When he released “Street Tuff” with Double Trouble (Michael Menson, Karl ‘Tuff Enuff’ Brown and Leigh Guest) in 1989, it was the first most people had heard of the Rebel MC. Truth is, he’d formed Double Trouble way back in the early 80s and Street Tuff was just the furthest reaching public display of his talent. Although frowned upon as a sell-out by the Hip Hop community, the cut has since been heralded as “the birth of UK Grime” by Dizzee Rascal amongst others. So, what has that got to do with Congo Natty? Well, everything. For those who don’t know (and I hope it’s just a handful), Rebel MC aka Michael West went on to record as Conquering Lion, Blackstar, Tribe Of Issachar, X Project, Ras Project and of course, Congo Natty. What is incredible is that since we saw him bounce on to the TOTP stage armed with fashion dreads, a backing track on DAT and his Double Trouble entourage playing dummy instruments, Micheal West has consistently released quality underground music with more than just money in mind.
Check ‘Black Meaning Good’(1991), a watershed release for the Rebel as his style evolved and his lightweight raps were replaced by conscious flows, Reggae, Techno and the emerging sound of Jungle. Guest appearances came from Barrington Levy, Dennis Brown and Tenor Fly….heavyweight business! Now the UK’s underground were on-side, and comparisons to the Ragga Twins (fellow Tottenham dwellers) and Shut Up & Dance were rife, the ‘Word Sound and Power’ (1992) collection cemented Rebel’s place in the Reggae tinged corner of the UK’s bubbling dance scene. Now a manifesting Rastafarian, West set up the Tribal Bass label in 1992 and it was this which gradually mutated to X-Project and finally into the Congo Natty imprint all old-school Junglists know and love.
So, almost 20 years on, and having recorded under an array of monikers, Congo Natty continues to roll out raw breaks, deadly deep subs and vocal performances from dancehall legends like Tenor Fly and Daddy Freddy to expectant audiences the world over. Now a fully fledged rasta living between the UK and Ethiopia, the conscious content and scathing attacks on our unbalanced sytems are stronger than ever. Even better, to add a fresh twist, the Congo Natty outfit now counts a full live band amongst its ranks. As somebody who recieved early musical tutilage from the Demon Boyz, London Posse, Shut Up and Dance and the Rebel MC (I think ‘Just Keep Rockin’ and ‘Street Tuff’ were among the first singles I ever bought alongside Public Enemy’s ‘Rebel Without a Pause’), I have to give my full respect to him for keeping it moving so strongly over almost two decades.
And the punchline, Heads High are in the zone with Congo Natty this Saturday 19th July. He’ll be accompanied by Connie Bell, Lady MC (Kool FM) and a full live band. Myself and Darren Judge will be rolling out selections spanning reggae, hip-hop and perhaps a few electronic, bass movements. It’s one to make time for….
GB is something special. In a musical omniverse drowning in the throwaway output of countless copies of Ableton Live, his music speaks differently. Listen to his recent Xpander EP for his own GIFTEDandBLESSED imprint or his production on All City’s fifth installment of their Los Angeles 10″ series and you’ll know.
Our generation, to our detriment, has all but forgotten the true power of sound. GB has not. After studying the seemingly Salvia inspired sleeve of his latest release, I decided I had to make the link and dig deeper. This is what I found…
HH: So, I recently picked up the Xpander 12″ and was blown away by what it hid in it’s grooves. I looked you up and then realized that i’d been hearing your music for almost 10 years and just never made the connection! For those people who are in that position, who is GB?
GB: I write, produce and play music. GB is a moniker under which I’ve released much of my music. I’m an informal student of what I call “technoindigenous studies.”
HH: You’ve collaborated with Flora Purim, Airto Moreira, J*DaVeY, Steve Spacek, Baatin and a whole host of others. Listening back over your discography, your sound is diverse to say the least. Can you explain a little about your musical pedigree and the kind of sounds that have shaped your evolution?
GB: I enjoy music from around the world. I’m interested in exploring lots of musical territory. I enjoy drawing from many sources of inspiration, not to replicate a vibe someone’s already achieved by instead to see how I may be able to transmute, reconfigure, or add to that. At the moment, when working with others, I’m most interested in going places with them in which none of us have spent much time.
HH: Are you resident in LA? I once saw an interview with SaRa in which they talk about the energies and vibrations affecting the city and it’s inhabitants, creatively and otherwise. Is this a concept you can relate to?
GB: Yes I am currently a resident of L.A., so I suppose I relate to that in the sense that living here I’m subjected to the earth energies and social energies that are dominant. L.A. is the communication center of the world, something like Earth’s throat chakra. It adds up that there’s so much sound being transmitted out of L.A. But on the flip side, for my taste, all of my favorite music comes from throughout the world, from both likely and unlikely places.
HH: You record under a few other aliases too. Could you tell me a little more about them?
GB: I’ve released music as Julian Abelar, Frankie Reyes and the Reflektor. Keep in mind that GB is more of a “character” than anything. There is a sound that has come to be associated with GB. Julian Abelar, though related in vibration to GB, is a very different thing, more focused and intentional. Julian Abelar is an ode to the nagual Carlos Castaneda and his shamanic initiation with the nagual don Juan Matus as documented in his series of books. The name Julian Abelar is a name that comes from their lineage of sorcerers. So again, that project was intentional, and releasing it as Julian Abelar gave me the space to let it be what is was. Had I released it as GB, it might have been considered a disappointment to some who were expecting what they got out of Soundtrack for Sunrise. The Reflektor is a similar thing. And Frankie Reyes is a derivative of my actual name, emphasizing and paying homage to my Puerto Rican ancestry. If you spend time with the music, you’ll get a sense of the subtle variations.
HH: You seem to have a particular affection for analogue electronic equipment. What inspired you to evolve in that direction?
