NO INDEX

Kicking out the live jams twice in two weeks? Unheard of! But I've got a few live events coming up.

Of critical importance is NO INDEX. I'm joining forces with the No Beat Radio crew to wreck shit at Teranga on Wednesday October 20.

Here are the details:

Beats, noise, cultural collisions, improvisation, major lasers.

CIUT's late night mixologists concoct a night of digiturntable madness and DJ bricolage. A fundraising event in support of CIUT FM

Wednesday October 20 - 9PM

Teranga
$5 - all proceeds go to CIUT FM

Featuring: Minesh Mandoda & Marco Landini of No Beat Radio
Mondays 10PM-midnight
(http://www.ciut.fm/index.php/shows-2/no-beat-radio/)

David Dacks of The Abstract Index
Thursdays 10PM-midnight
(http://www.ciut.fm/index.php/shows-2/the-abstract-index-2/)

Live bruit from JFM http://www.myspace.com/jessefrankmatthews

I'll keep updating this post as more people pile on.

Abstract Index Playlist - September 16/10

This one's here for the purty cover art.

Just kidding, it's a heck of a record. I don't know much about the history of Gold Panda, and I'm not sure if the name will lead to instant recognition among the herds of animal-monikered bands out there.

He's just one man. The bio doesn't read like much; he's done remixes for Bloc Party, Simian Mobile Disco and The Field, but only the shimmery yet disciplined electronic compostion of this last artist gives a clue about how this music unfolds.

It's 'worldly' in the sense of being woven from exotic microsamples. However, these songs hit hard with a hiccuping funkiness, though some of my favourite tracks ("Snows And Taxis") feature really compelling downtempo soca beats. It certainly helps that its celebratory mood manages to interpolate Sublime Frequencies-like grimy samples with clear yet creative beats. Despite its clicks and cuts bricolage, this isn't tentative or ironic music in the slightest - it's boldly synthetic.

This week's track "Same Dream China" has been making the blog rounds and it's got a whiff of Konono via Steve Reich about it; soon after that theme establishes itself the beat drops and it's all over.

Podcast

it doesn't stop - from bacteria to boys (aum fidelity)
soheb - fond of tigers (drip audio)
polka story - warsaw village band (barbes)
la danza azteca - nahuatl sound system (no label)
suzie q (dem hunter bowel blood remix) - gonjasufi (warp)
sanmidor - kaly live dub (jarring effects)
wb - system (rump)
walk moon combo - arthur's landing (no label)
fluck flick - bobby jackson (jazzman)
ne noya - cos ber zam (analog africa)
bump jive #6 - the movers (gallo)
carolina carol bella - os brazoes (mr. bongo)
summertime our league - babe, terror rmx by four tet (no label)
abiogenesis track 7 - tatsuya nakatani (no label)
pareiodolia - steve raegele (songlines)
the shitman - moha! (rune gramofon)
same dream china - gold panda (ghostly international)
respek i speck/touch i heart - dubkasm rmx by gatekeeper & appelblim (sufferahs choice)
chronicles - odel (ohm grown)
black star dub - gg all stars (heartbeat)
seventh seal - sound iration (year zero)
el majagual - systema solar (no label)
chico ye - menea (no label)
tile ban - donso (comet)
el aguajal - los shapis (barbes)

Huelepega Comes To MAMA

This Saturday night, Huelepega Sound System is the featured guest of the monthly MAMA party at Teranga.

This MAMA likes to shake it to "Kuduro! Naija! Doooombia! Ghettotech! Dancehall! Ethiofunk! Reggaeton! Folkstep! Soca! Kwaito and SA House! Raptor House!" (love the last one; let's root for the home team)

But you can get a sneak peek by listening to the Abstract Index tomorrow night at 11. DJ Marcus Boon will be stopping by to talk about the night, and his musical interests. He'll also play an extended set. Tune in and turn on!

Abstract Index Playlist - March 24/10

Full marks to Jonny Dovercourt for pegging my taste so perfectly. Tzadik released the magnificent Afrikan Machinery in 1998, and I slept on it.

In truth, I haven't listened to this whole album yet. But I'm smitten: in a few hours I'm off to the Music Gallery to see Lukas Ligeti live.

This music is a beautiful marriage of marimba and electronics. Ligeti (son of Gyorgy) plays an instrument called the marimba lumina. It was invented by Don Buchla, whose interfaces for electronic instruments (i.e. something other than a piano keyboard) have always been creative and versatile. Once this interface is married to Ligeti's compositional digestion a wide range of African and European rhythmic strategies, the sky is the limit. These songs seem to continuously unspool new melodies and variations: "polyrhythmic" seems too tame a description. But it's no mere math exercise, Ligeti has a ear for good hooks too, as in the pervasive whistling that enlivens "Great Circle's Tune I". No doubt this will yield new delights live.

