Greetings from Zanzibar, Tanzania. I'm here to do sound on a documentary on a women's foot ball team. Yesterday was my first time meeting the team members - an important first step. So at the end of their training session, I was called in front of the team (yes, the entire team) and introduced. At first (like ALWAYS happens in Brazil), they couldn't get/pronounce my name. I repeated it several times and then I spelled it. Then they all started laughing. Laughing a LOT. Bo means penis in Kiswahili. Yep.

okay....addendum....actually it is Mbo. minor detail that M....

Anyay, before I get going writing about Zanzibar and things from this side of the world, I want to big up one Marcos Cunha, who I was cyper-duced to via a news group I participate in which is composed entirely of producers working with Brazilian electronic music. Mr. Cunha, who I still don't know personally, is based in Rio de Janeiro and is a multi-instrumentalist and producer extraordinaire.

I was introduced to his work via his sound track for Fabio Fabuloso, a documentary about Fábio Gouveia, probably the best known Brazilian (ele é Paraibano) surfer on the WCT, or ever, for that matter. Aside from being an amazing super stylee surfer, lover of donkeys (seriously), and world traveler (who can't speak English worth a damn as hilariously shown in the film) he is above all a family man and even takes all his kids on tour around the world with him.

The doc is great fun and an amusing introduction to Fábio's world, style of surfing and the importance of surfing in Brazilian culture. What I really loved, aside from the super funny edits and jibes at northeastern Brazilian accents, slang and culture, was the sound track.

Produced entirely by Marcos Cunha, the soundtrack includes participations by Plinio Profeta, Black Alien, Mr. Jam, and tons of other people that I can't remember right now (desculpe!). There's a wide varitey of styles - baião, forro, maracatu, repente hyridized with techno, breakbeat, dub, ragga, hip hop and drum n bass. In all honesty, I'm not a big fan of the techno/breakbeat in general, but he has achieved a really nice balance between the electronic and the acoustic. Caipira brazil is nicely represented. The timbres and textures of the production (both the acoustic recordings /samples and the electronic based sounds) are excellent and in very good taste. I never found myself recognizing snare drums and going, oh yeah, right, he took that from a Yamaha RX-11 drum machine and the synth is from that reason subtractor preset patch. That's super good in my book. There is depth and feeling in this music and it sounds great. If you can get a hold of the DVD, there is a remix by Moshila Sound System of "Idalina" which is the shit (the original is cool too). By far and beyond my favorite track of the bunch. Zabumba on da riddim, the lyrics of Idalina are from a capoeira song by Traditional (c) ;-), some nice edits that could conceivably fit into a click hop tune and a killer dirty drone thing that comes in every once in a while (don't even know what it is - a processed guitar, a synth?).

yeah. Tutaonana kesho. Kwa heri.

I'm leaving tomorrow to Zanzibar to do sound for a documentary on a women's football team during the World Cup and then to take time on my own to work on music. Expect postings in the near future on Bongo Flava and Taraab.....for the time being, check out the Dhow Countries Music Academy (that's a dhow in the photo in front of Zanzibar Stone Town) for lots of info on various traditional musics of Zanzibar. The official site for Zanzibar has lots of general info on the island as well as a fairly comprehensive rundown of musical groups based in Zanzibar.

Here are a couple of tracks which are dedicated to the shining, valient men of the Polícia Militar do Rio de Janeiro (vai se foder mother fuckers!) that I met after said festa at casa da matriz below.

Rebel MC remix of an original Jah Screw production featuring Barrington Levy and Beenie Man - Under me Sensi (Jungle Spliff). 1994 Greensleeves.

And, Junior Delgado, obviously singing about Kingston, Jamaica, but quite applicable to Rio de Janeiro. The only difference being that they'd be calling in the army to control the police......No, really, jokes aside, there was a proposal not too long ago to bring in the national guard to aid the military police to invade key favelas in order to control the escalating violence associated with drug trafficking. But, then it's all so convoluted. What came first the chicken or the egg, the crime or the corruption?

"Armed Robbery," Junior Delgado from Original Guerilla Music-The Great JA Recordings.

My peoples from Digitaldubs Sound System and their party every other week at Casa da Matriz are practically turning into an institution. Guests this month are Damien Seth (French producer and engineer based in Rio who makes some very dope beats and is also part of FURTO) and Marechal (one of my most really super favorite rappers from Rio (na verdade ele é Niteroiense)).

Digitaldubs has grown a lot over the last few years. I went to their very first party ever in Lapa. It was a bit of a bummer. (As I later found out) the amp blew and they had to find an emergency replacement at the last minute. As a result, they didn't open the doors until super late and there were only a small handful of people there (not including yours-truly - I was long gone home).

Now, their festa at Casa da Matriz attracts a very nice crowd as well as one-off events in other places around town and even in São Paulo. Nelson Meirelles, MPC, Cristiano Dubmaster and Kuque are the main dudes that hold it down on the 1s and 2s. In addition, there is the extended family of rappers and musicians (and there are a lot of them, so I won't even begin to name them all) that show up to make it a real sound system.

Aside from their performances, they have been really active in the studio and have just released their first record, "Digitaldubs Apresenta Brasil Riddims Vol. 1." There are some of the Digitaldubs MCs (M7, Lapide, RRamos, Jero Bantu and Biguli) as well as several guest apperances (Mr. Catra, BNegão, Ras Bernardo, Jimmy Luv and Gerson da Conceição). Expect dub, ragga, baile funk, samba and hip hop - all in varying degrees, combinations and intensities.

