Our house is in a bit of a state at the moment, but nothing like what the people of the pueblo Cho Vito have had to go through. Cho Vito is a little town, part of Candelaria, 20km from Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
El-P was on tour recently and his We Are All Going To Burn In Hell Megga Mixx2 was initially only available to those who attended the gigs. Now it´s up on the DefJux site, available as a free download, well, part of it has, in all fairness to those that shelled out ca$h for the original item.
The shit is hot as hell, no pun intended, dropped about 30minutes of it in last week´s program.
A friend recently played me a demo of something he´d put together. After a couple listens, I said, "check this, and you will get an idea of where you could go (in production terms) with your track."
Actually I only said the first part, then I don´t know what the fuck happened, but his CD got seriously stuck in the player, and I could not get it out so he could hear where I was coming from.
What El-P has does with a steel pan sample, turning it into something that would sit inside an Harlan Ellison narrative, is beyond me. Great.
I´m an everliving gobstopper, Suck me forever. El-P
Ear Conditioning / 29 July
El-P · We are all going to burn in hell megga mixx 2 (Definitive Jux)
Idris Muhammad · Wander from the Black Rhythm Revolution LP (BGP Records)
Exciting Voices · God´s Chillun
Jazmin Sullivan vs. The Moody Boyz
Roots Manuva · Again and Again / The Moody Boyz Refix
Stacey Pullen · Vertigo (Science)
This past weekend, Charlie Faber (Satelit3) , Isidro (Afrodisia) and myself turned the Txola into a sweatbox as the funk pored out of every available cell. Isidro is a serious collector of rare grooves. His box of 7´s contains the foundations of hip hop....and Charlie´s selection had me salivating too....they gots breaks for days....the kinda shit that would make DJ Premier, Pete Rock or Jay Dilla turn around to have a word or two. Charlie and I did a back to back session which spawned an idea for a Txola compilation. More news on that as it develops, talk is cheap.
Txola will be taking a well-deserved break during August, see you in September/October.
Womad Las Palmas, consistently one of the best festivals in the Canary Islands will be taking place in 6-9 November, and I have had the pleasure of being asked to do a couple sets. Womad´s Spanish producers will be going to press this Friday, so can´t say anymore than that, although this will be the second opportunity this year for people in this area to see the one and only............
More details next week.
A friend in the UK was at the recent Womad in Charlton Park, and reported of a food stall called
'Asian Grub Foundation'. Her "mate suggested 'The Dahl Foundation' and our favourite - 'Fun^Da^Lentil'."
I don´t give a toss if they i.D. Banksy. His art is important, not his image.
The Bug: the London Zoo album is getting great reviews in the UK music press. The Observer Music Monthly review comes with "But it's in daring to ask the big questions like 'How did we get here, and where do we go now?' that this record's rage-filled exuberance evokes the spirit of such classic state-of-the-world addresses as Specials, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and Black Flag's Damaged." Yeah, i´d say impressive.
A couple week-ends ago was the Eolica Festival. The issue surrounding Eolica is the environment. As we entered the scenario we received a little portable ashtray, and I thought, ´cool, good idea´, that scores points. The location is on a wind turbine site in the south of the island, and the power generated by the turbines runs the stages, sound etc. Well, I thought it was, until I saw a generator pumping out the usual diesel fumes...oops, losing points already?
I played on the first night, an"improved" (their words) , Asian Dub Foundation headlined, previewing tracks from their new album Punkara as well as serving up classic material. They did sound better with their new vocalists, more mature than the previous two, one of which was an arrogant shit....i know from personal experience, when they came as a sound system a few years back.
Morodo, a reaggae outfit from Barcelona, I think, over-played their set as if they was the gigamegadon, driving people away with boredom plastered to their faces. All this after being in Madrid, when he shoulda been in Tenerife for his soundcheck. The first band hit the stage three hours behind schedule. One thing really missing from festivals in Tenerife, is a stage manager, one that knows what the job entails and how to do it.
