"and that sense of upper-middle-class 'global village' syncretic fusionism that I think really begins in the 80s"

taking the balearic beach/west coast threads on a detour into the lack of africa in brian eno's computer...

but eno had africa in his computer, didn't he? that was the thing, that it was in his computer.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/06/My_Life_in_the_Bush_of_Ghosts.jpg

there were african versions too, obviously. johnny clegg, angelique kidjo, cesaria evora. youssou n'dour by association, but it seems sort of unfair to classify him that way.

peter gabriel's entire career from the third solo album on. womad preceded luaka bop as that sort of starbucks-brand world music (long before starbucks -- a soundtrack for franchise coffeehouses yet to be born). which isn't to say there's not tons of great music on womad and luaka bop, there is. TONS. but the labels themselves give that sort of npr tote-bag effect to the whole thing. even the logos:

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Images/Custom/Events/Festivals/WOMAD%20logoweb.jpg http://www.luakabop.com/all_our_discs/img/logo.gif

the womad discs all have that little rainbow pattern on them too. the packaging is all designed to make the stuff seem friendly and affirming and easily navigated. as opposed to more recent things, like:

http://www.flyglobalmusic.com/fly/NigeriaSpecialFLY.JPG

which revels in a totally different aesthetic. but maybe the syncretic fusionism had to come first.

In the post which the subject line quotes from I notes that there are some pre-80s antecedents.

Joni Mitchell - The Jungle Line (1975):

Can - I Want More (1976):

Does this belong in this thread?

http://www.spiralfrog.com/sfimages/covers/pop/cov200/dre200/e289/e28948q3334.jpg

Don't forget about Adrian Sherwood...

http://www.beatink.com/br/brc119/BRC119_AHC.jpg

I love 'Power Spot'.

Yeah, cool innit?

I've never really investigated him much beyond that TBH - I have a track by him on the Ocean of Sound comp called Empire III but I don't even know what record it's off.

but eno had africa in his computer, didn't he? that was the thing, that it was in his computer.

In that new Eno biography there's an Eno quote where he says that an African would literallynot stand using a PC bcz it would tie them down and not involve their whole body, and that this is the problem with PCs.

In the past hour I have literally watched an African use a PC though so it's bullshit, much like most of what Eno says about Africa (or 'Africa' coz it's not even a real place to him is it?)

which revels in a totally different aesthetic. but maybe the syncretic fusionism had to come first.

great fucking record, man!

also: how about that psychedlic africa disc that Matos was infatuated with? loved that one too.

i keep meaning to start a thread abt albums that sound like peter gabriels "passion" which i think is like "what a white europeans idea of what 'middle eastern' music sounds like"

sorry i guess gabriel did and does know what 'middle eastern' music sounds like--im more interested in the way its taken maybe? i want more stuff that has that pan-mid-east new-age-y sound that draws on several different "oriental" tropes & instruments without being too culturally specific.

how about Rachid Taha? workin' it from the opposite end of the spectrum, obv. sorta.

anthr link btw the 70s thread & the blrc thread & this thread:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q236/alezinha3110/Mick-Fleetwood---The-Visito.jpg

Max, this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Zazou

much of kate bush's the dreaming, too

In the post which the subject line quotes from I notes that there are some pre-80s antecedents.

haha yeah i know, sorry to cut off the rest of your post -- i've been itching to start a thread about '80s western-world pop's fascination with the developing nations, what "sun city"/band aid/usa for africa mean in context, etc. but some lp recommendations are nice too!

womad preceded luaka bop as that sort of starbucks-brand world music (long before starbucks -- a soundtrack for franchise coffeehouses yet to be born). which isn't to say there's not tons of great music on womad and luaka bop, there is. TONS. but the labels themselves give that sort of npr tote-bag effect to the whole thing. even the logos:

putumayo's record label was only a few years away (est. 1993). the clothing brand was definitely around in the age of womad.

I don't like it when people say things about eg Africans needing to use their whole bodies, or women needing to feel it from the womb, or ... god what a lot of flamingo crap.

Doug Rocket to thread

also in an earlier generation were people like miriam makeba, hugh masekela -- people who became the token-african-artist in a lot of LP collections. i mean really, even someone like harry belafonte seems like a precursor. or tito puente, for that matter. that era of calypso and mambo i think is a really interesting one -- especially because that stuff was to some extent embraced by the pre-rock-n-roll generation, or at least by people who thought rock'n'roll was too loud or too black.

but if i keep tracing back we're going to end up at minstrel shows, so.

on the latin side, ruben blades seems to fit into the thread title.

http://www.paulaltobelli.com/uploaded_images/beatles-india-727343.jpg

also: how about that psychedlic africa disc that Matos was infatuated with? loved that one too.

This one?
http://cover6.cduniverse.com/MuzeAudioArt/540/545410.jpg

GREAT compilation

http://www.tedafrica.org/index.php/talks/ron_eglash_on_african_fractals.html

I like the fact that a couple dudes photoshopped their heads onto that beatles pic.

