That’s the new sound which is already breaking the neck of the headbangers.
A mix of hip-hop, favela funk, electronic sounds, and African beats. It´s called Kuduro (hard ass) and comes from Angola. Also it’s got a special break dance mixed with African aboriginal dancing.
The band it’s called Buraka Som Sistema and they’re from Portugal, Angola, Brazil and the UK.
Pay attention to it. “This is for the people of the sun, and it’s comming back again.”
Though violent protests in Greece are almost over, students are still showing their anger through other means.
Yesterday they interrupted the news bulletin in TV to send a message and to denounce publicly Alexander’s Grigoropoulos death.
Also they have put a banner in Athens Acropolis signalling a worldwide demonstration for tomorrow.
The banner in the Athens Acropolis
It seems that civil protests are starting now to have more importance rather than violent acts.
It’s not only the death of a youth in a policeman hands what have taken all these problems out at that time. Also there’s the right of the people to demonstrate, and the necessity of breathing and feeling free in a oppressive world.
REBEL MUSIC
Let’s remember the always-healing Bob Marley’s words:
“Why can’t we roam this open country?
Oh, why can’t we be what we wanna be?
We want to be free.”
If you’re reading that, I’ll meet you tomorrow at 3 o’clock, at the roadblock, with the forces of victory.
And, again, like Bob says, if the policeman asks you for it… “Hey, Mr. Cop! Ain’t got no birth certificate on me now.”
Posted in International
Tagged alexander grigoropoulos, bob marley, greece, reggae, riots, terrorism of state, violence
Today the jury of the De Menezes case have decided not to allow the two firearm officers to carry weapons anymore.
Although they are not going to jail for murderer, if they come back to frontline duties, they’ll never be allowed to have a gun with them.
A little bit of justice, but maybe not enough.
Posted in International
Tagged jean charles de menezes, police brutality, terrorism of state, violence
Last press conference of US President George W. Bush in Bagdad, Iraq, has been unusually interrupted by a Iraqi journalist.
The journalist has thrown both of his shoes to Bush while he shouted: “Get your goodbye kiss, you dog!” Calling someone ‘dog’ is seen a really bad insult in the Arabic world.
Bush was talking to the journalists behind Nuri al Maliki, Iraq’s Prime Minister when everything happened.
The aggressor, a TV reporter stand up suddenly during the conference and thrown one of his shoe towards President Bush, who avoided the impact with a fast dodge.
Immediately after, the reporter has thrown the second shoe, which also hasn’t impacted against any of the politicians.
Mr Bush has smiled quickly and has explained that he never felt threatened at anytime. He also said that the incident hasn’t bothered him.
Other Iraqi journalists and colleagues of the shoe thrower have said sorry in name of his partner.
Bush is in Iraq doing his last official visit, as in January will be replaced by President-Elect Barack Obama.
THE QUESTIONS THAT EVERYBODY ARE ASKING TO THEMSELVES RIGHT NOW
Will now President Bush include in the evil list and bomb the shoes factories?
Will the brand of the shoes increase their sales in the Arabic world?
It seems that Iraq is not going to be a place to go on holidays for Mr Bush. The shoes, the plastic turkey…oh! …almost forgot! And a war with hundreds of thousands deaths.
Today Scotland Yard have said that the two firearms officers who shot to death Jean Charles de Menezes will return to frontline duties. Even though an inquest jury fundamentally rejected their account of the shooting and criticised almost every aspect of the police operation.
It is definitely unacceptable for the European and worldwide society that Scotland Yard readmit this two officers. They’re dangerous for the population. They assassinated one innocent man and they have to pay for it.
We are living in a Police State (Dead Prez videoclip)
Posted in International
Tagged jean charles de menezes, police brutality, terrorism of state, violence
The killing of a 15 year-old student in Greece by a policeman has raised important question marks in a debate where violence and authorities are on the centre of the topic.
It’s been now almost a week since Alexander Grigoropoulos died and the riots haven’t stopped so far.
In addition, a general strike was happened yesterday to protest against the government economic policies. More violent acts were produced all around the nation while the strike specially disrupted the transport and the public sector.
It is becoming common to see broken glass in the ground of every street, burned cars, roadblocks, ruined shops and other blueprints of people’s rage. In cities like Athens, Salonica, Rhodes or Patras violent demonstrations have immersed Greece in a chaos.
A YOUNG DEAD
Despite the ballistics tests have not yet been published, policemen defence lawyer says a ricochet killed the youth.
Police officer Epaminondas Korkoneas, 37, was charged with murder and police officer Vassilios Saraliotis, 31, was charged as an accomplice. The Athens court ordered both men to be held in jail pending their trial. No date for the trial was set.
However, the fact is that a teenager was killed and the bullet came from a policeman weapon. A weapon of the State.
The debate has open important questions again. Should police officers carry lethal weapons such pistols or machine guns?
THE RIGHT TO USE VIOLENCE
Some may say that the right to use the violence shouldn’t be monopoly of the State. And that’s why some violent groups of citizens demonstrate on the streets. That’s why they show their anger. They reclaim the streets and the right to use violence as self-defense when the State uses it against them.
