2 for solo instruments (new links aug.15.2009)

it looks positively arctic outside my window right now, and this Feldman for piano is just about perfect for the occasion. out of the 4 recordings of this piece that i know, with pianists Stephane Ginsburgh, John Tilbury (we had here before), Hildegard Kleeb, and Markus Hinterhauser, i chose the last because it is perhaps the most bleak, and most fitting for my surrounding frozen white landscape.


and this is an all time favorite. don't know what else to say, it is simply stunning.

a little gripe

with modern classical programming for concerts and festivals:

there is so much music from the 20th century which is BOTH rigorous, challenging, AND ALSO AT THE SAME TIME beautiful, seductive, sensuous, and (here's that word again) accessible ---- and sometimes, or often, i find the most impenetrable, difficult, and... almost farcical pieces performed.

i mean i kind of understand and even admire the impulse: a big acetic fuck you to "entertainment", to "bourgeois sensibilities", to consumerism... but at the same time, they are playing right into the stereotypical cliches the general population have about this music.

case in point: yesterday saw some Salvatore Sciarrino among others performed (don't remember whose piece the following describes) -- a group of 6-8 performers playing brief notes between long uncomfortable pauses, exchanging seats/instruments, all running to the piano to pound on it, etc., none of which being the least "musical", and just coming off like the sort of buffoonery people complain to arts foundations about -- and they wonder why funding often gets cut for "new music".

but the evening was saved by a drop dead gorgeous Stockhousen piece, which gently swelled and ebbed along elegant arcs... (nothing to do with the point but interesting: the 4 performers, per instruction of the score, had not slept or eaten much in 4 days)

well OK considering the theme of yesterdays concerts was "Audio Poverty" so maybe they consciously chose to showcase stringent works which do not "give", and embody an idea of "poverty" of experience... but the same holds true of many other concerts i've attended...

i think the reason stingy and difficult music is prized and elevated to the status of genius, and sensuous and generous music is often ignored, is because the institutions of academic music are run by joyless old male control freak kurmudgens.

sweet cumbia mix

one of the best cumbia mixes i have encountered, of the modern, urban persuasion. very clean, very smooth, very well put together and Phat, booming sound, comging from Poland.

1. Navidad - Pedro Laza Y Su Paleyeros
2. Bombon Asesino - El Hijo De La Cumbia
3. La Mara Tomaza - El Hijo De la Cumbia
4. Lo Que Traje De Colombia - Fiesta Mexicana (from dj Vampiros-La Sonidera Colombiana mix)
5. Cumbia De Los Patos - Grupo Ginsu
6. Guarija - El Remolon
7. Petrona Martinez - King Coya remix feat. PG13 and AlexK
8. Zorzal - Chancha Via Circuito
9. Limb by Limb (Loder Bootleg) - Cutty Ranks
10. Bolivia - El Remolon
11. Llorar - Socios Del Ritmo
12. Revivante (feat. Fauna) - El Remolon
13. Cumbia Del Rio - Celso Pina
14. El Ventilador (Daledurado Remix) - Fauna
15. Bamburo (Fulani) - Mosica de Cameron
16. Dancehall - Chancha Via Circuito
17. Soy El Control - El Hijo De La Cumbia
18. Navidad Negra - Leonor Gonzalez Mina
19. Cumbion Mountaina (from dj Vampiros - La Sonidera Colombiana mix)
20. Cumbia Regional - El Hijo De La Cumbia
21. Sed Del Mal - Marcel Fabian
22. Ritmo De Tambo - Sonora Dinamita

direct listen here, and download here.

Rod Poole - December 96

everyone needs meditative introspection in their lives, and here is another out of print official release by Rod, whose music long time readers of this blog will be familiar with: one of the most original and brilliant guitarists of our time. his unrivaled and unique microtonal playing always has a haunting, otherworldly beauty; but the winter really comes through on this one: more stark, angular, and intense than the one i previously posted..

