Congatronix

For any readers whose curiosity was piqued by the conga videos in last night’s del.icio.us dump, allow me to provide a little more context via Lani Milstein, a NY-based ethnomusicubanist, who brought them to my attention — Just a shout out to say thanks for being such an eloquent writer on reggaetón. I’m working on […]

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Any Generous Erstwhile Shredders Out There?

Wanna have a direct hand in helping a fledgling but promising Botswana-based studio get its groove on? Help inject a little kwasa-kwasa into some Southern African crunky reggae? Well, if you’ve got a working strat or telecaster or any ol’ electric guitar really — & a bass guitar is wanted as well — I’ve got […]

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Music & the Art of Cartography

In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was […]

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Book Review: Michael Veal’s Dub

As promised last week, what follows here is my review of Michael Veal’s recently published book on dub. It won’t appear in print for perhaps another year, which is a little silly and unfortunate, but that’s how it goes. I see no reason, at any rate, not to share it now that it’s written, especially […]

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Ethnomusicology Meets King Tubby Inna Barnes&Nobles

Been working on a review of ethnomusicologist Michael Veal’s recently published book on dub (it’s called Dub [BUY!]), which I will share with y’all before too long; meantime, as I jot down some excerpts, I thought I’d share some of my favorite passages — insightful thoughts and neat narratives and such. To wit, a nice […]

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Maga Maga Maga! Bo Bo Bo!

It’s a Sooty month at Beat Research. Last week we had the pleasure of hosting Filastine, and tonight we’ve got the mighty Maga Bo! Readers of this here blog surely need no introduction to Mr.Bo. He’s been making waves for a while now with his world-whirling, genre-busting mixes — not to mention his excellent series, […]

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Tons o’ Tons, or Distributed Reading #5382

I tagged a “raï-ggaeton” video over at my linkythinky a while back. A bit o’ chutney-ton, too. Both seemed interesting to me as rather explicit examples of the localization of global pop (and rton in partic), if not terribly compelling as specific things &, yeah, rather steeped in the odor of novelty. That’s not the […]

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I&I’m a African

Sorry for the silence here of late. It’s been crunchtime for fall semester, which I’m v excited about. What’s more, I thought I’d leave the “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” post up for a while in the hope of getting more feedback for me and Boima both. (Thanks to Lamin for sharing his thoughts & the […]

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Hear Here

Reppin’ Salone (Sierra Leone), Wisconsin (Milwaukee and Madison!), and the Bay Area, DJ Boima holds down a whirled music dance party in San Fran, moving the massive with a mix of (pan-)African and (pan-)American pop / hip-hop / club / etc. Readers of this here blog might have noticed his name in a flurry of […]

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Outsourced Analysis #745639: Kwaito Resonance Reflex

On 8/2/07, Sonjah Stanley-Niaah, Dr wrote: And this one, check this out.. I am interested in your analysis of the dance and music… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKxhKhLhlb0 Sonjah Stanley Niaah, Ph.D. Lecturer, Cultural Studies University of the West Indies, Mona Campus Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference 2008: www.crossroads2008.org Wadabagei: www.lexingtonbooks.com/Journals/wadabagei/Index.shtml To which I replied: This one’s (more) interesting […]

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No Te Veo, Pero Te Oigo

I’m rly enjoying (and learning from) all the reggaeton conversation happening here these days (e.g.). Thanks to all for contributing! And keeping it going… Toward further linkthink, here’s a quick analysis I put together in response to a question from Raquel (who’s got a great post up re: Mala Rodriguez and Calle 13), who thinks […]

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yo google mzekezeke

them mans make mad money down south, no doubt (esp from a botswana perspective) … but who is this masked mzekezeke ?? bush? bin laden? mandela? tupac? watch and find out — (mp$)

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Linkthink #57923

Another Crunk Cartology: if you happened to miss Ghislain Poirier’s African hip-hop mixes, you really need to track those down. For another perspective on the whole back-and-forth, see Daara J’s Boomerang thesis. Droid brings the latest blogariddimic spectacular: an hour of early 90s dancehall, an underappreciated but overwhelming (and deeply influential) era for reggae music […]

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New Wine, Old Bottles

A couple nights ago I attended the reception for an exhibition currently showing at the Glass Curtain Gallery (Columbia College) in downtown Chicago. Curated by anthropologist art historian Deborah Stokes and entitled “Africa.dot.Com: Drums to Digital,” it is billed as “an exhibition that visually and interactively explores the collision of modern culture and technology on […]

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U Go Chop My Dollar?

Nice try, Mr.CHRISTIAN OSITA ASAPUO, but you nah go chop my dollar with that ol’ 419 spamscam. Still, I admire your persistence and politeness. Mr.NKEM OSUOFIA OWOH, on the other hand, well, he’s just plain in-your-face about it. I admire that, too — Background here. [thx, tones!]

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Linkthink #4082: Music Things

MP3 for Africa ! (cross-posted) — the snappy, statty hook: If every American would buy 10 songs by African Artists, we would DOUBLE the amount of money the US is currently sending to Africa. (also germane) (also ghislain) the Boston Typewriter Orchestra (thx, mr.twink) Claire Chanel offers up another triple-slow screw: this time, Ciara’s “Promise” […]

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