Podcast

balafon dance system - lukas ligeti (tzadik)
velvet paws - move d & benajamin brunn (smallville)
see mi yah - willi williams/rhythm & sound (basic channel)
charlie - cafe neon (station 55)
alon basela - avishai choen (emi)
helelyos - zia (finders keepers)
africa - amanaz (qdk media)
rejoice pt. 2 - souljazz orchestra (strut)
anything worse - gaslamp killer (brainfeeder)
goodmorning sun - qua, rmx by aoi (mush)
tanga pa katanga - joe cain (time)
shanty song - bruce peninsula (bruce trail)
the beginning of the end - chris corsano/mick flower (vhf)
a story told - professor fingers (5 1/4)
dark and lovely - sub oslo (sueno)
musically dub - irie invaders feat adubta (step 4i)
riddim culture - citizen sound feat. richard underhill (vx)
shreveport shuffle - john frum (jahtari)
squadron face - fredo (tru thoughts)
yard music - joe gibbs & the professionals (lighnting)
wall street - jackie mittoo (soul jazz)

Abstract Index Playlist - December 9/09

I suppose I could have been more ruthless in my search, but here's an album I had coveted for more than 10 years before finally purchasing it last week.

It's kind of remarkable that Fuji music isn't more popular in Toronto given the city's populous and relatively well established Nigerian community (though heavyweight artists Sir Shina Peters & Adewale Ayuba, aka the artist at the heart of this week's disc, have both come to town in the last few years). Moreover, the music hasn't impacted the global dancefloor DJ set as profoundly as one would think, considering it moves along at a quick-stepping 150 BPM.

I suppose it's just too damned funky to be easily transitioned from dance beats of similarly high tempos. Fuji is the exciting sequel to highlife/juju music. But whereas King Sunny Ade and Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey's styles can be described as gently spacey, most fuji I've heard is way, way faster and intended for serious rump shaking.

However, there's an obstacle - lack of backbeat. Though there may be as many as four talking drums chattering away at the same time, and a kit player who would make Bernard Purdie blush, there isn't a consistent thump in the music. Nothing to tell the average North American dancer "shake your ass.... HERE andtwoandthreeandfour". The drum kit dances on top of the aggregate rhythm established by the talking drums, like a set of timbales. Like my other obsession this year, (urban) mambo , there's no emphasis on a repetitive, grounding bassline upon which to latch either.

That's why this disc always intrigued me. It reduces the music to nothing but percussion, vocals and dub effects. I found a quote on NatGeo's site from Iain Scott, the founder of Triple Earth records "The idea behind this was that I was fed up with all the various dance albums which used African or Arabic samples as a bit of exotic fluff on the top of a purely conventional (and boring) four-on-the-floor dance beat. Why not do it the other way round? Use African music as the meat beat and studio dub techniques as the exotic bit." No wonder this has such great appeal for me - it's a kindred spirit to Huelepega Sound System.

Anyways, this disc is more than ten years old and still sounds absolutely fresh. Even the Laswellian track (19 minutes!) with which I started this week's show has a great compositional arc. Fuji Dub is more available now that ever before. It's well worth buying, cause it's only 5 tracks long. Those sites which calculate an album's price as the aggregate of the number of tracks make this a bargain.

Podcast

fuji chaman - adewale ayuba & fuji dub (triple earth)
musow - bassekou kouyate & ngoni ba (sub pop)
roller skates - samiyam (hyperdub)
doobie down - georgia anne muldrow (ubiquity)
misdemeanor - the cbs (jam city)
hot thursday - bei bei & shawn lee (ubiquity)
rework - a made up sound (clone)
747 dub - yoshinori sunarha (ki/oon)
los ninos de fuera - luciano (cadenza)
please let us know if we may be of further assistance - parkdale revolutionary orchestra (no label)
waris dirie - nicole mitchell black earth strings (delmark)
35 cents - kris davis (new sound fresh talent)
spying glass - horace andy (wackies)
jah no dead - burning spear (pressure sounds)
love and iverstanding - sabbatical ahdah (i grade)
do you see what i see? - friendlyness and human rights (no label)
positive roots rock - mnolo (collage)
come to me - black seeds (easy star)
nuff bread on your table - heptones (lagoon)

Abstract Index Playlist - November 11/09

As I listen to Wayne & Wax, DJ/Rupture and other leading lights on the Afropop Radio documentary "World Music 2.0" I find myself blogging about a subject so world music 1.0 it's hilarious.

Now you probably know that I have more affection than most for the term 'world music'. It has aggregated and created a marketplace for audiences, artists, labels, media and other players who believe in cultural exchange through music. Of course the debate is always about the TERMS of this exchange - who makes the rules, who profits, and whether it's fundamentally a one-way system.

