Boogie down Middle East

No, not block parties in Dubai nor battle rapping in Riyadh, but little-by-little the sounds of the Arab world and the Indian sub-continent have filtered through the sample options of the genres creative producers. Sounds of sitars and quirky Arabic strings indeed haven’t found their way through, say, Timbaland’s repertoire but further underground it is definitely having influence as could be heard in last year’s unique and engaging Dr. No’s Oxperiments’ Lebanese/Greek/Turkish mash-up or indeed his older brother Madlib’s Beat Konducta India (utilising dusty & ancient Bollywood soundtracks) where exotic sound bytes are layered on top of straight forward beats and loops. Think of a Turkish Jimi Hendrix jamming with James Brown or Ravi Shankar providing music for Rakim and you’ll get a vague idea of what I’m talking about.


Although moves like this can be seen as borderline pretentious, I see it as a step forward in this post 9/11 world as rap as a genre will always rely to some degree on sampling as its creative force and although the vinyl crates filled with funk and soul will always be available, sound samples from various parts of the world are and will further be exploited to enrich the sounds of this 20 year old genre. It’s also quite refreshing to see US artists embracing the culture and sounds of the unknown instead of running scared from it.

And say children...

...what does Marquevico mean?

...and you dont quit!

To all Marquevicians, have a taste of Marquevicolicious

And you dont stop...

Any rabid Marquevico fan would be dying to get their hands on this first ep

Sounds from Marquevico

Is good music coupled with bad mixing your thing? If so, The Ludovico together with The Marquee presents: Sounds from Marquevico

Yo! from Rio!

Brasilintime (Batucada Com Discos) Live from Paradiso Amsterdam 09 May 2008



Now depending on what you expect in a show called Brasilintime organised by indie rap’s premier label, you’re either going to leave feeling buzzing or feeling you couldn’t hear another beat for a good few weeks. I for one conjured up various images in my head of how the gig would pan out. Would it be Bossanova grooves over light scratching topped up with Gilberto or de Moraes samples or some samba induced funk rap?

Luckily for me the stage was occupied by 2 full drum sets flanking a bass drum/snare/ an orgy of percussion paraphernalia backing up 3 turntables and huge white organ/sampler (couldn’t make out) which gave me food for thought whilst idly waiting for Paradiso to fill up. DJ Nuts and Stones Throw’s house turntablist J Rocc shifted through smooth Bossanova funk (?!) whilst the screen in the centre of the stage played video cuts of Brasilintime the DVD, entertaining the hip-hop heads and casual hippies and making my girlfriend daydream of Latin American holidays, before the drummers entered.

If you’re familiar with Madlib’s Yesterday’s New Quintet moniker (y’know, the imaginary5piecejazzbandoccasionallyfeaturinginsaneguestdrummers one) then you got to see Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti of Jackson Conti; an Otis Jackson (Madlib’s passport name) and Ivan Conti colab. in the flesh. Mamão (acting as the on-stage percussion leader), another Brazillian percussionist João Parahyba and Fela Kuti’s Tony Allen shifted through hard samba whilst the two deejays and Madlib manned the wheels of steel. The variations of samba and South American variants of the funk rolled through the 3 percussionists were amazingly varied but the effects from the scratching were quite mind boggling. Yes the spliffs and booze helped but moving vinyl backward-and-forwards to create chanting like effects or light stormy sounds is best described as some Afrobeat meets Weather Report on speed. Samples from J Dilla’s Donuts and the obligatory James Brown amongst others atogether with sing-along’s from Mamão filter through and bring a sense of familiarity as well as some melody amongst the orgy of sound and crashing cymbals. I was transfixed and so were the crowd. One could sense the collective feeling of awe that 3 underappreciated deejays and 3 underappreciated drummers from the 70s could create something so cohesive, inventive, original and danceable.


After just under 2 hours of the show the musicians bid their farewells and left the floor to J Rocc who gave the poppers and the breakers their fix of 1990s rap with a healthy dose of Q-Tip and Wu-Tang, even finding a slot for Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ to naturally glide in after A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Can I Kick It?’. After the refreshing one hour closing session I left a little sad knowing that I will be one of very few people who will be covering this refreshing fusion gig. Now if 50 Cent or Coldplay were to try some samba…


All photos: Erick Wicaksono

Sorry couldn't find a relevant and clean video so here is a blurry one from 2006:


http://www.brasilintime.com/

Rappcats

Alappatt

The Stones Throw gig in Dec 2007 was hands down the best I've been to. One of the stars out of the posse of djs and musicians that night was Egon, the manager of ST who opened the gig with stuff like this:

Hmmmmore

Intro' to Stones Thro'

Return of The Lud

Yes, a long last I'm finally gathering up the will to relive The Ludovico. With my thesis finally under the belt and my will to live has returned, I've gathered up a luggage of gig reviews, record updates, and general mumblings to be told.

