African Head Charge

What a joy to have seen and heard, and continue to be amazed by. 

Ladies and gentlemen.....

African Head Charge - God Is Great

Alex Thompson / Channel 4 News (UK) and Israeli Prime Minister's Spokesman

US mainstream journalists wouldn't touch this with your dick.

Ear Conditioning Radio 13.01.09 / Adios Frat Boy

So the final Bush press conference took place this week.  How many Palestinian's didn't survive to see the event on Al-Jazeera TV?  How many Iraqi's didn't get the chance to witness GW say that not finding weapons of mass destruction was "a disappointment."  

Is that what is was, a disappointment?  

Which bit, exactly? 

Motherfuckin' dumb-smart-ass-war criminal-Guantanamo/Abu Ghraib/Afghanistan torturing son of a bitch called Betty-Kanye called ya-Cowboy Hero my ass, Crude Oil Texas Dude-Frat Boy-Operation Iraqi Liberation (O.I.L.) rat bastard!

And then the "history will judge me correctly" bit.  When will that be exactly?  Will there be one solid point in the future that all historians will agree in the analysis of your presiduncy? 

And the people that you made history?  The innocents that were guilty of going to school, shopping or going to work, yet ended up shot, bombed, massacred, torn apart, abused and raped. 

Oh and to top it off, Tony Blair receives the Medal of Freedom from frat-boy this week.  What a club....you just can't make this stuff up.  Tony Bliar, Middle East envoy....ha, what a joke.  There are no jokes for those in Gaza.  

See Media Lens for an insightful gander at the appeals for international action to halt further bloodshed.... 

As for sports....the following  program may contain scenes you may find distressing:  On the uplifting side we got Willanette Gospel Singers, from a choice album Life is a Problem, on Mississippi Records...(outta London!) Top quality gospel business, old raw style.

Mojo Nixon, ya gotta know about Mojo and Skid Roper...country licked humour tumor infected shenanigans.  The singes and players behind 'She's Vibrator Dependent' and  'Debbie Gibson is Pregnant'.  You ain't heard that shit, you ain't lived son! 

What da hell ever happened to All Seeing I?  A couple off-beat 60's soul-lounge dub heavy things for Earth Records, the later getting picked up by a major label...then what?

Man dear, Hyperdub.  They got great big ears and a big love over there.  Hyperdub = qualitee.

Samiyam, Zomby, the latest Kode9 wax, a collaboration with LD, called Bad....glorious Detroitechno spacial thing.  Also courtesy of Hyperdub, King Midas Sound.  Had to have some more of this.  The KMart dropped of some b-sides, special mixes that didn't make it onto the official release.  Dabrye's mix...oh lord!

I've always loved that Detroit sound, I was hanging around Virgin Records back in '87-88, when the guys running a subsidary label, 10 Records, picked up on MayDay, Kevin Saunderson,

Juan Atkins and fellow heads from Detroit.  That shit was different, fresh....still is.  Anyway, good to hear it's influence.  It seeps out of Martyn's productions.  Thanks again to the KMart who built on the one 3024 wax that is 'Vancouver'.  His remix of Flyng Lotus is still got me propped up at night, luscious goods.

It's been swell....

Ear Conditioning 13.01.09

Radio Norte, Tenerife.

• Lauryn Hill / Lost Ones - Instrumental (Ruffhouse)
  
• Kenny Dope featuring Screechy Dan / Boomin' in ya Jeep - accap' (Freeze)
  
• General Levy / True yer Body Good (Fashion)
  
• DJ Food / Scratch yer Head (Ninja Tune)
  
• All Seeing I / I Walk (Earth)
  
• Willanette Gospel Singers / Pray On (Mississippi)
  
• Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper / Legalize It (Enigma)
  
• Parliament / Moonshine Heather (Invictus)
  
• Mulatu Astatke / Ebo Lala (Soundway)
  
• Asmaham / Aleik Sulat Allah (Club du disque Arabe)
  
• Kuanga Nti Matu Kawa / Musique de Traqvail
  
• King Midas Sound / One Ting - Dabrye Remix (Hyperdub)
  
• SUAD / Epileptic - Martyn Remix 
  
• Kode 9 vs. LD / Bad (Hyperdub)
  
• Gaza report
  
• SystemWide meets Muslimguaze (BSI)
  
• Augusto Martelli / Drums and drums from the Il dio Serpente soundtrack (Cinevox)
  
• De la Soul / Stakes is High (Tommy Boy)
  
• Bushims / Eight years of quality gaffs although many people lost their lives because of him
  
• Dr. Phibes and the House of Wax Equations / Marshmellow Madness (50 Seel St.)
  

