You can find the above mixtape over at Dancing Cheetah blog. I haven’t listened to it yet but it looks like a really interesting mix of cumbia, carimbó, tecnobrega, merengue, funana, coupe decale, reggaetón and some arabian shit.
you can download it here
Michael Jackson’s iconic influence transcends into various music styles, as demonstrated by arguably one of the greatest Hip Hop producers of all time, DJ Premier. This past Friday during DJ Premier’s weekly “Live From HeadQCourterz” show on NY´s Sirius FM, he brought forth a special tribute mix he put together for Michael Jackson. Since his passing there has been an overabundance of “tribute” mixtapes from several DJ’s, but none like this from Premo. Download it from here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/61934373dba0571d/
Why am I so crap at posting stuff on the blog? Why is that I always have to wait till Big Dan Haaksman writes and complains about my lack of posts do I then actually write a post. Why? why? WHY?!?!?
I think it’s because I’m shy to share with the world my humble opinion. Plus the fact that at the moment, I don’t do much else than radio, gig, studio and the occasional game of ping pong.
Anyways…
I’ve done a couple of mixtapes for the beautiful and talented MPHO. MPHO is a singer from Brixton, previously best know for her work with the likes of Bugz in the Attic and Coldcut. She is now coming out with her debut album “Pop Art” on Parlophone/Wall of Sound. MPHO’s amazing voice and incredible song writing make the album an irrestible pop album. The first single “Box n Locks” is produced by Switch and has a sample from Echo Beach by “Martha and the Muffins”. They also got Armand Van Helden, Herve and Crazy Cousins to remix the track. My favourite is still the original though.
and here’s a link to the mixtapes that we put together for MPHO
Enjoy!
Supreme NY just released a range of shirts dedicated to one of my favourite albums of all times, the 1983 released “Duck Rock” LP by Malcolm McLaren (btw, produced by Trevor Horn). The limited edition T-Shirts feature various motifs from the “Duck Rock” album as well as the “Do You Like Scratching?” EP, both designed by Keith Haring. The motivs are all great, but I wonder why Supreme completely missed out on making a shirt with images from the “Double Dutch” single, one of the main tracks of the “Duck Rock” LP ? Hmm, maybe the song didnt represent enough old school hip hop culture for Supreme? But it was exactly the heterogenity of McLaren´s mixtape-cum-album that made “Duck Rock” so extra special. At least, we can show the video:
I have a new EP that will be released tomorrow, exclusively pre-released on vinyl. Be quick to grab it, the red colored version is limited to 200 copies worldwide, the rest of the pressing will be in the usual black wax. The “Gostoso EP” is my second release and is another take on my love for the mad beats from Rio. Spread out on 5 tracks, this EP is less focused on the MC but more on a heavy beat tip. The digital release is on July 7th.
Here´s “Pobum Coco”, one of the main tunes of the EP, which has already been caned by the likes of DJ Yoda, DJ Beware and Tim Turbo:
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I recently met Diplo in Berlin, while he was promoting his “Major Lazer” album for German media. German club culture magazine “Groove” features a full page on our meeting in their “Nimm Zwei” (”Take Two”) series. Here´s the translation:
Not far from the ambassador´s quarter in Berlin, two music ambassadors meet to exchange news and music. Names like Schlachthof Bronx or Justin Martin start to fly as Wesley Pentz, a.k.a. Diplo, 29, meets his colleague Daniel Haaksman, 40, boss of Man Recordings, to talk about the current state of Germany´s music scene. Satisfied, both conclude that the children of Kraftwerk open up their ears – and sample banks – to phenomenons such as Kuduro, Cumbia to Funk (Rio) to Funky (London). Haaksman lives in Berlin, Diplo is in town to talk about “Guns Dont´t Kill People, Lazers Do”, which he co-produced together with Switch.
Interview by Eric Mandel
Daniel, four years ago you invited Diplo to play at Berlin´s 103 club, and only a dozen people showed up. How would that be today?
