NEW BLOG

this blog represents the first 2 years of Ngoma. it is now finished.

THE NEW BLOG IS HERE:

http://ngomasound.wordpress.com

update your bookmarks :)

INCUBATE Sept. 19-20

Incubate Festival (formerly known as ZXZW, blog here) in Tilburg, Netherlands is coming up in September. on the 19th, as part of Generation Bass, i will do a solo set of all new material, heavy on the South East Asian and Middle Eastern flavors -- all the more abstract, emotional and "difficult" pieces which are too challenging and not suited for normal dance floors will get a chance to shine. on the 20th, as part of Car Free Sunday, i will be supporting dj for the legendary Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou (whose music you know from the Psychedelic Sound of West Africa (will re-up) and African Scream Contest compilations) -- expect appropriate Afro Funk both old and new.

the lineup looks fantastic, of particular interest to readers of this blog might be: James Blackshaw, Mark Ernestus (Rhythm & Sound) & Tikiman, Shackleton, Cooly G, Sensational and Spectre the Ill Saint from Word Sound -- and probably 2 dozens more i am not familiar with -- i hope to see some of you there. thanks to Vince the Prince for making this possible, check his great and often updated Generation Bass Blog for some of the coolest boom boom around the world.

Kwaito Berlin Photos

me and Congo doing a chilled warm up set.crowd is anticipating...Gazza and EES break into their collaborative hit "International"these guys really bring the heat... the dancers were awesome. Gazza is so calm, humble and soft spoken in person, but becomes a raging storm on stage... amazing.too bad there are no photos from the YAAM show, which was fire as well. and afterwards, gazza and his dancers lit up the dance floor just for fun, clowning around like they were in a buddy's back yard. African superstars certainly don't act like American or European superstars... a great time for everyone, bigup Swetlana from the Namibia Society for making all this happen.

Kwaito @ YAAM Sunday Aug. 16

Aweh!

Kwaito superstars Gazza (Namibia) and EES (S. Africa) will be doing an exclusive live show at YAAM this sunday. jislaaik! i will open up.

free admission! 8 - 10 PM only! arrive early!

come have a dop with me, light up the dagga, take off your broekie and jol!!!

Gazza:




Gazza and EES together:


EES:

JULY 30

HAPPENING B-TOWN B DARE OR B SQUARE

NGOMA soundsystem / Fusion Festival

DJ Zhao - laptop //// El Congo -trumpet //// Robby Geerken - Percussion

hyper-modern global sonics meets ancestral lineage: psychedelia, abstract sound, ancient world-wide tradition and contemporary electronic bass for your freaky dancing needs.















a good first live set together even if we only ended up doing 2+ hours because of schedule push back... played lots of new material, rumba breaks, voodoo techno, broken afro-beat. Robby banged on the drums fierce and intricate, Congo was just flying with the trumpet and effects. too bad we couldn't record off the main board but video will be edited soon.

always great to work with fusion people, well organized, and full of good cheer. see you all in one year's time :D

PARTY / MINI MIX

10 minute super promo mix:

Calling Berlin

if you are down with what has been represented on this blog, have some serious skills in the department of bass action and boogie down, live in or around Berlin, and want to shake some bass bins together, please get in touch.

regrettably DJ Latif is no longer with the sound. good luck and all the best to him.

this summer, i will be playing festivals in Holland and Scotland, and also Fusion Festival again. also NGOMA is teaming up with the mighty Dirty Canvas crew to make some waves in B-town. stay tuned... wikkid tingz this way come.

NGOMA 3

the original plan was for 3 to be dub grime apocalypse, and 4 an uplifting and soulful holiday in the tropics. but due to both the popularity of 2, and the challenge from dj Doom, I've decided to continue with the afro-centric 4/4 boom for this volume.

while staying in the same territory as 2, the journey is not the same, and many things make this one unique: the psychedelic motorik genius of Dj Clock's "Durban Guitar"; the monolithic, earth shaking visions of Black Coffee; DJ Sdoko's ominous Kraftwerkian phuture; Manya's soul stirring take on traditonal Angolan melodies; a surprisingly wicked banger from the Dutch DJ Bigga (UK is not the only place currently Afro minded), and ending with Sami vocal style from Mari Boine, reinterpreting the sound of indigenous Norway*. most of the selection are not well known or commonly used tracks in the "scene", with only one exception: just could not stay away from the Yellowtail (but check how it is used before you complain).

concerning the anti-apartheid and war samples used through out the mix: the struggle for freedom from colonialism is the context which gave rise to contemporary South African music: Kwaito was born amidst antagonism and bloodshed, and has led to the current house music scene. thus songs such as "100 Zulu Warriors" and the radio broadcast at the end should not be taken as an incitement of racial conflict (especially in light of last year's wave of horrible xenophobia) but as a reminder of the political realities of the Apartheid era from which this music comes.