GB: I am most interested in a hybrid sound. My earlier releases were mainly sequenced digitally via computer software with a combination of samples and live instruments (I’ve never used software synths). I’ve played analog synths on most of my releases, but in recent years I’ve spent lots of time learning about the connectivity of these machines and how to use them in a configuration that allows the machines to speak to one another and keep in time with each other, like a band. And of course, this allows me to operate the entire band by myself in real time. Plus the sonic quality of analog synthesis is special. You can hear it immediately. There are many studies you can find out there on the compromises with digital vs analog. But that’s not to say that you can’t do interesting things with digital sound that you can’t do with analog. It’s only a matter of taste and understanding. But having said that, electronic music in general has a definite limit for me.
HH: Talking of inspiration, looking at the artwork on your most recent Xpander release and reading some of the copy on your site, there is a definite spiritual thread running though your art. Is this intentional, and if so, how do you relate art to spirit?
GB: Art for me is an attempt to make matters of spirit tangible. I use art to translate inspiration from spirit into a three-dimensional density-based experience. Art affects its audience, one way or another. My aim is to affect my audience positively, to inspire others to be inspired.
HH: To quote directly from your site you are‘an active advocate and practitioner of therapeutic sound healing techniques’. Could you expand on this please? What role do you think music has in the human healing process?
GB: Sound health is a very real thing. You can input sensory data into any of the senses and have a healing effect, and just the same you can have a detrimental effect. Without being conscious of it (for most people, anyway), you’re either helping or hurting your body by what you give it. So in my Healing Tones: Inverted Listening release, I emphasized specific colors and frequencies using analog synthesis again with the intention of activating the body’s innate self-healing capabilities. I’ve used these principles in several yoga studios here in L.A. as well as university lecture halls and alternative healing spaces.
HH: The most recent offering i’ve heard from you is the Raices Africanas sound collage under the Frankie Reyes moniker. It features a lot of traditional african drum music. What are your thoughts on the traditional music of the African diaspora and what relation have these rhythms got to your electronic output? Do raw organic drum music and programmed electronic music share any common ground?
GB: African music is inextricably a part of who I am. My rhythms, be they human-generated or machine-generated, are very African in essence. The drum is the most primal universal mode of communication and vehicle for achieving higher mind states. I don’t think we’ll ever stray too far from the drum because it basically equates to our life force itself. And in our technological age, in this transitional moment in human history, electronics are in many ways as organic as hand drums.
HH: What projects are you working on at the moment? Anything we should look out for in the near future?
I will be putting forth more live electronic offerings, as well as more earthy human music. I am still a student of music in the end, so as I continue to learn and expand, the breadth of my output will continue to do the same.
What is Gifted and Blessed? What are it’s aims and objectives?
Gifted and Blessed is the outlet for my music. Nothing more than that.
Live performance is no doubt one of the most expressive platforms responsible for taking music from a unidimensional experience and intensifying its potency manyfold into a multi-sensory one.
Stunning sounds isolated from the company of visual performance, will always remain so, or simply put: ‘a good song is a good song.’ However, there’s a time for reveling in Grado audiophile geekiness and a time for collective celebration, on-going sonic indulgence and Funktion-One PA systems. More specifically in the UK, this time spans periodically from late May till early September and is more commonly referred to as the season of summer festivals.
Attracting sound-craving fans from all four corners of the Isles and beyond, British summer muddy music festivals are heralded internationally as some of the most impressive. Furthermore, to perform at, is for many musicians a validation that they have entered the upper echelons of their given genre.
As discussed previously, the UK continues to churn out new festivals on a yearly basis offering yet more variety for those seeking alternative experiences. A spectrum of choices appealing to the mainstream, genre-driven and even ’boutique’ crowd can be witnessed in all sorts of publications and targeted media/mass communication leading up to the summer months.
The problem is, it seems as if the UK scene has reached a saturation-point whereby there are just too many festivals, too many choices to be made and nothing really interesting, actually happening. For example, there are the people that will go to say, WOMAD on an annual basis. It’s a ritual, they enjoy the vibe and know what to expect (even though they don’t). They will look forward to hearing some random ‘Zulu string quartet’ and will share the good news in the aftermath upon return to their abode. Then there are the others who follow their favourite acts around. They check the line-ups of the festivals that relate to their genre/s of choice and only go to the ones that they recognise the performers they want to see*.
Excuse my generalisations, I’m not saying that there’s a problem with either of these strategies for deciding which festivals to hit. What I do find interesting, however, is how this sheds light on a key task of the festival producer. He must either book the biggest m*********kers within his scope and appeal to the masses that way. Or not bother at all – simply call the festival niche and book those that exemplify the ‘vibe’ trying to be portrayed as well as focusing all resources on ensuring the appropriate crowd, atmosphere, etc and get people in that way.
Whether you require tens of thousands or a couple hundred, fundamentally, it’s the people that make the festivals, so they must be catered for.
So where am I going with this? The point, is that as plentiful as the options may seem, the overall end products are limited. You can pretty much go to a handful of contrasting festivals and get the gist.
For people that have been going for years, the seemingly “growing” UK music festival industry has in actual fact, plateaued and is in decline. The few gems of small festivals that have recently dared to be game-changing, now cease to exist. On the same token, the self-cannibalisation of larger festivals continue to increase as organisers eat at each other’s predictable line-ups. This predicament inspires only the uninitiated youth; true festival aficionados are today’s real casualties, since the remnants of better times are now extinct in the festival scene (or at least much harder to find).
Apathy should be the last emotion summonsed when considering festivals of any sort. Yet lets face it, after many years of the same summer festival clichés, who can really be arsed for the camping, crappy sanitation and over-priced food if anyone less than your favourite artist is set to perform? Not me.
In order to reverse this downward spiral, many UK and mainland European organisers have shut up shop, set their sights further afield and emigrated to Croatia. More specifically to, the Garden, Petrčane. These collaborations on new soil were never an attempt to recreate Ibiza or Ayia Napa but to provide an antithetical retreat for those that have become apathetic to the aforementioned commonplace ‘music havens’. This formula seems to have solved more problems than it initially envisaged as the festival scene in Petrčane (a small fishing village in Zadar) has continued to grow exponentially since its inception (in the form of the Garden Festival) 5 years or so ago.