"Stage manager? ask for Maria" pseudoym
Asked for Maria, "You the stage manager?"
"Uh....uh...I am half stage manager. Want do you want? "
Methinks, "Half?"
Asked for a beer, and a chair for the records.....didn´t see her again.
I eventually got behind the decks a bit after five am, and heaped spoonfuls of Iraqi choubi, Maghrebi, darabooka, tabla solo, nu-whirl breakbeat business before the clock struck six.
Curfew, no one said anything about a curfew!
What do you mean 10 minutes?, I´ve only just started! (40 minutes earlier)
I ain´t been able to bring out the futuredubstep bass jewellry yet!
We need to hear that shit coming through this massive system ya got!
Aguaviva Festival...pffft!
My bird-watching man and avid nature-lover friend Juan Jo (see below also) turned Ayoze of the the AguaViva festival people onto me to dj next to the NGO tent. Ayoze called me up, set up dates, then i got passed onto the booker, Alby.
He and I made an agreement that I would be paid after my second set.
When the time came, was he anywhere to be found? Nope!
Would he answer his mobile? Nope!
Knowing that I had a flight to Sweden immediately after my set, Alby ignored my calls and texts until I sent him a third text asking him if he treated all his artists like this? Fuckin´hell, that got his attention, as he replied "Have some respect!" Yes, Alby, you are one to talk. You paid Jamiriaqua (spell check ain´t working) in advance and you can´t even pay me my little monies as agreed.
Thanks to Ayoze from the production company, and Walter, they went all out to help me get paid.
Via magazine (Tenerife) has refused to run a review of the AguaViva Festival proper - not the NGO tent event - penned by Javi Jiminez because he lambasted the festival organization and of course, the magazine can´t bite the hand that serves up ca$h, so that´s it, my man has quit the magazine. Real shame, although it was kinda trendy hi-brow, glam, it had good photography, class images, interesting articles, bi-lingual to a degree, and it was good that Javi was able to contribute to their music coverage. He avoided the obvious stuff that it covered day in day out. I came across the magazine at the airport, and inside was a positive review of a Little Axe album. I was glad to see that somebody down this way had cottoned on to what Skip was doing with Little Axe. I met Javi about eighteen months later. He´s the one that brought El Guincho to town a few months back. Oh, El Guinch´t....he´s had to pull out of his summer dates in North America due to exhaustion. The few months have been full on for him. Hope your reading Future Music in bed Pablo.
Fun-da-mental played the 1st Internationalist Youth Resistance Festival in Greece last weekend. I went out a day early, and good thing too, Ojos de Brujo Sound System were also on the bill, so we hooked up at the studio of Iman Baildi for a little refreshment, (it was 33 degrees) and recording of ODB claps and me abusing the ears of the engineer, shouting into the mic.
The festival was organized by the communist brothers and sisters of KOE. Discussions, debates, events featuring people from Nepal, Bolivia, Haiti, Greece, Venezuela. Leila Khaled was supposed to be there, but the Israeli government prevented her from travelling, so a direct phone link was arranged as an alternative.
It was also the first festival whose portaloo´s were illuminated at night. Normally you wouldn´t want a light in there anyway, but this was real clean, hence no rim-ridding stinking mass was present to be highlighted.
Back home, full moon Friday was an event presented by the Fundacion Global Nature, that the aforementioned JuanJo is involved with. That guy has my back for sure, no? This week was the unveiling of a whale skeleton reconstructed with metal work support. I was told there are only five skeletons of this species, and not all of them are open to the public either, so if ya get the chance, the coast of Los Silos should be on your mind.
2 MC´s and 1 DJ under the name Demencia Lírica provided the old´skool flow & beats to a sparse crowd but appreciative crowd, bless ´em.
After I was done, a female voice, "..more dubstep, something with bass!"