Nothing can really sum up the past 10 months than me transforming into an all out hip-hop head b-boy. With the occasional interruptions of genial rock albums like Battles’ Mirrored and reliving the precious moments of a Talking Heads album, the wheels of steel has been occupied by rap albums and its predecessors namely funk, soul, afrobeat, dub and jazz. For fucks sakes, I’ve even taken quite a liking to G-Funk and The Wu.

I can ramble on for hours picturing the various images floating in my head listening to these long players and ideas I have music wise as a result of these findings, but this is for another blog entry in the very near future. For now here are 10 albums, in no particular order, which have been inseparable from my ones-and-twos for the better part of last ten months.

Enter The 36 Chambers – The Wu Tang Clan

Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde – The Pharcyde

Super Ape - Lee Scratch Perry

Is Victor Vaughan Vaudeville Villain? – MF DOOM

The Chronic – Dr Dre

Golden State Funk – Various artists

Holonic – DJ Krush

Shades of Blue –Madlib

Liquid Swords – The GZA

Almost anything released by Stones Throw. Yes, this counts as a separate, yet huge, entry. In fact, nothing has occupied my ears so much as material released by the LA based independent hip-hop/funk label Stones Throw that my next entry will be focused on cats like Peanut Butter Wolf, Madlib, Egon, Oh No and ill albums like The Funky 16 Corners I had the pleasure to spend hours listening to.

EL-Producto Melkweg.05.04.2007

Two weeks previously Big Daddy Kane rocked the Melkweg with his classic MCing skillz; constantly in touch with the crowd, barrage of name checks and tributes to rap's past, inviting the crowd to beatbox, breakdance and battle rap. I expected a concert but got a very good value for money old skool party.

Coincidentally, Definitive Jux, an independent New York hip hop label whose rap style was decidedly left-field have just been working its way through my playlist with an impressive rate. Company Flow started the interest with their only album released on seminal indie rap label Rawkus, with their 3 MC's; Big Juss, Mr.Len and El-P deliver tight knit rhymes play packed with political views, social injustices, graffiti writing and population control. EL-P's production isn't any less variative with essentially minimalist beat work accompanied with querky sound effect and spacey scratch pieces. Ever since Rawkus started going mainstream, EL-P started his own label, Def Jux which now stands as the benchmark for New York underground hip hop harbouring artists from RJd2, Aesop Rock, Mr.Lif and El-Producto himself. All that was good enough to convince me to wonder down to the Melkweg to see the man himself.

Supporting an orange prison uniform, El-P was flanked by Mighty Quin and his DJ whose name I can't remember. The 3 piece crew recited El-p's critically acclaimed I'll Sleep When You're Dead pretty much from cover to cover. Admitedly, the album is a hard one to digest as its theme is dark to say the least as El-p takes the listener through the paranoia of a 20 something living in the post 9-11 western world. It doesn't get any lighter performed live as the amps boom out ambient beats and trippy scratching by the annonymous DJ but certainly isn't danceable. Amusingly El-p still manages to make the crowd form a mini mosh pit smack bang in front of the Brooklyn cat.



His skits and instrumental interludes are quite different to any I've heard before as the DJ pumps out sampled cuts of old breaks mixed with El-p's characteristic electronic synth work not to mention hypnotic sitar samples. The 1 hour gig ended after the encore which feature mainy work from El-p's debut solo LP, Fantastic Damage and thus bringing a close to this ear opening gig and the man certainly justifies the hype surrounding the album he released only 3 weeks prevoiusly.

For an advert riddled video check out http://dl.aol.com/index.html?date=2007-04-20&video=1

Last plak- Rotterdam

Yeah!

kamikaze beemer-Rotterdam

Delft Station-on way to work

This tag is actually an ad for a furniture maker made by local grafitti artists in Delft.

The Spectacular View

This is the view I'm presented with for most of my daytime during week days

Automate this

Having decided to do my office work from University due to my 'Placement Report' deadline, I've had the opportunity to listen to all the albums I have downlaoded/bought recently. Curiously, all of them were produced by Dan 'The Automator' Nakamura. You see, within 2 weeks of JK giving me a taste of Del The Funkee Homosapien and Deltron 3030, I have gone searching for all Automator produced records I could get my hands on. This is the list I have:

1. Deltron 3030: Automator produced with Del The Funkee Homosapien and DJ Kid Koala
2. Handsome Boy Modeling School: with Prince Paul (De La Soul's DJ)
3. Gorillaz: Automator produced with Damon Albarn, Del The Funkee Homosapien and DJ Kid Koala
4. Dr. Octagon: Automator produced with Kool Keith (from the Ultramagnetic MC's)

I haven’t had this excitement with listening to records since I started to listen to The Velvet Underground so I’m still grasping my words for right words to describe these albums not to mention the quannum projects crew (DJ Shadow, Blackalicious and Latyrx to name a few) which I explored not too long ago. Once I do though, The Ludovico is where you’ll find ‘em.