Regarding festivals, mainland Europe shares pretty much the same story as the UK. However, being outside of the Euro-zone, Croatia seems to be one of the more mysterious and least rinsed locations in the midst of festival-hogging countries such as Spain.
Succeeding in its underdog route, the Garden, Petrčane is now boasting 5 solid festivals that can hold their own amongst the very best with added perks.
These festivals do differ from each other, but only slightly. Really, it’s all about being low-key in gimmicks, high-quality in music and all-round, good vibes. Petrčane takes the general festival template and tones things down. People that go, tend to stay in villas, spending a longer holiday duration in the village and only attending the festival as part of the weekend in-between. Sound-wise, the majority of the festivals cater to those that are into the kind of music you’d find at Southport Weekender (who are the organisers of Suncebeat), with quality yet not ridiculously famous live acts. The Garden Festival is about as commercial as it gets but is still not really. And then you have the dance music vibes at Stop Making Sense, Suncebeat and Soundwave that encompass the genre right from the hardcore electronic to the jazzy, down-tempo scale of the spectrum.
The location is picturesque, atmosphere unpretentious and yet rammed with musicians and DJs playing what they want. In the name of hedonism, every festival offers boat parties across the Adriatic Sea allowing partiers the opportunity to revel in the glory of the location.
Despite still being classified as ‘boutique’ (due to its size), the steadily growing and loyal fan-base are fast spreading the gospel of Petrčane and sadly enough soon, these festivals will find themselves at the brink of losing what initially made them the vibe to be at. As more dough is being pumped into the area, the once word-of-mouth policy has already morphed into a major marketing push that will no doubt attract the good and the lame. After all, everybody loves the sunshine. I personally give the location a few more years before it becomes the next ‘England with sun, sand, sea and sex’ all over again…
“The Creole Choir of Cuba, referred to as “Desandann” domestically, is composed from the descendants of several waves of Haitian migrants who escaped slavery at the end of the 18th Century or more recently came as labourers to work Cuba’s sugar plantations.
Between 1795 and 1805 30,000 Haitians emigrated to eastern Cuba. Two more waves followed, 1920-1940 and the 1980’s.
Today, estimates of the Haitian population in Cuba range from 300,000 to 1 million. Each wave of emigrants had its own distinct characteristics and brought with them their strong music and dance traditions, religion and cultural habits on their journey from Haiti to Cuba.
Grupo Vocal Desandann preserve the rich cultural patrimony of their parents’ and grandparents’ birthplace through music especially ”La Cancionistica” which has been enriched by elements of other Creole speaking Caribbean countries.
Their repertoire consists of a wide range of choral arrangements with percussion including Choucoune, a Haitian merengue, Gran Toumobile, a Creole Mazurka and Doudou Moin, a Martinique merengue.”
This was the intro the audience were given yesterday before the group came on. Honestly speaking, I tried not to set my hopes too high, preparing myself for a ‘user-friendly,’ cliched and a comfortably ‘ethnic-extravaganza.’
What came next was pure magic. In a language foreign to the entire audience, Desandann communicated a message that went far beyond the literal translation of their set. They told their tales of struggle, hardship and celebration using nothing but pure energy and emotion. Sound-wise, the harmonies were beyond sublime. Although slightly over-choreographed and a touch gimmicky at times, each performance seemed to hold a spiritual truth that connected us as listeners, to their forefathers’ stories and experiences. I would love to say that their execution was disciplined but that would be selling it short; despite the strict military precision at which Desandann progressed from one song to another, each song seemed to evoke spirits that possessed them whilst they delivered their messages. The level of intensity was immense and we were all captivated as they went from sombre goosepimply lamentations to traditional Creole folk and even high-octane tribal chants.
Please forgive my writing if this sounds cheesy, STOMP, this is NOT. In fact, of late, I’ve been quite uninpsired by the live performances I’ve experienced. For the unknown acts I’ve stumbled across – the recurring vibe I feel, is that of the hustle of the group performing, i.e. trying to appeal to the audience they were paid to please and lacking in the energy they once used to fuel their ambitions to reach a greater ideology through sharing these gifts.
“We all gotta eat, right?”
And as for those who’ve already made it, I personally feel as if there’s a plague of laziness, whereby the artist/s know precisely what’s going to happen and when, whilst the audience also know precisely what is going to be delivered and when. Its all value for money, no surprises and all that s**t.
Essentially both cases have the same boring outcome: a certain predictability and a false depiction of the artists’ freedom in live performance.
Desandann on the other hand, achieved the complete opposite by every measure. A ‘palatable,’ ‘riveting’ group unravelling many layers of freedom and truth. What I anticipated to be the ‘Caribbean version of Ladysmith Black Mambazo‘ turned out to possess a much richer core and purer intent.
Wilton’s Music Hall was a perfect setting for the performance with its peeling walls and worn out, yet beautifully embellished interior. Its stripped-down ambience was brought back to life by Desandann as they paid homage to history and time.
I cannot completely vouch for their non-cheesiness as there was a moment where I assume the organiser of the event was light-heartedly dragged out into the front to strut his stuff with one of the female singers. In saying that, it gave the choir a chance to express their gratitude for being provided with such an opportunity.
Desandann are quite familiar to other Caribbean Islanders and have been touring there, in America and Canada for quite some time. During Haiti’s disaster, Desandann were deployed there to maintain morale amongst the citizens, singing in the streets and in aid hospitals. However in Europe, Desandann seem to have soared in popularity only a year or so ago. Tonight, they featured on Jools Holland so hopefully they’ll be able to keep on returning back to teach those that have not yet heard.
As a result of their unexpected British popularity when they came to the UK to perform at WOMAD and the Edinburgh International Festival last year, Desandann recorded an album here in two days. I have not heard it but have since come to learn that they also perform songs in English, hymnals and other easily-likable styles. Thus I am unaware of the album’s content. Everything I have critiqued, relates to this particular live show. I can imagine the potency of Desandann’s message being lost within digital media formats. Who knows? However, in order to support their journey, I will definitely be picking up a copy. Desandann live, is a performance everyone ought to check out, in at least one stage of their life.
