In search of the simple, not shallow

North Sea Jazz festival 2010. For one night the Yukon stage is transformed into Hyperrhythm, bringing together four descendants of the beat generation, each with an individual style. After Mike Slott, Dorian Concept and Hudson Mohawke, the final part will be in the hands of Dimlite. His music feels superconcentrated, looking for new shapes, without losing the emotion. Unknown rhythm patterns, haunting voices, alway relevant – the Swiss  musician was often ahead of his time, but never much on the forefront. The people who know, know. Before Dimlite goes on stage, we have a little chat. While his early releases from 2005 still sounds fresh, I ask what has changed recently.

Dimlite: So much has changed. The music itself has changed ofcourse. And I have changed, I guess. Hopefully, no certainly. I can’t even describe because it’s my own music, it’s very subjective and personal.

R: I wonder if the older things were more sampled?

D: Simple?

R: No sampled.

D: Yeah, the older things were more half/half. And now there is no sample at all anymore, but not for the reason I would hate samples. I did this one song recently, where I took a whole song from the sixties and I kind of extracted the vocal track of it and I made a beat underneath it and a couple of chords, very simple. I released it as an mp3, as a gift for people who bought a digital single, and it seems people like this song more than the stuff that is closer to my heart. That is I think partly because I uses portions of someone else’s music, which is kind of funny.

R: And maybe a little bit painful too…

D: No it’s not painful at all, it made me grin. My flatmate asked if he could release the song on vinyl. And I explained him I don’t want this to come out on a serious format because I don’t want to sample anymore, I don’t want to release music that Continue reading »

With a daring campaign, the upcoming edition of the TodaysArt festival this weekend, focuses on different forms of conflict. “History shows that whenever people face many questions, conflict ensues. Not necessarily violent, but conflict nonetheless. It is like a chemical reaction: energy is unleashed, things boil and smoke, and out of this energy a new substance emerges.”

For two days the political capital The Hague is transformed into the international city of conflict, with art on interesting locations and a broad range of musicians performing. From the founders of house music in Chicago, Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk and Jesse Saunders, to Bomb Squad legend Hank Shocklee, female electronic producer Pursuit Grooves and uncompromising hiphop by Guilty Simpson.

As you might already know, Guilty has a new project with Madlib coming up, you can listen to the first single over here. Almost two years ago I had a little chat with him, mainly about his hometown Detroit, where the financial crisis already kicked in and casino’s took over the centre – providing jobs at the same time. Press play for more, the documentary I mention in the interview is  Detroit, Comeback City (from 1998). 

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For more info on the programme of TodayArt, visit the website. Wether you’re a friend or foe, I hope to see you around in The Hague this weekend.

When the Gaslamp Killer plays, he seems to get so much into his music, he immediately grabs all the attention. That’s what he did in Trouw during the Viral Radio party with Brainfeeder affiliates Flying Lotus & Samiyam, and also during the 5daysoff festival the Gaslamp Killer was described as a ‘must see’ by Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. It’s quite interesting how he recently (about 9 months ago) discovered dubstep, and before that played a bit more on the psychedelic tip. Now he plays an exiting mix of both.

To get a glimpse of what a GLK set looks like, see him in action at Barcelona’s Sonar festival here.

Just before he entered the Melkweg stage I had a little chat with him. Listen below and visit Viral Radio for more radiofun with the GLK.

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“We have a crib in the UK so we stay here all summer”, sprak een van de leden van het Hypnotic Brass Ensemble gisteren op het podium van Paradiso. Ja, nadat ze even verdwenen leken zijn de broers uit Chicago weer terug in het vizier en komt er nu eindelijk een volwaardig album uit via het Britse label Honest Jons. Hypnotic is niet bepaald een standaard brassband, maar vermengt hiphopinvloeden samen met de nog grotere invloed van hun vader, de jazz trompettist Phil Cohran, die ooit met Sun Ra speelde. De familie Cohran woonde in southside Chicago, waar alle zoons verplicht een blaasinstrument moesten leren spelen en op straat hun geld verdienden. In 2007 hoorde ik voor het eerst van Hypnotic en traden ze enkele malen op in Nederland (waaronder op het North Sea Jazz festival). Destijds deed Future Vintage twee uitgebreide interviews (eerst telefonisch, een paar maanden later in Paradiso). Mocht je die toen niet gehoord hebben, beluister ze dan nu alsnog. Op 1 augustus staat Hypnotic Brass Ensemble op het Raw Rhythm Festival.