I have never known what the deal is with Arc Music's roster and their marketing techniques. They're a British company who release a truckload of discs every year, most of which are guilty of Photoshop 1.0 design. The greater part of these discs appear to be one-off licenses (I hope) from individual artists or fledgling producers. Its output is a mix of pop and folkloric material. Its folklore is often served up with easy-listening reverb, while its pop won't drive anyone out of the souvenir shop. This market is well established by the initial world music 1.0 conventions set up in the late 80s, then tweaked by Putumayo's success in the 90s.

What bugs me most is that too many of Arc's releases feature the style of music front and center, with the artist's name buried in the graphics. The message seems to be "here's an example of this music" in the tradition of Putumayo's compilations which reduce the individual personality of the artists to a function of the overall image or flavour.

I can't understand what's going on this disc. 'Yinguica' doesn't seem to be the name of a band; perhaps it too is a one-off. Percussionist Barry Van Zyl is a member of Johnny Clegg's band, and he's a frequent name on Arc releases. So the listener/buyer isn't even sure about this disc's intent beyond the promise of authentic-sounding 'Marrabenta'. Since this Mozambique-based music is one of Africa's lesser known party sounds but stops well short of digital boom bap, it's an opportunity for Arc to put out yet another variety of novel but unthreatening global grooves.

Fortunately, as with a small but steady proportion of the label's content, the music is worthwhile. Hard charging percussion dominates most songs, and the instrumentation is kept spare with bass, drums, and intertwining acoustic guitars. I'm no expert on the music so I can't judge its 'authenticity', but it's clear that the participants are actually working up a sweat in keeping with the "play it 'til your strings break!" ethos of Marrabenta posited by the back cover.

This won't set the blogosphere on fire, but it's further proof that there is plenty of credible music being put out by the gatekeepers of world music 1.0, even if the circumstances are sometimes obscure. Hopefully everyone is seeing a return on their investment.

In the meantime, check that Afropop doc - it's a good roundup of how disintermediation is the main characteristic of world music 2.0.

Podcast

sierra alone - the embassadors (nonplace)
tiny pyramids - ratchetorchestra (no label)
the alley of enchantment - dub rocket (touchbass)
nucleus roots - automaton (satamile)
aqua con sal - bronx river parkway (truth and soul)
ni nhi me le - yinguica (arc music)
serengeti - magic drum orchestra (lion hea...d)
ghost ride - muskox (standard form)
avante me fante - mahala rai banda (asphalt tango)
plovdiska rachenista - boban i marko markovic orkestar (piranha)
joe pill - electro morocco (blue jay way)
untitled track 3 - pink saliva (no label)
lower nile - arthur blythe (india navigation)
blues n' boxing - michael kemp (no label)
independent girl - demattos (no label)
hallelujah - leroy brown (dakarai)
different strokes - kiddus i (naya)
i sight - tarrus riley (vp)
bumpy's lament - richie phoe (balanced)
don't cry dubwise - jah warrior (tanty)
stalag 23 - tony dubshot (no label)
the attorney - tommy mccook and the supersonics (pressure sounds)

Abstract Index Playlist - October 28/09

Over at Eye Weekly, I've written a feature about the totally original musical life force that is David Amram. He's still going strong more than five decades into a career which delves deeply into jazz, European classical, First Nations music, Cuban rhythms and all sorts of Asian influences. No doubt all of these musical interests will be on display during his guaranteed-to-be-anarchic performance at Toronto's Revival club this coming Tuesday (November 3).

I spent an hour on the phone with him. Asking him a question is like looking at a comet: he starts his answer from millions of miles beyond this planet, but as he zooms in, you can see it’s going to be brilliant. Then he loops back around for another tangential approach.

For someone on the cusp of eighty (the title of his next book is "David Amram: The First 80 Years"), he's super-sharp, perceptive and most of all incredibly enthusiastic about music. Reading the article, one might think that he is too much of an idealist to be believed, but damn, it comes from his unique life experience and we should all be so lucky at that age.

I got this album, a document of the US-Cuban rapprochement of 1977, a few years ago from my aunt. Killer Latin jazz of some complexity dominates the recording - just look at those players, they're up to the challenge. My fave track remains Broadway Reunion, which I played this week. It's a live recording of Amram's flutes alongside the legendary Los Papines drumming group captured live on Broadway (literally).