You generally know when you’re in the presence of greatness. When I stepped into Adesose Wallace’s NW London abode to find him casually playing a Goje at his kitchen table, I had that familiar feeling of humility that only a learned elder can provoke. For those of you who don’t know who Adesose is, prepare to be amazed. Having roots in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia, Mr Wallace is a West African in the expanded sense of the term. An accomplished artist, singer, percussionist and many other things besides, Ade’s existence has been rich to say the least. I was sent by East London venue Passing Clouds (an organization with whom Adesose shares a close artistic relationship) to interview him and create a biography for their artist roster. When we began to break bread, I realized that I could easily write a series of books charting Ade’s experiences. I’m not a biographer per se, but I do feel its important to record the achievements of our great cultural ambassadors – besides stories about the arts/music scene in 70s Lagos, Covent Garden’s Africa Centre before the Soul II Soul Soundsystem and first hand accounts of the showmanship of Sierra Leone’s Geraldo Pino (African Funk legend and one of Fela’s inspirations) are like drugs to me, I can’t help but listen.
So I thought it’d be nice to drop a post every once in a while and relate a little of our conversation to you. Rather than an overview of Ade’s achievements (which i’ll save for Passing Clouds), think of each post as a snapshot of a time gone by. A window into the sights, sounds and smells which still have relevance today and are ingrained in the very fabric of our artistic culture.
Geraldo Pino was a huge star in the West Africa of the late 60s/early 70s. Hailing from Sierra Leone Pino turned the African popular music scene upside down with his heavy brand of Funk. Here’s what Adesose had to say about Geraldo, his band, his influence on Fela and the club scene in 70s Lagos:
‘I’ve always been a musician but for a long time I didn’t play an instrument, my instrument was my mouth. In school I studied music theory, Brahms, Mozart, Schubert, Handel. I sang in the church choir and travelled from country to country singing gospel. In Sierra Leone [Adesose's place of birth] I wasn’t playing anything professionally, I used to go to gigs and fetes and just hang out. Around that time there was this band called the Heartbeats, Geraldo Pino & The Heartbeats. Geraldo Pino was the biggest musician ever to come out of Sierra Leone. You could call him a megastar. He was known all across Africa as early as 1964. His music was a combination of James Brown and Elvis Presley, and he even dressed like Elvis, with the big collars and the suits. He was a huge guy, a big womaniser and a good singer, he had all the star qualities. It’s only now he’s dead that people are starting to know about him. In Nigeria he is very famous. He’s the man who influenced Fela to make Afrobeat. There would be no Afrobeat music if Pino hadn’t toured there with his band.
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He arrived in Nigeria like a true superstar. He drove a Pontiac convertible and he had a big bus that carried his musicians and his instruments. He travelled from country to country by road, so when he got to Nigeria, he arrived with all of that. Nigerian bands did not have anything close to the quality of equipment he had. Strobe lights, PA system. This guy had all these things in the early 60s. He had things that most Nigerian musicians had never even seen before. He was way ahead of time! Fela came on the scene in 1970. When Pino played in Lagos, that was where it was happening. People flocked to see him – wherever he is, its sold out. He was the godfather of soul in Africa.
So Fela is doing his Jazz thing with Koola Lobitos. He’d come back from England and was doing a mix of Highlife and Jazz. Something made him stop playing that, and that something was Geraldo Pino. Since Pino arrives, he’s the biggest star in the country. He’s playing for the President and the state house, right down to the grass-roots level. He was cleaning-up. That’s what led Fela to change. Fela had just begun to sing about cultural awareness, ‘Black Man’s Cry’ and those kind of songs. Pino arrived in town, confused the whole thing with his James Brown style and Fela got mad. He was like ‘no way is that going to happen in my home country when this guy comes from Sierra Leone – coming to disrupt what i’m just beginning to set up’. So Fela decided to disband his own group. That’s how Fela, Tony Allen, Tunde Williams (he and Fela used to play trumpet. I was there when he learned to play saxophone) and the others moved to Afrobeat. The sound that mixed the African drum rhythms, Jazz and Funk to create a new style. That first band was the Nigeria 70.
Back in Sierra Leone, Geraldo Pino’s house was just up the road from mine so I knew him and the band personally. We grew up together. I used to check out their gigs back home and they knew me as a singer from the choral stuff I was doing.When I came to Lagos in the 60s, my mother had a hotel which had a night-club called the Q Club. I moved in there, and Pino’s group used to come and check me. The Q Club name is originally from London. Africans have been coming to London for a long long time man – my mother is 85 and since she was a little girl she’s been coming to England. Africans know London & England inside out, it’s no mystery to us! Everybody came to the Q Club. It was in the centre of Lagos so a lot of artists used to pass through.
Because I knew Geraldo and his band from Sierra Leone, I went to every gig they played in Lagos. They knew I was a singer and because I’d heard them play so much, I became familiar with a lot of their music. I used to occasionally help out with backing vocals but that was about it. One day, one of their singers walked out. In 70s Lagos, musicians would play on a contract basis. you’d be booked to play a certain venue for like 3 months, and when that 3 months finish, you move to the next place. That means every night, 6 days a week you’re obliged to play. You pick your night-off and the rest of the time you’re working – from 9pm to 6am in the morning! There was also a thing called ’showtime’ which was when the featured artists for the night performed. From 12 midnight to 3am it’s showtime. After that, its over to the band and dance till daybreak. So Francis Fouster [asks me if I know who he is, to which I reply no]. People need to know about Francis Fouster. People need to know about the real people. Right now he plays congas and percussion for Hugh Masekela. He’s been playing with Masekela since 1974. Fouster was the band-leader of the Heartbeats. Pino was the owner of the band, the showman. he could sing and play a bit of guitar. Pino would come for showtime, sing, play guitar and his band would back him. He’d do his show, and then get in his Pontiac and leave! The rest of the night, the Heartbeats would play, and the leader of the Heartbeats was Francis Fouster. He’d play kit drum and sing lead at the same time. When the singer walked out that night, I stepped in and helped Francis because he was struggling man. He was on the kit, singing, and at the same time he had to organise all these other artists – it was a hectic night. From then on I became part of the band.
