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

Why bother? Play the music man! / Ear Conditioning 22.1.08

In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, experts warned Tony B.Liar that occupying the country and trying to impose a western-style democracy was doomed to failure. The Guardian´s Jonathan Steele has written a behind-the-scenes account of what happened when people with the knowledge briefed the former Downing Street occupant, not that he actually listened to what they had to say...

Wait, i must be looking at this from totally the wrong perspective. It´s not like anybody really gives two pence what the Iraqi´s think. The Iraqi Provisional Authority headed by Paul Bremer got what it wanted....or I should say, the US with Paul Bremer as head of the Provisional Authority, got what it wanted...as in carving up the country and giving slices of it´s businesses to foreign control, and privatizing war...see Blackwater, Haliburton, SAIC, et al.

Before the invasion, Iraq's non-oil-related economy had been dominated by 200 state-owned companies, which produced everything from cement to paper to washing machines. In June, Bremer flew to an economic summit in Jordan and announced that these firms would be privatized immediately. "Getting inefficient state enterprises into private hands," he said, "is essential for Iraq's economic recovery."
Naomi Klein/Harpers Magazine Sept. 2004


Meanwhile to take my mind off this shit....I was listening to Ethiopia´s great Mahmoud Ahmed, and instantly decided that the willing ears here in Tenerife needed a dash of his glorious tone.

Helping maintain the stereotype that us black folks are well-endowed down there, is Big Bamboo by Lord Creator. Being the one fly in the milk in this town, there is one shameless old woman who, whenever we pass in the street asks if it´s big, i tell her it´s small. I am tempted to be rude next time and tell her that it could bus´ her up, but i refrain....over-sexed natives eh?!

I´ve been asked to do a remix for TraceElements. Chris (z) of said group sent a CD of another one of his groups, Zodiac Project, which features former FDM bandmates, rapper Scalper, and Wajid, the sonic noise merchant also known as 2nd Gen. Some of the frequencies that make up Organic Drift are top-end frighteners, that is scary, could fuck-up speaker type sonics.

Dodo....what can i say? Got a sense of humour that i dig...."I don´t need a guy, I´ve got my gun." Electric Love´s kitchsy-´lectro-pop sensibilities hooked me from the off! Get the 7" vinyl through Freshly Squeezed Records...don´t be shy, she doesn´t bite. The last time i was in Ldn, she roped me in to do vocals for a multiplication times table CD that she made for kids, made me impersonate a dog, can you believe it?!



Elsewhere, i ´jacked the mix that Filastine did for Blentwell....he´s crammed so many disks into 30 minutes, i´ve had to get a sick note, won´t be in for work tomorrow.

Ear Conditioning at Radio Norte 22.01.08

Grim Dubs Vol.1 (Grim Dubs)
Guadi & Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Six Degrees)
Mahmoud Ahmed / Sidetegnash Negn/Samiraye (Crammed)
Lord Creator / Big Bamboo (Dynamic Sounds)


Filastine Unleashed (Blentwell mp-free)

• Filastine - La Muerte (track in development)
• "Cycheouts Ghost"- Simtek
• Ellen Allien & Apparat - Metric
• The Bug (featuring Flowdan) - Jah War
• Horsepower Productions - Synbad
• Dam - Da Dam
• Dj C - Body Work
• Filastine remixes unlabeled maghrebi cassette, we'll call it- Berber Sex Hat
• Filastine remixes Maga Bo's - Nakhil - featuring K-Libre
• Immortal Technique - The 4th Branch
• Electromeca - Outromeca
• Fairuz - Baatilak
• Filastine - Blung rithm
• Ojos de Brujo- Todo Tiende
• Actitud Maria María Marta - Hijo Mio
• Filastine - Quémalo rithum, Nuestros Suenos version featuring...
• Rabah (MBS) & Beni (La7ma)
• TTC - Paris
• Filastine - Batalla rithm featuring...
• Alesh acapella by Jawad/Maga Bo for unreleased Sonar Calibrado track
• Fawzy Hafez - Suffara & Nay Solos
• Saian Supa Crew - Blow
• Sonar Calibrado - E daí (unreleased)
• Morris Brown Drumline / Demetrius Hubert - X-Factor
• Shystie- Get Loose
• Filastine - untitled & unreleased, with...
• Dead Prez - Hell Yeah
• RDB featuring Elephant Man - Ishq Naag
• Shyam Brass Band - Choli ke Peechhe