*you might think it strange to include a traditional song from northern Europe on an Afrocentric project, but 1. thematically it fits the recording as the vocalist has for decades fought for equal rights of her people, who have long been the subject of discrimination, like South Africans, in their homeland; and 2. Henrich Schwartz who made the remix is a producer certainly with a lot of Africa on his mind.

as you enjoy this i will be back onto the original course: stay tuned for dub terrorism and caribbean love.

DIRECT LISTEN AND SINGLE TRACK DOWNLOAD:

got darker

SEPARATE TRACKS DOWNLOAD:

rapidshare or megaupload

DJ Doom - Adelaide Deep

a challenger arises. DJ Doom from Adelaide, Australia criticized my selection on NGOMA2 for being too obvious and lazy, and in response, has made a short Afro and Africanized house mix, showing us his approach to this sound.

and it is indeed lush -- a different feel from NGOMA2 entirely.

[QUOTE]"Was gonna end it on 'Seasons' but I didn't wanna get accused of anthem bashing, I actually left the room to put the kettle on but changed my mind at the last minute as I wanted to end on a positive tip, cos Zhao - its all love out here

100% live - No Headphones, 100% unplanned / unrehearsed / unedited. Enjoy!"[/QUOTE]

[IMG]http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/252415/Adelaide_Deep_-_LIVE.jpg[/IMG]
That Beep (Radioclit Remix) - Architecture In Helsinki
Fashion (Drum Remix) - Guzluv
Mbeki - Andy X
Alone In Africa Pt. One (Arnaud D Deep Mix) - Niko De Luka
Katumbo (Beats Mix) - Abicah Soul
Greenlight - Footsteps
So Good Today (Yoruba Soul Remix) - Ben Westbeech
Passages - Franck Roger
Mirror Dance (Yoruba Soul Mix) - Afefe Iku Ft. Oveous Maximus
Labyrinthe - DJ Gregory
Compromise - N.B. Funky
Seasons - Lil Silva
I Will Hold On (Ndiza Kulinda) - DJ Choc Ft. Mercy Pakela

[URL="http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/252415/Adelaide%20Deep....mp3"]DOWNLOAD DIRECT LINK[/URL]

bigup Doom for this great mix, and thanks for keeping me on my toes. it's true, music is not competitive sports; but none the less, the only thing left for me to do now is rise to the occasion, and deliver a response to the response... :D

STAY TUNED.

NGOMA VOL. 2

it is said that the drum itself was invented in Africa. and as far as i'm concerned, all modern pop and especially dance music have deep roots in the musical traditions of that continent. i have made the admittedly sensationalist proclamation "techno comes from Africa", and here is an extremely simplified version of my concept of this lineage: slave songs - blues - gospel - jazz - funk - disco - house - techno ---- the circle is complete. some may have problems with this generalization (and in some ways i do too), but all sidelines, exceptions, and details aside, essentially it makes sense to me. after all, the 4 on the floor hypnotic groove can be found in the myriad styles of African music from every era, be it high-life, rumba, or the thousands upon thousands of much older regional traditions.

most people were, and still are, confused, skeptical, or straight up dismissive when i talk about this, but history was made in 2008 with Warp Records' release of DJ Mujava's Township Funk in Europe, which i believe is only the beginning of Europeans coming to grips with the awesome power of African Techno.

i have been playing Euro-centric Minimal, Hard Techno, Tech House, Breaks, Electro, etc., for years, but in recent years have increasingly sensed a solipsism, stagnation, and bankrupsy. in 2009 i feel the style loosely termed "UK Funky" is leading the way out of the rut; and it is no coincidence that the most exciting thing happening in European dance music is directly derivative of African and Afro-Caribbean rhythmic structures.

enough talk. switch on the speakers, lower the lights, and put on those dancing shoes.