Eventually, the Heartbeats split from Geraldo Pino. They were touring between Ghana, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast. They got to Accra in Ghana and next thing the band was split. It was kind of Pino’s fault I think. There were times when the band were waiting to get their money, and Pino had just got into his car and drove out of town. Not necessarily that he didn’t want to pay them, he was just doing other things and wasn’t there to authorise the release of funds. Remember, he’s a superstar, a womaniser, after a show he’s leaving with his women and not thinking about his band. When the Heartbeats came back to Lagos, of course they checked me because I’m at the hotel, I could give them rooms, and my mother has a club so they’re thinking maybe something could work.
There was this half Lebanese guy who was very popular in 70s Lagos called Nabir. He was a club DJ. he used to play in a club which is actually still there today called the Phoenicia NIghtclub. It was owned by another Lebanese guy called Mahmoud. It was originally a nightclub but he converted it into a club with a restaurant. We went to Nabir and explained the situation to him. We had a band with all their instruments but no amps bacause they were owned by Pino. We wanted Mahmoud to let us play there and provide the missing amplifiers, supported by Nabir on the turntables. Mahmoud provided the equipment and we started playing.
Of course, we needed a new name. We came up with two. Barof and Baranta. They were both creole or patois if you like for rebel. Baranta sounded nice. Francis liked it so we went with that. So a new band was born from what used to be Geraldo Pino & The Heartbeats. But Geraldo Pino, he never, ever faded…..(to be continued)
I’m starting this by showing a little love to Amelia (she runs tings) over at Put Me On It. She dropped a post about Spec Boogie’s Bed Stuy joint, which is fire by the way, a wee while back. Time being what it is, passed, and when I finally got to doing the research on the SB I was like “rah….man’s got SKILLS”. Lyrically, musically, visually, his vibes are on point. So, now I’m back in the hotseat and writing again , I figured it’d be a good time to link Mr Boogie and shine a light on his artistry….presenting, Spec Boogie:
So who is Spec Boogie?
I’m just a simple dude from Brooklyn NY who loves art, women and hip hop.
Where are you based?
I’m based out of the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. My father was a native and he moved the family here from California when I was 3 years old.
Does your location affect your art?
Brooklyn has influenced my art for as long as I’ve been an artist. I remember when I was 6 or 7 years old a dude was shot and killed on my corner. About a week later I was going to the store for my mom and some writers were painting a mural for him and it was the first time I saw someone other than myself create a piece of art, from start to finish.
Talking of art, word is that you’re a pretty hot graphic designer too. Do you see similarities between your modes of expression? Do they tend to influence/relate to each other?
I’ve trained myself to keep them separate, most of the visual art I do nowadays is commissioned so I try to create to reflect my client’s point of view rather than my own. When it comes to my personal work, yes. I can’t write a song without thinking of the video, the cover, even clothes that match the song, it’s automatic. I really want to create a video for every song on my upcoming album. I don’t know how likely it is of happening, but I have ideas for every one. Either way, as long as I get to be creative, I’m happy.
Just out of curiosity, apart from your own Spec Boogie site, where else can we see your design work?
One recent project that I’m very proud of is the site for the J Dilla Foundation. The team over there was very clear, helpful and knew exactly what they wanted. They were perfect clients. Being that I’m one of the billions of MC’s who have rocked over his beats for mixtapes etc, I’m grateful to be able to say I gave something back. Shout out to Ma Dukes. Other than that a lot of the work I do is very corporate. I’ve been lucky enough to do work for the NBA, Def Jam, Ralph Lauren and many other brands that I grew up admiring.
Your music is delivered via Loosie Music right? Is that your own label? Tell us about Loosie and what it represents…
Yes, Loosie is my baby. My goal is to build it into a creative agency rather than just a record label. The name Loosie is representitve of working class New York, here cigarettes are expensive so if you can’t afford or don’t want to pay for a pack, the corner store will sell you a “Loosie” or a single cigarette. I don’t know how much they are now because I don’t actually smoke cigarettes but growing up they were 25 cents. It’s just something that reminds me of the working class struggle that I try to represent through my music.
While we’re dealing with names, Lessondary is another that is linked with you. What is Lessondary and what should we know about it?
Lessondary is Tanya Morgan (Von Pea, Donwill & Ilyas), Che Grand, Elucid, The Red Giants & Aeon. There are other extended family members but that’s the core. We’re called lessondary because we are all students of the culture. Dope beats, dope rhymes, just dope.
So the Specflix thing. I was on your site recently and was so into what you’ve done that I watched each video from beginning to end in one sitting! What is Specflix? What was the inspiration to begin such a project and how have people responded to it?
Thank you, the response has been great. The inspiration came from wanting to challenge myself. I’m a bit of a movie buff and on previous mixtapes I’d taken Superfly and Do the Right Thing and made mashups so I figured it would be fun to do that for a whole project instead of just one or two songs. The idea to call it Specflix came from my boy Naturel.
Are all the Specflix beats yours? I really like the fact they all feel different.
Not all of them. Some were done by Von Pea, some by me, some are straight from the movie’s soundtrack and some are other people’s beats that happened to have sampled movies I like.
Which Flix is your favourite and why?
That’s a tough one. I think AKIRA might be my favorite becaue It’s the only beat I did on the project that wasn’t a simple 2 or 4 bar loop. I chopped up 3 different songs from the Akira soundtrack to make it but you can’t really tell because the whole soundtrack is drums and chanting. Other than that, I love all of the Von Pea produced tracks. He’s criminally slept on as a producer, one of the best out right now.
Outside of the Specflix series, where else can we hear Spec speak?
As far as projects out now, I am featured on all my Lessondary brothers’ projects. Donwill’s Don Cusack, Che Grand’s Everything’s Good Ugly, Tanya Morgan’s Brooklynati. just look for Lessondary and you’ll find me. I’m on a bunch of outside projects as well this year but none of them have been released yet.
Going deeper, what is important to you as an artist/human being (not that they’re mutually exclusive!)?