Part 1 – June ‘07

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Part 2 – Dec  ‘07

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Eigenlijk houdt Dâm-Funk van veel verschillende muziekstijlen, ‘but you gotta stand for something’. En dus is Dâm-Funk ambassadeur van de muziek waar hij het meeste van houdt; de funk en boogie uit begin en midden jaren ‘80. Muziek om op te dansen, maar wel ’sophisticated’. Muziek die nog niet werd geloopt, maar live ingespeeld. Prince, The Time, Slave, Rick James, Cameo. Dâm draait deze artiesten (en veel onbekendere) iedere maandagavond op zijn Funkmosphere feesten. Daarnaast produceert hij ook zelf ‘modern funk’, zijn debuut  album komt later dit jaar uit op Stones Throw. Tijdens de Stones Throw tour sprak ik Dâm-Funk even in de kleedkamer. Hij was leuk en bescheiden. Genoeg is al in andere interviews gezegd, zoals het  video interview op On Point. Misschien is de laatste minuut wel het meest relevant, ‘that’s how true I’m trying to keep it for y’all’.

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Eerder dit jaar verraste Stones Throw ons met een nieuwe soul artiest, wiens stemgeluid deed denken aan Smokey Robinson, maar waarbij de productie toch anno 2009 klonk. Mayer Hawthorne, die opgroeide in Ann Arbor, was lokaal al bekend als DJ Haircut, maar heeft hiphop nu verruilt voor de soul waar zijn ouders naar luisterden. Gilles Peterson en Mark Ronson zijn al fan, en op 10 maart is Mayer Hawthorne in Amsterdam (Paradiso) als onderdeel van de Europese Stones Throw tour.

Beluister hier Maybe So, Maybe No van Mayer Hawthorne & The County (uit de show van Mark Ronson)

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Ter introductie een kort interview met Mayer over zijn muzikale verleden en toekomstplannen:

The first time we heard of you was through the single Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out, but you were already making music under the name Haircut. What are the main differences between Haircut and Mayer Hawthorne and in what way do your musical alter ego’s apply to different parts of your character?
“I was joking with some friends yesterday about how Haircut can curse, but Mayer Hawthorne cannot.  I think everyone has different characters that they play in life.  I’ve been making hip-hop music as Haircut for years and when I created the Mayer Hawthorne alter ego it was just for fun, for my close friends and family.  I never imagined I would be recording a full album or performing it live.  I didn’t put much thought behind it until I signed to Stones Throw.

”

In what way is the music you make inspired by music your parents maybe listened to? Or songs you heard as a child? “I was very fortunate to have such musical parents.  They would always be listening to records or playing and singing songs.  They exposed me to all kinds of music – rock, folk, country, jazz – but it was the soul music that hit me the most.  Growing up just West of Detroit, I definitely heard a lot of Motown, and then when I started digging for records I discovered so much incredible local soul.  I’m extremely proud of the musical history of Detroit. It’s had a major impact on the music I make and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to represent that, and to introduce a new generation of people to that sound.

”

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Ze loopt overdag voorzichtig met een felgkleurde wandelstok, maar op het podium, als ze haar glitter ensemble aanheeft, blijft de stok in de backstage en staat ze fier rechtop. In de hotellobby maakt ze grapjes met iedere musicus die ze tijdens haar lange zangcarriere heeft leren kennen. Ooit maakte ze haar debuut in het Appollo Theater in Harlem, in 1952. Later was ze de eerste vrouw op het Blue Note label. Ze is ook een vrouw met zelfspot. Toen een dronken barklant steeds weer haar liedje uit de Juke Box wilde horen, de eigenaar zei dat deze zangeres die avond op zou treden en de klant uitriep: Who’s this bitch, anyway? – toen besloot ze haar album maar gewoon zo te noemen.