December 96

Love Is A Real Thing (new link 2013.03.16)

this post can be enjoyed by children, the hipster generation, and older, wiser folks alike, of what ever musical background or persuasion: it is simply superb on every level. a sure hit at small gatherings, good for sitting by the fireplace as well as getting the boogie on: is it classic rock? is it "Saucer" period pink floyd? is it acid? is it latin? is it boogaloo? is it rumba? is it afro drumming? it's all of the above and just finger licking good every damn time. (don't care if it's commercially available)

included is also the vinyl only track, but i omitted the extended version of track 3 because the vinyl rip does not sound good.

funky fuzzy

Ocora: Africa part 2 (all re-upped)

not much time for words but i hope the following quality vinyl rip of these out of print and super rare Ocora records themselves is enough. big thanks to Op and Goldfinger.

back cover
Bruitset Ambiances d Afrique One

back cover.
Bruitset Ambiances d Afrique Two


ocora Africa Anthologie de la Musique du Niger

DJ Doom - Adelaide Deep

a challenger arises. DJ Doom from Adelaide, Australia criticized my selection on NGOMA2 for being too obvious and lazy, and in response, has made a short Afro and Africanized house mix, showing us his approach to this sound.

and it is indeed lush -- a different feel from NGOMA2 entirely, using much lesser known tracks.

"Was gonna end it on 'Seasons' but I didn't wanna get accused of anthem bashing, I actually left the room to put the kettle on but changed my mind at the last minute as I wanted to end on a positive tip, cos Zhao - its all love out here

100% live - No Headphones, 100% unplanned / unrehearsed / unedited. Enjoy!"



That Beep (Radioclit Remix) - Architecture In Helsinki
Fashion (Drum Remix) - Guzluv
Mbeki - Andy X
Alone In Africa Pt. One (Arnaud D Deep Mix) - Niko De Luka
Katumbo (Beats Mix) - Abicah Soul
Greenlight - Footsteps
So Good Today (Yoruba Soul Remix) - Ben Westbeech
Passages - Franck Roger
Mirror Dance (Yoruba Soul Mix) - Afefe Iku Ft. Oveous Maximus
Labyrinthe - DJ Gregory
Compromise - N.B. Funky
Seasons - Lil Silva
I Will Hold On (Ndiza Kulinda) - DJ Choc Ft. Mercy Pakela

SINGLE MP3 here.

bigup Doom for this lovely mix, and thanks for keeping me on my toes. it's true, music is not competitive sports; but none the less, the only thing left for me to do now is rise to the occasion, and deliver a response to the response... :D

STAY TUNED.

NGOMA 2

it is said that the drum itself was invented in Africa. and as far as i'm concerned, all modern pop and especially dance music have deep roots in the musical traditions of that continent. i have made the admittedly sensationalist proclamation "techno comes from Africa", and here is an extremely simplified version of my concept of this lineage: slave songs - blues - gospel - jazz - funk - disco - house - techno ---- the circle is complete. some may have problems with this generalization (and in some ways i do too), but all sidelines, exceptions, and details aside, essentially it makes sense to me. after all, the 4 on the floor hypnotic groove can be found in the myriad styles of African music from every era, be it high-life, rumba, or the thousands upon thousands of much older regional traditions.

most people were, and still are, confused, skeptical, or straight up dismissive when i talk about this, but history was made in 2008 with Warp Records' release of DJ Mujava's Township Funk in Europe, which i believe is only the beginning of Europeans coming to grips with the awesome power of African Techno.


STREAM AND SINGLE FILE DOWNLOAD:

fairtilizer

SEPARATE TRACKS DOWNLOAD:

mediafire or rapidshare or megaupload

a few things

1. thanks to Tom, Billy, and the one they call Graspy for all the brilliant contributions, but lately they have been too busy to post much so i'm going to go solo for the foreseeable future. of course they are welcome back any time; and if anyone else is interested in getting on board, just let me know.

2. new myspace for music: look, listen, add, and show me some love!

3. found this wicked psychedelic almost feels like Kraut-rock African house track by DJ CLOCK called "Durban Guitar", on DJ CNDO's first compilation. someone said "Brinkmann-esque"... but sooner or later people will realize that Brinkmann is actually "African-esque".