Damn son, that’s a tough one, haha. As both an artist and a human being I feel it’s important to be as honest as you can with your audience and with yourself, because when you are you don’t feel the pressure of conforming to outside opinions. It gets tough when money and business get involved but there is a balance, as long as you know what your goals are.
What drives you to create and what do you think the value of art is?
I create because that’s all I know how to do, I was raised by an artist to be an artist. What I love most about art is that it’s value is relative to whoever is experiencing it. As much as I like to be complimented on my work I love it even more when someone tells me something they got from my music that I didn’t even intend, it just shows how malleable art and perception are.
Looking forward, what is on the horizon for Spec Boogie?
Up next is a mixtape I’m putting together with the help of 2dopeboyz.com & okayplayer.com, it doesn’t have a name yet but it has a theme. That’s dropping in May, then the debut album, Introspective on June 1st. After that I may put out another Specflix, and I’m working on a project with Dego of 2000 black/4 Hero that’s going to be a bit of a departure from the traditional boom bap type stuff I usually do.
Who or what would you like to work with in the future?
That’s a loooooong list right there. At the top though is Brent Rollins. He’s a graphic artist who has influenced design as it relates to hip hop or “urban” media more than anyone I can think of. He has this kind of collage style that a lot of people do nowadays without realizing that it started with him. On the music side there’s Madlib, his beats are incredible and he’s a great example of a free artist, he seems to have mastered that art/commerce balance I spoke on earlier. And Buckwild because he’s the shit, crazy underrated.
Plug time. Where can we find your art? Links please!
You can find it all on specboogie.com if it isn’t there now. it will be.
Thanks for sharing Mr Spec Boogie. To continue in the giving spirit, here is a little something from SB to we. Its a Lessondary posse cut that didn’t make it to Spec’s Introspective LP because it didn’t fit the theme. Remember, if you like what you’ve heard/seen then make sure to head over to Spec Boogie’s site where you’ll find the whole Specflix series, links to all the Lessondary artists and much more besides.
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Looking back at the last few years, soul, funk and rare groove have returned to the forefront of the clubbing scene all over again… Walking through your standard non-commercial nightlife district in London, you can pretty much hear Motown classics booming from every other venue. However a genre that has superseded those already mentioned based on the sheer impact it has had in its re-explosion back onto the scene is disco music.
Before I go on further, to avoid confusion, this modern craze will be distinguished from what has always been available. Up until a few years ago, disco was a niche sound appreciated by those who used to club to it the first time around in the 70s/80s. These nostalgic clubbers tend to be older and enjoy sparse nights out only on ‘special occasions’.
There is also nothing groundbreaking about the cheesy medium-sized bed-town clubs that run a “Saturday Night Fever” fancy dress disco party every first Friday of the month.
However, the surge of interest from city hedonists willing to re-explore the sounds of yesteryear has been unfounded to say the least. This audience is young, cool and seeking danceable music that is not too hard on the ear. Not only do there seem to be more DJs around responding to this need but venues alike which may have previously had no connection to any old-school music can now be seen boasting a strictly disco only play-list forcing a change in the way people party.
For a month, I worked in the cloakroom of one of these bars that have transitioned in their music offerings from EDM back to disco and it was from here that I realised the sheer quantity and quality of songs coming from this era. Although at its peak, disco became too popular, a lot of the hits have been carried through time pretty well without been frowned upon. As a reader of this post, I’m sure you could hum a few disco melodies and even if not, I would bet my right arm that you would surely be able to recognise many disco tracks if played to you.
Disco itself stems from an era of discontent, rebellion and creation. In the mid 70s, whilst seeking a new form of expression, a mish-mash of black, latino and gay party animals formed disco together with DJs (such as Larry Levan, Tom Moulton and many more), artists, fashionistas and socialites all based in New York. They wanted to dance… and hard. Rock music wasn’t really rocking it and the earlier soul, R&B movement of the 60s was way too agreeable. The Hippies had failed in their west-coast countryside exploits but these east-coast urbanites adopted their drug culture and sexual promiscuity, exchanged the acoustic guitars for record breaks and electric basslines and made it a whole lot fiercer (check out West End Records or Casablanca for typical sounds). By the mid 80s however, the saturation and commercialisation of disco music resulted in a sharp decline in its popularity. Although general consensus states that July 12, 1979 is the day that disco died when Steve Dahl and his pro-rock, Chicago White Sox posse staged the Disco Demolition Night, in hindsight it is evident that it merely morphed into other forms of music and has since proved itself to be a highly influential catalyst in creating what we now know to be electronic dance music. What is significant about this very brief history lesson is that the evolution in disco music has now somewhat reversed.
The word disco itself has come a long way too. The first time around, it went from referencing a pioneering, post flower-power funky scene to embodying a highly unfashionable, cheesy movement that dribbled into the 90s epitomized by tacky moustaches, hairy chests, medallions and the Bee Gees. Strangely enough however, these days the word has come full circle from its tabooed connotations to once again representing all things genuinely cool. This is seen to the extent that party promoters who may have called themselves raves or club nights are now referring to themselves as ‘discos’ despite the fact that they may be spinning jungle music all night long.
Back to 2010, how has this sound managed to reclaim its former glories of being the music to dance to and what is responsible for the resurgence of disco? I think it’s due to these reasons:
> Its musical makeup. Sound-wise, disco is very easy to dance to due to its melodic yet edgy characteristics. It is the safest compromise between dance, soul and pop music and draws from a number of other conflicting musical styles such as funk, jazz, rock and classical. The basic four-on-the-floor beat, syncopated bass lines and enriched, layered sounds makes disco music very danceable. In composition, very few instruments are spared and it was not uncommon for producers to incorporate orchestral harmonies over reverberated vocals.
> The quality of disco by comparison to contemporary pop music. Whether you are a fan of disco or not, you must admit that it is well made music by comparison to today’s array of chart-toppers. Even from before disco when Motown was bigger than the US government, they comfortably churned out quality sounds that now leave new-age pop music looking rather weak. For example, anyone that listens now to the Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder classic track “I Feel Love” gets the sense of a guilty pleasure but must still admit that by todays’ standards, is something to be very proud of.
