Around 2009 an artist named Esa A.K.A. El Presidente (A member of the Milan based Funk Ya Momma Crew) started work with Tha Silent Partner. After a while they lost touch, and the project was locked away in a vault. Now, thanks to Blocsonic Records, TSP has made the “lost album” available to the world.
Based primarily on tracks from film soundtracks the album has that lovely 60’s retro feel that reminds you of cigarettes, sharp suits and very cool, mafia connected glitterati.
“Cops (Part 1)” hits with some crisp heavy beats, sounding more like New York than Italy. This contrasts completely with “Holloween” which is a more subtle piece led by a couple of 60’s downtempo “italian” samples.
“Thinkinboutyou” uses a glitzy 60’s film soundtrack as it’s base and could easily be used for a cheesy remake. “No Sleep Till TSP” uses a broken vocal sample in a very simple way, leading into “Cinema”, which sounds like it’s been lifted from a classical piece used for a soundtrack.
“Cops (Part2)” is uses harpsichord to give that classic 60’s movie feel. Imagine Michael Caine in Milan getting into a Mini.
OK, this is an unfinished album, but it’s a nice piece of work and something I think you’ll like.
I was lucky enough to have picked up a promotional copy of this album at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton. I’d never heard of Chinese Man before and had no idea what to expect, but the lady behind the desk at the French Music Party said I would really enjoy it. She was right.
There are few albums where you just know they’re going to be an important part of your life. Albums you cannot do without and that cut across and inform your musical tastes for years to come. Leftfield’s “Leftism”, for example, is as fresh today as when I first heard it in 1995. In 2005 “Demon Days”# by Gorillaz, gave me that same vibe.
I’m going to stick my neck out hereand say that “Racing with the Sun” by Chinese Man is one of those albums. Infusing hip-hop, scratch turntablism, dub, dubstep with oriental, french, african and middle east genres juxtaposed with samples, live locals and some of the best beats, this album pushes all my buttons. Chinese Man is a collective based not far from Marseilles, France, but the music is from far and wide.
Introduction (Morning Sun) is a relatively simple hip-hop piece, layered with some oriental strings and samples. This leads into One Past, which is overlays piano and xylophone melodies over nice phat beats, morphing seamlessly into some trombone-led dub. If you Please starts with some full-on Chinese instruments, which morph into middle east sounds on top of some hip-hop and African drums.
Miss Chang starts with a sample of an old Chinese song, on top of a lovely dubby beat, leading into some live vocals provided by Taïwan Mc & Cyph4, which reminds me of that Leftfield groove.
Saudade begins with some stand-up bass jazz, before ushering in a hip-hop beat and simply plucked guitar. The skill of the “ambient hip-hop” pieces is the excellent selection and juxtaposition of samples.
Stand!, mashes up American civil rights speeches, north African influences, dubstep wobble, and big beats in a melange that I’ve only ever heard before from Secret Archives of the Vatican. They even managed to turn a civil rights speech into a call-response, before Plex Rock comes in with some live vocals. Very clever indeed.
Racing with the Sun cleverly samples an old country song and layers this on top of a nice dubby beat. Simple, but very effective. This leads into Down, featuring Scratch Bandits Crew and is another hip-hop styled piece with a simple acoustic guitar-led riff, phat beats and some excellent samples.
In my Room lays down a rich beat before overlaying a fragile voice sample, which makes you sit up and notice. Then there’s Get Up, which features Ex-I, Lush One & Plex Rock, but the killer sample is an “Irish/Disney” snippet that makes you laugh out loud and look forward to it’s reprise.
Ta Bom (feat. General Elektriks), brings in some latin beats, to this seemingly simple track. Then there’s J.O.G.J.A which features M2MX , DubYouth & Kill the DJ, providing live vocals over north African samples, and again reminds me of what Leftfield did with “Afro Melt”. And finally, The King, which is a much more downbeat track, rounding off the album with just enough interest to make you want to listen to it again.