DIPLO: Our small scene doesnt get much press. We are pretty much invisible, coz loads of things are based on file sharing. Daniel is here in Berlin, in England there´s Mumdance or Jammer, Crookers in Italy, Al-Haca in austria. We all do pretty much the same, an eclectic sound, we´ll never fit into one box. So we stay in contact, share music and support each other. The dub step guys don´t like Rusko and the old techno heads hate Crookers, because their tracks don´t peak after five minutes but after 45 seconds, haha. We are all pretty much fans of each other.
HAAKSMAN And this has reached a critical mass now. 2006 you could count the people involved in this scene on one hand. Now you have Crookers topping the pop charts worldwide, M.I.A. broke with “Paper Planes” and a new generation of club kids was raised on a sound that gives you an alternative to the ubiquious sound of house and techno played all night long. Those kids have an eclectic music taste, and this includes everything from rock, cumbia, reggaeton, ghettotec, whatever. Many of the elements that are relevant in techno – sound engineering, technology, long blends in mixing – are not relevant in this music. The idea of an spiritual expierence or states of trance on the dancefloor are not important for our audience, it´s all about pure energy. Styles like kuduro or baile funk inspired people like us with new ideas. Thus we became ambassadors which bring people from Brasil or Angola over here and put those people into contexts both in production and labels.
DIPLO It´s necessary, otherwise it´s just world music for older intellectuals. But it´s both ways: DJ Znobia from Angola recently sampled Switch. DJ Sandrinho samples Baltimore beats for his baile funk parties in Rio.
HAAAKSMAN Earlier, there was only very little musical exchange between Angola and BRasil. Now you have the anthem of Flamengo as a Kuduro remix from Angola. People can jump the artificial barriers today that the old media structures, the major labels or media company used to rule. Today, people can directly exchange ideas and music, and it´s all thanks to the internet.
DIPLO It´s kind of weird for me to see that Berlin is only getting it now, as Berlin is considered to be Electro-City. When I grew up in Miami I had this 2 Live Crew record, there was this track called “We Want Some Pussy (Live In Berlin)”, and it sounded as if they were playing in front of 20.000 people. I thought they were the biggest thing in Germany. I mean you guys had Kraftwerk, they invented the damn beat!
HAAKSMAN Yes, but here it went completely different ways. When Bambaataa used “Trans Europe Express” he created the electronic version of afro-american funk. In the U.S. this led to both Detroit techno and Miami bass. Electronic dance music in Germany wasnt very much influenced by “Planet Rock”, only when later, in it´s bastard child versions of Detroit techno or Chicago house. In Germany in contrary, e.g. DAF, was pretty straight and totally “white”. This preference has remained until today in large parts of the German dance music scene. There´s a few islands across Germany which follow afro-american music innovations, but the majority is completely self-centered. All the afro-american music innovations of recent years – bmore, chicago juke, etc. – werent registred over here. The same is for bubbling from Holland, which comes from a very vibrant black community.
DIPLO It´s great to mix with hard stuff, but by now it has become a no-word because for many years it has become really trendy. It´s a mix of Caribbean reggae and Dutch house, right in the middle.
You two have an ear for regional phenomenons. What is on your radar these days?
HAAKSMAN There´s hundreds of local dance music styles that are still to discovered. Tecno brega from Manaus for example. I´m currently into UK funky. Many of the UK funky guys come from Grime and they were fed of the clicheed strings and MCs. It´s sort of the UK answer to the breakbeat thunderstorm which poured over UK in recent years in forms of Kuduro, Soca, Baile Funk, Juke and Bmore.
DIPLO They want money, hehe! To be honest, I like UK funky, some of the instrumentals are great, like K.I.G.´s “Head, Shoulders, Kneez & Toez” has a good flow. But the majority of tracks sound to me like a cheap version of Bugz In The Attic. And when there´s “African” vocals, like (singing) “I play my conga”, then it sounds like the stuff my mother listens to when she visits a world music club night. At the same time it´s a mixed scene, with black and white kids, and that´s cool with me.
