06/11/2012

MUSIC CITY presents

TONIGHT!!!
6 Nov. 2012, 20:00
The Student, Rue des Palais 76, 1000 Brussels


INDIAS INDIOS (Santiago de Chile)

REVEREND TOM 33 (Santiago de Chile)

BUFFLE (Bruxelles)

DJ QUINQUIN (Arlon)

DJ BONZAI TARZAN (Quito)

+ Pre-release of a new Music City tape: 
DJ NUSMONAUT: Soviet Ass Buzzers (C60, artwork by Leon Sadler)

Pay what you want OR pay 6 euros and you'll get our brand new tape!
Tram 92, 94, 25, 55
Van harte welkom!
FB link

31/10/2012

Chez Gina... Tonight!


There's a free party going on tonight at L'Astral II / Chez Gina (Brussels) starting around 10PM. Seb from Dutch / Belgian collective Rebel Up will play first. I should start DJing around midnight or something. L'Astral II is located Mechelenstraat / Rue de Malines 32, 1000 Brussels. Hope to see you there.

27/09/2012

Sankai?





Recently posted by Emir Adamo Ekula on Youtube: this stupidly funny audio fragment of a talk by Pasteur Jonas, a Congolese priest condemning soukous music (among others) and insulting the memory of Pepe Kalle; followed by the subsequent reaction of Adamo Ekula.

05/08/2012

L'Ecossais de Côte d'Ivoire!

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche from Die Pachanguero Wissenschaft (1882).


11/07/2012

Lofombo's masterplan

Bob W. White on Empire Bakuba's bass player / arranger Godessy Lofombo back in 1996:



Bob W. White, Rumba Rules. The Politics of Dance Music in Mobutu’s Zaire, Duke University Press, Durham, 2008, p. 134.

06/07/2012

Girlseeker Danish Interview

For our Danish speaking followers, here is a fresh interview of Copenhagen sensation Girlseeker right after their performance at the Roskilde Festival two days ago. This interview was conducted for the Lappland blog. If you haven't got your copy of Girlseeker LP yet (coreleased by like 10 labels), please consider waiting for the Music City version of it - which will come with a special insert. To be released in August together with 5 new tapes. Music City... always the last!

05/07/2012

Youthman Promotion VS Black Star 1986


VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO. VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO. WINDSURF BABYLON PRAY. PUT ON YOUR BEST DRESS. PUSH THE IRON GATE. BIG BRICKS. BLUE LEATHER JACKET. LOVE YOUR PASTEL COLOR SKIRT. SHAKE THE DIGIBOX. LIKE A SIREN COMING OUT OF THE SEA. GREEN FOREST LUXURIANT TREES MORPHING INTO SWEET PURPLE VIDEO SURFACE. 'TCH OUT. DANCING ON THE WAVE. THE SHAPE OF THOSE HOLES IN THE WALL BEHIND YOU BABY. THE GEOMETRY OF THOSE FIGURES. LOST IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE WHITE PAINTED FENCE. EYE.GRADIENT BLUE. PEOPLE DANCING TOGETHER. TRAXI TO PARTY. JUST CRUISING MUSIC CITY. LIKE ON THIS PICTURE, HANGING ON THE WALL. ROUND GLASSES. METAL ECHO. MIXING DESK. RED AND BLUE DIAGONALS. T-SHIRT SAYS: CITY LIMITS. YELLOW, LIGHT GREEN. ROLL THE DICE. HIT THE BEAT. BÉBÉ ÉLÉGANCE. SOUNDS WARPED. PLAY IT TO NORMAL MAXIMUM SATURATED VOLUME. SOMEBODY RIP IT DOWNLOAD THIS BEFORE IT'S GONE!

RED HILLS ROAD, KINGSTON, JAMAICA, 1986. YOUTHMAN PROMOTION SOUND (Selector: Major Stich. Mixer: Tulusie Pleasure Minott. Artists: Daddy Freddy, Tony Rebel, Daddy Shark, Dona P, Puddy Roots, Blacka T, Patrick Irie, Little Rohan, Colorman, Daddy Ants, Jim Brown, Neville Valentine) VS BLACK SCORPIO (Selector: Tony Roots. Artists: Bruck Back,Tiger Ranking, Earl Cunnugham, Mikey Melody, Junior Briggy, Hopeton Lindo).