> The over-fragmentation and homogeneity of music today. These days there’s an increasing multitude of sub-genres as newer sounds are developed. Individual tastes have become more specific than ever. No longer do people have to endure mainstream techno when in actual fact they prefer minimal tech or tech-house. The side effects of this imply that one may feel alienated if not absolute music snobs or enthusiasts of very niche genres. Conversely, most of popular music has become so washed out and dumb down to a homogeneous blend of crap that it either all sounds the same or of nothing. The fans of this scene can almost be generalised as those that are probably hammered in a student union on ‘2-4-1 Sambuca shots,’ not really caring about the music that comes on and are expected to hear the precise same set list the following week. People should expect and deserve more.
> Aspect of nostalgia. The re-emergence of disco’s analogue, synth-driven sound is unique and distinctive of that era. Nostalgia is the ‘feel-good-factor’ that people experience when dancing to disco. Party people today can escape back into the more adventurous times of the colourful 70s and 80s. Disco also represents the very beginning of dance music (without being neurotic about the issue). Thus musically, this genre represents the oldest reference point of danceable music a non-niche venue can present without loosing their customers.
> Its cheapness. Disco so far is not an expensive affair. Bars, clubs and DJs don’t charge the over-inflated rates people expect to pay these days on a night out. This has helped wean people back into the genre.
> It induces inebriation. Disco although cheap to experience, is a wild money-making sound. Disco requires its young hearts to run free. People want to drink in homage to the era and the feelings the genre encapsulates. This is perfect for club and bar owners.
> The accessibility and inclusivity. Disco is neither threatening nor alienating. Although initially a black style, the big hits opened up the genre to all. Disco is also one of the few genres that doesn’t discriminate those that know from those that don’t; it is to a degree, highly predictable by comparison to jazz for example. Even the more obscure sub-genres such as Italo, Eurodisco, New Wave, Hi-NRG are still not too specialised to not be appreciated by all. The pioneers of the scene cast very long shadows when they integrated all styles into the genre. Most people know more than they realise regarding disco, which means that familiarity and initiation into the scene today is instant. There is very little learning to do for those that do not wish to explore deeper into the genre.
> The variety in the scene. Disco branched off into hip hop, new wave, post punk, electro, house as well as establishing DJ culture, which in turn branched off into many more contemporary genres such as techno. Disco therefore has the capabilities to capture a broad audience coming from its many musical descendants who can all find an aspect of disco that distantly relates to their personal tastes. Here are the three main types of totally divergent disco DJs that have been reawakened by the revival of the scene:
1. “Cool” DJs exercising a shift in taste towards the music that their modern stuff came from. The saturation of electro music presented the need to quickly stray away from their core sound by mixing it with something divergent for differentiation. Examples of this type of DJ are Erol Alkan and his Disco 3000 alter-ego. DFA Records, Horse Meat Disco (aka Jim Stanton) and Disco Bloodbath. They play massive venues and their loyal fanbase will enjoy anything these DJs choose to spin at marked-up prices, if that happens to be electroclash or Italo – so be it. With this category, there tends to be a focus on the more synth-led eurodisco aesthetics.
2. “Original” DJs who have always been renowned within the genre before the niche re-exploded. Frankie Knuckles for example, John Morales, Danny Krivit or Rahaan all from the States. This is probably the most quality you can find when hunting down a real retro set. Hardcore crate diggers who live and breath the stuff. Some of them are lucky enough to have established themselves in the house music scene and still sell out venues like “Little” Louie Vega (MAW). Their fans range from the accidental listeners to the hardcore lovers of the sound. Many of these DJs moved into house music but due to their thorough knowledge of disco will still spin anything from very early disco tracks to the more experimental house sounds.
3. “Wedding” DJs are a tad more difficult to define as they spin everything, yet essentially are not particularly attached to whatever is being played as opposed to the reactions they get from the crowd. They play the same tracks that ‘get the party started’ and rely on their audience’s inebriation to overlook the substandard mixing. Examples of these can be found in generic bars that have adopted the new music policy but are not prepared to pay for serious DJs since their customers probably won’t even notice the difference. Here, people are more likely to hear all the classic danceable disco hits.
Where will disco go from here? To be honest, I haven’t any idea but I do wish it the best of luck. I also believe that disco may prove to have greater stamina this time around despite the danger of ‘wedding’ DJs killing the music again. Luckily for Londoners, contemporary pop music has taken on this role, running the risk of cannibalising itself as it bears the brunt for poor audiences and DJs.
So when next passing a venue in Shoreditch with the sounds of KC and the Sunshine Band blasting out, lets not be too hasty to raise our noses up at what was possibly one of the golden eras in popular music.
Shuanise is on the brink of big things. Having first heard her word way back in March on the low-slung Jazz cut ‘Masudesante Naima’ (courtesy Eglo Records), we at Heads High have been steadily impressed with her sweet yet slanted vocal stylings. Her recently unveiled ‘Voice Of Reason’ E.P. (UpMyAlley Records) is being warmly received by those who know and judging by the strength of her catalogue thus far, we’re in store from some serious blessings in 2010.
The thing you first notice about Shuanise is how nice she is. We played a long game of voicemail Tennis before finally getting to talk and even the rays of sunshine in my mailbox told me that I was in the presence of goodness, and not that fake-it-for-the-cameras kind either. She’s the real deal….
The beginning is a good place to start. Like me, Shuanise spent her formative years North of the Thames border. Unlike me, she had managed to live in Nigeria and the deep south of the U.S. (Texas) before she even got there. Being a Pan-Africanist at heart, I couldn’t help but ask about her Nigerian roots and how they effected her introduction to music:
‘Music has always been around me in some way…I wanted to be like my Grandpa when I was younger so picking up instruments was the natural thing for me to do. My Grandpa was a businessman raising six kids In Ibadun…having music around was important to him. Music always brought out another side of my Grandpa, like he was in another world. He played the talking drums, Udu, and an old Middle Eastern Lute. He changed the way I thought about music. It was no longer just something coming out of the speakers but all around me, made with anything…I learnt a lot from just being back home and that’s where I really started to understand what music was. Things are done in a different way out there and life is different, my heritage has always had a thumb on what I make but more recently it has had an effect on what I make and do more than at any other point.’