He's bound to bring that vibe to Revival; the one time I saw him live, he captivated with his mix of Rahsaan Roland Kirk-like free musical association and rambling storytelling style. Don't miss this gig.

bumble rumble - han bennink (atavistic)
new york - franck vigroux (d'autres cordes)
ochlophobie - galerie stratique (archipel)
people's republic - gold sparkle trio feat ken vandermark (squealer)
paper thin - viviane houle/coat cooke (drip audio)
slinger - muskox (standard form)
shromis simghera - darbazi (no label)
algodao - quarteto novo (odeon)
barely breaking even - universal robot band rmx by john morales (bbe)
broadway reunion - david amram (flying fish)
mario - franco & tpok jazz (rough guides)
elsa - sonido martines feat fefe (soot)
desacarga tiburona - los tiburones (tropical)
francophonie - canaille (standard form)
dock boggs - canaille (standard form)
sabotage - carlton patterson & king tubby (hot pot)

Upcoming Interviews On The Abstract Index

I've been negligent at promoting upcoming interviews on this blog... Not this time, though. There are two you should definitely know about:

image by Geoff George/Exclaim

Next week (September 23) I'll be joined by author and Harbourfront booking agent Dalton Higgins.

We'll be speaking about his new book "Hip Hop World", which came out last month. The book surveys the growth and state of hip hop culture in North America and around the world. As you know, I don't play a tremendous amount of hip hop on my show, but it's part of my musical DNA and affects a wide range of music I represent more frequently. By the same token, Dalton's book delves into these hip hop tangents - I think this is going to be a fascinating discussion.



The following week (September 30), I'll air an edited interview with singjay extraordinaire Jahdan Blakkamoore. His album Buzzrock Warrior dropped this week and oh my it's quite the aural treat. Dancehall, hip hop, dubstep, cumbia, even mambo influences figure into the latest and greatest statement from the Dutty Artz crew. Jahdan has an expansive outlook on music, and will be talking about how he's gotten to where he is today.

Both interviews take place at interview o'clock - 7PM.

Polaris Music Prize 2009 First Ballot

It was more difficult than ever to come up with an initial ballot for the two-stage voting process that makes up the Polaris Music Prize. I listened to more music than ever before from beyond the already-heaping pile of promo that usually graces my desk. I'd like to thank my fellow jurors for recommending so much great music. I'd go so far as to say that this year has been one of great personal growth in terms of my outlook on music in Canada, and in general.

But even so, I found my picks surprised me. There have certainly been some hints in blog entries past, but my first five look like this:

Bell Orchestre - As Seen Through Windows

Blogged about it here. A tremendously interesting listen, sonically rich, fully realized concepts & never a dull moment. I never thought that these close associates of Arcade Fire would be my #1 pick but I still marvel at this disc.

Galerie Stratique - Faux World

My colleague Eric Hill at Exclaim wrote a great review of Charles-Emile Beullac's electronically reanimated visions of South East Asia. It's like the Up! of world music... fanciful, stylish, exotic yet personal, and emotionally affecting.

Justin Haynes & Jean Martin - Freedman

Wrote about it here. Ukulele & suitcase duet makes for a unique experience in intimacy. Myk Freedman is a buddy, and his beautiful songs are more than given their due in this minimal setting.

Charles Spearin - The Happiness Project

Of all the art projects in this top 5 - and every single one of my picks qualifies - this one is the only disc with vocals. But what he does with the vocals is incredible. Spearin teases out musical arrangements from speech patterns, and the sunny vibe of the album guarantees the listener's engagement. It's many things at once - "free music" in that it doesn't follow time signatures but is linked to easily relatable rhythms, and "world music" because what could be more global in its scope than interviewing one's neighbours in multicultural Toronto?

Last Step - 1961

One of 8000 discs released this past year by Aaron Funk aka Venetian Snares. I listened to all of them - cause it's worth it (at least until they slip the straightjacket on me) - before deciding that this was my favourite. Typically, it's miles ahead of most electronic ingenuity. Most importantly takes the piss out of super-serious bedroom boffins.

Near misses/other interesting records, in no particular order:

Jayme Stone & Mansa Sissoko - Africa to Appalachia
Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life
Masia One - Pulau
Slakah The Beatchild - The Soul Movement Vol 1
Timbre Timbre - S/T
AIMToronto Orchestra & Anthony Braxton - Creative Orchestra (Guelph) 2007
Women - S/T
DDMMYYY - Black Square
Lubo Alexandrov & Kaba Horo - Contrabanda
Daniel Nebiat - Hakimey
K-Os - Yes
Mantrakid - Palmflower Black

Abstract Index Playlist - April 29/09

While this blog has focused almost exclusively on writeups of full length CDs, music distribution is more complicated these days (duh...). Even the way I format my playlist (song, artist, label) is becoming problematic, what with the decline of the "label" as a necessarily informative tag.

One recently launched blog that supplied two tracks for this show (Doc Shebeleza, Costuleta) is Generation Bass, which is the work of Vincent Koreman. It's a popular site, "generating" (pun intended) some 50,000 hits in 2 months since its launch.