Ear Conditioning is broadcast every Tuesday / todos martes 20h30 - 21h30 

Radio Norte 89.4FM

Favourites of 2008 / Looking to 2009

Our man, Dub Gabriel has a new blog up and running, and he's asked some of his friends to contribute with their favourite things of the year just past....

I'm not sure if I was too late with my list, as we've had the house in a state of construction, meaning a mountain of dust everywhere, and also have had visitors from afar, therefore been doing the tour guide thing.

I won't bore you do death with over-analysis of 2008, there's plenty of that going on in the blogsphere.

Fav's of 2000-ate

The Bug / London Zoo LP (NinjaTune)

El-P / We Are All Going To Burn In Hell MeggaMixx 2 (DefJux)

Flying Lotus / L.A. EP 2 x 3 (Warp)

Banda Los Hijos de la Nina Luz (Soundways)

Songs of the Broken Hearted / Baghdad 1925-1929 (Honest Jons)

Kotchy / Sing What You Want - MRK1 Remix (Civil)

Zed Bias / The Cauldon featuring Jay Electronica and Ghost 1 (Sidestepper)

Orchestre Poly-Rhthmo de Cotonou / The Vodoun Effect (Analog Africa)

Gurzuf / Non-existent Cinema (Gurzuf)

King Midas Sound / One Ting - Dabrye Remix (Hyperdub)

DJ/rupture / Uproot (The Agriculture)

Akoya Afrobeat / B.F.B.F. [Panama]  (Afrobomb)

Womad Las Palmas 2008, which gave us Speed Caravan, Ba Cissoko, Paprika Balkanicus, Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, Tony Allen, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, DJ Mr. Benn.

Another new blog to check is from Filastine....Observations of the Beginning of the End of the World.  It's the place to keep tabs on his new album, Dirty Bomb, coming out on Soot.

More as it happens, wishing you the best beats for 2000 and nine.

Thanks to all singers, players, promoters, producers, dj's, radio personnel that do it for the love.  Also big shout to the folks that drop by Txola in La Laguna for a bi-weekly dose of the goodness.  

Davey D interviews Rev. Jeremiah Wright

The good reverend, Jeremiah Wright, interviewed by Davey D at the State of the Black World Conference held in New Orleans last week.
Thanks to Hypestyle at the Public Enemy message board for leading the way.

This is the link to Davey D´s site, from where the Jeremiah Wright interview above was 

posted .

Whenever anybody asks me 'bout Obama aka  Oh Man!, I think of The Good Reverand, when explaining the context of his "God bless, God damn" sermon, and OhMan! seemingly distancing himself from Rev. Wright. The Good Rev. said "That he (Rev. Wright) is a religious man and talks as such, while Obama is a politician, and he has to says what a politician has to say."


My point being, have we just witnessed the best marketing campaign of 2008?  Noam Chomsky thinks so.  People do need a change, ain´t no doubt about that and let the moment be savoured, it´s been a long time coming, howeverrrrrrr.......

  
Rapper NYOil was also present during the interview. If you know him it could be due to his insight which from what I´ve heard is on it, in the socio-political-music along the lines of KRS, Chuck D, Prof. Griff, Dead Prez et al.  Speaking of the Oh-Man!, check out NYOil's 'Father Father', using Marvin Gaye's 'What's Goin' On?'  and an Oh-Man! speech about parenthood.

Jay Smooth´s video blog expresses two points of view on the election outcome, one being the mundane politcal moment and at the same time a symbolic event. Both are true however the work has only just begun, meaning that voting was the first part. The real work starts Jan.20th next year when the OhMan! steps into the White House in Chocolate City. People are gonna have to be doing their bit as change never came from up top, it´s the people on the ground that bring forth the goodness.