Read the original interview in German in Groove Magazine #119. Out now.
Thomas Dolby is one of the few white faces of 1980s electro funk. His “Hyperactive” was a long term anthem amongst European B-Boys with its slap bass and vocoder line. Besides his solo works – “She Blinded Me With Sciene” is another forgotten Euro electro funk classic – Dolby was employed for another B-Boy anthem, Whodini´s “Magic´s Wand” for which Dolby played the main synth line. South Bronx: Hyperactivate!
Rio De Janeiro based mash up maestro João Brasil sent us this video to present a new musical hybrid he created called “Speed Baile” or “Axé Tech”. Joining on the vocals are The Ramones and “Blitzkrieg Bop”. Bahia goes baile punk – yesssss!!
Download the track from here:
Hey Ho Let´s Go Bahia
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“Musical subcultures between rebellion, controlling formats and business ideas Berlin and Rio De Janeiro” is the topic of a panel discussion in Club Monarch in Berlin-Kreuzberg this coming Thursday (18th of June). The panel will discuss the book “FUNK THE CITY” in which the relations of urban every day life of Rio De Janeiro and Berlin are in focus, with their musical subcultures of hip hop and baile funk – which are stigmatised by the middle class with terms such as ghetto, violence and marginality. Do these cultural practices from the urban peripheries present new ideas for a “policy after politics”? Do they offer any resistant “urban action” with which the inhabitants of both the favelas and the immigrant quarters can fight against their marginalisation? Or do they merely create “exotic” music and life stles with an economic surplus which are skimmed by the global cultural industries? Or are they even instrumentalised by the reigning powers, accessing the particular cultural practises of the “poor” and thus ruling them ?
“Funk The City” is based on long term research and various interviews with activists from both Berlin and Rio De Janeiro and collected analyses, essays, talks, photos and lyrics about the sound and urban action from the peripheries of Rio De Janeiro and Berlin.
“FUNK THE CITY” Book release party @ Club Monarch in Kreuzberg, 18th of June, 9PM
If you ever wondered why Man Recordings records and releases sound so extra special, it´s because we put a lot of effort into mastering. Practically all Man Recordings releases from Man 01 up to Man 041 were mastered by our man Andreas Schönrock , or S-Rock, as he is often featured in our label copies. Based in Berlin, Andi has an experience of more than 8 years in mastering. He did an internship at mastering legend Bob Katz’s „Digital Domain“ Studios in Florida, and recently finished with a Master Of Arts in Audio Communication, Musicology and Technical Acoustics at both the Technical and the Humboldt University in Berlin. Before his degree he wrote a pretty fascinating piece on the physics of a hit, analysing 2Pacs “California Love” in closest detail (which you can find on his website). But mostly, Andi is a man of practise with a perfect ear. He even managed the miracle to master original baile funk MP3s making them brilliant, loud and punchy.
Besides mastering all releases for Man Recordings, Andreas is the Mastering Engineer for Munich’s Jazz & Milk Recordings, Cologne’s Up My Alley, the Spanish heavyweights Lovemonk and New York’s Bastard Jazz, just to name a few. A recent highlight was his remastering of classic recordings from artists like Mongo Santamaria, Héctor Lavoe or La Lupe. Originally released on legendary Fania Records, his mastering gained critical acclaim around the globe.
UK DJ magazine IDJ voted Man Recordings “Label Of The Month” in its June 2009 issue. Read the full story here:
If you are a fluent Portuguese reader you might want to download the above book for free as a PDF file. It is a comprehensive study of the Tecnobrega phenomenam from the far North-East of Brazil, amazon country. Tecnobrega could have been Brazil’s next baile funk, i.e. an exportable exotic ghettotech, but is in fact far too cheesy for most tastes. However, what is interesting about Tecnobrega is its self-sustained business model and that it is a soundsystem based music, almost entirely based in the neighborhoods of the Belém do Pará outskirts.