DIRECT LISTEN AND SINGLE FILE DOWNLOAD (192k)

SEPARATE TRACKS DOWNLOAD (320k):

rapidshare or megaupload or

mediafire A and mediafire B

SONG OF THE DECADE/CENTURY

turn up your speakers and click here. NOW.

i posted this song on some message boards and most people just do not get it... i too did not experience apartheid (first hand, from the sufferer's side), but the joy of liberation, all those cruel years coming to an end, expressed in this song... like first rays of the sun after winter... just so fucking beautiful.

in Morocco last month one night at this western style nightclub there was an african singer entertaining european tourists with Sade and Michael Jackson... at around 1 AM i requested this song -- the spark in her eyes and smile on her face at the mention of it was just amazing. so she switched the music off, and everyone quieted down as she closed her eyes and did it acappella... and gave it 110% -- her voice just soared and tears did fill my eyes. this photo is from right after:



to me the power and spirit of this song is perfect for this occasion, 20 some years after its recording. and i feel so sorry for all the dead-inside cynical people that can not feel the ecstatic glory of this monument to love, life, and freedom...

FUSION ONE

this is a mash-up album fusing global traditional music and modern bass/beats.

made with material originally prepared for Fusion Festival 2008.

if you've ever wondered what Digital Gamelan is like, or what Capetown gospel singers sounds like on top of Wiley instrumentals, or how Robots would play Ethiopian Jazz...

(the version which appeared on Bloggariddims was a preview of sorts. this final, finished version is more polished, includes twice as many tracks, with non-mash-up tracks from first version taken out.)



01 Intro
02 Deadbeat - Lost Luggage >< Indonesia traditional - Spring Water
03 itoa - Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart's Dub Band D1 >< Indonesia traditional - Morning Sun
04 Balwinder Safri - Karve Da Din >< 2562 - Basin Dub
05 Iran Traditional - Zeybek >< Dj Hatcha - Chillz
06 The Mahotella Queens - Muntu Wesilisa >< Wiley - Bang Bang Instrumental
07 Turkia Traditional - Kervan >< L-Wiz - Fruit Shop
08 Indonesia Traditional - Sanda Kandung >< Grime instrumental
09 Benga - Half Ounce >< Burundi Traditional bernadette ii
10 Indonesia Traditional - Ngantosan // Mark One - Slang
11 Danny Weed - Dirty Den >< Huseyin Ali Riza Albayrak - Ey Zahid
12 African Headcharge - Belinda >< Blir - 19_4_04
13 Kode 9 - Magnetic City >< Akhenation - 361 Degrees
14 Pinch - Qawwali >< Toshinori Kondo - Fukotsu
15 Indonesia Traditional >< L-Wiz - Fruit Shop
16 The Mahotella Queens - Ndodana Yolahleko >< Skream - Skunkstep
17 Circle - Memo >< Even Order ???
18 Hiripsime - ces femmes qui me ressemblent >< Cyrus - Random Trio - Bounty
19 Hijak - Nightmares >< ø - Toisaalia
20 Ana Whabibi - Mahmoud Fadi (interlude)
21 The Mahotella Queens - Amezemula >< Iron Soul - Slo Moshun
22 African Headcharge - Run Come Saw >< DQ1 - Wear The Crown
23 Indonesia Traditional - Padang Magek >< Omen - Rebellion
24 Mulatu Astatge - Kulunmanqueleshi >< Dj Hatcha - Just a Rift
25 Loka - Fire Shepherds >< L-Wiz - Fruit Shop
26 Loka - Fire Shepherds >< Dubwoofa - Devoliz >< Kion Zindagi
27 DJ Wonder - What >< La Chat Playa - Gangsta Forever
28 Rove >< 2046 Soundtrack >< Vex'd - Destruction
29 L-Wiz - Sub >< Armenia Traditional - Boulbouli Hid (Le Chant du Rossignol)
30 Shackleton - Blood On My Hands >< Dashti - Abdoinaghi Afsharnia >< Turkia Traditional - Cagirayim Seni


DIRECT LISTEN AND DOWNLOAD

GOTDARKER

SINGLE FILE DOWNLOAD

SENDSPACE or RAPIDSHARE or MEGAUPLOAD

SEPARATE TRACKS DOWNLOAD

MEDIAFIRE part A //// MEDIAFIRE part B
or
RAPIDSHARE part A //// RAPIDSHARE part B

Deep Roots

what little i know about revisionist history and the fictional divide between "east" and "west":

during the first half of Greek empire everything came from Persia: food, music, technology, philosphy, mathematics, astronomy, religion, medicine, fashion, etc, etc, etc, etc. and it was not until the second part of the empire that the Greeks started coming up with their own ideas - and even then, very much influenced and inspired by South Asian (Indian), Middle Eastern (Iranian), and East Asian (Chinese) thought and practice.