02/07/2012

Joda, Malandreo y Lacreo (y tres) - Hip hop and hokum hop from Venezuela

Third and last episode of our friend Ernesto González's (aka Bear bones, Lay low) selection of Venezuelan hip hop videos

My fellow venezuelan immigrant and doppelganger brother, Eduardo, showed me these dudes not long ago.Real good and raw MC's coming from the llanos (rural plains around the center of the country)rapping about how life is much better in the countryside and how they're better than most MC's in the city. Pretty refreshing.


These dudes, or at least one of them, is from my hometown, San Antonio de los Altos, which hasa pretty cool hip hop and graffiti scene going on. Their mixtape "Desde Lejos" is full of greatbeats, using all sorts of samples from old records. It's cool hip hop on the more conscious andsuburban side that doesn't use a fucking piano sound on every track and whose lyrics aren't always about how dark their thoughts are and how shitty they feel, a theme that's present in 99% of this type of hip hop. Also worth checking out their other projects, like The Duoand Guccisolo.


The second half of GCK, El Prieto (used to be called Colombia) now wants to make a more modern soundinghip hop and when he isn't talking about the harsh realities of the ghetto and all that shit, he rapsabout, yessir, partying and women. This song is about the hot women living in our country (see photo).


Two dudes spreading good vibes in the metro, freestyling about the passengers, their looks and shit.I wonder if they're still doing this.


29/06/2012

Eddie Koko is illegal

I read recently that the legendary African freedon fighter Thomas Sankara was also an amazing guitarist. I really wanted it to be true, but probably this is an urban legend. Imagine that one of the most lucid minds of the African struggle against colonialism played like Doctor Nico in his spare time. Sadly, I could not find any information (no mention in any discography, label catalog, nothing). It is also true that there is very little about the recent music of Burkina Faso. But I did make a cool discovery...

This couple of great songs come from a youtube channel owned by a Nigerian (???) artist named Eddie Koko. His songs are often about African politics and history. Eddie is a gifted story teller as we love it here in this city.

If you do not know Sankara this is certainly a great place to begin with:


25/06/2012

Joda, Malandreo y Lacreo (dos) - Hip hop and Hokum hop from Venezuela

Here comes the second episode in our series focusing on Venezuelan hip hop curated by Ernesto Gonzalez aka Bear Bones Lay Low. More to come. Stay tuned.

Apache is a great lyricist and has been in the game for a long time. Here you see him walking around his barrio (hood) spitting about how fucked up our country is in 2010.


Ardilla was a well known underground MC around Caracas and he used to have feuds with Rekeson from GCK. He was killed not so long ago during a shoot out with the cops, I think.



Pure thug shit from Caracas. I like Yastrenky's rawness and low budget videos. Check out his 7 minute mini-movie he did for his song "Malandreo en Pobreza".


22/06/2012

Joda, Malandreo y Lacreo (uno) - Hip hop and hokum hop from Venezuela

Presented by the telonero Ernesto Gonzalez (Bear Bones Lay Low):

Venezuela has several hip hop communities spread out throughout the whole country, the most documented being the one in Caracas. Here are 10 songs (+ a bonus video) {presented in three episodes, a true Music City Summer saga!} that I dig and that could appeal to the slums and suburbs of the Music City. Take out some brown rum, pour it in a cup with a lot of ice, top it off with some coke and lemon and chill out like we do in Venezuela.


I remember my big sister Dalia once brought this tape home when I was in 4th grade and we started dancing to this in our living room. Our dad stopped the whole thing as soon as he heard the lyrics "Vine a matar, vine vine a cantar" (I came to kill, I came to sing). I felt so ashamed that I ran to my room and decided never to listen to gangsta shit ever again...


One of the sleaziest hit groups during the 90's in Venezuela, with lyrics like "women want chorizo" and "Gonna fill your cube with milk". We have dirty minds in Venezuela. I never dug these guys back in the days. Too filthy.


This is the first venezuelan hip hop group I got into when I moved to Belgium around 2003/4. They're probably one of the most well-known hip hop artists in the country and this is one of my favorite tracks by them. GCK broke up not long ago over some bullshit and there are several videos and diss tracks on the internet covering the subject.


1/2 of GCK, this is by far my favorite track by this dude. The lyrics are about how corrupt cops are in Venezuela, saying that they are basically malandros (thugs) in uniform. True talk over achill beat.

