As you may know, Man Recordings music is a lot about drums. We love em big, we love em thundering, and we love em played versatile. If a track´s beat ain´t dope enough, it´ll not be released on Man Rec. Period. On top of that, we love great percussions. Coz mostly it´s not the big bassdrum or the hard hitting snare, it´s the percussions that make a good track groove better – err just think about “Kid Conga”, ever noticed it has no snare drum but some tablas that make no snare necessary??

As we thought that there´s been tons of coverages about great drummers, drumbreaks etc., little has been made about percussions. So we now proudly present a new Man Rec blog series : The Man Rec Percussion Masters.

First off we´d like to present Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, an Iranian born percussionist, who brings the most amazing sounds out of traditional Persian percussion pieces such as the Tombak or the Daf. When I first heard his stuff, I thought he must add a lot of efxing on top of his spiel – until I saw the man performane live.

See Mohammad Reza Mortazavi perform here at Berlin´s Passionskirche in December 2008:

If you´re in Berlin this Thursday (11th of March), check Mortazavi out at the Berliner Philarmonie – this should be an orgasmic sound and groove experience!!

I am a fan of Banksy’s humorous approach to street art, and this trailer does not disappoint.

January 24 is the day of the premiere at the Sundance festival. Portishead’s Geoff Barrow is the man responsible for the soundtrack of this documentary.

I like it when good rappers rap. I miss stuff like this. Sure, its all a bit staged and produced, but its still good.

I feel bad that we never did wrote anything about Mr. Magic, the legendary radio host of “Rap Attack” who passed away recently from a fatal heart attack.

Here’s a tribute track that the Juice Crew(Biz Markie, Roxanne Shante, Craig G….) did in memory of him. Biz Markie’s verse at the end  is so childlike and simple, it touched me the most.

Juice Crew – Mr. Magic Tribute

I know its nothing new, but I been going through some old tunes and have been digging out some of the old gems.

I am obsessed by this.  Definitely my fave rediscovered tune of the last two weeks.t. I can listen to the loop all day, in fact I am listening for the third time todayThe claps, the “huh huh”, the funky guitar, the snare rolls and last but not least the nice ladies saying “its magic!!!” Good stuff. And good stuff should be shared, so here u go.

Nightlife Unlimited – Peaches & Prunes (Its magic re edit)

There’s nothing more I like listening to than dub reggae in the summer time, especially now that I’m hearing a lot more dubstep than I used to, its always nice to go back to the O.G. sound. Of all the big names in dub, I think I like Augustus Pablo the most, because I find that he got the best melodies.

My favourite tune from him is “East of the River Nile”. I love the Chinese horn riff, and Augustus is just off the hook on the melodica. In fact, I read that it was Augustus was the one who made the melodica popular in reggae music; the instrument was used primarily for teaching kids about music in Jamaican schools.

Anyways, check the video to see the master at work!

Oh, and here’s an Augustus Pablo tune that I think Santigold sampled for “Shove it”

Augustus Pablo – King Tubby meets rockers uptown

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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).

No doubt, Serge Gainsbourg was one of the coolest motherfuckers of the 20th century. Besides shagging all major European top ladies from Brigitte Bardot to Jane Birkin in the 1960s and 70s he released some of the most outstanding records that still sound fresh and inspiring today. Think of the “The Histoire Of Melody Nelson” album, or the dopest beat from the 1960s in the proto-rap anthem “Requiem Pour Un Con”, or his collaboration with Sly & Robbie on “Aux Armes Et Cetera” (check the dub album!).

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Roxanne Shanté still is the undisputed female queen MC of all times. Her “Roxanne´s Revenge” introduced smart and reflected female rap at a time when women in hip hop where confined to being mere party bunnies. She was aged 14 (!) when she recorded this song (in one take!) and single handledy defined female rap as we know it and love it. So if you listen to Peaches, M.I.A., Deize Tigrona or Yo Mayesty today – Roxanne Shanté was there first. Check the Mr.Magic intro (those delays!!) and Marley Marl behind the decks.

African music all of a sudden seems to be everywhere. Hollertronix release an entire EP dedicated to Kuduro, Vampire Weekend get inspired by sounds from Botswana and Warp release DJ Mujava´s “Township Funk” to enthusiastic response and everyone looks to Africa as it was 1988 when “Yeke Yeke” by Mori Kanté was ruling Eurolands charts and African inspired pop music was considered the next big thing.
We @ Man Rec have been longtime fans of the kaleidoscope of sounds emerging from various African regions, be it Hi Life, Kwaito, or lately Kuduro. However one of the first African tunes to ever encounter our ears in the early 80s was Burundi Black. The track was recorded in 1967 by Sevac Ekian during a ceremony of the Ingoma Tribe in the East African State of Burundi. Back home Ekian developed the idea to arrange a “musical marriage” (mariage musical). Therefore he asked the producer Mike Steiphenson to create a fitting tune to those absorbing drum recordings and chants he brought from Burundi.

Steiphenson produced a psychedelic harmony consisting of e-guitar and piano and inserted it in Ekian’s recording. In 1971 the track was published under the pseudonym Burundi Black. “Burundi Black” was a huge success in European discotheques throughout the 1970s and is considered one of the anthems of the Cosmic Disco movement. It´s probably also one of the first remixed African tunes ever released.

On Side A of the vinyl release there is “Part 1″, the drum-solo version, on Side B (”Part 2″) the version by Steiphenson. The single went top 40 in the UK. If you´ve heard Quiet Village´s remix of Gorillaz, you may recognize the source of inspiration (oh and Beastie Boys also sampled the drums on their “Pauls Boutique” album).

BURUNDI BLACK PART 1

BURUNDI BLACK PART 2

Grandmixer D.ST is from the early 1980s generation of NY scratch DJs. His debut public appearance was as DJ in the amphitheatre scene of the movie “Wild Style”, shortly after D.ST hit the jackpot as being the guy responsible for the turntable parts in Herbie Hancock´s “Rockit”. Another D.ST´s highlight was the track “D.ST Cuts It Up”, which was featured on the – ESSENTIAL – 1984 Celluloid compilation “Street Music Material”. The compilation was produced by Material and contains tracks by Fab Five Freddy, Phase 2´s legendary “The Roxy”, The Clash (!) feat. Futura 2000 and with “The Smurf” probably the 1st electro funk track featuring a live hard rock guitar. Check D.ST´s video and try to track down “Street Music Material”, this is timeless electro funk. Some of the tracks have lately been released on the “Celluloid Years” compilation, but nothing beats the original album vinyl. Oh and the cover artwork is by Futura 2000. After listening to “D.ST Cuts It Up” again I have to ask myself: Why on earth is no one doing music like this anymore today? Why is everyone only looking to the block party prime years of hip hop and completely fading out on the shit that Celluloid Records released from 1983-1985?