GB specializes in "non Western (dance) music and influences thereof" - that's an interesting way to put it. I've grown increasingly dissatisfied with the term "Western" (though I use it sometimes) to describe North America & Europe. Given that the music hosted on the site blurs the line between Euro/North American and, say, African or South American producers, it's hard to make that kind of distinction anymore. I've often made the point before that "Western" countries aren't as Western as they used to be, thanks to immigration patterns and international travel and communications.

Case in point: Huelepega Sound System, who GB were gracious enough to post about a few days ago. I mean, who are we anyways? You've got a Jew, a Colombian/Ecuadorian dude who was born and raised in arid Mississauga, and a pair of brothers from El Salvador living in the 519/905 GTA hinterland. Of course, we're proudly Canadian but we remix and overdub stuff from South & Central America via Europe via the USA. In our case, I'd say we're more Western than non-Western, but it's pretty loose (just like our sound...). I imagine it doesn't get any easier to figure out with many of the artists repped by the site.

Moreover (to rehash some of my State Of The World article from a couple of months ago) "non-Western" artists represented on GB are likely using similar software and pursuing local and international audiences simultaneously via indie methods. And lets face it, the blessing and the curse of this kind of DIY global dance music is its sonic, if not rhythmic, similarity. On the one hand, it's relatively easy to mix this stuff together into a banging DJ set without resorting to wild EQ fluctuations and compensating for beats that might not sit where you'd like them to. On the other hand, that same sonic similarity (limited dynamic range in the music, poor MP3 compression, of-the-moment soft synth and drum sounds) is taxing on the ears after a while IMO.

But this is barely a criticism at all, I'm just stirring the pot a little bit. I love the enthusiasm of this site, they never lean on the hipness of the music too much; they are genuinely interested in finding out more about musical ideas from around the globe and sharing them. Even if they aren't stone cold experts on a given track/genre, they won't posture like they do - that's an honest way to go about it, and one I can relate to. But there's loads of knowledge to be gleaned from this site - posts and comments alike - for young and old disciples of the sensibility once known as world music. Only this time, thanks to the interactivity of the internet, more people get to enjoy and participate in this world of music.

Podcast

angels and demons at play - respect sextet (avant)
banners on high - nomo (ubiquity)
la sidounak sayyada - omar souleyman (sublime frequencies)
take the bus - afrobutt (electric minds)
show you my love - goldie alexander (unidisc)
directions in rhythm - rise ashen (no label)
sun people - deadbeat (wagon repair)
akogo - mr. tunes (no label)
ufana ukheza - doc shebeleza (ccp)
den of drumz - kode9 vs badawi (roir)
one bible - asher senator (soul jazz)
wegue wegue - buraka som sistema (enchufada)
so ca to - costuleta (no label)
i don't know why - ziggi (vp)
iron curtain man - odel (ohm grown)
try hard - courtney stone (no label)
bad boy - 994 crew (out here)
black eye boy - renegade soundwave (mute)
message of hope - abassi all stars (universal egg)
bashment dub - mossman vs. mr. tsunami (dispensation)

Abstract Index Playlist - February 25/09

It doesn't get much more world music than this. If I'd copped this disc a few weeks ago I might have written about it in my research feature.

The fine folks at Lyon's Jarring Effects label kindly sent me the new album by Barceloan beatsmith Filastine. They are one of the two labels (the other being DJ/Rupture's Soot) involved with the globalization of this fine work of digital microsurgery.

This is the kind of music that really excites me these days - a personal approach to electronics and inventive uses of global inputs. "Singularities", which graced the dub set this week, has a whirlwind of ingredients. Dramatic string loops a la Wu Tang give way to a bogle-type beat. Then the shredding starts with 32nd note polyrhythms creating huge flurries of sound. The never-fail descending string motif gives momentum to the sound even as the combinations of splattered beats always threaten the linearity of the song.

I always have great appreciation for someone who establishes their own sense of syncopation in digital programming. Filastine's certainly got that. Even with Arabic, Spanish, and English vocals and EuroAfroMaghrebCarib rhythm information, he understands where he's going in each song. His flourishes are consistently behind the beat, and often consist of percussion other than kicks and snares. These two stylistic touches give a great deal of character to this disc, elevating it above soulless clatter that so often comes with overeager computer musicians.