UK Garage / 2-step trade

not sure how many around here are into this stuff, but i've just uploaded 1.6 Gigs of the cream of my UKG/2step collection. i went through and deleted the low bit-rate files and the too cheesy bubble-gum tunes and the weak ones. what remains are the sick bass work-outs, dark anthems, tricky little jams and poppy vocal tunes with the fidgety funk.

links are fresh and ready to go: 16 100MB archives -- if anyone has nice collections and wants to trade leave a comment with what you have. In addition to UKG/2-step, I'm also looking for old skool Grime from around 2003, African Deep House, African Techno, African Hiphop, Kwaito, Funk Carioca, Rai, etc. amazing hard to find dance music. also, your part does not need to match mine in terms of quantity -- only quality.

here is what i have:

image 1 image 2 image 3 image 4 image 5

thanks to those who have sent me emails, but surely there are more out there who want to trade?

an isolated incident

one of, if not the best from that era of big label "chill out" compilations (actually more like "stress out" haha - in a good way). many essential pieces but a few on here are all time favorites and not available anywhere else -- that O'rang vocal less version of "Little Sister" for example... to this day defying categorization of any sort.

i remember being 19 and stealing this CD from Virgin megastore, eager to discover new sound worlds, not knowing many names on the sleeve (and not having enough funds). i was very much attracted to the packaging and concept... here was something out of the ordinary, a dark, cavernous, hallucinogenic visual and aural object, promising introspective realms of sensation. funny that it was sitting on the shelves with C&C Music Factory and REM -- in hindsight it was one of those few great isolated (no pun intended) incidences where something truly subversive and rewarding was able to be smuggled through the cracks of the machinery of commerical distribution, and find its way into the hands (and CD player) of a starving young mind. (it was probably the least successful in terms of sales in the ambient series; i seem to remember reading that it was a financial disaster)

bringing it home, at first it was impenetrable (my friends had zero patience for it), but as i listened more, the power of these tracks revealed itself, and lead the way to many exhilarating experiences in music later. in this sense it was one of the few occasions packaging worked, and more importantly delivered.



CD 1

1. KK Null & Jim Plotkin: "Lost (Held Under)"
2. Jim O'Rourke: "Flat Without A Back"
3. Ice: "The Dredger"
4. Raoul Björkenheim: "Strangers"
5. Zoviet France: "Daisy Gun"
6. Labradford: "Air Lubricated Free Axis Trainer"
7. Techno Animal: "Self Strangulation"
8. Paul Schütze: "Hallucinations (In Memory Of Reinaldo Arenas)"
9. Scorn: "Silver Rain Fell (Deep Water Mix)"
10. Disco Inferno: "Lost In Fog"
11. Total: "Six"
12. Nijiumu: "Once Again I Cast Myself Into The Flames Of Atonement"

CD 2

1. Aphex Twin: "Aphex Airlines"
2. AMM: "Vandoevre"
3. Seefeel: "Lief"
4. .O.rang: "Little Sister"
5. E.A.R.: "Hydroponic"
6. Sufi: "Desert Flower"
7. David Toop & Max Eastley: "Burial Rites (Phosphorescent Mix)"
8. Main: "Crater Scar (Adrenochrome)"
9. Final: "Hide"
10. Lull: "Thoughts"
11. Thomas Köner: "Kanon (Part One: Brohuk)"

found at friend sound. props.

SONG OF THE DAY/DECADE

turn up your speakers and click here. NOW.

i posted this song on some message boards and most people just do not get it... i too did not experience apartheid (first hand, from the sufferer's side), but the joy of liberation, all those cruel years coming to an end, expressed in this song... like first rays of the sun after winter... just so fucking beautiful.

in Morocco last month one night at this western style nightclub there was an african singer entertaining european tourists with Sade and Michael Jackson... at around 1 AM i requested this song -- the spark in her eyes and smile on her face at the mention of it was just amazing. so she switched the music off, and everyone quieted down as she closed her eyes and did it acappella... and gave it 110% -- her voice just soared and tears did fill my eyes. this photo is from right after:



to me the power and spirit of this song is perfect for this occasion, 20 some years after its recording. and i feel so sorry for all the dead-inside cynical people that can not feel the ecstatic glory of this monument to love, life, and freedom...

Ocora: Africa part 1

fact that i posted the first Ocora focus on Africa on THE HISTORIC DAY is pure coincidence. i swear it.