19/06/2012

Jesui Yumbo "El internacional" and the missing peoples


This is the second series of Amazonian Kichwa music from Ecuador. As the great master Mishki Chuyumbo, his nephew Jesui Yumbo comes from Archidona in the Napo province and is gifted with an undeniable songwriting talent for catchy and dreamy songs that justify his nickname “El Internacional”. You may recognize Jesui Yumbo's songs as the unparalleled dancefloor hits of Dj Bonzai Tarzan's sets. They also feature in his therapeutic effort “Remède Radical” released by Music City last year.

Grab this and dance!


Tracklist:

Antisuyu
 Wivaskuna
Killi Ñusta
Fonakin Ñusta
Jandia Ñusta
Jatun Raimi
 Maria Soledad
Antisuyu Mama
Pawshiyaku
Rukuyaya
Suyu Pakcha
Shamuy


11/05/2012

Emoro

A few people keep on asking me about the jumping dwarf they have seen in Pepe Kalle's videos. His name was Emoro and together with Pepe they formed a visually striking duo headlining most of Empire Bakuba performances and record covers. Here are a few videos celebrating the style and acrobatics of Emoro and his lady Jolie Bébé.







09/05/2012

DJ Bonzai Tarzan tape review



A certain S.B. wrote this nice review of DJ Bonzai Tarzan's Un remède radical published in Gonzo Circus a few weeks ago:

"[...] Over DJ Bonzai Tarzan is niet veel bekend behalve dat hij twintig jaar werkte als suppoost in het Doctor Evariste Ossip Natural History Museum in niemandsland en nu zijn tijd doorbrengt in de Tropical Bonzai Forest afdeling waar hij een kolonie lilliputachtige aapjes voedt met allerlei fruit en noten. Aan levendige verbeelding geen gebrek dus en we laten de mixtape haar zegje doen met twee kantjes van wereldmuziekpareltjes uit de oude en nieuwe doos. Op kant A gaat het van dubby roots sferen tot kitscherige Latino synths en Afrikaanse swingfolk. Vervelen doet deze eclectische mix allerminst. Enkele bekende Jamaicaanse roots artiesten zult u wellicht kennen in al uw wijsheid, maar wat gedacht van de zwoele Afro-swing van ene Donald uit Malawi? Kant B begint in onbestemde Indiase sferen en slaat via een Afro-Italiaanse binnenweg langzaam terug naar het Afrika van voor de jaren 1970 met tussenstops in Mozambique, Ghana en Oeganda voor wat mooie sepia folk en eindigend in Franstalige kitsch. Ideale gemoedsmuziek voor een roadtrip of tijdens huiselijke klusjes tegen de prijs van een trappist. Het speelse hoesontwerp komt overigens van de Duitse Hannah Friese."

08/05/2012

"Another Night in The Mirror Room": May 15, 2012

Music City presents
"Another Night in The Mirror Room"
A two-level celebration with



SEA URCHIN (Italy/Egypt)
HUUR IS DUUR (Belgium)
HUMUS (Belgium)
DJ HUNTIN SETELI (Finland)
DJ BONZAI TARZAN (Ecuador)

On the 15th of May, 2012 at 8 PM
at The Student, Rue des Palais 76, 1000 Brussels


SEA URCHIN
Francesco Cavaliere and Leila Hassan work with the primal forms of sound and light. Using raw materials and textile surfaces, they transform multiples rays of light into a projection that changes shape - organically and constantly. Sea Urchin is a vehicle of investigation that furthers their aim to explore a mirage of forms as a bridge to an unreachable cosmos, or equally an unexplored seabed.

HUUR IS DUUR
Acoustic improvisational delicacies by Wietske Van Gils (Zim Zim Zim) and Christophe Piette (ROT, Gangalai & Gourabai). A recreation of nature itself.

HUMUS
A multi-layered substratum, an organic sound matter shining under a full moon sky. Here music, like some appetizing ground digested by enthusiastic worms, reveals the very nature of compost: a gift from the earth.

DJ HUNTIN SETELI
Coming from the North and endlessly discovering the City, this neo-bohemian curly head will be sharing his visions with you, right in his favorite bar.

DJ BONZAI TARZAN
Needs no introduction. Straight from the South American jungle, The Student sweetest resident DJ.

