After Ascension it’s Ramadan now. Because of this, there is the The Nights of the Ramadan festival in Berlin. The first event of this festival was a concert of the first big band of the Arabic world. The Syrian Big Band played some classic Big Band tunes more or less in an Arabic style, but the band also covered some well-known Pop or Rock tunes, for instance by Led Zeppelin. Being a bit too sedate at first, they became quite impressive afterwards, especially after the break because of the sunset, and after the rain shower. The darling of the public was the beatboxing bassist (I’m the bassist only.), who was bound to an encore. I liked very much the performance of the female singer.

Because of this impression, I was bound to select some Big Band sounds from my archive in turn. I do not have anything from The Syrian Big Band, but the music from the films Murder on the Orient Express, Lawrence of Arabia and Carry On Spying as well as the music by Tommy Dorsey & His Original Orchestra is also quite cool, isn’t it?

While The Syrian Big Band played a Led Zeppelin song, Hector Zazou, Barbara Eramo & Stefano Saletti have published a new album with lots of covers of famous Pop songs in an Arabic style. The album comprises many 1970′s Disco classics like Donna Summer‘s I Feel Love, Y.M.C.A. by The Village People, Stayin’ Alive and Night Fever by the Bee Gees, Anita Ward‘s Ring My Bell as well as Gloria Gaynor‘s I Will Survive. I like this album.

Furthermore, I selected some Arabic Electronica between Techno & House (by The Kasbah Rockers & Bill Laswell, Oryx, Roger Abboud) and Dubstep (L-Wiz). In between some radio sounds from the Palestine, some curious by The Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra, some reflective by The Forty Thieves Orkestar from London, traditionals from the Iraq, a classic by Natacha Atlas, Breakbeats from Prague by Le Pneumatique who performed a quite cool and phat concert on the “Karneval der Kulturen” (carnival of the cultures) in Berlin on Whitsun 2010, also some Asian and Arabian Breakbeats or Dub sounds from London by Fusing Naked Beats, Jah Wobble and Temple of Sound. The Punk classic Rock The Casbah by The Clash is interpreted by Rachid Taha.

Happy Fasting!

Links

• The Nights of Ramadan 2010 in Berlin

In the following, there is the link for the listening pleasure @ Mixcloud as well as the playlist.

Flying Sparks

Here’s the track listing:

1. Hollywood Studio Orchestra: Murder On The Orient Express
   60 Famous Film & T.V. Themes (MCR)
2. Tommy Dorsey & His Original Orchestra: Song Of India
   Tommy Dorsey & His Original Orchestra LP (Musidisc)
3. Dilys Laye: The Magic Of Love
   20 Years Of The Carry On Films 1958-1978 (Silva Screen 2004)
4. Dilys Laye: Too Late
   20 Years Of The Carry On Films 1958-1978 (Silva Screen 2004)
5. Eric Rogers: Carry On Spying (Arabic Theme)
   20 Years Of The Carry On Films 1958-1978 (Silva Screen 2004)
6. Lawrence D’Arabia: Voyager In The Night (Misty Jamal Mix)
   RasaMello II (Compilation) (Rasa Music 2003)
7. Kasbah Rockers with Bill Laswell: Kasbah Rockers (Vocal Mix)
   Kasbah Rockers (Barraka 2008)
8. Oryx: Hebina
   Oryx (EMI Music Arabia 2002)
9. Roger Abboud feat. Charlie Abboud: Sawwah
   Beirut Underground (Caravan 2007)
10. Radio Palestine: Beirut Cocktail / Khartoum Entrée
    Radio Palestine – Sounds of the Eastern Mediterranean (Sublime Frequencies)
11. Forgotten Fish Memory Orchestra: Kasbah Tadla (Mai Que – M. Miller)
    FFMO Toolbox Promo (Toolbox)
12. Forty Thieves Orkestar: Beirut Express
    Forgotten Tales (Crafty 2006)
13. Rida Al Abdallah: Baghdad
    Mesopotamix – From Babylon To Baghdad (Remakes And Remixes Of Iraqi Classics) (EMI Music Arabia 2003)
14. Hector Zazou, Barbara Eramo & Stefano Saletti: I Feel Love
    Oriental Night Fever (Naive 2010)
15. Natacha Atlas: Yalla Chant
    Diaspora (Nation 1995)
16. Le Pneumatique: BJ In Marakesh
    Beat Safari (Master Music 2007)
17. Fusing Naked Beats: Alcazar
    Outer Perspective (Just Play 2006)
18. Rachid Taha: Rock El Casbah
    Rock The Kasbah – Songs Of Freedom From The Streets Of The East (Compilation) (EMI Music Middle East 2004)
19. L-Wiz: Habibi
    Girlfriend 12inch (Dub Police 2006)
20. Jah Wobble & Temple Of Sound: Cleopatra King Size
    Shout At The Devil (30 Hertz 2002)
21. Maurice Jarre: Lawrence Of Arabia (Main Title)
    Lawrence Of Arabia (OST) (Legacy 1969 / Castle Music 1999)

