BBB for the People

BBB (Balkan Beat Box) just released a new video that hints at things to come on the next album. The sound is still theirs yet it is noticeably updated for today's bass-loving audiences.

Curiously the video was made in late winter, partly coinciding with the Arab Spring and anticipating the Occupy Wall Street events of the fall.
====

Cargo Cult Science Mix

Tracklist:
Shukar Collective - Pam Paraï
Untold - Stereo Freeze
Slavoj Zizek - The Reality of the Virtual (documentary/lecture film)
DJ Zhao - Cheikha Rimitti / Mohammed Ay Sidi vs Roska (Squark Edit)
Ibrahim Kashoush (ابرهيم قاشوش) le chanteur de la révolution (YouTube video of protests in Syria)
Soulico - DarboukaTron
Dixone - 3ballstep
Joro-Boro - Crunky Cumbia Beat vs Dizzee Rascal - Jus a Rascal (Acapella)
DJ Laura Howett - Milli Takes a Drive
Caravan Palace - Jolie Coquine (Ruff Hauser Remix)
Watcha Clan - Gypsy Dust (Joro-Boro's Footwork Rework Remix)
Son Of Kick - Guacha Rekix
Poirier, Burro Banton - Ghetto Living (Chong X Remix)
Sebastian - H.A.L. (Munchi Bootleg Kuduro-More remix)
Nacobeta & Puto Portuguäs - Mama Kudi
DJ Massacre - Ku Lagode' 1
Bumps feat. MC Gi - Berimbau (Brilla Remix)
Mijangos feat. Sexy Love - Habla bien de Aca (DJ Münki Swagg Remix)
Cloud-D - Kick'n Yelawolf Refix
Balkan Beat Box and Eugene Hutz - Tromba De Zingari
Helmut Lotti and The Russian Dubcore Band - A Wan Bushi
Joro-Boro - Goran Bregovic vs Boreta
Kid Kishore - Dhola Dhola
Alayev Family - Boe Boe (Joro-Boro's Family Banger Remix)
Slavoj Zizek reprise
Timothy Wisdom - Represent The Real
Sazon Booya - Bam Bam
Shazalakazoo feat. MC Maiquinho - Tô Com Saudade (Neki Stranac Moombahton Mix)
Guapo Feo - Chant Down Bombay
Feral aka MC Kinky - Tweet Retweet (Jon Kwest Hard-Hall Remix)
Feral aka MC Kinky - Tweet Retweet (Dutty Mix)
Keak Da Sneak - Who Started This
UBK - Yemen Bros. (Firewater)
Missy Elliot - The Rain (Douster Tropical Remix)
Rolling Stones - Get What You Want (Blunt Instrument Mix)

8bit Balkan

The post-national music community still continues to impress me every once in awhile and this is one such occasion: two friends of mine have joined forces to present a fantastic project out of leftfield. My brother by way of Romania/Japan Stevhen Koji Iancu aka Dolomites (whom I discovered when working on the Mehanata compilation years ago) has been working on his own version of West Coast Bass based on his melancholic accordion sound filtered through 8-bit video game glitch aesthetic and has created a unique musical niche in the Bay Area. Now he is expanding the niche with the help of another friend DJ Mohak from Berlin (read her fantastic blog here) and releasing an EP of his new sound on her recently founded label If The Kids Records:

Dolomites - 8bit Balkan

Available in digital stores worldwide on September 19th 2011.

Ali Mrabet/ Aly Mrabet/ Aly M'Rabet

It is inspiring to find a fresh and unique voice in the post-national music DJ community and it makes me optimistic when that voice comes from Tunisia. The soon-to-be-24 year old Ali is primarily a professional dancer, secondarily a professional actor and only doing music mixes as a hobby on the side. He publishes tracklists with his sources which makes his cultural range (Balkan Beat Box, Björk, Saint-Saëns, Snap!, and Yasser Arafat speeches) even more impressive.

Last time I heard something this fantastic was years ago when I discovered Maga Bo and Filastine.

Tsunami Project by Aly Mrabet - علي مرابط

Fatwa Mix - فتوة by Aly M'Rabet

لوحات من التراث by Aly M'Rabet

TSUNAMIX by Aly M'Rabet

The Return of the Virtual?

I've been reading 'Sonic Warfare' by Steve Goodman (aka Kode9 for the bassheads out there) - a powerful critique of, among other things, the concept of the virtual approached from rhtythmanalysis point of view. Instead of a jargon-heavy blog post elaborating on this, I thought a Youtube video might do the job much better - an example of the recent 'return' to (or discovery of?) Native American and/or Prehispanic sounds and rhythms in the context of global bass (this one replete with a virtual reality video):



'Sonic Warfare' was also extended as a blog.

2010: “The ©loud Sucks” vs “Only Toys Buy Their Paint”

Looking back at the past year it started with Google’s musicblogocide, continued with Facebook’s series of privacy blunders, appeared to come to a close with Wikileaks/Anonymous publicly clashing with governments and corporations, and yet managed to surprise us with Soundcloud being forced to take position on Copyright.
I haven’t had to deal with Copyright-related rejections since a few years back when my meta-capitalist charlatan scheme to copyright the Copyright symbol was promptly denied. But in an ironic embodiment of the spirit of Christmas my attempt to share the last MoGlo radio show of the year through Soundcloud was blocked. What I can broadcast freely in the analog world of airwaves via radio companies on two coasts (New York’s WNYE and Seattle’s KEXP) cannot be gifted digitally anymore through my favorite cloud platform.

The first immediate result of the Soundcloud Christmas special will be that *if* DJs continue to use it for posting mixes, they will not include tracklists in the description - I know I won't. A huge part of the appeal of Soundcloud was the fact that the mixes gave exposure to great unsigned music (hosted on Soundcloud again). The track that triggered the block on my latest MoGlo mix was 'Villa Donde' by King Coya from Zizek (the infringement claim was from Nacional Records) - apparently in 2010 digital cumbia completed the Copyright circle (while ZZK retweeted my Dec 16 promo of the new Chancha Via Circuito album). Digital cumbia is a great example for this changing dynamic, since it is a genre that gained its international momentum primarily because of the existing ecology of music creation, sharing and distribution (in the form of blogs, YouTube videos and of course Soundcloud).

The more interesting result though was that it triggered a blogo-storming of speculation on the possible alternatives:

First was Wayne’s prescient post (from December 13!) which traces a range of possibilities and partly anticipates a Web 3.0 retreating from “the clouds” back to servers and archives (and Rozele brilliantly anchors the discussion with the Situationist poster seen in the beginning of this post).

Then Timeblind's “Only Toys Buy Their Paint” (a quote from 'Bomb the System') came somewhat in conflict with Ripley’s appeal to proactive mobilization with focus on the infrastructure of the digital community (with one of the commenters memorably concluding “the ©loud Sucks”).


So here's to the next most likely unexpected development of the theme in 2011!



You can download the blocked MoGlo show here and get the tracklist here.



PS. And in yet another twist of demarcation of Wikileaks frontlines, Soundcloud apparently deleted Assange’s dubstep mixes

The Fall Mix