The Lessons

For anyone remotely interested in turntablism, these 3 tracks by Double Dee & Steinksi, one of the pioneers of the art is a must:

1. Lesson 1: The Payoff Mix
2. Lesson 2: The James Brown Mix
3. Lesson 3: History of Hip-Hop

2006 goes by

2006 saw me go into hyper drive with hip hop records. My last post expressed my fascination of Jurassic 5's live performance in Amsterdam which prompted me to take a trip to Munich to see The Roots play live on December 7.

My trip to Munich also opened many chapters as the city provided me with much more options when it comes to searching for rap records. So it happened I managed to bag Blackalicious’ debut album Melodica back in ’94 as well as DJ Shadow’s Pre-emptive Strike in the form of LP’s and RUN-DMC’s Raising Hell plus Hendrix’s The Band of Gypsies on CD.

The performance of the Roots on the 7^th provided me with another view of hip-hop’s musical boundaries. The Roots largely differ to J5 as there was no DJ present and the stage set-up looked pretty much like any other band with a drum set, keyboards, a couple of guitars, a bass and percussions. Where J5 had Nu-Mark providing the basic beats, ?uestlove did the same for The Roots with totally different effect to his LA counterpart. DJ Nu-Mark was a one man producing machine with the help of 4 MC’s whereas ?questlove was largely providing steady beats helped by The Legendary Roots Crew’s® funk crew together with the rapping of Black Thought. Yet their similarities also show heavily with The Roots playing almost their entire set medley mixing tracks from 2006’s Game Theory as well as previous albums.

I never thought in my life time I would be able to see solo performances by musicians in an actual concert. Almost right from the beginning, perhaps 15 minutes into the gig we were entertained to L. Ron Hubbard’s bass slapping solo followed by ?questlove and their percussionist’s 20 minute psychedelic percussion bonanza. Half-way through the gig my man Jan commented whilst the Roots were playing ‘You Got Me’ that the song didn’t quite have the same pezzas without Jill Scott’s vocals. Luckily for us Capn’ Kirk helped us out by letting rip a guitar solo straight out of Funkadelic’s guitar solo book. Yet the fascination doesn’t end there as The Roots paid homage to their musical influences by slipping quick live samples of artists from the Police, The Sugar Hill Gang to Led Zeppelin. These live samples were slipped between solos I mentioned earlier which added to the feeling that you were half-way between a Public Enemy concert with one of Funkadelic’s.

It was a shame that we picked a spot in the hall close to the toilet passage which annoyed me no end and when the band played music I wasn’t particularly aware of, the nuisance of the passing crowd overtook the fun. Yet I can’t complain as it was an eye opening performance, completely different to Jurassic 5 yet staying to the basic values of rap and hip-hop, fat funky beats and tons of creativity.

The evening was capped by us going to ?uestlove’s DJ spinning in the Registratur, a nice small club in the centre of Munich. We stayed till about 4am after boogie-ing all night long to tracks and breaks of Soul and Rap’s past. Felt like I was in 1984!

Paying Homage as Well as Returning Favours-Jurassic 5 09.10.2006 Paradiso Amsterdam-

Why it took me half a month and a full day to finally fork out €19 to watch J5 is beyond me now. Having not heard their most recent album and the fact that a 9am morning awaited me the following day fuelled my hesitation to take the trip to Paradiso Amsterdam. However, when I remembered the last concert I attended was to watch the Infadels 6 months previously, I finally came to my senses. It turned out to be one of my better gambles.

From The Arcade Fire to Simon and Garfunkel, I don’t recall leaving a gig feeling quite this pleased. I also don’t recall seeing Paradiso as packed as last night. The crowd played their part though as J5 were the most interactive group I’ve seen live and played with the mob superbly. As they went through their repertoire of past albums and their latest release, Feedback, they never lost control of the crowd as we were entertained to everything from old skool rapping to Afrika Bambataaesque electronica to turntablism

Being my first hip-hop concert, I’m left agog on how flexible the genre actually is. Almost all the numbers were medley with all 4 MC’s mixing the standard lyrics from their albums with freestyle references to Amsterdam and its grass culture and political messages amongst others. DJ Nu-Mark played his part mixing past track samples with all sorts of wicked sh*t not to mention 3 solos. Before the encore Nu-Mark went solo playing 3 different turntables to samples from everything from Sugar Hill drumbeats to George Clinton Synthesizers. The encore started with the recent single release and ended with Chali 2na, Marc 7even, and Akil rapping freestyle with homage to golden age hip hop and the host city.

After the 2 or so hour gig all 5 stayed behind and socialized with the audience who stayed behind. After 3 spliffs I could hardly be bothered trying to get anything signed so I tried my luck getting a t-shirt from the merchandise area. Jurassic 5’s latest album may fall to mixed reviews but their live performance was certainly a spectacle and offered something different to rock or indie concerts I’ve been accustomed to. This makes it all the harder to accept the fact that both gigs of The Roots in November have been sold out. Now I have to rely on getting some tickets in Munich!!