like the moon
The latest Woofah — a UK-based magazine covering the latest and greatest in bass culture — is finally out, and it’s a big, glossy whopper of an issue. What’s more, yours truly has a thinky-piece in it exploring the fraught relationship between Afrofuturist reggae musicians and the Rastas-in-Space projected by Hollywood films and sci-fi authors […]
Read More →Since I’m in a syllabus sharing mood, I figured I should finally get around to posting the one I put together in Spring 2008 for a course on “Global Hip-hop.” A series of case studies examining how hip-hop travels outside the US, what it carries with it, and how people adapt its forms to their […]
Read More →What Happens in Riddim Method Stays in Riddim Method
I’ve written a lot here about the “riddim method,” a cheeky term suggested by my co-author Peter Manuel to describe a well-worn practice (and in the case of our article, a distinctly Jamaican version of it). We jest, but we’re serious. In short, what we try to explain is an approach to musical materials as […]
Read More →Boima’s post about a Panamanian/Nigerian jerk-off made me wonder about this Suku Castro character calling out “TODO MUNDO JERKEANDO!” So I did a quick googlywuzzit on his name and landed on this page, which not only hosts yet another interesting example of jerk practice in Panama (a mix containing no Spanish verses but cut’n’pasting several […]
Read More →Not only do Flack and I share a penchant for experimental party music, we also share the experience of being dads to two young kids — in his case, twins! Of course, I’ve given lots of thought to seeking sounds for babies, and I’ve been meaning to make a mix of my own reflecting some […]
Read More →[Since we’re talking about reggaeton again, and about the absence/return of dembow, it seems like a good moment to repatriate the following riddimmeth0d post from early 2006. The post, a complement to an article on reggaeton I wrote for the Boston Phoenix, features a mix which uses the dembow drumloop to string the songs together, […]
Read More →tis the season for donning hats & maybe getting clobbered by a classmate Last Wednesday night I was the guest of Emily Corwin, host of The Neighborhood, a weekly radio show broadcast from Cambridge/MIT on WMBR. As she billed it — With trusty laptop in tow, Wayne wears all his hats at once –– musician, […]
Read More →[Sticking to the seasonal, here’s another musical maneuver I pulled on some well-worn Christmas fare. Given the recent resurgence of talk about homophobia in reggae — not to mention what must be some serious shadenfreude over Buju Banton’s arrest — I have to admit that, sharing Rizzla’s frustration, I’m a little ambivalent about adding, um, […]
Read More →Thanks again to Tom, our man in Panama, who recently pointed me to an additional, and interesting, instantiation of the Miss Independent riddim. As we heard previously, the Ne-Yo instrumental — most famously reappropriated in Vybz&Spice’s “Rampin Shop” — has become a veritable version in Panama, supporting no fewer than a dozen local voicings (and […]
Read More →Afropop Worldwide has a new program, airing currently on terrestrial radio in the US (and soon to appear online as streamable audio), which focuses on a subject near&dear to the heart of this blog: world music 2.0, aka nu-whirled music, aka global ghettotech. Or as they put it — Afropop Worldwide takes us into the […]
Read More →Hot off the heels of a couple gigs in Sao Paolo, and en route to rock CMJ in NYC next week, le gran Poirier touches down in Boston this Monday to share his latest concoctions with the Beat Research massif. I never quite know what to expect from Ghis. First time I heard him play, […]
Read More →I’ve been listening to the MasalaCISM radio show for years, so it was a thrill to finally make it over to the studio when I was in Montreal last weekend. Extra bonus: Poirier and Dub Boy (in from Bristol for Karnival v.1) were also Bendude‘s guests that evening. Benoit started red hot with uptempo dancehall, […]
Read More →Got an email last week from a French netlabel called, of all things, ZUNG ZENG, which, apparently & admirably, “aims to release dub and electronic music under Creative Common licence.” Cue promo — The first dubtek release (digital only) is out now : the AIR CUT EP by Force Quit (Marseille/FR) It’s downloadable for free […]
Read More →Charlie shares the latest product from our-man-in-JA, Kevin Wallen, who has in recent months — with the generous support of USAID — shifted his media-rich, tech-savvy, and yet rather holistic approach to education (i.e., Students Expressing Truth) from Jamaica’s prisons to its schools — and in particular to students on the verge of expulsion. Kevin […]
Read More →from Raquel Rivera to wayne marshall, Deborah Pacini Hernandez date Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 11:38 AM subject riddle me this Hi dear compis. I still don’t quite understand how the amazon sales work, but I got a big kick out of seeing us #1 in salsa and and #1 reggae. And #11 in rap. […]
Read More →Botswana’s Ruff Riddims (now tweeting) have been putting in work lately. Now that the studio is up and running, they’ve been grinding out some promising stuff — a mix of kwaito and kwasa-kwasa, hip-hop and reggae — and they’re starting to reach out, nationally and internationally, to share their work with the wider world. Check […]
Read More →Google says ^that^ = “Ring the alarm” in Cyrillic. It didn’t do so well with my other query: “Soundbwoy a go dead.” Anywaaaaaayyyyy, here’s some vintage Russian soundclash action —
Read More →Sick of that “One Love”? Try this one — [audio:http://wayneandwax.com/wp/audio/who-one.mp3]
Read More →Late notice on this, but if you’re inna di Cambridge area, some dubwise research a gwaan this pm — Michael Veal, professor of ethnomusicology at Yale, bassist, and the author of two interesting and informed books, Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon and Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae* […]
Read More →I’m heading to Seattle tomorrow to attend EMP’s Pop Conference for the second time (the last time was back in 07). I think EMP might have the best vibes of any music conference I’ve attended (and I’ve attended a few). The reason is simple: it brings together people — generally academics and professional music writers […]
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