This is my album of 2011 so far. I recommend you listen to it.
with tracks by… Caballo and the Mothafu Kings, Club d’Elf, Jordan Reyne, Secret Archives of the Vatican, My Name Is Yoni, Blackberry, Slomo & Lunte, Chinese Man, Veak, Bottlesmoker.
Excellent new compilation album from Strummerville, celebrating this summer. Free tracks to download and enjoy. Always worth checking out this excellent charity, but you know that already don’t you?
Strummerville – Song For The Summer 2011Pete2016-10-14T09:27:57+00:00
Just two days after an excellent (but tiring) #podcrawl in London, I was fortunate enough to have another netaudio meetup in the shape of Berlin’s #tassebier meet ups. Started by Peter Withoutfield from BlogRebellen and organized through twitter this is a regular, informal meetup of bloggers, netlabelists, podcasters, musicians, promoters and other creative music people.
Listen out for some audio I recorded at both #podcrawl and #tassebier in next Saturday’s PCP (PCP#352 to be precise). There’s also a video interview recorded by Peter, of myself and Volker Tripp from the Id.EOLOGY netlabel, which will probably come out soon.
Very interesting ideas shared, especially about “#tassebier deluxe” which has bands and DJs playing. “#podcrawl deluxe” sounds like a great idea for the UK……!
Great night at #tassebierPete2018-04-20T12:46:17+00:00
with tracks by…Nakion, Silver Rocket, Moussu T E Lei Jovents, Adrien Moigard, The Sterns, Le Trio Joubran, El Guincho, Ed Sheeran, Kaira, In-Flight Safety.
I’m off again to Berlin next week and I really looking forward to meeting up with some Berlin netlabelists, musicians, podcasters and bloggers at one of their #tassebier(a cup of beer) meet-ups.
It all started with the interview I did in pcp#344 when I talked to Volker and Dub One! from Id.OEOLOGY and I told them I hoped to be back in the city again soon, and it would be good to talk over a beer.
Well that time has come, and Volker has invited a load of his fellow netaudio friends to join in. It’s even been blogged about on the blog.rebellen.info website byPeter Withoutfield, so if you’re in the area, come and join us:
Time: Monday 23rd May from 8pm Location: Fire Bar, Krausnickstraße 5, 10115 Berlin Location: Fire Bar, Nick Kraus Strasse 5, 10115 Berlin Google Places Profile
A cup of beer (or two) in BerlinPete2018-04-20T12:46:18+00:00
I attended Netaudio London Conference on Sunday 15th May with my good friend, netlabel owner and musician Vince Millet, from Secret Archives of the Vatican. Vince has written his own blog post on the conference, which I urge you to read, but here are my own observations and musings.
This was my first time at at Netaudio conference, but have attended excellent unconferences, barcamps and panel discussions before, so was looking forward with an open mind, and open ears, to a fascinating discussion. If I was to try and explain my feelings in the language used in the conference it would go something like this….. (ahem)….
“The didactic invective of the panel, produced, in me, a strong sense of anomie. Perhaps I was not attuned to the Marxist zeitgeist, but the the balance between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft were clearly at odds with my sub-cultural expectations, leading me to engage in a degree of Schadenfreude.”
In short I didn’t really understand what the panel were talking about, because I don’t speak bollocks.
The day was split into three panels:
Politics, Protest and Sound
Creativity and Collaboration in the Internet Era
Digital Futures and Analogue Survivals
In my view there was only two high-points. In the second panel the high point was Tamara Barnett-Herrin, who explained how she turned her musical “writers block” into a collaborative project, “Calendar Songs”, in which she released one song per month, and then worked with remixers to produce and perform an album in 2008.
In the first panel the high point was Matthew Herbert (keynote) presenting his view of 17 “crises” that the music industry is currently facing, such as technique (for example the overuse of autotune), texture, distribution, listening, philosophy, studios, etc. However the underlying narrative was clearly a Marxist/anti-capitalist agenda, the strength of which I have not heard since I studied sociology in the 1980s, and I thought have died out in the post-Blair era. I should have know better. I was in Camden after all.