Addendum

Le Pneumatique @ Carnival of Cultures Berlin, May 23, 2010

On a Sunday night in May I listened to some new (mostly) Dubstep stuff. In the following some information about this.

Last week, Balkan Beat Box were again in Berlin to present their third album Blue Eyed Black Boy. My first impression was that the predecessors had more catchy tracks. Anyway, I like their fusion of different cultures and music styles because it represents the more innovative approach of Balkan music in my opinion.

Same place (Festsaal Kreuzberg) two days later, there was the record release party of the Berlin band Jahcoozi‘s third album Barefoot Wanderer. My current favourite track on it is Close To Me which has been already remixed by Milanese. He did it in a laid-back Dubstep approach. Before Jahcoozi‘s gig, their beat master Robot Koch presented some of his solo stuff. In my opinion, some more song structure would be helpful. My favourite on this evening was his cover of the track People Are Strange by the The Doors.

Finally, the debut long player from David Starfire has been published in Germany. He has been already known from his digitally released mini EP at Six Degrees as well as from some remixes and DJ sets in the conglomerate of Asian Beats, Breakbeats, Dubstep and Mashups. His debut album is as manifold as his previous work. A highlight is his Dubstep interpretation of The Beatles‘s Hey Jude.
Related to him is the work of the Shiva Soundsystem crew from London. DJ Nerm and D-Code released an album with various collaborations last year: Phasmatis In Machina – Asian influenced Drum’n'Bass, Dubstep and other Electro tracks from London’s Electro East.

Badawi contributes an arabic influenced monster on a 12″ to the Dubstep scene. Breakage as well as Scuba explore the capabilities of Dubstep: While Breakage is based on Drum’n'Bass, Scuba investigates the connection to Techno sounds. This approach reminds me of the Berlin production by Moderat from last year (by the way, Rusty Nails is a really beautiful track).

More new interesting Dubstep was released from Mutt (who previously has produced beautiful DnB), DJ Madd, Cardopusher and Riz MC. The latter both were released by True Tiger, known from transglobal influenced Dubstep tracks on the Around The World 12″s and by Sukh Knight, respectively. Pinch‘s release of Get Up stems from his album Underwater Dancehall where Dubstep was heavily enriched with vocals, whereby most of the Dubstep releases are instrumentals or with only samples.

I very like the work of Geiom. His new 12″ Sugar Coated Lover is a conglomerate of Dubstep and Garage with some nice percussion samples. He will be DJing in Berlin on June 5: at the “We Want More Bass” party of the Freak Camp crowd @ VCF.

Various Production were active again. They remixed a track by The Hundred In The Hands.

In the following, there are the links for the listening pleasure @ Mixcloud.

Here’s the track listing:

1. Balkan Beat Box: Kabulectro
   Blue Eyed Black Boy (Crammed Discs 2010)
2. Badawi: El Topo
   Index 1-1 12inch (The Index 2010)
3. David Starfire vs. FreQ Nasty: Baghdad (Remix)
   Bollyhood Bass (Six Degrees 2010)
4. Mutt: Tekdub (feat Illgates)
   Tekdub 10inch (Tube10 2010)
5. Breakage: Open Up
   Foundation (Digital Soundboy 2010)
6. Jahcoozi: Close To Me
   Barefoot Wanderer (BPitch Control 2010)
7. Scuba: Minerals
   Triangulation LP (Hotflush 2010)
8. Moderat: Rusty Nails
   Moderat LP (BPitch Control 2009)
9. The Hundred In The Hands: Dressed In Dresden (Various Mix)
   Dressed In Dresden 12inch (Warp 2010)
10. V.I.V.E.K: C My Vision
    Phasmatis In Machina (Shiva Soundsystem 2009)
11. Cardopusher: Gibold (Scandalous Unltd. Remix)
    Gibold 12inch (True Tiger 2010)
12. DJ Madd: Someone (Breakage‘s Unspecified Remix)
    Someone 12inch (Black Box 2009)
13. Pinch: Get Up (Guido Mix feat. Yolanda)
    Get Up (MCD) (Tectonic 2009)
14. Geiom: Sugar Coated Lover (Brackles & Shortstuff Refix feat. Marita)
    Sugar Coated Lover 12inch (Berkane Sol 2010)
15. Riz MC: Shifty (Scandalous Unltd. Remix)
    Shifty 12inch (True Tiger 2009)
16. Moderat: Berlin
    Moderat LP (BPitch Control 2009)

