like the moon
It’s a strange time to do anything other than shelter in place or get out in the streets, but I’m looking forward to next week’s virtual gathering for Sound System Outernational #6, a conference and set of performances which I will help to kick off with an opening plenary next Tuesday, June 9. I’m grateful […]
Read More →I reviewed Tropicalia: Ou Panis Et Circencis, a re-issue of the classic salvo in Brazil’s tropicalia movement, for Issue 367 of The Wire (September 2014). Happily, this one’s also a nice chunky review; nice to get a little leeway on the wordcount for a verbose dude like yours truly. Here’s a director’s cut of sorts, […]
Read More →I reviewed Rolê – Novos Sons Do Brasil, a new compilation from Brazil’s Mais Um Discos, for Issue 365 of The Wire (July 2014). Given my prolix proclivities, I was glad to get a little longer leash (i.e., wordcount) for this one. Nice to be able to stretch out a bit — and dig in […]
Read More →We’ve got another promising Boston premiere this week (that’s Tuesday 2/7) at Beat Research. Ekip Ritual is an ongoing collaboration between “nordestino” electro-percussion wiz, Kiddid, and Brazilian reggae/alt-pop vocalist Massarock. Drawing on soundsystem culture, Afro-Brazilian rhythms, and pop music sensibilities, the duo ride the “global bass” wave with aplomb. Listen, say, to “Caixas Elétrica Antigas” […]
Read More →Next week I begin teaching my second course at MIT. It’s a new syllabus, though it draws on certain materials I’ve used before. In contrast to previous offerings, however, this will be the first time I teach a class with a primary focus on reggae outside of Jamaica — on what I’m calling here “global […]
Read More →This is the second post in a sporadic series here at w&w, an ongoing excavation, digitization, and interpretation of my wife’s grandparents’ record collection — i.e., the historico-musical profile of Seymour & Bernice. See here for the previous entry, and here for a note remembering Seymour. Of the many delights I’ve come across in Seymour […]
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 →If you enjoyed the funkcarioca fingersandwiches I shared a while back, you’ll probably also get a kick out of Joao Brasil‘s latest commercial for Do Bem bebidas, riffing on the plinky-plink shuffle of tecnobrega: h/t kiddid
Read More →A couple weeks ago, a bunch of Boston’s “baile funk” enthusiasts were assembled by the um-and-only Gregzinho — who, incidentally, is our guest tonight at Beat Research! — to watch a couple DVDs showing different sides of the carioca scene: DJ Cabide’s self-produced “national” and “international” DVDs (which were both great & grainy), and the […]
Read More →if Cabide DJ were your lunch lady… do bem™ – Suco de Laranja 100% fruta (MPC de torradas) from do bem on Vimeo.
Read More →Inside Indonesia – Punks, rastas and headbangers: Bali's Generation X a short piece by emma baulch (who recently published a book on the subject) about popular music in contemporary bali, esp alternative, metal, and reggae :: "Although dominated by covers of Bob Marley songs, the Bali reggae scene is much less about the struggle for […]
Read More →Cabide DJ has landed. He’s here in Massachusetts. Met the man last night, who blessed me with a couple of those lovely shrink-wrapped CD-Rs so common in Rio. Don’t know bout you, but i CAN”T WAIT FOR SOME LIVE MPC COM NARIZ ACTION!!!11!!1 As Gregzinho details, you can catch Cabide at all sorts of venues […]
Read More →Beat happening – The National Newspaper jace offers less a review than an extended essay on the sounds, significations, & marketing of a west african / "islamic" hip-hop comp: "Populist, ecumenical, Muslim, fun: Many Lessons is good, right? Yes. … None of this diminishes the fact that the label releasing Many Lessons (Piranha) is using […]
Read More →Tecno brega / eletro melody is back on my radar for 2 reasons — 1) Ronaldo Lemos, the Rio-based law prof who’s been hailing the genre’s open business model for years now, has just published a new book about tecno brega and its creative approach to the music biz, Tecnobrega: o Pará Reinventando o Evento […]
Read More →Great bailes of fire! Watch Cabide DJ rock the sampler de fogo — Can you imagine how that machine would go over in Jamaica? If all works out in the forbidding world of international travel, Cabide will be touring the US this fall, including stops at such Boston-area bastions of Brazil as Club Lido and […]
Read More →Banned in the U.S.A. (Almost) – washingtonpost.com “What is so unspeakably wrong with saying that justice, secularism, tolerance and equality of citizens — rather than privileges granted on the basis of religion — should be among the values of a state?” (tags: book op-ed middleeast religion government politricks israel palestine censorship) THE VICE GUIDE TO […]
Read More →Although my research/interests often turn to (trans)nationalism, lately I’ve been thinking less about nationhood and more about neighborhood — not in terms of an actual space or place (though that’s part of it), but something more akin to neighborliness, to being a good neighbor, to finding an ethics of neighborhood in an intensively globalized/mediated era. […]
Read More →CLUB VORTEX MIX MAY 2008 myspace.com:cclubvortexx.mp3 some super summer sounds c/o kkingdomm: freestyle-tinged electro-house/r&b con raveyton b/w self-made remixes!! THIS IS DRIVING MUSIC EVEN IF UR SITTING STILL (tags: DJ mix club remix hip-hop reggaeton rave mp3) 4shared – share folder – baixe malukinha pankadão a trove of eletro melody files c/o CRIADOR eder joe, […]
Read More →A Backlash? – New York Times race-based feelings about the dem candidates, post-race-card BS :: this chart speaks volumes (tags: race election08 chart obama clinton nyt) El Nuevo Día – Todo sobre la leche felix jimenez on lipstick, leche, and the war in iraq (tags: spanish op-ed cultcrit war iraq puertorico) YouTube – An Interview […]
Read More →Soca Mafia in Trinidad and Tobago – Reality or myth? :: ttgapers.com re: payola in T&T (tags: trinidad soca payola industry) The House the Kids Built: The Gay Black Imprint on American Dance Music, by Anthony Thomas “The following article was originally published in the US magazine Out/Look in 1989, and looks at house music’s […]
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