (realworld)
  • Roots Manuva · Colossal Insight / Jamma Refix (Big Dada)
  • David Toop & John Zorn · Chen Pe I Pe / Ocean of Sound compilation (Virgin)
  • Thom Yorke · Harrowdown Hill / The Bug refix (XL)
  • Kode 9 + The SpaceApe · Konfusion (HyperDub)
  • Architecture in Helsinki · Like It Or Not / El Guincho Remix
  • DJ Negro · Cumbia Callejera
  • Reverend Wright · The Government Lied
  • Yellow Magic Orchestra · Pong Too / The Orb Remix
For more of the same and different, I will be playing once every two weeks at Txola, La Laguna, starting this Friday May 9th. If your in the area, say hello, I don´t bite....unless your name is Talvin Singh and yer gonna fuck with the record thats spinnin´.