On the show tonight you either heard or you missed the following.
Karsh Kale- CD Redesign-Realiize Remixed -Saajana (Ming & FS Mix) (Six Degrees Records 657036-10742-7
About This CD
A cutting edge cast of electronica's finest contribute remixes of tracks from Karsh Kale's stunning debut, Realize. Featuring new mixes from Bill Laswell, DJ Spooky, Banco de Gaia, Ming & FS and others.
Before currency was used in trade of services and products, humans relied on bartering to attain the necessities of life. This practice extended to art; often a bard would live within a castle in exchange of words or song. From this theory Redesign: Realize Remixed was born. By now a classic in club culture, Karsh Kale's Realize is a cornerstone in the fusion of South Asian music and modern electronica. Weaving richly textured tabla beats among thumping dancefloor rhythms, Realize is as close to organic technology as one can produce. It's only appropriate that Kale would invite a group of peers and friends to offer their interpretations of these songs on Redesign.
Eleven versions of eight tracks span the breadth of this momentous disc. What's as interesting as the music, as is often the case, is the story behind it. Namely that unlike many remix albums, each musician or producer is also receiving a remix by Kale of their work: The story of barter, updated to modernity. Bill Laswell, who has remixed more songs than just about any musician alive (including recent works by Bob Marley, Miles Davis, and Carlos Santana) splices up "Empty Hands," Realize's opening song. Kale has performed with Laswell on numerous occasions, including alongside Ethiopian soulstress Gigi, Herbie Hancock, Jah Wobble, dj Cheb i Sabbah, and the epic Tabla Beat Science featuring Zakir Hussain and Ustad Sultan Khan. Kale is currently working on a Tabla Beat remix for an upcoming Axiom compilation, Laswell's own label.
Ba Cissoko- CD Electric Griot Land-Ma Grande Mer (Djeli) / On Veut Se Marier / Allah Lake (ABC 5101124392)
"The Ba Cissoko quartet is one of those rare groups adored by their entire country. Young people love them for their tradition-breaking approach to the kora, and old people love them for continuing the art of that instrument, rather than indulging in rap or other such frivolities" -- Katharina Lobeck, Songlines.
The group features two kora players: one acoustic and one re-enforced with a rack of special effects. If Eric Clapton played kora, this is surely what he would sound like.
Named after the band's leader and kora player, their debut album, 'Sabolan' is probably one of the most eagerly awaited African albums in recent memory.
Cissoko is the nephew of the great kora maestro M?Bady Kouyaté® The band's repertoire consists of selected pieces from the age-old Mandingo epic and chronicle-songs in Sussu or Peulh, all boosted by an urban, groovy, caustic sound. Ba Cissoko are trail-blazers similar to Mory Kanté in his younger years. Band members include Sekou Kouyaté¬ also on kora, bass player Kourou Kouyaté ¨both sons of the same M?Bady Kouyaté© and percussionist Ibrahima Bah. Sekou Kouyat駳 electrically enhanced kora creates a totally new sound, which has earned him the nickname "Jimmy Hendrix Africain."
Guinean kora master Ba Cissoko and his troupe are all musicians with feet firmly grounded in age-old traditions and eyes steadfastly fixed on new musical horizons. Cissoko was born in 1967 in Guinea Bissau to the famous musician Kandara Cissoko , one of the founders of the Ballet Djoliba, a Guinean dance troupe who put the music of their country on the world map. After moving across the border to Guinea Conakry in 1989, Cissoko began to hone his kora playing skills with M'bady Kouyaté, partriach of the Kouyaté clan, and one of the great griots of west Africa's Manding culture. Cissoko found a natural affinity and empathy who two of M'Bady 's sons, Kourou and Sékou, who now play bass, kora and electric kora in his group. It was this trio who blew up a storm at the international MASA trade fair in Abidjan , Ivory Coast , in 1998, and later came to France to work with the famed Congolese producer Ray Lema . Now supplemented by the vibrant young talent of percussionist, Ibrahim Bah, a Conakry street child barely out of his teens who spent his youth playing djembe on the beaches of the capital city, Cissoko and band blend together the ancient and delicately entrancing sound of the kora with a well built reggae rock foundation. Their sound is a solid as the roots of one of west Africa's huge baobab trees, and as fresh a sea breeze which wafts ashore from the Atlantic to clear out the polluted arteries of downtown Conakry . Courtesy of Andy Morgan, July 2004
You can read about Ba Cissoko here: http://www.rfimusique.com/siteen/biographie/biographie_7402.asp BA CISSOKO AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES Thursday Feb 23 Kalgoorlie, gig in St. Barbars Square, Hannon St. Sat Feb 25 Albany Vancouver Arts Centre Tues Feb 28 Port Hedland Centenary Park Wed March 1 Newman Capricorn OvalFri March 3 Perth Becks VarandahSat March 4 Joondalup Joondalup SquareWed March 8 Cairns Tanks Arts CentreThurs March 9 Brisbane Judith Wright Centre Sat March 11 & Sun 12 Adelaide WOMADelaide, Botanic ParkMon March 13 Sydney The Studio, Sydney Opera House
Ballake Sissoka- CD Tomora-Tomora
Ballaké is one of the best kora players of the new generation. An obvious virtuosity mixed with a clear rhythmic demand from his trio, made up of two young n’goni and balafon improvisers. A master virtue and serenity serving his duos with Toumani Diabaté and the well remembered project with the bluesman Taj Mahal.