Musiques du Cameroon - Bakweri Bamileke Bamoun Beti

thanks to Op for ripping this very rare vinyl from the original Ocora catalog (never reissued on CD)

Marimba and non-melodic percussion pieces reveal intricate collideascopic latice works; chants and song whose purposes are lost to me (love? work? celebration? mourning?) tell their elegant (and to me, mysterious) tales. some selections are one or the other, some are voice with drumming combined; and flutes show up later on.

the clearly advanced yet intuitive mathematics demonstrated in some of this music is truly mind boggling. if any modern persons still (and I'm sure do) look down on this music, dismiss it as "primitive", and feel superior in relation to it, well this can only be demonstrative of his own ignorance, stupidity, and under-developed sense of beauty.

above is just my passing impression, the complete scans of the sleeves with detailed notes are included.

Mediafire: Part A, Part B
Rapidshare: Part A, Part B



Burundi - Musique Traditionelles

a whispered low-register male voice opens this collection accompanied by the dull and rich sounds of a plucked string instrument: in my imagination it is the dude on the cover, singing ghost stories to little ones or recounting the treacherous glories and loss of some past war. many vocal pieces follow, with or without back-up, varying greatly in tone, character, and style. 2 pieces whose title begins with "Akazehe" for young women stand out: so pretty and fragile. but many other highlights through out: gorgeous solo flute, epic chants with a large ensemble, the voice from track 1 comes back, perhaps even more sinister. and last but certainly not least: a child's voice beautifully weaving in and out of the ringing plings and plongs of some ancient guitar (surely with a great hollow body).

(a few of these i think will show up in FUSION PART 2 - underpinned by digital bass wobble :)

Mediafire: Part A, Part B
Rapidshare: Part A, Part B

Not Dead .....Yet

(NOTE: this is pretty difficult and intense stuff -- for serious audio adventurers. - zhao)

Remko Scha is a professor of computational linguistics at the faculty of humanities and Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam. He is also an internationally renowned composer and performer of algorithmic art.
He has also made recordings of music which has been generated by motor-driven machines. One example of this type of music is his 1982 album of electric guitar music,"Machine Guitars", on which all guitars are played by saber saws without human intervention, except for one in which the guitar is played by a rotating wire brush, again with no human intervention.

Machine Guitars. 33 rpm LP. Eindhoven: Kremlin Products, KR006. 1982. (Cover art work by The Machines.)

Tracklisting:
A1 Shake
A2 Throb
A3 Thrash
A4 Switch
B1 Stroke
B2 Sweep
B3 Slam
B4 Brush



m


Asian Flashback: Underground Music From Asia
13 tracks from Asian underground bands in Japan, Korea and China

Track Listing:

1. Li Jianhong, Narita Munehiro, Hano Shoji-Tokyo Session
2. Mustangs-Saliva
3. Kiyasu Orchestra-Village
4. Mafeisan-C
5. 10: U-A-U
6. Xiao He-Bird and Water
7. D!O!D!O!D!-EisaO TGB
8. Sato Yukie-Solo Improvisation
9. Yoshiteru Koga Jizo-MugaMuga
10. Kim Young Jin-Rock Sanjo Medley
11. Li Daiguo-Ashineden
12. Amature Amplifier-Plurius
13. Soonie-Imagine



m

enjoy..............

FUSION ONE

this is a mash-up album fusing global traditional music and modern bass/beats. if you've ever wondered what Digital Gamelan is like, or what Capetown gospel singers do after moving to London Ghettos, or how Robots would play Ethiopian Jazz...

erasing lines, fusing edges, reconnecting all mutations, permutations, lost strains, divided strands, and myriad variations of the deeper-than-we-remember roots from which we all come. limits are arbitrary, borders are lies, separation is illusion.




SEPARATE TRACKS DOWNLOAD: mediafire or megaupload


and i had no idea this was on soundcloud until now: thanks I3ong!Dj zhao - FUSION ONE uploaded by I3ong

tsuki

morocco was amazing and crazy and hallucinatory. but it will take some time for me to sort through the photos and stories and piles of amazing music i brought back. for now i realize we haven't had any contemporary electronic music in a while and here is an almost forgotten gem:

Thanks to coonass who originally uploaded this obscure and lovely little self released CDR by portugese person/outfit TSUKI, called "i wish that mountain could have eye".

it comprises of gentle but impressionable, haunting yet not typically "dark", minimalist but playful sound paintings using really nice and unique loops and textures and amazing resonating tones, some of which come from a saxophone.

thoroughly enjoyed first 2 back-to-back listens over the weekend and have become an instant favorite that i will return to time and again.

