From a small Island in the South Pacific called Vanuatu come two sonic missionaries pioneering a whole new bass sound.
John Regis & Thony B combined are the Pacific Steppaz. Born and raised in the remote South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu they became fans of UK garage when a pair of British backpackers were stranded there for several days due to bad weather conditions. It was at some point during the late 1990′s, and the only source of entertainment they had brought with them was a CD player and a “Best of Speed Garage” compilation. The music immediately had an effect on the Steppaz and they would sit until long past sunsets listening to the funky 2 step sounds through the thin bamboo walls of their island guesthouse.
As the weather cleared, the travellers moved on to other destinations… Precisely one CD lighter. Their love of the emerging garage sound didn’t go unnoticed, and the backpackers (who’s names have been lost in the mists of time) offered the CD as a present to the wide eyed and bass hungry chaps.
Since then their appetite has only increased, as they desperately tried to get their hands on every type od music that came out of the UK, up until last year when they finally saved enough money for a basic PC and some cracked pirate software and began trying their hands at their own musical productions.
I’m not jumping on the RIP bandwagon every time someone public bites the dust. But this one.. This fella’s sudden death really touched me. Adam Goldstein was one of the very few A-list DJs who lived up to their status by being truly skilled and soulful, and bringin’ a genuine style to the decks. Nicole Ritchie this, Hollywood that, but Adam was not just a bubble. No dues left unpaid. He intensely influenced an entire generation of DJs, including myself, and he opened many doors for all of us by using his massive outreach to perform musical education in this cold and shady business. He’ll be remembered as a true legend by every halfway decent DJ out there.
Wherever I’m at anywhere in Asia, there’s 5 different types of taxi drivers.
The silence loving dude
The talkative conversationalist
The bluetooth talker
The sports channel bro
The musical chap, listening to weird pop songs in his native language and singin’ along while doin’ the finger dance on the steering wheel.
I’d usually go with number 1. Whenever I ain’t got any dope new shit on my iPod though, I defs prefer number 5! At times I’m even willing to give my iPod rotation a break to curiously listen to the curiosities coming out of their taxi tape decks.
Upon my last trip to Thailand, I went to check out street markets in the outskirts of Bangkok to see if I can find some CDs with vintage Thai pop jams- the garage recording type, with 808 presets, traditional percussions and screechy vocals. Epic megafail, all the CDs I bought turned out as total karaoke krap.
Then I stumbled upon this live mix lately via Lowdjo‘s blog:
Honestly, parts of it I do find annoying. I have to admit that it’s tough for me to let this thing run without any skipping at all invlolved. But theres definitely some gems mixed up in there.Wish there was a tracklisting.
This twisted selection of Thai pop, Pakistani poppywood, North Korean commie funk, Haitian voodoo drums and Syrian techno made my neighbor knock on my door like a berserk this morning while I was taking a shower. Fuck y’all; use earplugs. Often enough did I tolerate your Nickelback/Fall Out Boy escapades. There’s hardly anything I hate more than the constant awareness of having my tasteless neighbors co-listening to all the marvelous jams I’m bumpin’.
As a big admirer of Brazilian Baile Funk plus being a dude who is holding a German passport after all, I couldn’t help but letting the term ‘Bayre Funk’ (Bayre as in Bayrisch, meaning Bavarian in German) pop in upside my brain while hearing a good olde Bavarian folk tune a while back, imagining the horns and accordions being chopped up like Weisswurst while bumpin’ and grindin’ on some heavy upbeat tamborzão type rhythms.
Amazement took place immediately when I first heard Landgschwister Isertaleghettoschützen from the Bavarian alpine ghetto bass pioneers called Schlachthofbronx.
My fave Bay Area label SOLOS is back on the track with their first digital release:
In the mix are traces of garage, broken beat, and funky, but this is not reverent bass nostalgia: ‘African Rhythms’ pushes past fashion to wire a new set of rhythmic histories and spaces: the track sounds equally tuned to solitary late night rollage and body-dense warehouses.
The A side of this digital single is backed by two remixes: a 4×4 tuff melancholy Theo Parrish-style banger by Yao, and an ambient, abstracted daydream by Fat Transfer, whose disorienting EQ and filter work take the original even further out.
