Flying Sparks 2010-05-13: Ascension

Iskra Funkenflug 2010-05-13

Ascension.

The trip starts in Argentina, we stay over in Damascus, make a detour to Berlin, then we travel along the Eastern highway. The journey ends on a strawberry field where we together with Zoe meet very closely the levitating president.

The music on our trip? Cumbia, Arabic and Indian sounds between jazz and electronics, German pop, bass-driven music between drum’n'bass and dubstep as well as Beatles sounds from Mumbai, Istanbul and Washington.

Remark:
I ran riot during the Headhunter & Djunya vs. Indigo’s tracks. ;-)
As already mentionend in the Flying Sparks post before, here now both the Milanese remix of Jahcoozi’s Close To Me and the dubstep interpretation of The Beatles’s Hey Jude by David Starfire. ‘cos it was so cool, we continue with the Turkish adaptation of Love Me Do by the D.E.F. Orkestra, the Indian version of Tomorrow Never Knows by Studio Pagol, Strawberry Fields Forever as a fidget house mashup, and conclude with Yesterday in the original. All my troubles seemed so far away… Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm.

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

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Late harvest

Iskra Mix 2009-09-09: Back Again

The summer is gone. We have autumn now. But, let us look back to late summer time and to great music, I enjoyed in that time:

First, there is the the long awaited debut album Rise from the project Black Canvas, who are Mr. Melody, Rider Shafique and King Chubby J., already well-known from the work with Pressure Drop. :-) Some tracks were already published as 12″s, now the album with quite nice reggae, breakbeats, drum’n'bass and hip hop tracks.

Lynx & Kemo gave a nice DJ & MC set in Icon club in Berlin some months ago. Their album The Raw Truth provides very interesting and varied drum’n'bass tracks and beyond.

Miss Platnum’s brand new album The Sweetest Hangover is the continuation of her successful fusion of Balkan tradition and soulful R’n'B music. There is a wonderful cover of Kate Bush’s Babooshka song.

Switch & Diplo, who provide crazy mashups sometimes, released a funny album full of disco, dancehall, hip hop, baile funk spirits: Guns don’t kill, lazers do!

The fusion of house with 1920’s coffee house, charleston & Balkan styles is characteristic for Parov Stelar. He did it again in Coco, his new 2CD album. Between pop and dancefloor. And I like it. And Monster is a monster track. And Nosferatu is cool, too.

There are also new and exciting dubstep tracks by the Bassbin Twins (Woppa), Quest & Mutiny (One Big Rhyme), Ramadanman (this artist name is really brilliant, Revenue) and DJ Wonder (What including the Caspa remix). The last one is not really new, because it is from 2008.

I listened to some Asian Beats tracks, too. :-) Joi (Without Zero picked once again) vs. Parov Stelar (see above), Ed Solo & Skool of Thought (When I Was A Yout is almost already a classic) meet Chase & Status in an Eastern Jam (an Asian Dubstep monster), and MIDIval PunditZ (on the new Ethnotechno’s Revolution Rising compilation, but they also released their new album Hello Hello on Six Degrees Records) in the mix. Also new stuff from OMFO (“our man from Odessa”). The Ukrainian who lives in the Netherlands investigates the Oriental tradition of the former Southern Soviet Union’s countrysides (album Omnipresence). And I also listened to the classic track OK from Talvin Singh, because he was in Berlin recently giving a concert. The newly released sampler Eastern Standard Time (compiled by Alien Disko, label Weltraum Disk) consists of cool, funky, sometimes crazy tracks from the Far and Middle East. Let’s dance.

Furthermore, wonderful, not necessarily new music from Le Peuple de l’Herbe feat. JC001 (album Cube), Indian Ropeman (album Elephant Sound from the 1990ies is still cool!), Dhoop Sticks (German project with Indian music, album Indian Traffic), Thom (album Istory provides very beautiful electro pop songs from Germany), and Stoyan Yankoulov & Elitsa Todorova (Drumboy) from Bulgaria. Kinny & Horne cover the Reggae classic Bam Bam from Sister Nancy (12″ Us On Fire Ep from the cutting-edge label Tru Thoughts).

Furthermore, new studio and concert recordings as well as new remixes (e.g. from DJ Spooky) from the terrific debut Orphica are released by the London based Greek musician Mikhail on his lovingly designed 3 CD box Morphica.

Talvin Singh in Berlin on October 18th, 2009

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