Persian culture, the real "cradle of western civilization", came from Egyptian/African civilizations before.

these facts started to be buried by the Greeks themselves, replaced with the lie that Greece developed more or less by itself -- the beginning of everything "progressive" and "modern". and since then these false ideas have been further spread, and the truth buried deeper and deeper, during countlessly rewrites and revisions of history. the lastest of which saw powerful industrialists of 19th Century America apply sweeping education reforms across America, firing professors that did not tell their twisted version of the story, and installing yes-men that propagated the idea that "the West" was something different, and of different origions, from "the East".

the propagation of this fictional dichotomy between the "occident" and "orient" has always been politically motivated, provides a foundation for racism, distrust, and divide which furthers the aims of the ruling elite -- and is still instrumental today (the structural basis for "the war on terror", which also may be seen as the latest expression of these false ideas)

much of this train of excavations can be found in this book, derided by the ignorant and the brain-washed (just look at the ratings and comments on amazon):



What is classical about Classical Civilization? In one of the most audacious works of scholarship ever written, Martin Bernal challenges the whole basis of our thinking about this question. Classical civilization, he argues, has deep roots in Afroasiatic cultures. But these Afroasiatic influences have been systematically ignored, denied, or supressed since the eighteenth century--chiefly for racist reasons. The popular view is that Greek civilization was the result of the conquest of a sophisticated but weak native population by vigorous Indo-European speakers--or Aryans--from the North. But the Classical Greeks, Bernal argues, knew nothing of this "Aryan model." They did not see their political institutions, science, philosophy, or religion as original, but rather as derived from the East in general, and Egypt in particular. Black Athena is a three-volume work. Volume 1 concentrates on the crucial period between 1785 and 1850, which saw the Romantic and racist reaction to the Enlightment and the French Revolution, and the consolidation of Northern expansion into other continents. In an unprecedented tour de force, Bernal makes meaningful links between a wide range of areas and disciplines--drama poetry, myth, theological controversy, esoteric religion, philosophy, biography, language, historical narrative, and the emergence of "modern scholarship."

Could Greek philosophy be rooted in Egyptian thought? Is it possible that the Pythagorean theory was conceived on the shores of the Nile and the Euphrates rather than in ancient Greece? Could it be that much of Western civilization was formed on the "Dark Continent"? For almost two centuries, Western scholars have given little credence to the possibility of such scenarios.

In Black Athena, an audacious three-volume series that strikes at the heart of today's most heated culture wars, Martin Bernal challenges Eurocentric attitudes by calling into question two of the longest-established explanations for the origins of classical civilization. To use his terms, the Aryan Model, which is current today, claims that Greek culture arose as the result of the conquest from the north by Indo-European speakers, or "Aryans," of the native "pre-Hellenes." The Ancient Model, which was maintained in Classical Greece, held that the native population of Greece had initially been civilized by Egyptian and Phoenician colonists and that additional Near Eastern culture had been introduced to Greece by Greeks studying in Egypt and Southwest Asia. Moving beyond these prevailing models, Bernal proposes a Revised Ancient Model, which suggests that classical civilization in fact had deep roots in Afroasiatic cultures.

This long-awaited third and final volume of the series is concerned with the linguistic evidence that contradicts the Aryan Model of ancient Greece. Bernal shows how nearly 40 percent of the Greek vocabulary has been plausibly derived from two Afroasiatic languages--Ancient Egyptian and West Semitic. He also reveals how these derivations are not limited to matters of trade, but extended to the sophisticated language of politics, religion, and philosophy. This evidence, according to Bernal, greatly strengthens the hypothesis that in Greece an Indo-European-speaking population was culturally dominated by Ancient Egyptian and West Semitic speakers. Provocative, passionate, and colossal in scope, this volume caps a thoughtful rewriting of history that has been stirring academic and political controversy since the publication of the first volume.