Womad Las Palmas / Womex Sevilla

The Womad Festival rolled into Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for the fourteenth time, and it did not disappoint this one.  I was told that someone thought that it was 'too electronic'

Not sure who they were talking about because check who was on the bill....

Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Tony Allen, El Guincho, Speed Caravan, Papirka Balkanicus, Mariem Hassan, Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, Umdumo Wesizwe, Bo Cissoko.

Speed Caravan must have been the culprits as they had a laptop with the beats, oh yeah, and that dastardly El Guincho, yeah, him, his drum pad and sequencer were plugged into the National Grid.  May the offspring of these two electricity-loving heathens be sold to the highest bidder and serve a life sentence  making drums out of the hardest of termite resistant wood. That will teach them.

A journalist friend in London asked me to take some notes of the festival, and here they are:

Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra:  (Friday night)

This NYC-based group are one of the torch bearers for Fela Kuti and Afrobeat which was one of the themes for Womad Las Palmas '08, as this edition of Womad also featured Fela's son, Femi Kuti, and also Fela's musical director and drummer Tony Allen.  Antibalas have played over 1000 shows and they know how to involve the audience.  Their call and response method of presenting their msic worked the crowd well.  In typical Afrobeat fashion, their seventy-five minutes of allotted stage time was enough for six songs.

Tony Allen: (Saturday night)

Fluid, seven piece band. Climactic funk, hi-hats to the front, hammond organ smoothness, afro movements, colourful tom rolls and fills, give his drumming an expansive feeling, covering a huge range of  expression.  Along with Antibalas and Femi,  he presented the sound of victory for the oppressed.  "He is science.' said Mehdi/Speed Caravan.

El Guincho (Friday night)

His appearance represented a musical homecoming for Palbo Diaz-Reixa aka El Giuncho.  Born in Las Palmas but now based in Barcelona, the last 12 months have been very hectic, due to the totally unexpected reaction to his mega-tropicalistic Alegranza album, which was recently picked up the the quality label that is XL Recordings.  He has been developed his live show since I first saw him perform at the ECOS Festival in Tenerife earlier this year, as he is now armed with a drummer.  I've got a lot of time for El Guinch', however not sure his set is suited to a big stage just yet, however the spirit of rave, afrobeat and carnival is very much evident and I give him top marks for stepping out on his own, being a leader, not a follower.

Speed Caravan: (Saturday night):

This Algerian/French four-piece comprising of Mehdi Haddab on the oud; Hermoine Frank providing electronic beats; Pascal Teillet, bass; and Mohamad Bouamar on percussion and vocals turned in one of the most talked aobut performances which also included a vsersion of the Chemical Brothers' "Push the Button".  Mehdi's oud is plugged into two amplifiers giving in a presence and edge that one does not expect with this instrument.  Who'se gonna sign these guys and make them huge?  They deserve to be heard!

Umdumo Wesizwe: (Friday night)

This Zimbabwian group were another concert highlight, as was their workshop the following day.  Ten vocalists and two drummers showed how it is done.  Body-popping, kinetic dance moves while breathlessly delivering vocals.  It's not fair!

Paprika Balkanicus (Sunday night):

Weapons of choice, two accordians, a guitarist, weird violinist, an electric double bass that used to belong to Rhonda Smith, one-time player for Prince ("I lick it every time I go onstage." said the current owner, Jozef Secnik) and a great sense of humour.   This Serbian/Slovenian/Romanian quintet were very much appreciated, asking the thousands in the audience to all join hands and form a massive circle, to which the photographers went into a frenzied state trying to capture the images for the next day's front page.

The ever present 4/4 rhythms took a back seat as the Paprikans caught us with the 9/8 movement of 'Ne Kuni Me Majko' (Mother Don't Curse Me), a song about lost love.  Bodgan Vacarescu's violin moved over the strings of his violin at speds unimaginable, generating open-mouthed reactions and stunned-into-silence audience reaction.

Mariem Hassan: 

Her performance brought the Saharwian community of Las Palmas out in full force.  Polisario flags were abound.  At one moment the Muddy Waters blues filled the air, then rhythms that influenced Public Image Ltd during their Flowers of Romance period took over.