RAPIDSHARE or MEDIAFIRE

in between places quickie

blogging in madrid right now enroute to morokko during a 5 hour lay-over but these guys just gave me unlimited online access woooooohoooooo! :D anyone have any suggestions on where to go in Marekesh or Tangier and where to shop for THE RAI?????

i think this unstoppable fire is actually Algerian, but with more than a touch of morokko to my ears... am i making non-sense?

this massive, massive tune is exactly the sort of thing that gets me hype these days when so much leaves me drowsy: minimal, streamlined, modern, yet completely traditional, with those wikkid tones, that relentlessness... untainted by cheesy mainstream western club dance pop hiphop whatever (like so much modern rai - not that there´s anything wrong with that, but it ain´t the same kinda heat as this.)

anyone have any recommendations along these lines please speak up.

also, run don´t walk to the 1 or 2 record shops left standing in your town (or amazon or boomkat or whereever) and pick up Dusk and Blackdown´s Margins Music NOW.

going to leave the proper wax and wane for others more inclined, but if you enjoyed my Fusion mix... this is some serious (sorry for using this phrase) next level shit right here. post post-modern, post post-colonial cultural politics... forget all that, just beautiful music which transcends borders.

ok that´s all for now. have to go buy a 5 euro little bottle of water before i pass out... booyaka booyaka!

autumn harp

have been really enjoying these classical harp albums of late. maybe not as exciting or interesting as other posts before but so lovely for fall mornings... if people are feeling it there are several more along these lines.

PART A PART B

taking sides

this is not a political blog, and i realize that the Dems and Repubs are almost the same thing and that the soap opera of poli-tainment is just another distraction to keep people asleep at the wheel of life. i also recognize that voting itself is not much more than an exercise in futility and to keep believing the illusion of freedom and lie of Amerikkkan "democracy" is for the birds...

but with that said.

IF YOU ARE VOTING FOR THE RACIST ASSHOLE DIMWIT JOHN MCCAIN AND HIS IGNORANT FUNDAMENTALIST STUPID BITCH OF A RUNNING MATE:

YOU ARE NOT WELCOME ON THIS BLOG. GET THE FUCK OUT, DO NOT COME BACK, AND KILL YOURSELF. NOW.

Uilleann Pipes

talking about the Pogues on Dissensus, conversation turned to traditional Celtic music (an entirely new area for me), and someone posted up these videos... dead in my tracks, instant zone-out, hooked after first 3.7 seconds of first one. anyone with knowledge (or links) to expansive abstract psychoactive mystical bagpipes filled with overtones please leave a note.

visual music

In the 70's, Rainer Wehinger created a visual listening score to accompany Gyorgy Ligeti's Artikulation. I (not me, someone) scanned the pages and synchronized them with the music.

OCORA: VIetnam

ok back on course. my rapid account ran out and i can't renew it right now because i lost my credit card and the new one will not arrive for blah blah blah. so much for seeing the entire OCORA catalog neatly listed in my rapid folder... oh well when life hands you a lemon -- use mediafire.

3 pretty different recordings of music from Vietnam. the Celestial Harmonies "Music of VIetnam" series is superb as well, covering dimensions not included in these. maybe we'll get to that at some point.



Tran Van Khe - lute, zither, ceremonial drum
Tran Quang Hai - spoons, sapeke clappers
Tran Thi Thuy Ngoc - wood block

mediafire



Musique Mnong Gar Du Vietnam: Anthologie Du Musique Proto-Indochinoise Vol. 1

from discogs: "Most of the items presented here were recorded in 1958 amongst the Mnong Gar (or Phii Brêe) of Central Vietnam, in the villages of Sar Luk, Ndut Trêe Pül and Nyôong Hat (field-trip of the Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient and the Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique Outre-Mer)."