About the Author
Martin Bernal, formerly a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University, is now retired.

check out the chapters

get the book

by the way

you can make comments now! sorry it was on the wrong setting earlier!!!

blogariddims 45 / a mashed up mix

this is made with material i prepared for Fusion Festival, and is also an attempt to communicate new conceptions of hybridity by fusing sounds from disparate locations and eras into cohesive new musical entities, with focus on traditional and regional music framed by urban bass and beats, or is it the other way around?

01_00:00 Deadbeat - Lost Luggage // Indonesia - Spring Water
02_03:20 itoa - Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart's Dub Band D1 // Indonesia - Morning Sun
03_05:50 The Mahotella Queens - Muntu Wesilisa // Wiley - Bang Bang Instrumental
04_08:12 African Headcharge - Belinda // Blir - 19_4_04
05_09:28 IndonesiaTraditional - Sanda Kandung // Unknown Grime instrumental
06_11:24 Benga - Half Ounce // [Burundi: Music from the Heart of Africa] bernadette ii
07_14:52 Indonesia Traditional - Ngantosan // Mark One - Slang
08_17:28 Danny Weed - Dirty Den // Huseyin Ali Riza Albayrak - Ey Zahid
09_19:02 Ragga Twins - Spliffhead
10_20:35 Burial - Unite
11_22:14 Dub Terror [ft. Echo Ranks] - Technology
12_25:07 Hiripsime - ces femmes qui me ressemblent // Cyrus - Random Trio - Bounty
13_28:33 African Headcharge - Run Come Saw // DQ1 - Wear The Crown
14_32:00 Indonesia Traditional - Padang Magek // Omen - Rebellion
15_35:05 L-Wiz - Sub // Armenia Traditional - Boulbouli Hid (Le Chant du Rossignol)
16_38:54 Vex'd - Destruction // from 2046 soundtrack
17_40:05 Hijak - Nightmares // ø - Toisaalia
18_41:54 Shackleton - Blood On My Hands / I Want to Eat You // Dashti - Abdoinaghi Afsharnia
19_47:54 Kode 9 - Magnetic City // Akhenation - 361 Degrees
20_50:24 Mulatu Astatge - Kulunmanqueleshi // Dj Hatcha - Just a Rift
21_52:53 Loka - Fire Shepherds - Freda Mae // Dubwoofa - Devoliz
22_56:00 The Mahotella Queens - Ndodana Yolahleko // Skream - Skunkstep

Mashups: a cheap one liner trend collapsing all narratives into a heap of meaningless garish post modern rubbish, or a new way of interacting with cultures, of thinking about the world, of experiencing and creating music? i've always been excited, if not by most of what i have heard, by what i imagined was possible.

and what i imagined was Digital Gamelan, Ethiopian Grime, Afro-Arabian Dubstep -- sounds from far away and/or long ago fused in ways that are both surprising but also intuitive... i wanted to make a particular kind of mashup, producing results that people would want to listen to, maybe over and over. is it possible to make the fusion, the bastard frankenstein assemblage, sound better than the original sources? a tall order for sure, especially when the original sources sometimes are master musicians, but one that i nonetheless hope to have achieved in some of the mashups included in this mix. judge for yourself -- admittedly a little difficult since you can not hear the originals next to them -- so i suppose just go by how well the hybrids work...

i am always hearing the same beat patterns, the same compositional devices, the same dynamics, the same arrangements, in music made both spatially and temporally far apart from eachother: i think ultimately i absolutely believe that the traditional non western music are the roots of modern music, and indirectly perhaps, but absolutely, deeply connected to the most current forms dance music evolution is taking. (this has to do with the "Afro Asiatic Roots of Classical CIvilization" but that's a HUGE topic for another day).

enough BS, please to enjoy:

DIRECT LINK TO MP3

SUBSCRIBE TO BLOGARIDDIMS

this part 1 is the relatively listening set, stay tuned for Part 2, which will be strictly for bouncing off walls.

Fusion Festival 2008

something like 40,000 people, i think more actually, came out this year.

saturday night zhao played at one of the smaller stages from 9 - 12, i think the sun set about 10 that night.


one super nice thing about the entire festival is everywhere the sound was solid. no exception this stage. the kuduru, bassline, grime, dancehall and dubstep felt so damn good with proper sound power.
material before sunset is on Blogariddims 45 - Fusion Part 1. material from the second part of this performance will be in part 2.




sunday: sun, bass, and friends.


Sunday night at Salon De Baile with DJ Lateef. great party until monday morning -- last photo is after sunrise.