Podcast

two wings - elder utah smith (case quarter)
gimakiny akia - extra golden (thrill jockey)
rose odhiola - shirati jazz (world circuit)
sanankono moriba - super rail band de bamako (indigo)
it's a vanity - gabo brown & orchestre poly rhytmo (analog africa)
superstar - society of seven (bbe)
elephants - bell orchestre (arts and crafts)
contrareity - carsick (drip audio)
flower power - professor psygrooves (jarring effects)
turning - stone house (riti)
njuke no go die - on ka'a davis (livewired)
soul vibration - new black nation (attic)
saphir - nick ayoub (do right)
l'anchoiade - volfoniq, disrupt & bo marley (no label)
cyan - billy rockwell (balanced)
safe in the dub - vibronics (scoop)
singularities - filastine (jarring effects)
rumpus - version xcursion & masia one (vx)
straight to i roy's big mouth - king tubby and the aggrovators (pressure sounds)
my jamaican weed - andru branch and halfway tree (no label)

NuFunk Events In Early March

NuWorld:Earthbeat: that's what we're, er, promising.

But seriously, it's a heavy duty triple bill with us Huelepegistas trading dub shots with Guelph's finest global dub explorers Eccodek, and "global sound sculptor" Adham Shaikh.

Supporting DJs are the always on point Medicineman and Zumba Blue Eyes of Sumkidz.

If you're in Toronto, and you like bass, this is the place to be on March 6.

--------------

But there's an appetizer for your nufunkin' pleasure too.

I'm pleased to be DJing the second annual tribute to Jackie Mittoo on Thursday March 6, also at Revival. Mittoo needs no introduction to even casual reggae fans, but his life in Toronto remains underdocumented.

That's why it's so great that event is happening. You're sure to run in to close associates of the man, as well as many more souls who were inspired by Mittoo's esteemed place in Toronto reggae history as a community leader and mentor. Jason Wilson loves to talk about Mittoo, who was his inspiration to get involved in his own unique reggae style, and there is no one more fitting to provide the music. As for my own DJing contributions, I'm gonna tighten up on that organ and use "WWJD?" as my guide (substituting Jackie for Jesus of course).

Jason, and with luck, Carol Brown (Mittoo's widow), will be stopping by the Abstract Index next Wednesday for a chat at 7PM.

World Is Not Enough

My biggest project of the last couple of months has just been published. It's called State Of The World, and it examines what the term 'world music' and means in 2009. In short: world music not a meaningless term, it still represents a coherent way of classifying music, and the world music network of venues and people plays a significant role in articulating cultural issues within music.

I interviewed ethnomusicologist Wayne Marshall ,
Harbourfront booker Alok Sharma, Rolf Klausener of the Acorn, Alan Bishop of Sublime Frequencies, and Tinariwen's manager Andy Morgan.

As with pretty much all my writing in Exclaim, I'm writing for a Canadian audience, and wanted to focus this unwieldy topic to the readership at hand.

This article brings together a lot of ideas I've had about global sounds in the last few years. It's no rehash, but it certainly expands on some ideas from last summer's "Toronto Soul: One City Under A Groove".

One more thing - I forgot to post about my profile of pianist Marilyn Lerner in Eye Weekly last week.

Uma Nota Presents Uma Festinha

Just picked up a DJing gig this week - it'll be a fun one! Well, they're all (mostly) fun, but I love spinning at the Gladstone.

This is an offshoot of the Uma Nota night which occurs bi-monthly. It's a smaller scale event, hence "festinha", but your attendance can embiggen the night!

Here's the details:

Uma Nota presents Uma Festinha
(a little party!)

Featuring:

Samba Elégua -- all percussion set
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2238767139
http://sambaelegua.com/
http://myspace.com/sambaeleguatoronto

Repercussions (Roots Soundsystem)
Led by Alkiks Bordokas
(of Maracatu Nunca Antes:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12472148709 )

DJ General Eclectic (Footprints, Freedom Time)
http://www.djgeneraleclectic.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12472148709

DJ David Dacks (Exclaim! magazine, CIUT's Abstract Index)
http://abstractindex.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12472148709

Gladstone Hotel (ballroom) 1214 Queen St.W
$5 at the door all night long!

More Info TBA - facebook event is here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=59140145890

Abstract Index Playlist - November 12/08

In the November issue of Exclaim, I wrote a profile of Jean Martin's strange and amazing recording/composition space, the Farm. Actually the Farm is his and Christine Duncan's loft, and is not rural in the least.

Martin's label, Barnyard Records, is about to drop a titanic trio of records on an unsuspecting audience at the Lula Lounge on Dec. 3. Like the Rat Drifting label, Barnyard likes to release many discs at a time - perhaps like RD in order to concentrate the amount of promotion activity associated with the label.

The three discs are the Martin/Justin Haynes ukulele/suitcase (that's right, Martin plays suitcase exclusively on the disc. I've seen the suitcase. It isn't pretty) duets of Myk (St. Dirt Elementary School) Freedman, a duo composed of Anthony Braxton and his padawan Kyle Brenders, and this inflated bit of whimsy with an awesome name: Blah Blah 666.