It was true, it was one of the very few events where they had a system that could handle weight.
Been slack on the playlist front, if you´ve read this far you´ll understand why...
The program for this Tuesday is looking like this:
Radio Norte 89.4FM Online here could it be true?
Nubian Mindz · Urban Beats (Archive) / Trippy filtered slow moving
Max Roach · Absolutions (Atlantic) I don´t possess the vocabulary to express myself about this
Humbucker · Cincinnati Hawks (Klein) / 70´s NYC funk. Stuck right up your nostrils.
Boom Bip · Enjoy eating the diane musson´s hand (MUSH) Great use of Marvin Gaye music
Boom Bip · Doo doo science - Once again, great use of a sample, this time of the great purple one.
The Clash · Death is a Star (CBS) Delicate and sincere.
Sabu Martinez and his Jazz-espagnole · The Oracle - What was it like when you first heard him?
Gaby Novak · Caravan (Cosmic Sounds London) - Great jazz recordings saved from the rubbish.
Big Band RTS · Ne ga se prodavaj (Cosmic Sounds London) - As above, saved, and we are lucky.
Cymande · Crawshay (Sequel) I don´t play them enough!
Fourth World · Serra Do Relogio · London Elektricity remix (Melt)
Fourth World · Trip to the Fourth World · 4Hero remix (Melt) No let up from the Dollis Hill crew
Fourth World · Terra Mae · Nation World Service remix (Melt) When asked to do a remix that is also gonna feature IG Culture, BT, Herbalizer and the above, London Elek´ and 4Hero...your shit has got to be tight! We did it Rich!
Ear Conditioning · Jazz Absolutions
July 22 20h - 21h
Radio Norte 89.4FM Online here could it be true?
The playlists from the programs of June 3 and June 10 are here.
I shouldn´t be makin´you go here and there, apologies, i´ll get everything together in one
place eventually. There are links and a bit of insight provided with the other site.
Some choice lyrics from Ursula Rucker, as featured on Loveless by 4Hero. The upcoming dj stint at Expo / AguaViva inspired a couple enviromentally-led tracks for this week´s radio excursion.
Watch my foolish daughters and sons As the kill me Slowly, kill me Quicker, kill me
They loved me as would an unfaithful lover, part-time and and half-assed.
Such beauty in life, you will never have again.
See ya....
Last weekend was a busy one in the town/city of La Laguna; Txola Bar on the Friday night, and
the Festival Musicalia the following night. Txola was pumping.....they ran out of beer/cerveza. Pedro, el jefe de Txola has got some plans for some special events in August/Octubre, so keep an eye open...abries un ojo. The folks at Musicalia magazine (Estrella, Pino, Presi Nacho,Urena...que mas?) alongside Dani El Shiva Azul Medina brought La Kinky Beat from Barcelona to deliver their brand of rock·jungle·reggae sounds with force and kinetic energy. Local crew Tropico28 stepped up with their new line-up to give a taster of their forthcoming album, which I have been told should surface in two weeks. I did contribute to a song for their album, but their producer/beat-man did a runner with the files when he left the group, so who knows what the hell he´s done with them! Oh, i´m digressing....back to Musicalia Festival....the idea was to raise money for the next issue of the magazine, it has no advertising you see. Hopefully they will have got a few euros together, although I do think they had the price of the beers a bit low....one euro!
A very good deal, and it was free entrance. I don´t think people are really aware of the difficulties that exist trying to put on a festival of this magnitude...dealing with the council, a sexist and incompetent sound company.....then there´s the matter of posters being ripped and defaced by supporters of the Platano Rock festival that was taking place the same day in Santa Cruz. Come on people.....there ain´t no need for that shit, grow the fuck up. I was sorry to hear that the Platano Rock festival was cancelled at the last minute because of some bureaucratic police nonsense. GAF ,who I really like were due to take the stage, as were Marvel Hill, but the police, miserable fuckers seemed to be working on somebody else´s behalf who doesn´t like gigs happening if he ain´t a part of it or getting paid. Yes, it´s like that in these parts....fuckin´ third world shit going on here brothers and sisters.