Feel welcome!
More information

5 EUR
Tram 92, 94, 25, 55

23/02/2012

Feb 25: Cotopaxi / Humus / DJ Bonzai Tarzan / DJ Paratonnerre

Music City presents

THIS SATURDAY FEB 25, 8PM
at The Student
Rue des Palais 76, 1000 Brussel



COTOPAXI
HUMUS
DJ BONZAI TARZAN
DJ PARATONNERRE
DJ COSMO KNEX

COTOPAXI
Cotopaxi is the playful project of Johann (aka Fyoelk) and Hannah (aka Moemlien). Both schooled at a young age to be free with sound they manage to create interesting compositions almost out of thin air, with great sensitivity for dynamics and balance. Their approach is warm and positive resulting in a 'good times' feel that will leave a smile in the hearts of the listener, so in their own way they are making the world a better place.

HUMUS
A multi-layered substratum, an organic sound matter shining under a full moon sky. Here music, like some appetizing ground digested by enthusiastic worms, reveals the very nature of compost: a gift from the earth.

DJ BONZAI TARZAN
Bonzai Tarzan has worked as a guardian at Doctor Evariste Ossip Natural History Museum for over twenty years. He usually spends his days at the Tropical Bonzai Forest section nourishing the colony of Liliputean monkeys that live happily amidst the lush foliage.

DJ PARATONNERRE
Bric & broc, playas, warmth, collages, breaks, clumsiness, gratitude.

DJ COSMO KNEX
Triple feet fast dancing.

Fuming videonarrative by SMOKESCREEN SELECTOR.

Special gift print by ZULLY ADLER.

20/02/2012

DJ Bongo Man: Choc Thermique (MP3 version)



Here's the digi-version of a now sold out tape.

The present Bongo mix focuses on the 1985-1992 sound, compiling tracks from Togo to Congo all displaying a peculiar interest for the use of electronic gear, following a retro forward thinking approach. Topics approached in these songs are: love, fun, faith and the missing homeland. File under: computerized soukous, shangaan jive, kwasa kwasa, digi dancehall. Released on the occasion of DJ Bongo Man Suomi tour, November 2011. I would like to dedicate this tape to all my Finnish friends in Tampere, Jyväskylä and Helsinki: may this one help you fuel the coming Winter with light and positive energy.

03/02/2012

James Ferraro: Rapture Adrenaline DVD

Now also available on DVD!



JAMES FERRARO: Rapture Adrenaline
DVD / VHS / 15 EUR
Coproduced by Music City and Hundebiss Visions


DVD /
15 EUR / All regions / 94 min / Includes a special bonus interview: "Welcome to Candyland"

VHS / 15 EUR / Last available tapes of an edition of 150 numbered copies
/ 94 min / Please note! This is a VHS PAL format videotape. It will play on most of VHS players in Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Western Europe. The following countries and areas are normally included in a PAL region release

RAPTURE ADRENALINE is a 94 min epic science-action movie from 2009.

STORYLINE

Set in a crime-ridden Rochester, New York in the near future, RAPTURE ADRENALINE centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg. The main plot of the movie revolves around a "Bug" (code word for a member of an alien species that is similar in many ways to a very large cockroach) searching for a miniature galaxy which is also a vast energy source. "Acid Eagle" is the president of Hell-TV (Channel 83, Cable 12), a sleazy television station specializing in sensationalistic programming. Displeased with his station's current lineup (which mostly consists of softcore pornography), Professor Pizza is on a seemingly endless quest for something that isn't so "soft" and will "break through" to a new audience. The rescue turns out to be a fake; the two climbers are taken prisoner by a group of ruthless thieves. The driver is now a hostage trapped by his own seatbelt. However, the robot becomes smarter and more dangerous as it plays putting the boy and his friends in mortal danger. In addition to being an action film, the movie includes larger themes regarding the media, resurrection, gentrification, corruption, and human nature.

REVIEW

RAPTURE ADRENALINE is a virtual videogame car chase through the veins of hyperreality seen through fragments of US movies – mostly produced in the 1990s and diffracted by the euro-lens of Dutch subtitling and French dubbing. To achieve optimal melting these fragments have been transferred from tapes, DVDs and computer files to VHS.

