Author Archive
Bole 2 Harlem – Volume 1
Posted on: August 14, 2010
- In: beat | Music
- 2 Comments
While music enthusiasts are digging Ethiopian funk and soul of the ’60s and ’70s, some releasing mixes of their germs, David Schommer gathers some musicians in New York with an Ethiopian background and records an awesome fusion of Ethiopian roots and Hip Hop. Schommer is deep into Ethiopian culture and music. With Ethiopian-American Amharic rapper Maki Siraj, Bahia-born percussionist and Stomp cast-member Davi Vieira, cellist Dave Eggar, Ethiopian bassist Henok Tenesgen, and Malian kora-player Balla Tounkara he created a beat-driven trans-atlantic collaboration. With his incredibly clean programming abilities, Schommer created one of the most unique takes on modern Ethiopian music. Hip-hop and soul vocal hooks are scattered throughout, but the overall effect is a caravan of nomadic spirits banging on heavy percussion, penetrative bass loops and catchy harmonies. Innovative stuff that blends African, North-American and a few Brazilian influences. Recommend to check out.
- In: beat | guitar | Music
- 2 Comments
You don´t miss anything cause of this small cover, it´s so boring and lacking in ideas, let´s concentrate on the music and Helge Schneider.
Helge Schneider is a phenomenon. As a highschool-dropout he toured for years as a little-known Jazz musician and stand-up comedian through small clubs in Germany, besides he started acting in his own movies. Of course produced with almost no budget and full off extremely anarchic and absurd humour, in two words: uproariously funny! But his humour deeply roots in German language and I think it sadly do not translate well into other languages.
Schneider soon gathered a small, but die-hard fanbase with these movies and his comedian tours which always come along with a lot of live Jazz. And then in the mid-90s, from almost one day to the other, Helge Schneider became widely popular in Germany, his movies were Blockbusters, he played in front of thousands. And he still kept his anarchic parodies, the sudden and unexpected use of infantile language, his Dada-esque absurdity and crude humour. Of course he acts milder on the big screen, but not that much and until today he is one of the very very few “comedians” I don´t immediately switch away on national TV.
And besides all that Helge Schneiders records fine jazz music, they aren´t very wide-spread, I also bet a lot people even don´t know he plays jazz. “Laut!” is a session recording with The Firefuckers (Thomas Alkier, Thomy Jordi, Eric St-Laurent) and Schneider playing the BR3 (besides piano and melodica). Grooving organ Jazz with Rock and Blues influences, always laid back instrumentalists with a lot of fun. Nothing mind blowing, but a charming Jazz session.
- In: guitar | Music
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Though William Elliott Withmore has yet to reach 30, with his gravelly voice he can sing with dignity about themes of mortality, loss and redemption. The guy has definitively a singing voice you normally would expect from older men. With his stripped-down instrumentation of banjo and guitar – occasionally augmented by a bare-bones band – William Elliott Whitmore taps into the most primal themes of inescapable death and unforgivable sin. And you will ask yourself why this man with a banjo can silence your voice and goosebump your skin. He’s not pushing the boundaries of his chosen genre. But there’s something arresting in Will’s love for this old music, his love and respect for the genre give the songs a magic feeling. I can sit on my balcony in the noisy metropolis (at least the people living here think it is an important metropolis), close my eyes and imagine sitting on William´s farm in Iowa.
- In: beat | Music
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Way too long no sweet rocksteady at urbanology, here is a killer compilation, a must have. Bunny Lee, one of the greatest Jamaican producers aka “Striker”, who had one Rock Steady hit after another in the hot Jamaican summers in the late 60s, when rocksteady was the big new thing on the isle. Out of this most productive era the well made compilation presents 25 killer tracks produced by Bunny Lee. You get all the big names: Slim Smith, Alton Ellis, Sensations, Errol Dunkley, Uniques – but also artists like Webber Sisters with their terrific female rocksteady groover “What I´m gonna do”. I bet only rocksteady fanatics knew them before. CD and vinyl are added by good liner notes, one reason more to get this germ.
vroooooooom
Posted on: August 5, 2010
- In: Music | Urbanology
- 1 Comment
Thought this blog is dead? Already deleted bookmark or rss? Eh, way too early, urbanology floors the gas pedal once again, vroooooooooooooooooooooom…
A sport break…
Posted on: May 3, 2010
- In: Music | Politix | Urbanology
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And now for something completely different: St. Pauli is back in the Bundesliga!
After relegated to the second league in 2002 and even going down to the third league the following season, four sometimes very tough seasons in this third division, legendary football club St. Pauli came back to the second Bundesliga 2008 and yesterday, one matchday before the official end of the season, St. Pauli enters with a great 1:4 win in Fürth the highest german football league, the Bundesliga!
The only club in Germany with a clearly antifascist and anti-racist fanbase is back in the year of the 100th anniversary, what a party! It´s good to have back this club and their fans in the first division, in times when clubs try to build back the stands (like i.e. in England), St. Pauli still has a majority of stands in the stadium and even the ongoing fitout won´t touch this allocation.
Viva St. Pauli!
PS: if you just don´t know what I´m talking about, watch this short movie.
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