The weekend before last, Fun-da-mental did a show in Prague. Always nice to be in Prague, we just don´t get to spend any proper time there.....pisses me right off! Before parting ways at the airport, bassman Lloyd gave me his copy of Naomi Klein´s latest book The Shock Doctrine. Fucking put me in a right mood. I know enough about what goes on, but jesus h ucking hell....unts like Bush, Dick ´So´ Cheney, Condoskeeza Rice, Rumsfeld, are worse than I thought....and that is real Bad. In all seriousness, they should be fucking made to walk around Baghdad totally naked and left to their own devices for a few hours, then publicly hanged, shot, pissed and shat upon, then burned alive for good measure. I am deadly serious. That ´Let God sort them out´stuff is bollocks. Kill them NOW! I hate to pray for bad things to happen to people, but they deserve it, and you know it!
Yes, The Bug album is going to be released in July, and the title is, as I hoped, London Zoo...very appropriate. This person is doing the album artwork. Next single will be featuring Tippa Irie on one side and FlowDan pon the flip. Can you handle it?! Soon see eh?
Before I split, if your into Cumbia check out Vampiros DJ....I did, bought me a couple CD´s one from him, and the other being the Sonido Martines mix he did for DJ /Rupture´s radio program last year. I´ ve been really trying to turn people onto the rebajadas sound.....it´s great, and I hope to spread the word tomorrow.....got a radio interview at Radio Club Tenerife. I´ve been told they want to talk about mixing Canarian folklore music with contemporary sounds, and methinks what Vampiros, El Hijo de la Cumbia, Sonido, Oro 11 etc., and without a doubt, El Guincho, are very good markers as to what is possible. More as it happens.
Ear Conditioning / 27 mayo
DJ Food · Valves / Journeyman remix (Ninja Tune)
Badawi · Bedouin Raid (Asphodel)
Amir Sulaiman · Danger
Overtone · Give It Again (Rosebud)
Os Campiones · Dos (Sou Jazz)
Afronaught · Golpe Tuyo Calinda (Bitasweet)
Naomi Klein · Shock Doctrine
Stereotyp featuring Edu K & Joyce Muniz · Jece Valadáo (MAN Recordings)
Megablast · El Ninjo / Luv Lite Massive Remix feat. DJ Collage (Stereo Deluxe)
Stereotyp (?) · Police and Soldier (Giguptight)
Music from the Ivory Coast · Gueglo (Radio France)
Congo Natty · Jungle Souljah (Congo Natty)
Vamprios DJ · Selection from La Sonidera Colombiana Mix CD
La chancha via circuito / Oro 11 · Damas Gratis Dub
Sonido Martines · Cumbia ron the Bronx
El Hijo de la Cumbia · Cumbia de los barrios
El Hijo de la Cumbia · Mara Tomaza
Karos · Por que te quiero
DJ Food · Scratch yer Head (Ninja Tune)
Murga Las Salamanquesas · Himno (Gofio)
Murga Ni Quito Ni Pongo · Pout -Purri (Gofio)
Rude Hi-Fi . Elzn in Dub
Zapotec Indians · Firework Music (Folkways)
Yaqui Indians · Deer Dance (Folkways)
Bio-Muse · Hurrey Hurra
Coki · The End (dmz)
Rusko · Cockney Thug
The Bug feat. FlowDan · Jah War /Loefah remix (Ninja Tune)
The Bug featuring Warrior Queen · Poison Dart (Ninja Tune)
Kode 9 · Stung (Soul Jazz)
Ear Conditioning at Radio Norte 89.4FM
Tuesday / martes 20h00
No cockblocking please.....eh?