Wij kennen haar meestal van twee nummers: California Soul en Woman of the Ghetto. Nu ze jaren later beelden terug zag van de rellen en het politiegeweld dat haar in 1969 inspireerde Woman of the Ghetto te schrijven, vindt ze het nummer nog gematigd. Maar dat was het in 1969 niet: “You may be sitting up there, in your ivory tower, 60 stories tall / I know that you may have checked out at least one ghetto, but I wonder have you lived there at all“. Er is een live versie van het nummer, waarin zie net iets anders humt. Die versie is gesampled in een jaren negentig hit van Blue Boy. Ze schrijft het nog maar eens op een papiertje, want haar geheugen laat haar soms in de steek en ‘het publiek wil nu altijd dat ik de live versie op de manier van die sample doe’.

Ze koopt weinig nieuwe muziek, maar koestert nog steeds haar vinyl collectie. Ze heeft een goed leven, toert de wereld rond en zit thuis het liefst dingen te bestellen van het Home Shopping Channel – al vindt haar man dat maar niets.

Zij is Marlena Shaw.

In 2007 sprak ik haar op het North Sea Jazz festival, en nu staat Marlena Shaw op 4 februari in Paradiso. En voor de kenners: Finn Peters speelt ook in haar band. In de komende Future Vintage hoor je een kort interviewfragment en via dit blog geven we 2 x 2 kaarten weg voor het concert. Als je voor dinsdag antwoord geeft op deze vraag: “Welke award heeft Marlena Shaw de afgelopen week gewonnen?” Mail naar info@futurevintage.net.

The day after his legendary New Age show (which I unfortunetaly couldn’t make, being at the North Sea Jazz festival) James Pants went thriftstore shopping in Amsterdam and met for an interview afterwards. We had a tea near the canals, he tried to do a Dutch radiodrop that sounded German and we talked about his first album Welcome, how to avoid sounding retro and the beauty of bad recordings. Thanks Mark for the hook up!

James Pants will be performing in Amsterdam again on the 3rd of October, this time with full band, upstairs in Paradiso (accompanied by the Kindred Spirits soundsystem and DJ 1.1).

http://www.futurevintage.net/audio/jamespants072008.mp3

Don’t mind the big Lowdown and Lijn5 logo’s, this is just a nice impression of Jose James performing at KSpace/Amsterdam in May 2008. We have a longer audio version of this interview, where we talk more about the great John Coltrane songs he did, but we have to explore our archive deeper for that one – soon!

The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble has been featured a lot on Future Vintage. The story of seven brothers from Chicago, sons of jazz musician (and astronomer!) Phil Cohran who form a brass band and start to play on the streets is charming in many ways. It’s a story about family, about a hiphop generation that still seeks sounds from generations before and about making a name for yourself. Hypnotic might have started on the streets, they also did a show with Mos Def during the James Brown tribute night in the Apollo Theatre and toured trough Europe a few times (they basicly took over North Sea Jazz festival in 2007).

It was probably KC the Funkaholic who introduced me to Hypnotic, and after hearing War and seeing some Youtube footage I was sold. So I interviewed two of the brothers by phone, just before they came over for the first time, in july ‘07. Here’s 13 minutes of music and talk by Hudah & Cid about their history.

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Some months later brass seemed more back in fashion than ever, especially when Jay-Z came out with Roc Boys (which contains a sample from the Menahan Street Band). Hypnotic felt their style got copied in the video a bit. But anyway, we had a nice conservation backstage, just after the show in Paradiso, december ‘07.

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I used to read the Hypnotic blog now and then, but lately it’s quiet (they switched to a new blog, I prefer the old one). Still, I’m happy with my War and Sankofa records, and also with On The Beach – a record by Phil Cohran that got re-issued and I basicly discovered trough the music of his sons.