Good Copy Bad Copy

Just found out (thanks to Camilo Rocha for the tip! - check the Techno Brega) about "Good Copy Bad Copy," a documentary by Danish directors Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke, dealing with issues of copyright, piracy and sampling culture. Filmed in the USA, Nigeria, Brazil, Sweden and Russia, it has interviews with Lawrence Lessig, GirlTalk, DJ Dangermouse, and others. It's light but serious, fun and important. It's a free download and well worth watching.

Modern Traditional Amharic Music

Some "modern traditional" Amharic music I got in Addis Ababa. On my first record buying excursion in Addis, I was really disappointed by what I heard at the record shops. Fortunately, most of the shops are very helpful, friendly and willing to play samples of CDs. I was disappointed with the production - the preset sounds, the looped beats with very little variation, the fake saxophones and electric pianos and cheesy sound effects. After spending some weeks riding in local minibuses, taxis and buses, I gained a new perspective on this "modern traditional" music - it sounds TOTALLY different coming out of a crackling and distorted speaker while cruising around Addis (or while chewing chat on bus headed for Harar for that matter). A cheap and easy subsitute for travelling all the way to Ethiopia to hear it in context maybe to plug your CD player into a distortion pedal, close your eyes and will yourself to Piassa........

I don't know the artist, title or album of either of these tracks - I can't read Amharic........so, I'm just including the covers and tracklists. Track 9 from the above CD and it's released on the Picolo Music label. Track 3 from the CD below (auto-tune set to pentatonic!) is released on the Master Sounds label.

If there is somebody out there who reads Amharic and would be willing to enlighten me as to the names of the tracks and artists, I'd be very grateful! Thanks!

Masinqo; Interview with Eritbu Agegnehu Askenaw

Ethiopia

Beyaynet - I wished that everyday was wednesday or friday.
I've spent the last 5 weeks or so in Ethiopia doing location sound for a documentary on the Ethiopian Wolf, producing, recording and researching music and making another of my own mini-documentaries (will post soon!).
Eritbu Agegnehu Askenaw

This is a track that I recorded with Eritbu Agegnehu Askenaw aka Solomon in Addis Ababa. This is from the recording for the mini-doc. Solomon is an azmari, or minstrel, who plays in a club called Duka in the Kazanthis neighborhood of Addis. I'd been invited by a friend to go to Duka and we had arranged to meet there. I showed up on time and waited and waited and waited. My friend never showed up and in the meantime, Solomon focused most of his attention on me, making jabs and jokes in English and a LOT of stuff in Amharic that went completely over my head and had everybody else there laughing their heads off. And, looking at me.....

Anyway, we had a chat afterwards and he turned out to be incredibly sweet and open to recording and doing a small interview. That, I'll post soon.....for now, have a listen to his track......