Cockblocking is a term that refers to ´hindering a male as he attempts to get it on with a female´,
check Pharoahe Monch ´The Light´.
In my instance it refers to someone hindering my attempts to get some work. Fer fuck sakes, last week I had a little rant about some promoters being dickheads for not properly compensating DJ´s for their work...now I got fellow DJ´s giving attitude over sharing the decks, like they own the fucking club or something. No wonder things don´t progress in this motherfucker....and to think i was went into the situation with open arms with thoughts of trying to build something here with other DJ´s. Fuck it, just gotta get on with it, and try and rise above the bullshit which seems to be at an all-time high.
Back in the real world, an investigative report revealed the how TV military analysts have a vested economic interest in selling the Bush adminstrations happy talk about Iraq. In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism overGuantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure. So the Bush administration went into overdrive, a damage control exercise that got together ´experts´ to hit the TV airwaves to defend their state of action...."Yep, let´s push forward this war agenda while making mad loot." This world is fucking insane, and what am i doing, playing records on a weekly basis, like it´s gonna do somethin´? I apologize.
Last week several men in the UK were found guilty of financially aiding and inciting terrorism, and sentenced to between two and four and a half years in prison. Eh, inciting terrorism? Everybody knows who encourages terrorism, and who is helping to swell the ranks of Al-Qaeda etc, but do they face the judge and jury? People who have incited an illegal and immoral war are suggested to be presidents of Europe and receive very well paying jobs while the common man has to take it whole, even if it doesn´t fit and tears the sides and leaves him bleeding....motherfuckers.
This weeks program featured some new joints to my ears even if they be released years ago. David Byrne´s excellent Luaka Bop continues to give joy, as i came across Asia Classics 1, Vijaya Anand....a man whose name means "victory" and "ecstacy". His music, mainly composed for films is the stuff that will keep ya going aaaaaaallllllll night long, jazzy brass, synths, hypnotic vocals, off-key quirks, the whole nine.
The well-loved El Guincho is here this weekend for the Ecos festival, his first show in the Canaries, the place of his birth, so it´s very timely that his remix of Like it or Not, by Architecture in Helsinki, was made available via mp3 this week. I have the pleasure of doing a set ahead of him...thanks to Javi at the Culture Dept. in La Laguna for arranging this event. Also on the bill, Echo and the Bunnymen and The Mistake.
The first time I heard Squarepusher it threw my mind into a frenzied state....it was ´Conumber´, then i was lucky to see him play at a Ninja Tune night in Hoxton Square in London...him, his bass and a drum machine. Hot as a pig on a spit! Ah, the good ole days....are set to continue.
See you at Ecos 08 then, like i´ve said before, it´s free, so ya got no excuse....action begins around 8.30, and i´ll be doing two sets, one before Echo and The Bunnymen, and the other after them.
Ear Conditioning Playlist 22.04
King L Man · Dear God - The Aziz Mian Visitation (Ear Conditioning)
Kode 9 · Konfusion Dub (Hyperdub)
The Bug featuring FlowDan / Loefah remix (NinjaTune)
Burial · South London Boroughs (Hyperdub)
Paradox · A Black Sun (Archive)
Ghislain Poirier featuring Radioactive (Rebondir)
Vijaye Anand · Desire Soars Up High (Luaka Bop)
Jepp · Superglue Low (Hut)
Architecture in Helsinki · Like It or Not / El Guincho remix (Mistletone mp3)
Mikey Dread · Saturday Night Style
Supacat & WuTang · Scalp Dem / Congo Natty remix?
Squarepusher · Conumber (Spymania)
Radar · Antimatter (Ohm)
Buckwheat Zydeco · Hey Joe (Charisma)
Emiliana Torrini · Dead Things (One Little Indian)
Ear Conditioning is broadcast via Radio Norte 89.4FM Tenerife, every Tuesday at 20h00, and repeated Saturday 21h00. www.radionorte.com