Im Rahmen der Veranstaltungsreihe Radio Geschichte: DT64 wird heute im Zeughauskino in Berlin das Radiofeature Ein Sputnik ist abgestürzt – Das Vorwende-jahr Bei DT64 von Jürgen Balitzki und Marcus Heumann präsentiert:

Am 19. November 1988 wird in der DDR die sowjetische Monatszeitschrift “Sputnik” verboten, die Gorbatschows Glasnost- und Perestroika-Politik nahe steht. Moderatorin Silke Hasselmann beginnt ihre Sendung bei DT64 mit dem Satz: “Ein Sputnik ist heute abgestürzt.” Anschließend läuft Aufruhr in den Augen von der Berliner Band Pankow. Hasselmann wird daraufhin strafversetzt, der beteiligte Musikredakteur Gröschel bekommt Mikrofonverbot. Das Feature von Jürgen Balitzki und Marcus Heumann vermittelt einen Eindruck vom Alltag bei DT64 in den letzten Monaten vor dem Mauerfall. Marion Brasch erinnert sich 1993: “Zwar tut es gut, jetzt immer wieder zu hören, DT64 sei renitent gewesen – doch das ist nur die halbe Wahrheit. Wir waren vielleicht wie kein anderes Medium in der DDR privilegiert durch eine relativ lange Leine. Selten sind wir über uns und die Scheren im Kopf hinausgewachsen. Und wenn doch, gab’s Stürme im Wasserglas. (…) Und heute? Die Realität gibt sich seitenverkehrt, und noch immer gilt der Slogan: ‘Solange du deine Füße unter unseren Tisch stellst…’ – nur der Tisch ist üppiger gedeckt…”

Im Anschluss an die Präsentation des Features werden Marion Brasch und Friedrich Küppersbusch über Möglichkeiten und Grenzen ihrer journalistischen Arbeit in Ost und West sowie vor und nach dem Mauerfall diskutieren – in Anwesenheit von Jürgen Balitzki, Regisseur und Co-Autor des Features über DT64, und Silke Hasselmann.

Weitere Infos: www.radio-geschichte-dt64.de

Veranstaltungsort:
Zeughauskino
Deutsches Historisches Museum
Unter den Linden 2
Eingang Spreeseite
10117 Berlin

Info zum Feature @ Deutschlandfunk

The 1997 released sampler Anokha – Soundz of the Asian Undergorund was the fundament for the year of the “British Asian Underground”. It was published on the label Omni of the tabla player Talvin Singh, after he successfully established the club night Anokha in Blue Note in London. Various British-Asian artists were on the sampler, e.g. State of Bengal, Amar, Lelonek, Osmani Soundz, who fused their Asian musical heritage with western Electronica, without using the popular Bhangra. TripHop, Drum’n'Bass, Jungle were the club sound of the 1990ies. Talvin Singh‘s Anokha was the climate of an explosion of new a kind of music that was initiated by the London label Nation Records (e.g. Transglobal Underground, Asian Dub Foundation, Fun-Da-Mental, T.J. Rehmi) and whose fire was sparked by the Outcaste label (e.g. Nitin Sawhney, Badmarsh & Shri) (according to Rough Guide World Music).

Then in 1998, his debut album OK was released, three years later we got the album HA. Since then I’m waiting for his third release named AN.

AN

On October 18th, 2009, his tablas will be bubbling, thumping, and snapping at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Talvin Singh will perform his landmark, award-winning debut album OK, this time with an all-new lineup. The concert will take place within the annual Asia Pacifics Weeks Berlin and was coproduced with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

Closing event of the 7th Asia Pacifics Weeks in Berlin 2009
Talvin Singh – Experience No 1
Sunday, 18.10.2009, 8 pm
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
Berlin

Recommended Listening

• Anokha – Soundz of the Asian Underground (Omni 1997)
• OK (Omni 1998)
• HA (Omni 2001)
• Calcutta Cyber Cafe – Drum+Space (Chilly 2009)

Links

• Asia Pacifics Weeks Berlin, 7.-18.10.2009
• Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin

Spark* promise to “play a very eastern conglomeration of electro organic music, balancing somewhat between phattest beats & basses out of a groovebox (no laptop onstage) and live melody instruments”.