Deep. I wanted an expansion though. What’s different about Nigeria?
‘I found Nigeria very different to the U.K. The people, hardships, politics, the lessons. Conditions and surroundings are things that motivate people to play certain music or write a certain song. If you think back to old Africans that were brought to America, it was the surroundings and the conditions that dictated the type of music they made…but no matter what condition one is in, Ibos, Hausas and Yorubas have songs for every situation. They speak through their music. In some situations you can see how much of a life-saver music can be.’
Getting back to the here and now, those vibes have been channelled into heavily Jazz infused Soul explorations. Listen to any one of Shuanise’s cuts and you feel the unmistakeable pulse of Jazz, both in her distinctive vocal delivery, and in the sonic canvas on which she paints.
‘Jazz makes me feel very welcome and at home, ‘Kind of Blue’ was the album that opened me up to discover other Jazz
artists and learn more about the way Jazz is played. It inspired me to try a lot of different structures.
Jazz has been very influential to me….It’s changed the way i think about and make music.’
Luckily, she’s in good company when it comes to experimenting with new forms and structures, Jazz or otherwise. Eglo Records has been her home for the past year or so and their exploratory musical aesthetic has given her the freedom she needs to create. Nestling in amongst the Orchestro-Jazz-Two-Step (a new genre didn’t you know) of Floating Points, the retro futurism of Funkineven 1956 and the astral-plane harmonics of the one Fatima, Shuanise has carved herself a creative niche from which to explore.
‘Eglo is family. They believe in the music they bring to peoples’ attention. They push boundaries and are not afraid to be a little different from the rest. Everyone at Eglo has something different to bring but they still work well as a unit. I like to experiment
with sounds and Eglo are open to it, they support what they like to the fullest.’
I’m a bit old-school. I think its nice when our creativity has a purpose (click here for a deeper explanation). What is it that Shuanise aims to achieve with the beauty she’s creating?
‘…[I want to] make people think about each other more, think about what we do and how it affects others, appreciate our journeys and respect each other and where we live…..’
And where can we expect that beauty to surface next? Eglo is due to drop an EP of Shuanise’s wares. If you can’t wait for that then in the meantime Portformat’s ‘Repeat Factor’ LP features two gems from the lady herself plus guest appearances from Georgia & Dudley amongst others…..heat! Of course, ‘Voice of Reason’ is out right now so click here to cop it.
Ever the team player, Shuanise also asked us to remind you that you can pick up Funkineven and Fatima’s ‘Kleer EP’ now on Eglo…..there, told you she was nice…..we are too so here’s her Masudasante Naima for free – just make sure you support if you like what you hear!
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It’s been while since we spoke in depth. Apologies for the hiatus. Time will show where time was spent. I’ve been busy collating some pieces for the site, some pieces for friends and getting our monthly sessions back up & running. Thankfully, Lola has been holding it down in the meantime despite her own hyper-hectic schedule. Props to her for keeping the flow…
Alright, I was rappin’ with my man Jocko last night and all he could talk about was rhythm. With any African diaspora music, you cannot isolate the rhythm. The rhythm is always linked and the rhythm is always moving. Back to Jocko, as he was talking, I had a realisation. I love the rhythm. The rhythm is the foundation for nearly all music I hold close. My recent delve into the cross-pollination of the rhythm in the Caribbean (click here for the first evidence of this) made me realise just how little I knew about the traditions that underpin our musical expressions. Journalists love to squeeze tags like ‘Afro-inspired, Tribalistic and Tropical’ into their descriptions of contemporary musical movements, but what do those things really mean? I can honestly say that digging the traditions of the French Antilles, and meeting some amazing personalities in doing so has changed how I perceive music. Forever.
‘Traditional music has another aim than to entertain. Traditional music is the past, it is the present it is the future. Eternal music. Popular music aims solely to entertain but with the traditional, entertainment is but one of many aims.”
That’s my friend and colleague Suga Kan’n’s word. When he’s not making organic ice cream, he travels the African continent absorbing it’s traditional rhythms, dance and song. He also happens to have roots in Martinique. Linking with him provided me with an introduction into the Gwo-Ka I share with you today.
Both the name of a family of drums and the music they create, Gwo-Ka runs deep. Most often used as a platform for social commentary and inextricably linked with Africa, her culture and the idea of ancestral lineage, the Ka is heavy. Before I continue, check this out to feel the real…
The big drums the brothers are holding the foundation rhythm on are Bouladrums. You’ll find these type of drums or similar across the Caribbean. Again, the link… The soloist is playing something called a Kake drum. His job is to follow the moves of the dancer who is constantly trying to outsmart him with their steps. Traditionally, only one dancer holds the floor at any-time….pressure if your movement’s not fluid!
There are seven main rhythms in the Gwo Ka family each having dozens of variations. The tradition has been on Guadeloupe since the first slave ships docked. Some say the rhythms come from the Kongo (an idea I like) others say they developed with Guadeloupe’s slave communities. Either way, there’s a depth to the Ka you can’t ignore.
Alongside Velo, the official king of Ka (whose statue can now be found on la rue Saint John Perse, Point A Pitre). The work of Gwo Ka musicians like Germain Calixte, Ti Celeste and Carnot deserve a place on the world stage.
Recognition is a sore point when it comes to Gwo Ka. For reasons which I explore in an upcoming SHOOK feature, the style never made a strong impact on the collective consciousness outside of the islands and their ex-pat communities. There are a few heads who have bridged the gap and taken the Ka somewhere other – mostly somewhere Jazz. Again, hold tight for the SHOOK piece. You’ll have all the info you need, past and present….
When something touches you its good to share it. It cleanses the soul. My soul feels a little cleaner now. I hope this all means something to you. If it does, be sure to stay tuned for the fullness and for more rhythm talk…
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Pic: Adam Shelton
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