Posts Tagged ‘Reggae’
Kutiman – thru you
Posted on: June 23, 2009
- In: Music
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As a reader of urbanology you might know Kutiman already and his funky afro-beat clash from Tel Aviv. Kutiman now lifts sampling to a new level. He gone through hundreds of YouTube vids in which people from all over the world played instruments, from the kid who plays bass in front of his unit wall, the drummer in his garage or the old lady playing organ in church. Kutiman samples them all, throws them in the mixer and spits out funky outer space songs, ranging from dubby reaggae influenced tunes to straight funk smashers, hell yeah! And the best, you also can see all the samples he took from the vids and looped. Read much more about this project at wired.com and of course visit Kutiman´s webpage to listen to the music and see the vids. If you want to download the songs and don´t want to rip them to mp3 from youtube by yourself, have a look here.
Kutiman created Sampling 2.0 for the internet age and follows the tracksof all the pioneers from the early 80s to the video scratching pioneers from the early 90s. And it is raising questions about copyright issues once again, is it another nail in the coffin of copyright as we know it? I recommend you also to visit the webpage of an interesting project of Johannes Kreidler on the copyright issues and how these don´t fit anymore in the digital age.
All the other songs: here. WYSIWYG.
- In: beat | guitar | Music
- 6 Comments
Belém in the northern amazonas state Pará, Brasil, isn´t only a lovely city, but also has to offer a lively music scene with techno-brega as the most famous outcome. But it would be unfair to restrict Belém and its music only on that sound, especially for the great jazz scene and artists in the “Cidade das Mangueiras”. And it would be unfair to bands like Coletivo Rádio Cipó from the bairro Pedreira, which make a collective interference in the regional culture with the universal language of electronic music. Their music fuses Brazilian regional styles funk de morro, samba, carimbó and batucada with hip hop, dub, breakbeat, jungle, ragga – the result is a maconha driven dubby trip to modern urban sounds and comes with an angry political message, pissed off by the miserable conditions and daily violence in the streets, where a single life not even counts a penny.
Coletivo Rádio Cipó are Carlinhos Vaz (drums and effects), Rato Boy (MC), Rodrigo Jamant (MC and programming), Renato Chalú (guitar), Jared das Arabias (bass) and Luis Bolla (percussion), but as a collective many other artists and just the people from the streets can and did participate. Music made through the partnership with the community, integrating popular, as well as urban and peripheral understandings and influences, a process of growth and expansion of the free digital communication.
The record opens with the hipnotic instrumental “cowboy sem lei”, soon reaches with “foguete” the first but not last climax, gets more relaxed for some tracks and has with the aggressive dancefloor pusher “choque eléctrico piau” an impressive wake up call for the the last third of the record. Where it is getting almost jazzy with the out of space dub “amor brejeiro”, with the wonderful vocals of Dona Onete on the mic. She also participates on the mic the following track, “paixão cabocla”, a half samba-half dub, explores the world of Lee Perry and its adepts. The record closes with the 12 minute long “lourinha americana”, as great as the whole record.
Much more varied than all that baile funk stuff and also comes like a rararattattattatt-machine-gun-fire.
PS: M.L. – Música Livre (Copyleft/Creative Commons)!!!
Red Astaire – nuggets for the needy
Posted on: June 8, 2009
- In: beat | Music
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A collection of the songs which made Red Astaire a.k.a. Freddy Cruger from Gothenburg/Sweden famous around the world. Hip-hop flavored beats and breaks for the headz with a touch of Latin flavor, inclusive smash hit “follow me” and several other tunes which only were available as 12inch singles so far and floated through the airwaves regulary. But several songs are previously unreleased, with styles ranging from reggae-soul (“whatcha do”) , gospel-boogie (“gods way”) and rough breakbeat funk (“down 2 earth”) the Red man’s got all angles covered. The swedish funkateer collects together his best illicit reworks for this full album of dancefloor killers, if you don´t know yet you should check it out as soon as possible.
Marcelinho da Lua – tranquilo
Posted on: April 17, 2009
- In: beat | Music
- 7 Comments
I´m back and in the meanwhile urbanology reached the 100.000th visitor, hurray!
“Tranquilo” is Marcelinho da Lua´s, producer, DJ and singer from Brasil (or the moon?) first record and is anything, but not calm as the title suggests. I don´t want to spend to many words on this record (in fact I´m just to lazy to read all the informations about him, which are only in portuguese), just let you know the record includes a cover version of “Cotidiano” by Chico Buarque, woah. And Marcelinho da Lua is brewing a killer mix of electronic styles on his debut and beside the cover version of that classic brasilian song Seu Jorge and Gilberto Gil are participating. Woah for the third time today, an awesome ecclectic record and I guess you will say whoaah too, after listened to this record.
Groundation – hebron gate
Posted on: February 22, 2009
- In: Music
- 5 Comments
I have a very strong respect for reggae, from rocksteady to dancehall, this genre had an enormous influence on music culture and the DJ, the MC and the remix are children of reggae music and the were invented in Jamaica. But most roots reggae bands of today are pure and boring copies of the golden age. A freshening roots reggae band is Groundation from California who play outstanding jazzy reggae: Miles Davis meets Burning Spear, all tallented musicians in their own right, but together as a band along with the amazing voice of Harrison Stafford, which has a delightfully raspy feel, they are unbeatable. “Hebron Gate” (2002) is Groundations third album and from the first drum beat you just know it’s going to be something special, a reggae revelation for me (especially live, saw them twice and they are unbelievable). You are carried away by the beauty and energy of the entire blend, for the next 50-odd minutes, the soothing intensity continues. Superb, the high production values play their part, but the expert, inventive musicians hip is what makes this album great. There’s not a bad track on the album, everyone a gem, every instrument played to perfection, truely a work of art. With the added bonus of guest artists Don Carlos and the voice of the congos Cedric Myton on two tracks. Pure conscious reggae-jazz fusion, played by musicians with skill and musical knowledge. Dragon Wars.
- In: beat | Music
- 6 Comments
Why fuse rare breaks, hip-hop, early 70’s Soul and Jazz with roots reggae?
“Because nobody else has done it!” as musician, writer and producer Michael Hunter aka Butch Cassidy Sound System (formerly also known as Pablo) says. And he solved the problem of modern roots reggae with this release. Why? In my eyes there are a lot of fine roots reggae bands, but only a very few are performing a modern version of it (i.e. Groundation, who add a jazzy touch), most are boring retro groups. BCSS from Glasgow breaks out of the retro limitations and the results are pretty amazing. Look out for Michael’s diverse production, showing us why the Butch Cassidy project is far more than just reggae. There is soul, funk, r&b, hip-hop and house all on show. Despite the main reference for the album being a firm focus on 70’s reggae, Michael takes the individual tracks in very different directions, but the album in general veers far more towards classic dub reggae than new age fusion. That´s no surprise, because for the recording of this project, Michael collected together all the vintage instruments, compressors and effects. He also mastered the album from two inch tape, to achieve the authenticity of sound he wanted, and to create, a perfect mix of funk and reggae. And you have to hear the dub version of The Meters´ “cissy strutt”, which will keep most dance floors jumping.
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