Karsh Kale- CD Redesign-Realiize Remixed -Distance (Banco de Gaia Mix) (Six Degrees Records 657036-10742-7
Various Artists- Latina Cafe Vol 2 (WAGRAM Records)
French compilation for the Paris hotspot. Featuring 30 Latin flavored tracks from such artists as Tito Nieves, Carlinhos Brown, Celina Gonzales, Pink Martini, Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, Willy DeVille, Jose Padilla, Jazzanova, Frankie Valentine, Bustle & Out Up, Everything But The Girl & Mondo Grosso. Wagram Electronic release. 2001. Double digipak.
Up Bustle & Out-Dance of Caravan Summer: From Andalousia to Bristol-Summer on the Sweet (WAGRAM Records)
Willy DeVille - Hey Joe
Lenine - Rede
Buscemi-Ramiro's Theme
Carla Alexandar- É Assim
DJ Dolores- CD Contraditorio- A Danca Da Moda / Catimbo / Adorela
DJ Dolores (aka Helder Aragão de Melo) burst onto the global club scene a couple of years ago with his explosive and highly original mixture of traditional sounds from the brazilian northeast with dancefloor-friendly electronics and elements of rock & dub. Drawing his inspiration from urban and rural musical styles traditionally shunned by the establishment but favoured by the working classes (dance rhythms such as maracatú, song forms such as emboladas), DJ Dolores blends them with loops, breakbeats, street sounds & live instrumentation to create a unique musical cocktail which is culturally & politically meaningful, yet first and foremost irresistibly festive!
(From BBC 3)
It may seem incongruous, but one of the leading champions of traditional rural music from Brazil's Northeast doesn't think of himself as a musician. "I'm a producer and a DJ," explains DJ Dolores, a.k.a. Helder Aragão de Melo. Nor is he a woman, as his playful stage name initially led many of his fans to believe. "Brazil is a very macho place, so it's a kind of provocation," he says with a chuckle.
He began DJing in 1989 in his hometown of Recife - 'the Venice Of Brazil' - and soon made a name for himself on the local 'mangue beat' scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Lenine and Mundo Livre. By 1997 he was making his own music, grateful of the new technology which made this possible for a 'non-musician'.
In 2002, after three independent releases (which included music for theatre and film) Stern's licensed the Contraditorio? album he'd recorded with his group Orchestra Santa Massa. It combines local ingredients such as rural maracatú, the rap-like embolada style of vocals, the côco beat and the unique rabeca fiddle with live trombone and guitar, drum 'n' bass grooves, samples and assorted electronica. He cites hip hop, house music and avant-garde electronic composer Edgar Varèse as formative influences. And when the Belgian label Crammed Discs asked him to remix a song by Taraf de Haïdouks for their recent Electric Gypsyland compilation, he jumped at the chance, being a major fan of Balkan music.
He's currently working on a new album, tentatively titled Aparelhagem - a Brazilian term for a sound system. This will focus on the little known music of Belém in Brazil's isolated Northern State of Pará - the city's sound systems and the quirky Caribbean flavoured guitarrada style.
When not triggering samples and spinning discs live with his band, he still DJs as a solo artist, though he predicts he will soon ditch all his gear in favour of just one item: "Now I'm in love with a lap top. A small lap top."
Jon Lusk, November 2003
Nitin Sawhney- CD All Mixed Up-
Lately-Natasha Experience Mix
The Immigrant-KV5 Mix
Amazon.co.uk Review
A defining moment in any songwriter's career is when established artists will line up to remix their songs in an album of tribute. All Mixed Up is that momentous occasion in Nitin Sawhney's astounding career as a writer/producer/DJ. Sawhney has been scaling the decks of success since releasing his inaugural album Spirit Dance. He followed this up with the introspective Migration and then removed religious barriers on Displacing the Priest. But it is from his most recent releases the Mercury Prize-nominated Beyond Skin, the globally influenced Prophesy, and the life-struggle inspired Human that the collaborators on All Mixed Up draw from.
It is the sheer quality of the artists remixing Sawhney's work that makes this album so fabulous. The likes of Quantic, Freeform Five, MJ Cole, and London Elektricity among others are huge artists in their own right. But merged into a fusion of club-mix reworking of some of Nitin Sawhney's most popular tracks these artists add yet another level of intricate detail to Sawhney's complex mélange of sounds. Like an Asian quilt, Sawhney's music is colourful, interwoven complexity that tells a story about the most human elements of existence. And as if one album of aural pleasure isn't enough the man himself walks up to the decks on the bonus disc and mixes 24 minutes of his own brilliance. --Jarrod Rendle