Is Magic Alex in that pic?

isn't this ground zero for baby boomer world music culture?

http://gypsyfirechicklet.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/jimmy-cliff.jpg

also, hugh masakela is GREAT

In the US, you mean?

yeah in the US

like ex-hippies starting to dig world music

I thought hippies were always into world music!

yeah i dunno actually. i make up shit about hippies all the time. like did you know most US hippies really liked Jif peanut butter because they could mix it with black tar heroin and eat it? true story

I would just like to say that the Jungle Line is awesome

I work at a university and thus see Africans use PCs every day.

Also all those emails from Nigerians asking for my bank details didn't write themselves, DID THEY?

also, hugh masakela is GREAT

totally. and easily accessible. he helped open up africa, or at least south africa, for american/european audiences. he was the thing that surprised me most about monterey pop, because i didn't even realize he was there. he and ravi shankar playing there seems like one step along this continuum.

the fact that practically all internet cafes in london are run by africans also kinda refutes eno's theory

from what i can remember of the visitor there's only a couple of tracks that sound remotely african, i should probably give it another listen

anyway this is a great record:

http://www.nightporter.co.uk/pages/images/discognew/raintree.jpg

(kinda tenuous 70s link though, sorry)

Lizzy Mercier Descloux belongs here, I think.

I may be missing the point, but it seems like you're going for a much cheesier/new-age/80s vibe to your 'global village' concept, rather than the more raw/funky real deal like in the Nigeria Special/Nigeria 70 comps or the Fela Kuti/Tony Allen axis.

I tend to like both, for completely different reasons. Almost gets back to the balearic vs. beardo thing again, but in the context of Africa for this go-round.

I think it'd be more interesting to focus on the new-agey side, which seems pretty ripe for rediscovery in this context, esp considering everyone who issues a re-edit 12"(whether it be 'italo', 'cosmic', 'afro', or even just straight disco in nature) seems to make a pick in this vein.

It's like the relationship between Blues and Rock, but instead of stealing from slave music they're going straight to the source. Someone like Paul Simon circa Graceland invites soooo many more racial/socio-economic implications than Elvis or something, in my opinion. I think this has been explored in the media in the context of Vampire Weekend recently, and it seems like Sacha Frere-Jones has a long-standing obsession with these issues, but it has been happening since the '70s and it almost always produces some awesome music.

ESPECIALLY interesting is how well-respected white artists from the 70s fall into this whole deal (a la Eno, Byrne, Holger Czuckay, etc.) How about some Bill Laswell in this discussion (with Africa Bambaataa!)...

http://bp0.blogger.com/_IyDZgXq8QH0/SAxCmXr5WjI/AAAAAAAABE4/2F0S37jFfH0/s1600-h/front.jpg

Laswell also apparently persuaded Eno & Byrne to make 'My Life In the Bush of Ghosts' and contributed to that album as well.

Meant to include this...

http://bp0.blogger.com/_IyDZgXq8QH0/SAxCmXr5WjI/AAAAAAAABE4/2F0S37jFfH0/s1600-h/front.jpg

http://funk-lp.de/media/Shango-_Shango_Funk_Theo...+.JPG

I may be missing the point, but it seems like you're going for a much cheesier/new-age/80s vibe to your 'global village' concept, rather than the more raw/funky real deal like in the Nigeria Special/Nigeria 70 comps or the Fela Kuti/Tony Allen axis.

yeah i think so. i mentioned nigeria special mostly as a contrast to the upper-middle-class fusionism, and a sign of some shifts in the "world music" marketplace.

FYI a lot of stuff on the pure moods CDs is a logical outgrowth of this movement

Pure Moods, Putomayo, the whole genre of smooth jazz- there's a lot of logical outgrowths that make it hard to embrace this stuff

:( i like pure moods :(

one of the things that didn't seem to get picked up on w/all the 80s revivalism was the infatuation with african music
s/d: Afro-Electric music

"boring."

Sorry, but shouting out Konono as contemporary African music that the white kids are missing out on because they're stuck on 70s Afro-Rock comps is many levels of bullshit.

Also, to reference another, older post-- that 'Love's a Real Thing' African psych comp was on Luaka Bop

I'm not sure how that's so different than being on Crammed Disc, which puts out stuff like Cibelle and Balkan Beat Box

While we're talking about really, really weird labels with a focus of sorts on "world music" can we talk about the incredibly disappointing catalog of Shanachie Records? Not including titles on Yazoo (which is owned by Shanache/R. Nevins), it's maybe 90% world fusion/celtic new age or underground pop-county, and 10% amazing reissues of pre-war american & ethnic music.

yeah, that label has really broadly bad taste. Almost deserves it's own thread

Although they did put out this:

http://www.shanachie.com/images/cdimages/66034.jpg

And I think also Ebenezer Obey - Juju Jubilee which is good

oh hey I forgot also Indestructible Beat of Soweto, which is not a personal favorite but nonetheless a commendable release, I think

GLOBAL NOIZE

Global Noize is a ground-breaking jazz/funk/world fusion project that mixes DJ Logic's turntable wizardry with irresistible funk grooves, impressive jazz solos and vocal/sound textures from around the world.

