Freemuse
Born out of the very first World Conference on Music and censorship back in 1998, Freemuse, "an independent international membership organisation advocating and defending freedom of expression" in music across the globe, continues to play a major role in exposing worldwide inequalities. Personally, we've been supporting and following their activities for quite some time now and receive regular updates via their highly informative newsletter.
For example, earlier this month, we were surprised to read that Egypt's award-winning singer Ramy Essam, best known for his appearances on Tahrir Square in 2011, was denied a UK entry visa to play at the human rights oriented Festival 800.
While Freemuse called for a reappraisal and Essam was later granted a visa after all, Freemuse Executive Director Ole Reitov continued to make a valid point: “This is a very positive development, and a clever decision. Freemuse and Ramy Essam are grateful for all support we got in this case. It also clearly shows how difficult visa procedures continue to be for artists coming from abroad.”
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Black Magic Woman
Ghanaian artist/singer Azizaa and rapper/director Wanlov the Kubolor are at the forefront of an open-minded generation in Ghana that is increasingly starting to question the omnipotence of colonially imposed Christianity in the country, while elements of local culture and tradition are publicly rejected or consciously suppressed.
In a recent interview with The Fader the two sat down to discuss the current situation in Ghana, the big business that is religion [...]
Turkish Jams
Last weekend Istanbul's alternative music magazine Bant hosted Amsterdam's award-winning Red Light Radio for a 6-hour live broadcast of "Turkish Jams" featuring several local acts including the likes of Farfara, Islandman, Lara Di Lara, Gevende, Ağaçkakan, The Ringo Jets, Kim Ki O, Reverie Falls On All, Pitohui, Ah! Kosmos, Palmiyeler, Can Güngör, Gaye Su Akyol, Bubituzak and the everpresent Baba Zula as well as their respective selections. Tune in via [...]
Duck Rock
Berlin-based DJ, producer and Man Recordings label-head Daniel Haaksman, a well-known devotee to the global dance floor scene with a penchant for fresh urban bass sounds from baile funk to afro house (which he also presents via his regular Luso FM radio show on Funkhaus Europa), recently released a brilliant sonic essay, paying tribute to Malcolm McLaren’s iconic 1983 “Duck Rock” album.
McLaren, known to have championed British youth culture, fashion [...]
Diggin' In Cuba
Returning from a recent trip to Cuba, DJ/Producer/Beat-Digger extraordinaire GUTS serves up a two-hour free download vinyl mixtape of vintage pearls from the island, as part of his "Pura" series.
While you're at it, you might also want to check out his previous mix of 1970's Colombian grooves and fusion music, a mix of afro beat, funk, cumbia, haitian compa, disco and tropical music, which should also still be available via the Parisian Heavenly Sweetness [...]
Los Pirañas
Frente Cumbiero mastermind Mario Galeano, whom you may also be familiar with from his Ondátropica collaboration alongside Will Holland (aka Quantic), spearheads this latest treasure of the Colombian experimental scene, going by the snappy name of Los Pirañas. The trio comprising Galeano on bass, Eblis Alvarez on electronic guitar, computer & synths as well as Pedro Ojedo on percussion released their highly recommendable quirky 'Tropical Noise' album entitled [...]
Nganshé
If you've been following our journal from the start you will remember our previous enthusiastic post about Congolese supergroup Mbongwana Star, pushing forth their breathtakingly vibrant debut album "From Kinshasa" and their special electronic blend of space dub, afro-punk, club sounds.
Well, they are back with a wickedly trippy video to their album track "Nganshé", which draws you in like a bad dream: A voodoo-step version of Kraftwerk’s “The Model”, [...]
A "Minute Of Silence"
Choosing silence as the best response to what he considers the Austrian government's failure to handle the current migrant situation and improve the catastrophic conditions in Traiskirchen, Vienna's largest refugee camp, artist Raoul Haspel recently launched his powerful minute of silence "Schweigeminute", which has now topped the iTunes and Amazon charts in Austria.
With over 4,000 orders and counting the single can now be downloaded for 0.99 euros [...]
Au Revoir, Mogadishu!
While browsing Okayafrica’s latest recommendations we came across a rare gem from pre-war 70's and 80's Somalia: Entitled “Au Revoir, Mogadishu Volume 1 - Songs From Before The War” this tape, compiled by Berlin-based cassette label Caykh Recordings and Jakarta Records blends “traditional Somali folk music, infused with Western funk, rock and reggae” as well as a pinch of “Indian, Arabic and African” flavours. The mix includes selections from acts [...]
Appdate
A few weeks ago CassandraDaily, a daily trends newsletter released an email featuring a selection of apps that seek to forge closer relationships between musicians and their audiences, which we would like to share with you:
Take Fansino for example, developed by two Israeli entrepreneurs, the app lets musicians monitor who is listening to their songs in real-time, which is something streaming services currently don’t offer. Artists can thus reach out to fans [...]
Ethiopiques
Ever since the great Mulatu Astatqe’s work featured on the soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s 2005 film “Broken Flowers”, vintage Ethiopian sounds have slowly but surely made their way back into the collective consciousness of a wider public: Sounds stemming from the flourishing Ethiopian popular music scene and its vibrant, “swinging” Addis Ababa capital from the 1960’s to the mid-1970s, before the country fell victim to a harsh military regime and [...]
The Dead Brothers
Drawing frequent comparisons with a certain Tom Waits, the charismatic Alain Croubalian founded his band The Dead Brothers back in 1999, while based in Geneva, as a sort of musico-intellectual outlet allowing him and his fellow nomadic companions to continuously smile death in the face. In an often dramatic mise-en-scène, centred in the circus of life, the self-proclaimed funerary band stages an intense yet intriguing blend of folk, country, blues and punk [...]
A New Wave
How to describe the prolific Tel Aviv four-piece Boom Pam? Well, for starters, how about in their own words: “Our mix really describes Tel Aviv ... a place where people from all over the world meet. This sound is a sharp cocktail of all the different styles that collide here. And we try to bring them all together.”
Listening to Boom Pam is a proper musical epiphany. Their creative output is not easily categorised. But why should it? Instead of attempting [...]