The Maa' music was collected during the same field-trip at the Daa' Rngaa plantation near Blao (Vietnam). The Mnong Buu Nör material was recorded in Cambodia in 1966, field-trip of the C.N.R.S. and the Centre de Documentation et de Recherches sur l'Asie du Sud-Est et le monde Insulindien, CeDRASEMI, L.A. 183, Associate Laboratory of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (6th section) and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

mediafire A mediafire B



The music presented on this CD by Professor Tràn Van Khê comes from the South of Vietnam. The original Vietnamese name for this music is "don tai lu," which means music of the amateurs, although it is not at all an amateur music. This music, performed by small ensembles for small audiences, is for the entertainment of music lovers, outside of ceremonies or particular events or circumstances, and is part of what in Vietnam is called entertainment music, in distinction from other styles that are not. Although similar to Huê music, the court music of Central Vietnam, the music from the South differs in its modes, performance style, rhythms, improvisation style, and even its notation. The instruments used are typical Vietnamese instruments, mostly stringed instruments, including zither (dàn tranh), lutes (dàn tam, dàn ty bà, dàn xên), or fiddles (dàn cô, dàn gao), as well as some percussion. In this century, the Western violin joins the ensemble. Vietnamese charm at his best!(AMG)

mediafire

bloggariddims # 45 - dj zhao

honored to be a part of such a great series: the badman droid at the fear has been running the bloggariddims podcast for a long long time, and i just now managed to get one in. better late than never though INNIT.



this is made with material i prepared for Fusion Festival, and is also an attempt to communicate new conceptions of hybridity by fusing sounds from disparate locations and eras into new musical entities, with focus on traditional and regional music framed by urban bass and beats, or is it the other way around?

01_00:00 Deadbeat - Lost Luggage // Indonesia - Spring Water
02_03:20 itoa - Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart's Dub Band D1 // Indonesia - Morning Sun
03_05:50 The Mahotella Queens - Muntu Wesilisa // Wiley - Bang Bang Instrumental
04_08:12 African Headcharge - Belinda // Blir - 19_4_04
05_09:28 IndonesiaTraditional - Sanda Kandung // Unknown Grime instrumental
06_11:24 Benga - Half Ounce // [Burundi: Music from the Heart of Africa] bernadette ii
07_14:52 Indonesia Traditional - Ngantosan // Mark One - Slang
08_17:28 Danny Weed - Dirty Den // Huseyin Ali Riza Albayrak - Ey Zahid
09_19:02 Ragga Twins - Spliffhead
10_20:35 Burial - Unite
11_22:14 Dub Terror [ft. Echo Ranks] - Technology
12_25:07 Hiripsime - ces femmes qui me ressemblent // Cyrus - Random Trio - Bounty
13_28:33 African Headcharge - Run Come Saw // DQ1 - Wear The Crown
14_32:00 Indonesia Traditional - Padang Magek // Omen - Rebellion
15_35:05 L-Wiz - Sub // Armenia Traditional - Boulbouli Hid (Le Chant du Rossignol)
16_38:54 Vex'd - Destruction // from 2046 soundtrack
17_40:05 Hijak - Nightmares // ø - Toisaalia
18_41:54 Shackleton - Blood On My Hands / I Want to Eat You // Dashti - Abdoinaghi Afsharnia
19_47:54 Kode 9 - Magnetic City // Akhenation - 361 Degrees
20_50:24 Mulatu Astatge - Kulunmanqueleshi // Dj Hatcha - Just a Rift
21_52:53 Loka - Fire Shepherds - Freda Mae // Dubwoofa - Devoliz
22_56:00 The Mahotella Queens - Ndodana Yolahleko // Skream - Skunkstep

Mashups: a cheap one liner trend collapsing all narratives into a heap of meaningless garish post modern rubbish, or a new way of interacting with cultures, of thinking about the world, of experiencing and creating music? of course they can be both, but i've always been excited, if not by most of what i have heard, by what i imagined was possible.

and what i imagined was Digital Gamelan, Ethiopian Grime, Afro-Arabian Dubstep -- sounds from far away and/or long ago fused in ways that are both surprising but also intuitive... i wanted to make a particular kind of mashup, producing results that people would want to listen to, maybe over and over. is it possible to make the fusion, the bastard frankenstein assemblage, sound better than the original sources? a tall order for sure, especially when the original sources sometimes are master musicians, but one that i nonetheless hope to have achieved in some of the mashups included in this mix. judge for yourself -- admittedly a little difficult since you can not hear the originals next to them -- so i suppose just go by how well the hybrids work...

i am always hearing the same beat patterns, the same compositional devices, the same dynamics, the same arrangements, in music made both spatially and temporally far apart from eachother: ultimately i absolutely believe that all music have the same roots, and the newest electroic music is, perhaps indirectly, but absolutely, deeply connected to old music from other places.