Rioters use paving stones, petrol bombs and other handmade weapons. Police are armed with several lethal weapons and they carry shields, helmets and other padding protection.
Violence is a negative aspect of the human being, but reality is that it is in our nature. Considering that, we should learn about how to use it in a proper way rather than fighting until the strongest survives.
Confrontation in the streets doesn’t solve anything, and the worst of it is that it’s never going to take Alexander back to life.
A SOLUTION…?
In any case, people’s outrage is justified. It’s understandable that some citizens and groups or associations manifest violently their feelings against the State and the police.
If police is there to protect the citizens, who is going to protect them when police abuses of them, or when shooting a 15 year-old student, or when facing them in a demonstration?
Perhaps it’s too complicated to answer, but one thing is for sure; as long as police abuses exist, riots will exist as a response.
As long as human being exist, violence will exist. And State authorities can’t be the exclusive controllers of violence, because otherwise situations like Greek will happen again.
It happened something similar in France a few years ago, and if things continue in the same way, it could happen again anywhere. There’s a big problem to solve. Some say it’s the system and maybe they’re right.
Posted in International
Tagged alexander grigoropoulos, greece, police brutality, riots, terrorism of state, violence
The feeling
I need to go back to Donosti, August the 16th 2007, to start to talk about how my feature with Fermin Muguruza became reality.
The above date it’s the day when the Fermin Muguruza Afro-Basque Fire Brigade finished their world tour. After the last concert, the band and other friends were celebrating a successful tour that took the 14 musicians through all around the world, from America to Asia. I met them because of my friendship with Fermin and other members of the Basque crew.
So, the night was good; I was talking to Fermin, and joking I told him that he should include some beatbox on his next album, and that I was the right man for that. More jokes, more beer, and fun till late night. Afterwards I completely forgot about what I said about my beatbox, but apparently, he did not.
FM Afro-Basque Fire Brigade
On January 2008 I received an e-mail literally saying:
“Whatz up, Javi?
Soon I’ll send you some audio tracks so you can get ready to do some beatbox.
Big hug: Fermin”
After reading it I was like… ‘Wow!! This is ain’t joke, man. This is going serious. Pheeeew! That can be the coolest thing of my life. Let’s work hard on it.’
I was patient and I didn’t told anybody anything about it. And I waited until February to contact Fermin again to know what was it all about. He did send me some instrumental stuff to start to work with, and we decided to meet in May in Irun, the city where he was born and where he lives.
TIME TO RECORD
So, the time passed faster than expected and the day to catch an Easy-Jet from Bristol to Biarritz arrived. Yeah, I was nervous, but also feeling confident with myself.
Mr Muguruza is an important figure that could impress someone that hasn’t met him before. But I knew Fermin personally for more than three years, and I must say that our relationship has always been very easy-going. I’d say it’s just natural.
He came with his wife, son and daughter to pick me up at the airport, and even though I knew all of them, I must say at the beginning I was quite embarrassed. But cool.
We took a walk through the seafront and everything was much better. Biarritz is a beautiful place and makes you feel easy.
Afterwards we went to Irun (it was my third time in the city) and they showed me some amazing views of the city from a mountain on the back of the city so we could see the sea and the frontier between France and Spain.
Then we spend the evening catching up, having a beer and he told me the work planning of the two coming days. It was going to be a non-stop, but I was happy and full of energy.
At night we went to see Jotamayúscula, as he was playing in town with his hip-hop crew. It was a funny show. Then we met some other musicians coming from Madrid and we went for a kebab.
SOME PICS OF THE TRIP
1ST DAY
The day after we woke up early and after having breakfast we went to Azkarate, a small village in Navarra where Angel Katarain, Fermin’s personal sound engineer, has got his studio.
The place is amazing. In the top of a mountain, there’s full of massive family houses (called Caseríos) and a church. The place is one of the houses that have been reconverted into a professional sound studio.
In our way from Irun to Azkarate, I had a good conversation with Fermin; talked about politics, music, personal stuff… It was a good one. Don’t know why, but I feel comfortable to speak out my mind in a car. I open myself and I start to talk.
Then, after a quick rehearse in the studio, the musicians started to play and record. First they did the guitar, then the bass, keyboards, voice and finally, the beatbox. I did some drum and bass phat beats and the musicians add some rock sounds on it. Also I did work with keyboarder by suggesting her which kind of sound would better fit with the song.
It was a long day’s work, so at night and after dinner we could relax and have a nice conversation with some beers, all the musicians together.
2ND DAY
The day after we said goodbye to the Madrid crew, and then Fermin and me started to work side by side on different rhythms, organic scratchings and other sounds made by myself.
At launch time we met Rossy de Palma, who was coming for a feature in the album. We went to a really nice restaurant were they mix nouvel cuisine and basque traditional food. The food was impressively good and we had nicer conversations as well.
We spend the early evening working hard: while Rossy was recording her stuff, I was concentrated writing my rhymes for the song that gives name to the album; Asthmatic Lion.
