TAG: Africa

Oct19

J-Boogie’s Dubtronic Science – Undercover (Review)

J-Boogie's Dubtronic Science

Undercover

Released by OM Records


My familiarity with J-Boogie comes from the various remix and edit work he has done in the past (including one he made for Vieux Farka Touré's "Fafa" from 2009) as well as his collaboration with fan favorites People Under the Stairs, Quantic and his Combo Barbaro, Bay Area compadres Zion I, Goapele and Raashan Ahmad spanning multiple projects, personal and by others. By no means an exhaustive list, J-Boogie’s talent is undeniable and his knowledge of mixing, sampling, and creating great-sounding gems continues to this day. J-Boogie’s extensive network ...

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Sep21

Sixteen F**king Years of G-Stone Recordings (Review)

Various Artists

Sixteen F**king Years of G-Stone Recordings

Released by G-Stone


Founded in Austria in 1993, independent label G-Stone Recordings has and continues to be a forerunner in electronica, maintaining their role as providers of quality releases from artists from the dub, hip-hop, downtempo, trip-hop and lounge traditions. With legends Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister (of Kruder & Dorfmeister, Peace Orchestra and Tosca) at the helm, G-Stone has maintained their vision of music by consistently outputting a plethora of bass-hugging grooves and infectious jams of memorable and everlasting reverberation. The importance of G-Stone as a label and as a ‘signature ...

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Mar16

GET INVOLVED: Join Kenna, Lupe, Santigold, and More on “Summit on the Summit” (Video)

PROVIDE 1000 LITERS OF CLEAN WATER BY TEXTING 'SEND' TO 90999 & DONATING $10 

In early January, Kenna began his ascent up Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, with a team of of nearly 300 men and women, including fellow musicians Lupe Fiasco and Santigold, actors Jessica Biel and Emile Hirsch, plus scientists, United Nations representatives and experienced mountain guides.  The journey was documented on “Summit on the Summit: Kilimanjaro,” which premiered on MTV Sunday night. It’s refreshing to see MTV finally air something substantial. If you didn’t catch the premiere read on to learn more about the Summit and how you can get involved today:

The Summit on the Summit is a mission that probably sounds familiar. The name has …

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Mar04

Next Stop… Soweto – Township Sounds From The Golden Age Of Mbaqanga (Review)

Township Sounds From The Golden Age Of Mbaqanga

NEXT STOP... SOWETO



With Next Stop... Soweto, Strut trace some of the amazing music that often only appeared on short run 45s at the time; rare lost gems deftly culled from the '60s + '70s South African "township jive sound." Featuring music recorded primarily for the local market, the album takes the listener far beyond the accepted township jive template into fusions with jazz, gospel, rumba, funk and traditional mining songs. It delves into the golden age of mbaqanga. Jazz had been a fixture in South African music since the ‘50s and jive (or mbaqanga) initially emerged a decade later as a fusion combining elements of rural Zulu music and harmony vocal styles with Western instrumentation. You can hear influences from American R&B and '60s rock and surf, in the same way ska and rocksteady developed in Jamaica. And if you like desert blues from Sahara, you will also like the fusion of mbaqanga.

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Feb27

Black Man’s Cry: The Inspiration of Fela Kuti (Review)

Various Artists

Black Man's Cry: The Inspiration of Fela Kuti

Released by Now-Again Records


To begin describing the epic importance of Fela Kuti is to write a doctoral thesis on the history of African music from before his birth to the present day. To understand the impact the music of a person such as Fela is to consider the history of struggle, prejudice, racism, and political disenfranchisement as an understandable whole.  In the music of Fela Kuti, we see these positive undercurrents of political awakening, consciousness, activism, empowerment and liberation.  These values are what make the messages embedded in the work of Fela ...

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