Are you into drum & bass at all? How bout early 90′s UK jungle and rave shiz? Dubstep? It’s usually not my realm at all, although I’ve been a big fan of broken beats since ye olde days, and I seriously adore some of today’s Dubstep sound. But I hardly get to DJ any of that stuff! Obvi I couldn’t say no, when Kongkretebass, Hong Kong’s premier D&B collective, asked me to contribute a mix for their podcast.
Hell, I haven’t written shit in decades. All you get to see from me these days is flyer artwork and party pictures from the gazillions of raves I’m throwing (via Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy). Y’all, my heart is beating and I’m fine. Good times, bad times, we had ‘em all. My life these days is, let’s say, interesting. So why not constantly share stuff so I can be able to say “wanna know what I’m up to – read my blog, bitches”, I figured lately. Jeez, I sound like a fucking sociopath. But y’all who actually know me know that I’m a mother-in-law’s delight. I just can’t run with the hare and hunt with the hounds at the same time, ya dig?
Nuff luv to my fellow tweeters, but fuck a twitter, that shit ain’t me. It’s like a public facebook stripped down to the basics. Or an animal lexicon without pictures. Or a blog with a 140 character limit. Also, I don’t wanna read fools’ stupid ass, illiterate tweets ’bout how they woke up and what they had for brekkie (Except if it’s The Fat Jew, who for instance had frosted flakes out of a black stiletto heel this morning just to figure that it’s gross and gangsta at the same time). Facebook is aight and I dig it, but I’m most likely not going to approve your friend request unless I somehow got at least some kind of connection with you outside of FB (and I’m not talkin’ bout myspace, though I’ve been an über-tolerant lad lately). So I think constant blogging might be the way to go to get rid of my recent random prolixity, travelogue pics, stories about my adopted hometown and my occasional compulsion to share goodies from my bursting list of Youtube favorites and my absurd mp3 collection with random humans from all over ze world.
In case you haven’t noticed, I even archived all my past entries into a wordpress account, with the firmest of resolutions for frequent future blogging. All ya gotta do is subscribe to this one, eat some crackers and patiently wait for new entries. PS if you’re a frequent blog reader and you dont use Google Reader, you are s0 ’97. Also, I’ll manage to have a constant RSS export running to sites like alivenotdead.com, myspace and drmtm to make sure none of y’all gon’ miss a thang in the future.
Ok I’ll shut up for now and let the visuals talk. Who wants to read a blog entry about blogging anyway?
As I dusted off my harddrive, I found plenty of snaps that I slept on circling with words and slapping them onto the internetz, reminding me that I did done a bit of travelling in the last 2 months and maybe I shall share at least a few of the impressions I’ve been witnessing (even though I’m mad late. I hope y’all ain’t trippin’).
Stuff like thunderstorms over Paris on a late June summer night for instance, as seen from top of Montmartre,
or a bunch of dudes playing a deep match of Mahjong for cartons of bootleg ciggies in the streets of Shanghai.
Care for a super rainbow over Schlesisches Tor, Berlin, captured with a shitty cellphone cam?
Fancy some Swiss mountains, as seen from behind the windshield of the German überwhip I’ve been steering across Europe for more than 4.000km lately,
for visiting flea markets deep down in the woods of my Heimatland,
and having difficulties dealing with American tourists?
You don’t want to see awkward family photos, do ya.
Let me hit you with the obligatory crowd shot from one of my countless gigs instead. It was a bit of a cockforest, but nevertheless, Aachen, you were pretty wild that nite.
Been there done that, let’s get back to the present. Now lay your eyes upon some Hong Kongian architecture as seen from the bird’s eye, will ya.
Yeah, I kinda prefer to fuks wit that last one right now. Hong Kong, you’re still on top of my list, just to let you know. Even if subtropical summertimes are in full effect.
I ain’t even trippin’ about this:
or this:
or this:
In fact, I do love a jolly good typhoon from time to time. Can’t wait for the next one.
They turn HK into some sort of 鬼城,
which can be a refreshing alternative to the usual scene.
Youtube of the day: The Specials – Ghost Town
Nuff said.
PS I’ll buy a candy bar for the lucky bastard who can tell me why only the last 18 posts of my blog show up in Google Reader, instead of all 65, like it’s supposed to. Holla.