Darga:  (Saturday night):

When they hit the stage, once again flags appeared, besides the Polisario flags, those representing Morocco, the Canarian Independence movement and Amazig (berbers, the forefathers of the Guanche, the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands).  The flags swayed to the funk, rap and Marley-esque reggae flavours of this youthful group led by two vocalists and an 'Obama for Change'  T-shirt wearing guitarist.

DJ Mr. Benn (Friday night)

He is part of a DJ crew with Massive Attack's Daddy G, so I was eager to catch his set, as I know G plays quality music, and if somebody is down with him, then they too got the goods. However a scheduling change meant that as we were eating getting some tasty octopus he was finishing his set.  Grrrrr!!!!!!  I'll have to make do with his mix CD for the time being.

Ba Cissoko: (Thursday night)

Fantastic!  Great tones coming from the twin kora players, pounding beats from the calabah and top-shot energy from all players, made for a fitting opening night party.

Femi Kuti & The Positive Force (Sunday night)

The perfect festival closer.  A blazing entrance with a five-piece horn section, bass, two drummers, guitar, and finally some female singers/dancers who must be some of the fittest around.  There were several songs that lived in the 170+bpm range (drum and bass tempo) and they did not miss a step or shake of the hips.  The furious pace swept Femi into a state of musical intoxication, eyes rolling into the back of his sockets, while the horns burned around the rhythms that proved the bedrock for songs about poverty, greed, corruption and Aids.

For the encore....a classic from his father, 'Water Got No Enemy'.

Thanks  to Rod "The Hangman" Garrett and Nani, Tenerife's favourite percussionist for sound support...we must've done something right as the audience showed their love all weekend.

This week's radio program has some weight behind it, in my humble opinion.  It ain't about me, it's the music that players have generated.  

While at Womad,  the two Antibalas  guitarists presented me with cd's of side projects they are involved with.  One is....damn, where's the cd?!

Okay, can't find that one at the moment, however the one I got in the playlist for today is Akoya Afrobeat.

I didn't see Speed Caravan at Womex the week before Womad, but I did manage to get a copy of the Womex sampler CD, and there's SC track there, replayed on the show for your pleasure.

Bedoiun Jerry Can Band and Senegal's Mo-DJ also have contributions to the same cd.

Andres Argil was represented at Womex by the Mexican Independent Labels association.  His music stood out to me, as it was so unexpected among the more traditional 'Mexican-associated sounds' that one can come to expect.  Here, we have field-recording/ambient/texture exercises taking over.

Steve Goodman's Hyperdub label continues to leave behind those that want to remain solely in the 'dubstep' arena.  We have LV featuring Dandelion and the electrified Zomby.

Speaking of Zomby, over the next few weeks I'll be dropping some tracks from the forthcoming Zomby EP, yes on Hyperdub.

Okay, enough chat/write....

Ear Conditioning 

Radio Norte 89.4FM www.radionorte.com

18 November 2008

Zed Bias 'The Cauldron' featuring Jay Electronica and Ghost1 (Sidestepper)

Mo-DJ 'Dosso' (Womex CD)

Fosforo 'Mosquito'

Rev. Lonnie Farris 'A Night in the house of Prayer  (Mississippi Records)

El Hijo de la Cumbia 'Bombom Asesino Version'  (Bersa Discos)

Andres Argil 'Diógenes'  (Mexican Independent Labels CD)

Charlie Watts - Jim Keltner Project 'The Elvin Suite'  Coldcut Remix for Helen Dawn (Cyber-Octave)

Digital Mystikz  'Conference'  (DMZ)

Bedouin Jerry Can Band  'Ya el Yaladana'  (Womex CD)

Akóya Afrobeat  'B.F.B.F.  (Afrobomb)

Speed Caravan 'Kalaknik Love' 

Saul Williams  'PG Beat'  (Witchita)

LV featuring Dandelion  'CCTV'  (Hyperdub)

Zomby 'Spliff Dub'  Rustie Remix  (Hyperdub)

Ear Conditioning on Radio Norte 89.FM  www.radionorte.com

Tuesdays 20h30 - 21h30

Repeated Saturday 22h30 - 23h30

Oh, one other thing...my good friend Dani also put together a radio program that was dedicated to Womad, and you can check it here.....

Until next time.....

Squarepusher - Planet Gear

His new shit.....yes, he produced the video too.


Squarepusher - Planet Gear from Warp Records on Vimeo.