I have started reading the book on my laptop and it is a fascinating piece of research.
There is an overview of the book in English here.
and you can download the PDF file here.
The documentary “Good Copy, Bad Copy” about tecnobrega is well worth watching as well. Below is a clip:
Block rocking DJ and MC Joyce Muniz recently played at Sonore festival in Lyon, France, and was interviewed after her set. See the footage and the interview here: 
Here’s a great bit of footage from ace 80s Channel4 tv programme the Tube. It features Man inspiration Greg Wilson demonstrating mixing for the first time on British TV. The headphones he’s using look like he’s just unplugged them from his groovy cassette walkman.
This clip also proves that Jools Holland was and is probably the most annoying c*nt on earth, but he at least he doesn’t play boogie woogie piano all over the track ( as he is inclined to do).
Daniel, head honcho at Man, sent me a mail asking me to look into the current accusations against DJ Marlboro that have hit the headlines in the last week.
Self-entitled Godfather of Baile funk, Marlboro, real name, Fernando Luís Mattos da Matta, 46, was accused last week of the sexual abuse of a 4 (FOUR!) year old girl. The story goes that the girl, from the Minas Gerais state, went to stay with her Godmother who was Marlboro’s girlfriend at the time, in Rio in March 2008. According to the childs parents the girl returned from the journey and displayed behaviour relating to sexual abuse and this was confirmed by a psychologist.
Marlboro can’t talk to the press at the moment, due to the nature of the accusation, though his laywers are saying that nothing will come of this as the evidence against Marlboro is weak and inconsistent.
My opinion is that Marlboro, though criticised for his business practices, is a pretty clean-cut and scandal free type of guy and is definitely a ladeez man. This could be a case of the parents trying to get at some of the DJ’s money, a common practice here in Brazil. Let’s see how it pans out, but as with all cases of child abuse, once the accusation is made, the reputation sticks.
The real crime is trying to find a decent promo picture of DJ Marlboro, of which the one above is the best of a bad bunch. The rest are all cheesey thumbs up picks, he need a professional photographer to do some moody dj in action pics!
Interesting new album just out on the German label Out/here (from which we licensed Madera Limpia´s “Loco” single (Cat No. Man 030))called Comfusões . This project was put together by Maurício Pacheco (Stereo Maracanã) and the concept is putting together the best of Angolan pop from the 60s and 70s and having it remixed by a classy selection of Brazilian producers such as Mario Caldato, Berna & Kassin, DJ Dolores and Rica Amabis.
Pacheco has been travelling around Angola since 2000 and had access to the archives of Rádio Nacional Angola and selected tracks by Artur Nunes, Teto Lando, Bonga among other local artists. It’s a fine selection of Brazilian remixers as well, definitely those working at the quality end of Brazilian pop/MPB whatever.
You can go to the myspace link above to hear the album, and here’s a taster below:
kapakiao-(kassin-berna-ceppas rmx)-bonga
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Yeahh! We smashed it last Saturday @ KVS in Brussels at the Funk Mundial release party, the Belgian edition. DJ Edgar, Joyce Muniz and myself played the big room of the municipal theater and ripped it all apart. See DJ Edgar rocking down the house (photos will follow soon). Merçi Bruxelles, la soiree été un grand plaisir!!
Thanks to DJ TLP, DJ Rakesh and Karim for the hosting, you were great hosts.
Sorry its been a while… blame it on radio, Spring Festival (too much partying with Roundtable Knights, Motorpitch, Mixhell, Sinden …) , remixes, mixtapes and hay fever…
To make up for it, here’s a brand new bootleg of Michel Cleis “La Mezcla” that Motorpitch and I did. Big shout out to Toy Selectah for lacing me with the original Cumbia samples of the tune!
Hope u enjoy!
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