The Kuti Dynasty Lives On! Stern Grove, SF, California

On Sunday, Seun Anikulapo Kuti took his father’s band Egypt 80 and its fusion of American Jazz and Funk with traditional West African Highlife to San Francisco.

At this point in time however, the strictly afro-beat music that was heard in the grove Sunday sounded completely traditional, even more so than the brand that was played there by his half-brother Femi in 2000. Seun Kuti, Fela’s youngest son, has been leading his band Egypt 80 since 1997, when he was 15 years old.

Seun Kuti seemed to embody the sound and physicality of his father, “the black president” Fela Anikulapo Kuti. As the capable band-leader of Egypt 80, it was like the Grove was transported back to 1979 to hear the continuation of the afro-beat style he almost exclusively pioneered with Afrika 70. One almost wonders if Seun also has a bevy of "queens" at his modern-day compound. He certainly looked the part with high-waisted lemon colored stretch pants and muscular, bare upper body flanked by a brilliant horn section, 2 backing vocalists, a percussionist relentlessly playing wood block, bassist, drummer, guitarist and keyboardist.

While Femi has collaborated with current musicians such as Common and Mos Def, Seun has taken a more traditional path, presenting the music in its purest form (if it can be called that) the way his father created it. A full two-thirds of the original Egypt 80 remain in the band as was seen on Sunday. One of the original alumnus, 70 year old Lekan Animasahun, nicknamed Baba Ani, originally the Baritone Saxophone player, now directs the Egypt 80 orchestra behind his keyboards.

The band certainly sounded like one that has been together for over twenty years, bringing the hard funk and glorious sounds of 70's Nigeria to this eucalyptus-fragrant Stern Grove. Stern Grove should be applauded for bringing this wonderful free concert series to SF. Past highlights have been Os Mutantes, Femi Kuti, Youssou N'Dour and the Funk Brothers.

The only complaint that one might have is that the music felt like it was over too soon. At nearly an hour and a half, the music felt half as long. With extended jams that last into ten minutes and more, this is one of the original forms of trance music, played by a human ensemble that blends the raw, humane soul with the exhilirating joy of machine music.

The Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 album is available here.
For now, Seun audio tracks on the net are scarce, but enjoy this youtube video of "Colonial Mentality".

A Real Heartthrob

Jesse Siminski, aka Heartthrob, has a new album coming out on June 30th. It’s a minimal techno record, or just a techno record even. The whole sub-generic minimal thing is getting a bit schminimal in my humble opinion, and in the humble opinion of Kompakt boss man and Gas innovator, Wolfgang Voigt who, in a recent Wire magazine interview, decried the quality of the music in this late, inundated phase of the game. Luckily Mr. Siminski has just recently stepped onto the field. He debuted in ’05, and last year’s “Baby Kate,” and “Nasty Girl,” singles really cemented his renown in the crafting of tough, yet flexible electronic dance music that lumps brutal rhythms in with pretty, but odd, melodies and impossible bass lines.

His new long player, Dear Painter, Paint Me on Minus, is more of the above. It shunts, kicks, swerves, squelches and pummels in a harmonious fashion, even when it’s being dissonant. It makes you dream in equal measures about alien landscapes, dark skinned beauties replete with a fine mist of perspiration in Barcelona clubs (remember women perspire, as does any focus of your desire regardless of gender, rarely do paramours sweat), and large and exceptionally expensive items of machinery used for the excavation of new roads or parking lots. I’m all for dreaming with very disparate subject matter. Why dream generically.

Heartthrob obviously doesn’t mire himself in genre. For proof of this go straight to the track “Signs,” and revel in his mechanistic majesty, constructed from Detroit chunk, Teutonic tone and Alpha Centaurian ambience (or ambulance if you prefer…siren-like sounds). The rest of the album is of the same high quality and the production value is outstanding in its own field, or outstanding in your own field, and maybe at some point you’ll be out standing in somebody else’s own field while "Signs," — or any other track on this record — is driving through a huge sound-system to a gang of people. Does raving still exist? I hope so, ‘cos this is a damn good record to rave to, or rave about even. This here is good techno, no two ways about it.

Orr

Death Before Distemper 2

J. Saul Kane’s DC Recordings label has always been hard to pigeon-hole and that is a damned good thing in the generic world of modern music. Kane started out in the late ‘80s crafting spooky down-tempo tracks like “Bounty Killer; a flawless fusion of Spaghetti Western dialog, a slowed down Bizarre Inc. bassline and beefy funk breaks. In 1995 he kicked off his own imprint as an outlet for his Depth Charge, Octagon Man and Alexander’s Dark Band projects. Along the way he has signed up the likes of Richard Sen and Neal Beatnik’s Padded Cell, and outfits like Oscillation, The Emperor Machine (Andy Meecham of Bizarre Inc. and Chicken Lips), White Light Circus (Dean Meredith of Bizarre Inc. and Chicken Lips) and Kelpe.

The label’s new compilation, Death Before Distemper 2 – Revenge of the Iron Ferret, is a slick amalgam of psychedelia, funk, Italian horror movie soundtracks, disco and prog rock. There might even be a bit of Lithuanian Nose Flute music in there too, but whether there is or not, this record grooves, grinds, flutters, fidgets and spooks one into submission. Kelpe’s “Shipwreck Glue,” does the trick with its squelchy, alien funk, Padded Cell comes correct with “Beautiful Gloom” remixed by Liquid Liquid’s Dennis Young, who also plays percussion on the tune, and “Castle Of Doom” by Depth Charge is a moody little number for unsettling yourself to in the dark.