After that at 10 o’clock, it’s Bombay Boogie Night time. The successful traveling party series from Heidelberg provides lots of nu school asian beats.
With DJs Kerala Boy, Wekas Gaba and Shazam.

Info:
www.myspace.com/sparksoundz
www.myspace.com/shazamberlin
www.bombay-boogie.de

Mama Berlin Club
www.myspace.com/mamaberlinclub
Zionskirchstraße 5
Berlin (Mitte)

Radiomitschnitte von DT64 und MDR Sputnik 1988-1997 (Collage)

Pfingsten vor 45 Jahren fing alles an: Das Sonderstudio DT64 ging anlässlich des Deutschlandtreffens der Jugend 1964 in der DDR als Festivalradio auf Sendung. Aufgrund des Erfolges (zum ersten Mal gab’s die Beatles im DDR-Rundfunk zu hören) wurde Jugendradio später als Fenster im Programm des Berliner Rundfunk (Sendung “Jugendstudio DT64″) und im Programm von Stimme der DDR (“Hallo – das Jugendjournal”) veranstaltet. Im März 1986 wurden beide Programmfenster zum Jugendradio DT64 mit eigenen Frequenzen im DDR-Äther fusioniert. Mit der Wende in der DDR konnte das Jugendradio sich emanzipieren und sich als kritische Stimme zu den Umbruchzeiten im Osten Deutschlands etablieren, ohne jedoch in den Neuordnungsplänen der ostdeutschen Rundfunklandschaft im Zuge der Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands berücksichtigt worden zu sein… Schlließlich wurde das Programm gerettet: der 1992 neu gegründete, öffentlich-rechtliche Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk (MDR) übernahm das Programm, der es seit 1993 unter dem Namen MDR Sputnik fortführt.

20 Jahre nach dem Mauerfall bietet nun eine vierzehnteilige Veranstaltungsreihe im Zeughauskino des Deutschen Historischen Museum in Berlin Gelegenheit zur ausführlichen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Jugendprogramm des Rundfunks der DDR:

Ehemalige Redakteure stellen Sendungen vor, an denen sie damals beteiligt waren. Sie treffen im Dialog auf Gesprächspartner aus dem Westen. Das Spektrum reicht von Verantwortlichen aus Kultur oder Politik bis zu Journalisten und Radiomachern, denen es in ihrer Arbeit um die Entwicklung eines engagierten Jugendprogramms ging oder geht. Somit werden nicht nur rare Zeitdokumente aus dem Deutschen Rundfunkarchiv zugänglich gemacht, es besteht auch die Möglichkeit, sich in einer öffentlichen Diskussion zwischen Ost und West mit der jüngeren Mediengeschichte auseinanderzusetzen. Im besten Fall eine deutsch-deutsche Begegnung zum Austausch von Geschichte und Gegenwart.

Unter den ehemaligen Mitarbeitern des Senders, die im Zeughauskino erwartet werden, sind beispielsweise Marion Brasch, Lutz Schramm, Dietmar Ringel, Tanja Braumann, Roland Schneider, Michael Schiewack sowie Siegmar Krause, der Leiter des Gründungskollektivs. Als Gesprächspartner aus dem ehemaligen Westen haben sich unter anderem Friedrich Küppersbusch, Helmut Lehnert, Olaf Leitner, Klaus Walter und Marco Seiffert angekündigt. Darüber hinaus wird am 1.11. die letzte Intendanz des Rundfunks der DDR erwartet. Christoph Singelnstein, Hannelore Steer und Jörg Hildebrandt treffen auf den ehemaligen RIAS-Intendanten Helmut Drück.

(Quelle: Veranstalter)

Die Reihe, von Moritz von Rappard und Dunja Funke kuratiert, findet von September bis Dezember im Zeughauskino in Berlin (meist am Mittwoch) statt.

Alle Infos und Termine hierzu hier: www.radio-geschichte-dt64.de

Einige Radioerinnerungen an das damalige Programm von DT64 bzw. MDR Sputnik gibt’s hier.