As for the other speakers? Well two clearly did not feel they could comfortably “converse” and therefore read their monotonous “essays” verbatim, whilst another spent 30 minutes talking about network hi-fi devices in a presentation that should have take 5 minutes (maximum) to deliver.
Two other presentations talked about the UK Uncut program of actvities and one was from an artist showing her works from as far back as 1965 and had absolutely no relevance to the net or audio.
But it was the underlying Marxist bullshit that got me most annoyed about this event. The blame for all the woes for the music industry was placed firmly at the feet of capitalism, and the cure was anti-capitalism.
Music and musicians have existed long before capitalism was invented, and it’s even easier today to engage in non-capitaist (not anti-capitalist) ventures than it ever has been. Netlabels, where the musician owns the labour and the means of production, are in the ascendance. This is the future of netaudio.
To the organizers of this even I say: 4/10 Must try harder!
Review of Netaudio London Conference 2011Pete2018-04-20T12:46:18+00:00
Another enjoyable Great Escape Festival for 2011. This time Grumbler and I met up with my daughter, Heather, Peter Clitheroe and Jordan Reyne, for some drinking, gigging and conversation. Here’s who we saw live:
Another enjoyable Great Escape Festival for 2011. This time Grumbler and I met up with my daughter, Heather, Peter Clitheroe and Jordan Reyne, for some drinking, gigging and conversation. Here’s who we saw live:
Another enjoyable Great Escape Festival for 2011. This time Grumbler and I met up with my daughter, Heather, Peter Clitheroe and Jordan Reyne, for some drinking, gigging and conversation. Here’s who we saw live:
Thursday 12th May 2011
Moss, Amsterdam, Netherlands. [Komedia Studio Bar]
with tracks by… Fexomat and Sumone, Breath Of Fire, The Dalai Lama Rama Fa Fa Fa, Celt Islam, Man Mantis, Auxdub, Vandera, Strobotone, The KVB, The Versionaries, Jeremy Macachor.
This is the long awaited third compilation album from Fresh Poulp. 13 new artists from 7 different countries (Malta, Italy, UK, Poland, Canada, Croatia & France), and featuring dark dub, dubstep, electro dub and steppa dub. Most of these are new and exclusive tracks.
Drydeck’s “Black Sand” opens with some very dark dub sounds, which leads into some lovely wobbly bass-infused dubstep provided by Waitapu, with a track called “Truckin”. Secret Archives of the Vatican make their debut on Fresh Poulp with the excellent growling bassline of “Friendly Artificial Intelligence”.
Lightening the mood slightly we have the harmonica-led “Don Dub” by Minds’s Eye Dub, leading into the Steve Steppa-led vocal tune “Holy Mount Zion” from Ackboo. Then we have “Darker, Stronger, Dubber” from Mahom leading into “Duballah” by A Man Called PJ and “Babylon Lamb” from Injham. All great dub tracks in their own right.
Sushidread gives us some east-meets-west dubbiness with “Rise” which leads into “Western” by Nomatx Bass Drive. Earlyworm’s “My Girl Clone” is the only track I’ve heard before (from Reggaedubwise), apart from an early mix of the SAotV track.
Jah Billah meets up with Pupa Congo to give us “In Ruff A Dubb” which blurs the boundaries between dub and dubstep, before chilling with final track “Praises” from Roots Revival Soundsystem.
Fresh Poulp have the knack of curating and releasing high quality dub albums, and “Dub Tentacles III” is no exception. A must for all dub lovers, and fuel for my Dub Zone Podcast in the coming weeks!
[wpaudio url=”http://www.archive.org/download/PeteCogle/fpr057MindsEyeDub-DonDub.mp3″ text=”Mind’s Eye Dub – Don Dub”]