This record dropped a few weeks ago and it is very nice in a dark, foreboding and sinister kinda way. I would investigate and perhaps invest, and put it to the test. Who said that unnerving and spooky can’t be groovy too?

Orr


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Worthy Of A Weekend Dig.

Here’s one you could dig up over the weekend or have a scout around for in the used sections of the music emporiums in your district. Dot Allison’s We Are Science is a ripe old six years of age, and only caused a slight stir when it was released. It should have caused a major ripple, but alas and alack, we were all caught up in electroclash and interesting haircuts. Please don’t misunderstand me, there is absolutely nothing wrong with electro or arresting coiffure, but it is unfortunate that a quality album like this went undetected into music lore. This one should have been up there with Felix’s Kittenz and Thee Glitz, and everything by Tiga, but Allison chose to channel her folk and shoe gaze tendencies through the electro filter. The outcome was quite astonishing in places though it might have been a bit too dreamy for the charley fuelled and angst tinged euphoria of the sparse machine pop acolytes of that time.

She started out as a member of Glasgow band One Dove, which was originally signed to legendary Glaswegian label Soma, an imprint which also gave Daft Punk their start. One Dove fused dub tendencies with blissful pop and a techno undercurrent, Weatherall remixed their Transient Truth single to fine effect, signed them to the Boys Own label and produced their first album, Morning Dove White. Allison went solo in ‘99 with the album Afterglow on Heavenly, home to Saint Etienne, Flowered Up and Beth Orton. We Are Science came in 2002, showed her tougher side and featured production by Mercury Rev and Two Lone Swordsmen member and Weatherall cohort, Keith Tenniswood (aka Radioactive Man).

We Are Science swings between bliss and despair, with “Strung Out,” and “We’re Only Science” pulling you into a claustrophobic world of chemical romance and its inevitable come down. “You Can Be Replaced,” with its existential and cruel lyric “I’m not phased you can be replaced” gently knocks you for six while “Make It Happen,” sounds like Le Tigre colliding with Duran Duran’s “Save A Prayer.” “Substance,” is tough, fast electro, with a knocking boom bap beat and Allison’s waifish, distant vocals projecting a mood that encapsulates Morvern Callar in book or movie form. Stick “We Are Science,” into the party scene of that flick and it would work perfectly and put “You Can Be Replaced,” into the party sequence in “Garden State,” instead of Zero 7’s “The Waiting Line,” and ditto.

Her latest long player, 2007’s Exaltation Of Larks, a return to folkier vistas, was produced by Kramer of Shimmy Disc, King Missile, Bongwater and New York Gong (with Bill Laswell) fame. Seek out We Are Science and prepare to move with angst or gaze into the unknown. Rumor has it Allison will be exercising her pipes on the next Massive Attack record, so this album is essential coffee table banter material for the release date of that upcoming opus.

Orr


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Cats In Paris

This Manchester based outfit, Cats In Paris crosses spastic with beauty and the results are wonderful. Check out the track "foxes" for proof. You'll be slapped with the idiot energy of SFA meets Deerhoof with some proggy chord changes, melodic arpeggios and some stellar drumming. The new album is rumored to drop soon!

What Does It All Mean Steinski?

The djing and music production facets of hip-hop culture are deeply inspired by past classics, and of those, Double Dee and Steinski’s Lessons mix collages on Tommy Boy Music are held in extremely high regard. Luckily for those of us who don’t own the original vinyl copies, these gems of hip-hop lore have been compiled on the two CD set Steinski: What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective, on the Illegal Art label. It includes a remix of Soulsonic Force members G.L.O.B.E. and Whiz Kid’s single "Play That Beat, Mr. D.J.," Double Dee and Steinski’s entry to an 1983 Tommy Boy remix contest organized to promote the act.

That remix won the contest and went on to be called Lesson 1 – The Payoff Mix, a cut and paste sound collage of funk, disco, soul and rock classics glued together with snatches of instructional records. Three more lesson records followed and these became what many regard as a foundation block of hip-hop itself, as well as an inspiration to artists such as De La Soul, Coldcut, Cut Chemist and Girl Talk (who records for the Illegal Art label this collection appears on).

Also included on here is Steinski’s sonic tapestry of the Kennedy assassination, “The Motorcade Sped On,” first released on Tommy boy in 1986 and given away free, as a seven inch single, on the cover of NME in February of 1987. And there are several collaborative efforts between Steinski and other artists like Slats Dolan and DJ P-Love on the tracks “Everything's Disappeared,” “Vox Apostolica,” and “The Big Man Laughs.”

Fourteen of Steinski’s cut and paste work outs comprise disc one and on disc two there’s his 2002 Nothing To Fear mix, a sonic marathon constructed from classic funk and disco tunes, old and new hip-hop tracks, including Nelly’s “Country Grammar,” segments from instructional records (of course), and movie dialog. You don’t have to be a hip-hop junkie to appreciate this fab compilation, nor do you need to discuss it in the context of found sound, William Burroughs or Musique Concrèt. You could just listen to it and enjoy it, because it is very, very enjoyable.

Orr


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Crystal Castles: The Bastard Videogamed Glass Candy?