This is something of a Tranzac supergroup composed of Tania Gill, Nick Fraser, Ryan Driver (aka 3/4 of Deep Dark United) with Haynes and Martin. St. Dirt's junkyard jazz certainly plays a part in this music, as instruments like 'defretted electric guitar' and 'street sweeper bristle' would fit right in to Fat Albert and The Cosby Kids. The music, however, may be best described as 'avant mariachi' cause you ain't never heard a Mexican hat dance done quite like this. The music is usually quite zany, in a found sound meets hot jazz sense, with a dash of Beefheart on the side. It's a testament to the madcap nature of this disc that I played it after Sun Ra this week and Mr. Blount sounded humourless by comparison.

I can't say that it's my instant favourite record of the year, but I also anticipate an epiphany at some point at which point I won't be able to stop listening to it for days or even weeks at a time.

Certainly Rube Goldberg is smiling on this from somewhere.

Podcast

dawn - sun ra arkestra & salah ragab (golden years)
chico lympico - blah blah 666 (barnyard)
wasana - chaan siang phin (sublime frequencies)
lyman place - steve reid/kieran hebden (domino)
nyame mboa - eric agyemang/a.b. crentsil (world art)
ya fama - toumani diabate symmetric orchestra (nonesuch)
serkan's tale/trans roman - lubo alexandrov (ccm)
landscape - the mohawks (vampisoul)
cold weather - the upsetters (trojan)
sankofa - tony allen/hypnotic brass ensemble (honest jons)
holy thursday - david axelrod (vampisoul)
corner of your smile - koushik (stones throw)
crabapples - bruce peninsula (bruce trail)
doce guia - 3 na massa (nublu)
brown sueter - a filial (verge)
iarna iarna - aura urziceanu (sonar kollektiv)
you'll never find a love like mine/dub - john holt/king tubby (trojan)
the same song - paragons (treasure isle)
carpenter rebuild - meditations (greensleeves)
jeman - mikkle metal feat. paul st. hilaire (echochord)

Abstract Index Playlist - September 10/08

Lately, I've cottoned on to a few recommendations by my colleague Cam Lindsay who is Exclaim's Associate Editor.

I've seen this album compared to Outhud and LCD Soundsystem and I can get with that. But there's more going on here without being too self indulgent. I'm a fan of any artist who will use a wide variety of rhythms, sounds and songwriting ideas - regardless of genre. Having not paid much mind to GGD's (purportedly more experimental - I'll have to do some digging) work before this, Saint Dymphna presses all my buttons. Grooves bounce from the punk-dub of this week's track "Desert Storm", to fractured Afrobeat, to a "Darling Nikki"-type groove, to a loopy if not entirely succesful collaboration with grime-y vocalist Tinchy Stryder.

When the inevitable 80s inspired synths hit like a sledgehammer, at least they make interesting music rather than barf up semi digested Depeche Mode or Arthur Baker riffs. But the range of ideas impresses, and the flow of the disc is superb. Expect more airplay...

Podcast


demented lullaby - adam niewood (innova)
recall - lina allemano (lumo)
pollen and spores - secret frequency crew (schematic)
desert storm - gang gang dance (social registry)
baiao one two - a filial (verge)
ohlos coloridos - sandra de sa (milan)
la mareada - spam allstars (riverboat)
brother man sister ann - clemon smith (charly)
tour to africa - tarig abubukar & the afro nubians (no label)
secret - adrian miller (black night)
ma hine cocore - vieux farka toure rmx. by yossi fine (modiba)
ahe sira bila - issa bagayogo (six degrees)
18" speaker - ragga twins (soul jazz)
army arrangement (bill laswell version) - fela anikulapo kuti (celluloid)
battle of the righteous man - dub gabriel feat. dr. israel (destroy all concepts)
jah jah live forever - johnny osborne (light in the attic)
don't look back (don't space out) - peter tosh & mick jagger (rolling stones)

I Want To Write About It, If Not Be A Part Of It

My feature articles from the last month are all about NYC.

First up, in Exclaim, is an interview/review with someone I have been very impressed with for the last three years - non-native New Yorker Andy Haas. He's one of the most accomplished improvisers I know who merges conventional musical ability with live electronics. Moreover, his explorations (and extrapolations) of folk forms from around the world give him a rich vocabulary with which to explore new ideas in saxomechanical interfaces. Did I mention he was a mainstay of Martha And The Muffins back in the day?

Also, I was surprised to see one of my pieces on the Paste magazine website. I have written for them off and on (I wish I could find my Feuermusik/Larry Wright piece somewhere...), but the magazine seems to limit its online content. Last month's compare-and-contrast piece on two NYC clubs cum labels pitted Nublu and Barbes against each other. Who won? Everybody who loves to dance.