DIRECT LINK TO THIS VOLUME MP3

SUBSCRIBE TO BLOGARIDDIMS

OH and Fusion Festival pictures are HERE

Dear Rod

it has been 1 year since your passing, we all miss you, your spirit, and of course your amazing just intoned solo guitar. but where ever you are, i am sure you are reaching even greater heights of understanding and bliss.

this piece has always sent chills down my spine, but now maybe even more so. i will cherish this recording for all the rest of my days, and i hope all the music lovers out there will as well.



rest in peace

OCORA: India part 4 - Dirty South

South India: Pandam, Tanjore Style of Singing (Inde Du Sud: Padam, le Chant de Tanjore) - Aruna Sairam

originally posted by Op. Two reviews from Amazonworld:

*****Austere beauty, a great singer, September 18, 2000
Reviewer: ST (pensacola, fl USA)
As a total fan of M.S. Subbulakhsmi for over 30 years, it is a joy to find a near 'rival', this artist from Tanjore and this form, Padam. It's a style of singing she represents wonderfully, a form that we're told is fast disappearing. Her presentation is languid, leisurely, dignified and charged with the deepest feeling. A special surprise and gem is her rendering of a Sloka in raga Hamsanadi which is counterpart to raag Marwa in the Hindustani system.

*****Tanjore style, September 30, 2003
Reviewer: A music fan
Following up on the previous review, more than a "rival," the Tanjore school is a genre of the many schools (others being Karaikudi, etc.) and Aruna Sairam is a protege of this school through her association with the heiress of the great Veena Dhannammal, the late Sangeetha Kalanidhi Smt. T. Brinda (1912-1996). T Brinda along with her sister T Muktha are reputed to be repositories of many padams and javalis, some rarely heard today in concerts.

Listeners can treat this album as an exposure to the Tanjore style, with particular emphasis on rendering of padams, which are difficult pieces of the Karnatic repertoire to learn and perform. In this album, Aruna has rendered 3 of Kshetrayya's padams as well as one of Govindaswamy's. And not precluding the trinity of Karnatic Music, she includes a kriti of Tyagaraja in the Vivadi raga (raga with dissonant notes) Vagadhishvari. And what a thoughtful way to conclude her tribute to her masters with a Sanskrit sloka from the Krishna Karnamrutham of Bilwamangala Lilasuka in a garland of ragas!

PART A / PART B

and from jed Zshare mirrors: part A part B



Thayambaka, a complex, sacred art of percussion-playing from the temples of South India, performed to drive away demons.

Inde du Sud - Kerala, Le Thayambaka



India: Une Anthologie de la Musique Classique de l'Inde du Sud
Compiled by L. Subramaniam. originally posted by Goldfinger.

The best general primer for the vocal and instrumental music of South India. Compiled by Dr. L. Subramaniam, this four-volume set has excellent booklet notes explaining the wonders of Carnatic music and boasts contributions from many of the genre's greatest exponents illustrating vocal genres or instrumental techniques or instruments. Contributing vocalists include M.S. Subbulakshmi, Trivandrum R.S. Mani, Alathur SrinivasaIyer and T. Mukti. All the major instruments traditionally found in Carnatic music are illustrated -- among others, violin (L. Subramaniam, V.V. Subrahmanyam -- Subramaniam in the text), vina (Raajeshwari Padmanabhan), gottuvadyam (N. Ravikiran), flute (T.R. Mahalingam), morsing or Jew's harp (T.H. Subashchandran), kanjira, that is, a type of small drum (V. Nagarajan), ghatam or clay pot drum (T.H. Vinayakram), jalatarangam or tuned liquid-filled porcelain cups (Seeta Doraiswamy) and clarionet or clarinet (A.K.C. Natarajan). An anthology of great vision, essential for any general appreciation of Carnatic music. (AMG)

VOL. 1
VOL. 2
VOL. 3 A VOL. 3 B
VOL. 4

BOOYA! :D

just to get the place bouncin a lil bit

turn up the speakers turn up the bass YOU WOT?!?!

OCORA: India part 3

just a couple today, still from the north. those looking forward to the southern vocal music hold tight, we gon get to the karnatic song cycles soon enough.