Danny Elfman & Steve Bartek / Prelude, from the film Psycho (Virgin)
Dodo / Electric Love (Freshly Squeezed)
Zodiac Project / Organic Drift (Urgence Disk)
Sandra Bernhard / Time of the Season (Enigma)
Barry Adamson / Under Wraps (Mute)
Barry Adamson / Epilogue (Mute)

Ear Conditioning at Radio Norte, Tuesday 21h00 89.4FM
Repeated Saturday 21h00

This is Freestyle,
But this style is not free,
It´s expensive....Roots Manuva

Ear Conditioning 4.12.2007 / Shock Doctrine

Naomi Klein makes another appearance on the program, no, she wasn´t actually in the studio, i just jacked an interview she did with MSNBC´s Keith Olbermann, who seems to be one of the few journalists in the US mainstream that does not bow down like Faux News or CNN. Klein talks about the economic theory created by the No.1 Chicago Boy, Milton Friedman.
"Only a crisis, real or perceived, produces real change". His ideology was exported to Chile with the USA-assisted coup that brought Pinochet to power in ´73, and still continues to run to this day. At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq's civil war, a new law was unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country's vast oil reserves. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the "War on Terror" to Halliburton and Blackwater. After a powerful tsunami devastates the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts. New Orleans's residents, still scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened. Interestingly enough this weekend i watched the John Pilger film on Venezuela ´War on Democracy´, as millions of Venezuelans went to vote on the constitutional changes the Chávez government has proposed. Despite the final outcome, which saw Chávez lose the vote, he and his government still have a good few years to make the best of their nation without selling out the Uncle Slam and discarding the hopes of the millions that were constantly forgotten and abused in the pre-Chávez years.

Late addition: Just saw this piece by John Pilger about the Venezuelan referendum in the Guardian of today, and this one from yesterday by Seamus Milne. The folks at Tenerife News should read this and learn something instead of spouting the line as if they were being paid by the Venezuelan opposition.

Now sports.....well, music actually.....the best DJ i´ve ever witnessed and had the pleasure of working with is called Rich McLean aka World Service aka Audio Shrapnel. Rich worked at Nation Records doing everything apart from writing the cheques. I found one of his mixtapes, and digitized a bit to play on today´s program. He mashed together Lata Mageshkar, Yabby U, A Tribe called Quest and an 7/8 opus from Nitin Sawney.

Last week FDM returned to Prague, and old friends Ivo, David Urban, James Scanlon were present. Pavel aka Mustakillah , Dj´d before and after the band set, wearing his Checkpoint 303 t-shirt....hence, i visited their site again, and downloaded Gaza Calling. A couple guys from the group Pop-Porn gave me a copy of their CD, while i was spinning with Mustakillah, so we got some fresh Czech joints lacing the Tenerifian radio-space as well Rachid again, gotta love him, despite his affliction for the whiskey.
The most diverse hour on Canarian radio is soon to strike....Radio Norte 89.4FM from 9pm.

• World Service Mix– Best Dresssed Chicken Tikka in Town featuringYabby U/ Kishore Kumar / Baluji Shrivastav / Lata Mageshkar /A Tribe Called Quest / Nitin Sawney
• Unknown artist / Ahl Al Aqil (Oh People of Reason) Folk and Pop Sounds from Iraq CD
• Yumma, Al Hilou (Mother, Here´s my Beauty) Folk and Pop Sounds from Iraq CD
  
• Naomi Klein / Shock Doctrine
  
• Checkpoint 303 / Gaza Calling
  
• Rachid Taha / Nokta
  
• Sheik Usama Bin Laden / Message to the European Peoples
  
• Moondog / Bumbo
  
• Nick Cave & Warren Ellis / Cowgirl. From the Assassination of Jesse James by the
  Coward Robert Ford
  
• Manu Chao / Politics · Prince Fatty Remix
  
• Rusko / Cockney Thug
  
• Unknown Dubstep t´ing
  
• Pop-Porn / (R)evolution
  
• Sonido Martines / Cumbia Rebejadas mix for DJ/ Rupture
  
• Cymande / The Message