In the not so distant future, I'll be doing a special mix of Digitaldubs originals and remixes for my Sambacana show on Brazilnetwork.

From Brasil Riddims, "Pretinho Babylon featuring M7."

Today, we're gonna have a New York minute....



Okay, first the good news. It's LEGAL to relate interracially! And it has been throughout the United States since...................1967!

Enough sarcasm. On the real, June 12th is Loving Day and is a celebration of the legalization of interracial couples. On this day in 1967, the Supreme Court ruled in the decision entitled Loving vs. Virginia that anyone could love anyone (well, that didn't include homosexual relationships, but that'll be a different Loving Day). Before, violations included marriage, sex and living together. Read more about it their website here. They also have a fancy interactive map showing where interracial relationships were illegal according to the year.

My friends at WorldUp! in NYC are throwing a party to celebrate. A rooftop barbecue...sounds pretty nice. I think Rio might even be on the cold side compared to sunny shiny New York right about now. Go to the party and show some love.



Now, the bad news.....September 11 was a pre-meditated (and therefore qualifies the perpetrators to be legally INSANE), fully orchestrated event - according to the folks at Loose Change. Download/watch their documentary here. That is some very crucial and very scary shit.

Huge big up to Nick Tha 1da, Swae, Smoke, and Skooly for the DOPE soundtrack!

Immortal Technique (with guest Mos Def) also had something to say about that in their swell little number called, "Bin Laden." This came out on a 12" on Babygrande Records in 2005. Buy it.

Afterwards, you can check the Dudes at Screw Loose Change - "Dedicated to exposing the lies, Distortions and Myths in the Movie, 'Loose Change'." Yep, they're for real, but I'm pretty damn sure they won't be at the barbecue......

Mapaputsi smoking dagga in Zola. "You must photograph me doing this thing," Paps said, "I wee-dee-dah! As I said. Weed wee-dee-dah." Then he laughed.

Check out an interview with Mapaputsi, my favorite kwaito artist that I discovered during my last trip to South Africa. This is from the reporter's notebook section of a documentary on "South Africa's Kwaito Generation." The reporter's (Sean Cole) notes are candid and amusing. There is also a multi-part audio documentary that accompanies it (haven't checked that out yet, but looks cool). All in all, it's a good beginner's guide to Kwaito. Considering that there ain't a lot of in-depth discussion of the ins and outs of kwaito, or even ANY real kind of coverage of it, this ain't bad.

Here's my super-short beginner's guide to kwaito.....Kwaito is one of the main sounds of modern urban (and not so urban) South Africa. A mix of hip hop, house, ragga, township jazz, mbaqanga, kwela and whatever else finds its way into the mix (soukous and kuduro get some attention here too), kwaito is primarily electronic music. It's harder and slower than house music (generally around 100 bpm), but somehow straighter than hip hop (sort of 4 on the floor house beats on tranqulizers). Straight, but not un-swung so to speak. And speak they do....vocals can be, and are, in a whole handful of languages - sometimes all at the same time. Zulu, Sesotho, Setswana, Xhosa, English, Afrikaans or all of the above and more in what's known locally as totsi taal or "thug talk."

"Kas'lam"from Mapaputsi's 2004 release Kleva on Ghetto Ruff. Buy it.

I have no idea what he's talking about in this track. I asked a friend in JoBurg what the lyrics were about and the response wasn't much more elaborate (or poetic) than, "ahh, street shit - you drugs, guns, police, difficulties in life, etc." The only words I understand are "neighborhood" and "big shot." Anyway, his flow is tight.

This, of course, opens a discussion of what our responsibilities are as transmitters of music, ideas, culture, etc. As a DJ and music producer (and especially working with music that is in languages that I don't understand), I make a conscious effort to transmit a message that is positive and conscious. I don't play anti-homosexual dancehall ragga tracks for example. Small, seemingly inconsequential words often prop up much bigger and destructive social insitutions - like racism.

On the flip side, sometimes it can be interesting when a culture embraces a foreign language or style and makes it its own. Like funk and soul in Ethiopia in the 70's or baile funk in Brazil. American pop hip hop tracks got reinterpreted and brasilified. "Whoomp! There it is" became "uh!, tererê." Or, circus bands in India playing western rock music....it's human, natural and inimitable and ALWAYS real.

The waves are massive (2.5 meters) in Rio today and should be bigger tomorrow. Apparently, there were 2 american tourists that had to be rescued by helicopter. No relation to me and I don't know em either....The shot above is from the top of the rock at Arpoador.

Yes. Yes. Been listening to Timeblind this last little while. I downloaded all the tracks from his site and have been having my own blind time em casa.

Dub, ragga, breakcore, sound design, super collider noisescapes and obscure samples all find their way in there. Very cool is Rastabomba . Also, Come Back Wicked with Wayne Lonesome is, well, wicked.

There's a track on his upcoming Soot Records release called "copycopy" that has some nice water swish samples that accompany the above photo nicely. Buy the record!

Aside from his killer tracks, he is one funny mother fucker. Pretty snazzy blog design too...anyway, you go dere an' dere you go.