I tried to compile some key words or sentences in the past career of Fermin and add it to my rhymes, but at the same time I tried to make it as personal as possible. Leave my blueprint and style.
I did a mistake the first time I tried to record it, but at my second chance all of us were happy with the final result: a quick rap, but full of vitality and positivism, as the album is.
Then we took Rossy back to the airport and afterwards Fermin and me went back to Irun. We only had a salad for dinner, watched some TV, talked about hip-hop origins (Fermin was going to be interviewed the day after about it) and went to bed.
SOMETHING EXTRA
Surprisingly, when doing the interview with Fermin, the ETB journalists asked me to do something in front of camera talking about the relationship of literature (poetry) and hip-hop. I did my thing and the result can be seen here by clicking the fifth video called “Rapa 2008.”
It was over. Two days of great time with some awesome people. I flought back to Bristol and kept the secret until october, when the album came out.
Now the album is out, and my name is on it. And what’s more; my feature songs are playing on the radio, specially the one with the rap, due to its colourful sound and my lyrical references.
One of the singles is a funky song called Shoot the singer, but also there’s jazz, reggae, soul, hip-hop, dub and all the different forms of Jamaican music that you can imagine.
During every song of the new album there’s so many instruments, voices, samples.
Please go to http://www.myspace.com/ferminmuguruza and listen the album. It’s worth it.
Also below there’s a couple of radio interviews for the Spanish listeners and the official video clip of the main single.
Posted in Experiences
Tagged asthmatic lion sound systema, basque country, dub, fermin muguruza, irun, reggae
Last Friday 5th of December New Zealand band Fat Freddy’s Drop finished their European Tour in the Roundhouse, London.
After touring all around Europe during almost four months, the Kiwis performed an awesome last show in London.
The venue, The Roundhouse in Camden Town, was full of people willing to see a band with one of the best shows of the year.
Their first album Based on a true story (2005) is a perfect mix of reggae, dub, soul and even electronic sounds. Due to its popular success and musical quality, the band was awarded with several prizes in their country, and consequently their became worldwide popular acclaimed.
TIME TO BREAK IT OUT
It was nine o’clock, and the seven members of the band appeared on the stage; first was the MPC and pre-recordings DJ: he started to play warm dub beats. Secondly keyboards and guitar: adding details and feeling to the sound. Then came out the drummer, and the doubt if he could coordinate himself with the DJ was automatically erased. The connection was simply perfect.
Lastly the wind section (sax, trumpet and trombone) and the singer appeared on stage. And with them, the sound of Fat Freddy’s Drop and its personality invaded the place. The sweet voice of Joe Dukie fitted perfectly on the reggae music and dub of the first three songs.
Afterwards, and during the whole concert, the Jamaican sounds were mixed with refinement, going from soul to blues, funk, hip hop or even organic drum and bass. As the album ‘Based on a True Story’ is.
‘I WANNA JAM WID YOU’
But like every good band, Fat Freddys tried to give the audience something extra when performing. And they played some songs like Ernie in a very different way, mixed with house-dub music, and making dance everybody on the place. It was one of the best moments of the night.
They continued playing and jamming at the same time. One could see how sometimes they were talking to each other and deciding what to play or how to conduct the song: depending on the audience and how they reacted to the music.
One of the last songs was driven from the reggae towards techno sounds with some details of rhythm & blues but with an organic base. And people, they were dancing possessed by the sound.
Special mention needs to be done to the trombonist, whom didn’t stop dancing with a funky style and was the spirit of the band.
Last song was an easy one, but with all the soul and feeling of the band and a game of lights very suggesting and colourful.
It was one of the best gigs of the year. No doubt. A must-see.
A new Bond film means new Bond girl: that’s good. But also means new Bond theme: and that’s not always good. The Quantum of Solace is the new film for the James Bond saga, and the second one with Daniel Craig as the 007 secret agent.
Another way to die is the new James Bond Theme composed by Jack White who also plays and sings the song with Alicia Keys. It’s a good song though; two unsuspected musicians playing together, unifying their skills and a good video-clip as well.
But when I was looking for it on youtube, the first video that came up was the one above; a joke-song composed and sang by British comedian Joe Cornish. Seriously, they beat is not only cool; it transmits speed and tension, all that a Bond movie needs. And the lyrics are so funny but at the same time realistic. I don’t want to underestimate White & Keys’s job, but truth is Cornish has beaten them.
A LOOK BACK
In the last Bond movies the producers tried to get some good musicians such as Madonna or Sheryl Crowl, but they weren’t successful as expected.
Only Chris Cornell has done a surprising good song in Casino Royale with You know my name. A powerful song with rock, soul and all that a voice like Cornell’s can give to your ears.
But, before you quit that website, do yourself a favour and please go back for just a moment to 1987 and listen the great song that A-ha composed: The living daylights. Yeah… I know it’s tacky, but it’s incredibly cool. The A-ha guys did a great job, besides it was the best of the two movies with Timothy Dalton on the role of the secret agent.
However, there will be only one with the title of the Best, and even though Tina almost did it, the crown belongs to Shirley Bassey. Enjoy it.
The News Dump 