Inde du Nord Shivkumar Sharma - Santur
the master and his instrument with tabla. what is there to say? (original vinyl rip by Op)

PART A PART B

thanks to jed for these Zshare mirrors: part A part B

and a heart breaking violin recording: Satya Dev Pawar

and jed's Zshare mirror

NEWS and IMPROVISATIONS

At the Konfrontationen festival in Austria last year i struck up a completely random conversation with someone standing next to me before a performance, and he turned out to be a regular visitor of this blog - always a great pleasure to meet internet music heads in real life. So if you are going to the FUSION FESTIVAL this summer, be sure to say hello, we will be playing on 2 separate nights:

SAT JUN 28 / 9PM - 12PM ---- DJ ZHAO solo
SUN JUN 29 / 1AM - 8AM ----- NGOMA Afro-Asia Soundsystem

Also NGOMA Mix Series VOL. 2 will be out soon!!!
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Now, before we return to the Ocora diet, a nice bowl of improvised recordings to sate your appetites for contemplative and quiet sounds... sounds soothing me right now as i blog after returning home at 7AM from djing all night to a club full of people jumping up and down on a tuesday (i heart Berlin):

3 guitars, 1 bass, and some electronics, this quartet stretches out over 50 minutes of not only the scrapes and thuds of extended technique, but also the beautiful plucked tones.

Werner Dafeldecker: electric bass, double bass
Martin Siewert: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electronics
Burkhard Stangl: acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Taku Sugimoto: electric guitar, 6-string bass guitar

Recorded at Wuschi's Basement (live) and Feedback Studio in Vienna, April 2000, and Tonstudio Amann in Vienna, October 2000. Released May 2002

SSSD - Home

this one on the whole, besides being varied with an all star contributor list, belongs to the more difficult, stringent, and kurmudgeony school of improvisation. not my favorite but still a very interesting and sometimes very good listen.

1. Scott Fields (electric guitar), and Yoshiko Kanda (percussion)
2. Utah Kawasaki (analog synthesizer), and Yuko Nexus6 (cassette player)
3. Gene Coleman (bass clarinet), Richard Teitelbaum (electronics, laptop computer), Brett Larner (koto), Ko Ishikawa (sho), and Aya Motohashi (hichiriki)
4. I.S.O.: Yoshimitsu Ichiraku (amplified percussion), Sachiko M (sampler with sine wave), and Yoshihide Otomo (electric guitar, turntable); and Kang Tae Hwan (alto sax)
5. Stefan Keune (sopranino sax), John Russell (acoustic guitar), Brett Larner (bass koto), and Masahiko Okura (alto sax)
6.Toshihiro Makihara (percussion), Brett Larner (gu zheng), Utah Kawasaki (analog synthesizer), Ami Yoshida (voice), Yuko Nexus6 (sampler), and Taku Sugimoto (6-string bass guitar)
7.Carl Stone (laptop computer)
8. Kazuo Imai (electri guitar, electronics), and Elliot Sharp (electric guitar, electronics, sax)

All recorded live at Deluxe in Azabujuban, Tokyo. Released July, 2001

Deluxe Improvisation Vol. 2 PART A PART B

a re-up of this collaboration between our buddy Otomo and some Korean friends of his:

Otomo Yoshihide, Park Je Chun, Mi Yeon - Loose Community


as per requested, a re-up of the classic I.S.O - I.S.O. (live in a zen garden)

and another re-up:
Taku Sugimoto & Kevin Drumm - Den

NGOMA presents G-SOLO LIVE: Jun 07

a lot of people i have never seen before came out, i guess either curious or in the know. G's flow was pretty tight, the beats were fire, a really good night.

more photos and videos here.

MERGE: May / Jun / July

location: Werkstatt der Kulturen
Address: Wissmannstr. 32 [ U Hermannplatz ] Berlin Neu-Kölln
Tel: 60 97 70-0 Website: www.werkstatt-der-kulturen.de Email: Werkstatt.Kulturen@t-online.de
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doing a (G?) solo new series of monthly events (last thursday of each) which takes place in a culture center in Neu Kolln. I'm curious to see how they will turn out as the area is only beginning to get filled up with hipsters, and while the location is very cool, a nice sized basement bar with dancefloor and decent sound, it is not EXACTLY known as a hot night spot. please do come out, bring a date, roll deep with ya crew, or just pop up G-Solo Gangasta Style and say hi, enjoy some of the bumpinest groovinating music you'll never hear anywhere else in Berlin.