A short video footage of the south-african Shangaan electro team, currently on tour in Europe, who stopped in Paris thanks to Etienne Tron's Secousse for a night at Point Ephémère: successfull night for these inventors of modern Shangaan and their trademark sound, sometimes slightly repetitive and a bit hard to follow for lazy euro dancers but 100% exciting all way long, with the demonstration that nobody really cares about violent start/stops and fadeouts when it's all about managing to let something happen in da place.
For those who might have miss it, the complete story as told by producer Nozinja here describes everything you need to know. A very good article also to check here, while it's still time to catch on and follow the rest of the tour:
June 28th: Brussel - Les Ateliers Claus June 29th: Rotterdam - Worm @ Heidegger June 30th: Berlin - Berghain July 1st: Roskilde fest. July 3rd: Lisbon - Gulbenkian foundation
Buy their merch ! Brought to you from South Africa, tones of fantastic bonus tracks on Cd and K7 from the various bands produced by Nozinjaand Mackzella (Tiyiselani Vomaseve, B.B.C. ...) completing your overview from the initial LP released by Honest Jon Rds.
As you already heard the speedup tracks when the record got out, here comes an interesting slower and mellow one, with a very specific disco-funk use of the marimba bass.
I know everyone here gets disappointed when there is no track to leech and a lot to read, but let's take a few minutes for a fancy-full scientific comparison between Max Tundra's "Which Song" and Perfume's last single:
I always considered Perfume as a guilty pleasure, it may slightly appear now a bit more guilty than usual... But none of the notes has been stolen, no sample been taken either, and the track is good in a mainstream context, both on composition and production sides... What happened then ?
"Vampirized" might be the word, when such a successfull j-pop war machine manages to gently suck the trademark of a brilliant western indie composer: revisiting jazz-funk harmonies, smashing Herbie Hancock into Zappa, juggling with Prince-like falsetto voice and prog constructions... Ben Jacobs, aka Max Tundra, had the specific idea, with a certain relevance due to a personnal culture and history, to combine elements in a visionnary attempt to create an accurate form at a specific moment that was bringing pop music to wildly personal realms.
However, despite the international success and recognition he deserved and obtained among the initiates, and according the market's situation, he had few chances to turn into the kind of high-sale band to be displayed on Shibuya's screens. A female singer trio with a brilliant former Capsule member as a producer already had everything in their hands to do it: japanese lyrics and female vocals, coupled to the most plastic sound on earth, were then meticulously treated in order to instantly please auditor with outlaw compression rates, mesmerizing frequence repartition, autotune highways, and the strongest harmonic enhancers known on earth.
Nakata-san, brilliant producer of Perfume, amazingly talented, doesn't has anything to prove anymore, and can afford this incursion for the time of a single after having produced dozens of killer bombs in different styles. No more than a variation "in the manner of" ?
The question remains, when you start looking at record sales and counting the cash generated: why not calling the original guy who built the style, and include him at some point ? During the last years, on their way to commercial success, Perfume more and more appeared as an overcontrolled mainstream project, the one you can imagine being coached by a huge team of managers. There was probably simply no need to take a risk with an external agent. Why the hell would they have, eh ?
A brief interview with Max Tundra, evocating various topics, made after his gig at Skiff festival in St Petersburg:
1) SUCCUBS: "It makes me think about, well, there is a chance that maybe I can produce a pop band, and make a million-selling hit, because it is so similar in style to my song, which has not sold very many copies at all, due to very poor distribution. Distribution problems are upsetting, because this latest record took me six years to record, so I'm really proud of it, it's very close to my heart, and I believe that the music is very special. This situation just goes to show that if someone gives me a chance to produce one of these big pop bands, then maybe we can have some great success. People always say that my music is weird and experimental, but I don't think it is: it's quite poppy and happy, and there is a lot more strange music around, which is more successful than me."
2) INFLUENCES: "I try not to be influenced by other musicians, so if I really love something, then sometimes it comes through in my music, but not intentionally. You could hear on my radio show every week I play very eclectic strange music that I like (check Resonance FM website). I'm not much of an expert in the 70s electric jazz you mention, but I like some of this stuff, I quite like Bitches Brew by Miles Davis as well, any electric kind of jazz with fender Rhodes is very nice. Franck Zappa and progressive rock as well, not so much electronic music actually. I find it very boring especially today, repetitive and dull."
3) LYRICS: "In the music I make, the lyrics are just one elements, and it's not more important than the drum programming, or the keyboard solo. It all fits together, and everything is as important as everything else. I don't like to give too much emphasis to one part of the music. Often the lyrics are written the last, and sometimes I have trouble coming out with the lyrics, but I'm pleased with them. If I try to write a song about a situation or an ex-girlfriend, or something like this, then usually I run out of ideas with four lines, so the next verse has to be about something else. Usually, a song is not about one thing, maybe two lines will be one thing and then the situation is satisfied, so the next bit I have to write about something else. And it's not all true either, some of it is just fictionnal."
5) ANTI-HIPSTERISM: "What I really hate about music today is that most people don't really listen to music anymore. It's about the fashion or the clothes, or the style of a band, who they're hanging out with, who they're bitchin about, and it's not the songwriting or the sounds. If I hear a song with a really amazing composition, it makes me feel amazing, and it touches some emotion inside me. I think it's important that musicians never loose sight of that, and once the American Apparel sponsorship deal wears off, then if nothing is left, there is no point in doing music."
A first post to initiate a serie of live video reports on this blog, with one of our all-time favorites:
Following his 2009 european premiere, Syrian N°1 legend Omar Souleyman, the man with 500 cassettes, and one of Sublime Frequencies most highlighted artist, is back stronger than ever: UK in May and all over Europe between July and September, including gigs at ATP, Lieu Unique, Recyclart, Casa de Musica...
It all started one week ago, and the monday appearance in London at Scala turned into one of the most exciting event of the year, not only on a pure hands-up-and-light-feet level, but also due to the specific mental gratification generated by such a fascinating encounter between people coming from so many different horizons and backgrounds, wether on stage or in the audience: from hipsters to shopkeepers, from top-range electric saz chorus to wedding party killer beats, a unique and precious night.
A fresh as fish video report de notre envoyé spécial:
To celebrate the CART002 release, Norman Bambi, Internet2 and I we'll be on tour (Belgium and Netherlands) along with Antoine Souchaud.
- April 22th BRUXELLES / Kania Tieffer's UHH Party @ Café Central (+ DJ Albanie) - April 23th MAASTRICHT / Mega Fun Fear @ B32 (+ Motocross and Hugo Freegow) - April 24th ANTWERPEN / Kakbek #7: License to Kak @ Scheldapen - April 25th NIJMEGEN / + Ludovic Boulard Le Fur ex @ Extrapool
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Internet2 - Botanica Armonia
Norman Bambi shot in Mexico City
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More infos about the tour (pics, videos, mp3s etc) HERE!