Hollywood is here mirrored, xeroxed, enlarged, cropped and disfigured in order to burn a passage to the next dimension – one defined by cars, weapons, heroes, planes, corpses, space/time machines, virtual reality gods, babies, aliens, animals, dinosaurs... all piled up till reaching new, transcended levels in speed, power, tension, evolution, hi-tech, destruction, sense of space and fear of death… ultimately conveying adrenaline through fear – until you reach meditation point: blue screen. Blue screen is a concept used in computer science to define a state of technological crash, the burn out of the machine, overstimulated by too many demanding applications. The blue screen of death is caused by a fatal system error and is the error screen displayed by the operating system upon encountering a critical error, of a non-recoverable nature, that causes the system to crash.

RAPTURE ADRENALINE is an educational mixtape program, a cyber marine combat training video designed through primitive editing techniques – rough in terms of means yet subtle in their development, displaying a remarkable sense of composition and dynamics plus a peculiar attention to shapes and textures. Operating mythological transformations of popular movie iconography, it reaches the merging point of the magical and the political.

– Fabrizio Terranova & Xavier García Bardón, Chinotto Beach

Orders: lanouvellecite@gmail.com

11/01/2012

Sweet Bee Misbehaves

Long time ago the dream of finding a city made of gold beneath an Ecuadorian Amazon rain forest became the realm of literary and cinematic fantasy. Nowadays, the bearded conquistadores have been replaced by oil company workers, farmers and tourists looking for a cheap shortcut to narcotic nirvana. The remaining original inhabitants of these territories try to adapt their lives to the changing conditions of poverty, pollution and colonisation. Television sets and radios meddle in the sonic landscape of wild life and the rich chorus of indigenous languages, while keepers of the ancient tradition and songs rebel wondering why boxes without heads and feet can be preferred to their fiddles, flutes and drums. Musicians like the 60 year old Mishki Chullumbo (kichwa for “Sweet Bee”), who goes also with the official name Carlos Alvarado, as the authorities refused to register his kichwa name back in the 1950's, decided to revive their traditional tunes and put together their first band: Los Yumbos Chawamangos. The chawamango is a bird capable of mimicking many sounds, much like the famous lyre bird, and Yumbo is the rhythm that is played in the ecuadorian amazon. According to Mishki, the drum patterns recall the beat the shaman hears when he communicates with the spirits.

I had the opportunity to attend a fascinating lecture by Mishki, organized by the Sisterhood of Music and Dance Appreciation Guandul in Quito. The Sweet Bee of kichwa music spoke about his song, poetry and projects. He told us how his instruments were built, how his sacred dresses were sewn and how he would wake up his wife early in the morning playing the pingullo flute:


I do not know if Mishki Chullumbo and the Yumbos Chawamangos released a lot of records but the one that we share here is a very special one. It is not the usual ethnographic work where a scholar/producer deals with the mixing, playlist, arrangements, etc. It is as free and independent as any Saturn or ESP album you could think of. After sixteen years of intense musical activity, Mishki crafted a songbook both raw and delicate, a visionary statement about his struggling culture and himself. As the best songwriters, Mishki reappropiates the stories of his elders, revives their rich mythology (where jungle devils sometimes kidnap children to teach them how to play music). No wonder, he sees his music as a work of magic resuscitation.


At the end of his lecture he wondered how powerful his songwriting magic would be if his people went back to the jungle and learnt again how to hunt, fish and live in the wild. He even thought of proposing the governement to assign a territory where this voluntary isolation could take place... and “then we would leave our radios, jeans, sport shoes and even our instruments at the forest's gates and start again... Wait no, not the instruments!”

05/01/2012

Creole Sega



Creole Sega - With Love from Seychelles - Souvenir (tape)

Many of you friends have been asking me about track # 7 on the Brocoli/Bongo mixtape: "Letemp lontemp" by Creole Sega - a true jewel indeed. Upon general request, here is the full tape that track was taken from. It's hard to tell what this mysterious thing really is (and the internet doesn't help here at all) except that the music genre featured on this cassette is called Sega from the Seychelles Islands... Is this a homemade compilation? It might be, according to the scratches that can be heard on some tracks. But from the weird balance between instruments I would just bet on a demo tape. At its best, this is pure melancholy, featuring freestyle organ solos, untuned guitar playing and sad metaphorical lyrics. I got this wonderful cassette as a birthday present from my dear friend DJ Pietcheval who found it on a flea market.