We’re pleased to announce the 12″ release of “The General” the first single from Jahdan’s Buzzrock Warrior album, coming this fall. The release is a collaboration with the Liondub International label which is only fitting since Liondub and I built the riddim for “The General” together. Liondub has also enlisted two of his friends Marcus Visionary and Noah D. on remix duties and they turned out two dutty dubstep mixes. Both of them have been coming with a lot of fire lately all over the place. This is a UK pressing so it will be easier to find over there but some copies will be arriving stateside soon. Downloads will be available before too long but currently the release is vinyl only.
The Agriculture– which put out /Ruptures cosmopolitan (and new mexican) bass excursion “Uproot” has some fresh goods coming to market.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGBpVOztEL0[/youtube]Lloop’s “Autumn Rains Until Those of Spring” video by Peter Shapiro
Brooding dubstep for afronauts and the red eye(d) easyjet set. Lloop’s been working since the earl 90s Williamsburg rave scene on surreal and dubladen work – but i guess it was callled “illbient” back then-Â Â “60 HERTZ” is the new album- and it’s reminding me yet again how lacking the hegemonic dubstep creation myth is for explaining the genres development. Causality in cultural production is always nearly impossible to pinpoint- but this album certainly points to a more complicated relationship between stateside and UK developments in electronic music.
extra credit- 60 hertz is the frequency of AC power in the states… out of work with some spare time? take a photodiode, point it at a lamp and use it to control an oscillator- then u can listen to these sine waves humming all around us.
I’ve gone quiet for a minute because I just had a son. This is a photo of little Archie a few minutes after being born 4:37 AM 02/06/09, looking at the world. He shares a birthday with Robert Nesta Marley and is an Aquarius. One of the interesting new questions of being a parent is trying to get a full nights sleep (impossible, but one tries). Being a musician, I’ve been doing some research on the internet about lullabys. My lady Karla has been reporting Archie’s reaction to my different songs as I work on them while he was still in utero (mainly punching and kicking when the bass would come on) and this got me thinking about trying to compose some music for baby. So I started by doing some research. Google threw up some interesting stuff, I had no idea that you could buy washing machine, vacuum cleaner and hair drier sounds on CD. I settled on this one, free via babysleepnoise.com.
Baby Sleep Noise Combined Mix (15 min version, also available in 60 minute mix)
To me it sounds like Rhythm and Sound, and yes, it is pretty peaceful to listen to. It sounds like it’s composed of a fetal heartbeat mixed with several different kinds of noise, including hair drier, car on freeway, and white noise. All of these can be found separately in files of different lengths, here. It seems to work, although not when he’s hungry. I wonder, is this why we like Rhythm and Sound so much? Because it sounds like a heartbeat with a hair drier or an electric fan mixed with some nice reggae chord stabs? Because it reminds us of our first 9 months breathing water and listening to our mother’s muffled heartbeat? I know that Moritz has kids so perhaps this is the secret to their success. Actually I am gonna go find my R+S CD to try on Archie tonight. More research is definitely needed.
There is a lot going on here – a world shrinking and expanding, traditional Yoruba ceremonial drums and chants being laced with spacious/spacey (digital?) synth-pads, you can feel the continents drifting closer and apart as the sounds unfold, combine, and mingle, the relationship between Africa and Europe in the 21st century.
I started listening to Rhythm & Sound and Basic Channel around 2004. They, Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, struck me as complex, disciplined, sophisticated musicians. In the video below from sometime late last year, Moritz answers questions, explains his/their history, economic philosophy, work ethic, etc., at length as the audience and the interviewer sip Red Bull and doze off, and vibe to the music. It’s great to hear/see him talk, but you have to brave the aggressive marketing overkill for Red Bull. I would like to read or watch an extensive interview with him conducted in a different environment, but this one is alright for now, I guess –it’s relaxed, and he appears to be comfortable.
As I listened to Moritz’s German accent, I thought about one of Rupture’s point in an interview with Plan B magazine – “the internet contributes to the spread of English-language hegemony.” I also thought about my African/Sierra Leonean accent, which is not very strong but it’s there –a constant reminder that I am speaking other peoples’ language rather than my own. What if the interview was done in German and translated or transcribed for English and other speakers? That would be too much trouble, an unnecessary struggle, right? Red Bull Music Academy is an annual international affair hosted in cities around the world, features guest lecturers and participants, and almost everyone who spoke, had some form of accent (including British.)