Abstract Index Playlist - April 2/08

It’s a fine line between jam band fatuousness and cutting edge rhythm abstraction. With so many contemporary instrumental bands, often these two tendencies coexist in the same tune. And I don’t know what it is about trios these days. I blame Scott Lafaro for brilliantly exploding the conventional jazz rhythm section/solo voice. Several dozen musical generations later, we have trios such as this where all three members are multi-instrumentalists switching roles within songs. Electronics can be used as another sound source as they are here, or they can interact with the band as with the Australian piano trio Triosk. In any case, I'd say the trio has been reinvented more thoroughly than the quartet, in which there's still a division between the front and back line instruments.

Despite containing all the elements for disaster - sprightly flute leads, lush keyboard pads, big 'verb - more often than not the Hadouk Trio ends up sounding like a particularly inspired Bill Laswell production. The band is far more of a unit than most studio projects - that 'live album' energy is a big part of the sound here. than a studio session. It doesn’t take long for most grooves to lock into some serious dub postures anchored by hand drums and sintirs.

This is capital 'W' World Music - fusion with all the trimmings. But rarely is the cheese factor sustained for long, though a couple of tracks on this disc leave me cold. When it seems like they're threatening to turn into this decade's Enigma, the use of microtonal harmonies and the good ol' ring modulation gives some much needed tension to these billowing grooves.

Hour 1 Podcast
Hour 2 Podcast

chewing gum delirium - the free pop electronic concept (vampisoul)
little rootie tootie - jerry gonzalez (sunnyside)
exchange - matana roberts (central control international)
untitled 12 - box (rune gramofon)
the tiniest spy - insideamind feat laura barrett (no label)
you make me free - lal (ptr)
alena minena - think of one (crammed)
leanin' - randolph (still)
barretta - brownout (freestyle)
casa leule - abdoulaye n'diaye (justin time)
sufi bhakti - debashish bhattacharya (riverboat)
sonido amazonico - chicha libre (barbes)
parasol blanc - hadouk trio (naive)
maisha haya kufa kupona - les embassadors feat. michael ongaru (nonplace)
stop all the violence - sizzla (greensleeves)
ego - etana (vp)
genocide - queen ifrica (flames)
rastaman - jamayka boyz (junior boys own)
musical revolution - version xcursion feat. ammoye (vx)

Abstract Index Playlist - March 19/08

Here's the review of Toumani Diabate's latest disc I wrote for Eye Weekly. There should be another star attached, making it a solid 4.

Two things I didn't get to in the review:

Nick Gold's production is wonderful. He still takes a fair amount of post-Buena Vista Social Club blowback from certain quarters, but fuck those haters. The kora sounds positively four-dimensional on this recording, as if he and engineer Jerry Boys had found new ways to manipulate the audio constraints of the 16-bit quality of the compact disc. This is not overpolished music, but it still has a touch of the surreal to it, like a particularly good demo video in HD quality. For those listeners who get bogged down on whether the reverb is set at low or medium strength during the mixdown sessions and to what degree that bears on the supposed authenticity of the sound, I suggest you sit back and focus on the challenges presented by the music. Toumani Diabate would be more than capable of finding another producer if he thought Gold was diluting or otherwise messing with his what he wanted to do.

Also, the retro-Nonesuch cover art is super stylin'.

Hour 1 podcast
Hour 2 podcast

kaouding cissoko - toumani diabate (nonesuch)
pitch black - prism quartet (innova)
untitled 11 - box (rune gramofon)
what's the deal - ex pro ovo (bbe)
springtime for chillun - burnt sugar (nugroid)
fakarouni - radio i ching (resonant)
roots and culture - mikey dread (music club)
we've had enough - arnie love and the lovettes (numero)
wedged under the front of 0.99 - evan shaw/jean martin (barnyard)
tragic magic - nathan davis (acid jazz)
i heard it through the grapevine - bar kays (stax)
live it up - james k-nine (vampisoul)
reggae riff - jackie mittoo (heartbeat)
less problem - sound dimension (soul jazz)
soul call - jackie mittoo (heartbeat)
park view - sound dimension (soul jazz)
one heavy duba - santic & king tubby (pressure sounds)
dub voyage - twilight circus (m)
my jamaican guy - grace jones (strut)
willow dub - black uhuru/prince jammy (csa)

Jazzy Steel

Two DJ gigs to tell you about coming up soon. Both of them are part of Small World Music's Jazz Series.

The first is next week, March 13, opening for steel pan master Andy Narell, who will be backed by local calypso fusionists CaneFire.

I'll also be nicing up the Burnt Sugar: The Arkestra Chamber gig on March 27, channelling Butch Morris' conduction methods into a more linear but very intriguing direction.