Global Noize is co-produced by DJ Logic and Jason Miles. DJ Logic is one of the world's best known and most sought after DJ/mixers. His collaberations with the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, Blues Traveller's John Popper and Living Colour's Vernon Reid, along with his own solo recordings, have given him a large world-wide base in the jam-band, club and alternative music worlds. Jason Miles is noted for his work with Miles Davis, Marcus Miller and Luther Vandross.

I lovee said 70s Afro Rock comps, those comments were made to steer this thread away from the topic in the first place so I apologize.

I don't think anyyy white person missed out on Konono, btw

Also their cover art is so mind-bogglingly terrible! (xpost)

I've got a few good Shanachie records. Paddy Killoran and Michael Coleman compilations.

Shanachie put out a mind-boggling FIVE Silly Wizard albums.

http://www.shanachie.com/images/cdimages/5151.jpg
lol

Ghost World soundtrack.

Sorry. Stay on thread Topic. King Sunny Ade - he totally fits it.

Here's a clip to chew on:

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Recorded at the Health and Harmony Festival in Calif...
Recorded at the Health and Harmony Festival in California in 1998. Tough shooting angle, hard to see all the musicians, but all the rhythm is there and the crowd are lovin' it!
Very African dancing.

SAME AS IT EVER WAS

I think both Luaka Bop and even Womad have some amazingg releases on them, but that doesnt mean they aren't characterized perfectly by the words "upper-middle-class 'global village' syncretic fusionism".

Not so much because of the artists, but because of how it is presented. Noise music (and indie- re Dead Can Dance) can be presented as such, too...

http://www.susanlawly.freeuk.com/africa/sticky.jpg

I think Gang Gang Dance is a timely example. They just released an album that sounds like the Tom Tom Club being dosed with codeine and sent off into space.

I think I've said this on three difft threads now but this album rules imo

also lolllll @ shanachie records

college music director's nemesis in the 90s, send five copies of everything and fill up a mail crate worth of crap in under a month

and maybe one out of every 50 would be some halfway decent reggae record

Yea I wanna take chances on those Shananchie ones but jeeeez

I had a few of their albums of super-masterful fingerpicking guitarists playing music you never much cared to here on fingerpicked guitar.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e9/Exoticamartindenny.jpg

oh yeah they did a bunch of stuff like "Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Play Your Favorite Christmas Jams Vol. 7" (xpost)

Exoticism is older than recording. Not what's being talked about in the thread title.

It's definitely a precursor, though

Shanachie Records - C/D/WTF?

I think they put out a bunch of Duck Baker records that my guitar teacher had me listen to. There's something so inexplicably boring about that guy's playing.

sorry, meant to put that on the new thread

There was also an offshoot strain of Australian bands incorporating Aboriginal sounds.

Folky-rock + didgeridoo =
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a5/Goanna-Spirit_of_Place.jpg/200px-Goanna-Spirit_of_Place.jpg

And the inverse
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/YothuYindi_TribalVoice.jpg

And my favorite of the bunch
http://www.followthegeography.com/images/little_desertCD.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j251/mzing12/BOOK1.jpg

Laswell also apparently persuaded Eno & Byrne to make 'My Life In the Bush of Ghosts' and contributed to that album as well.

Laswell lived in the same building as Eno and would hassle him for work whenever they met in the corridors. He played on the initial session of Ghosts recording, but didn't persaude Eno & Byrne to do anything.

"His persistence in asking Eno to work with him paid off in the form of contributions to Eno and David Byrne’s seminal album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts as well as Eno’s own On Land. Brian Eno also contributed a song to the Material album, One Down."

I guess persistence is a different form of persuasion. I duno where I read this but I got the impression that Eno & Byrne had been sitting on what would become Bush of Ghosts for a while before they released it.

also, that "quote" is from wikipedia, so who knowwwws

The Eno biography from this year goes into the sequence of events. Laswell is kinda irrelevant to them. They did sit on Bush of Ghosts but bcz it was a bunch of more or less random jam sessions that they couldn't figure out how to structure.

Ok ok don't get me wrong about Laswell. I'll give Hear No Evil a shout out and then leave it alone, he really went downhill rather quickly towards the end of the 80s and beyond.

BUTTT this is still hilarious...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ouJJXh15L._SL500_AA280_.jpg

http://bp0.blogger.com/_RyyWs_zK-Nw/RneeJdDyAuI/AAAAAAAAAMg/mCnhXU0zOmo/s1600-h/Stratavarious+Front.gif

oops.

GINGER BAKER's Stratavarious and other activities

Is anyone familiar with the Stewart Copeland soundtrack 'The Rhythmatist'?

I had a tape of it as a kid and can only half remember what it was like, but what I can remember makes me think it would fit right into this category.

That Ginger Baker page was pretty illuminating, didn't know about his contributions to this kind of stuff.

Also, what do people think of this?

http://www.yee.ch/E/ED/Edikanfo/Pacesetters/edikanfo_brian_eno_01.jpg

African group produced by Brian Eno, who supposedly gave this some pretty hands-off production.

It might still be available here: http://soundological.blogspot.com/2008/08/edikanfo-pace-setters.html

never saw your post about edikanfo (although i mentioned them a few times on ilx). i picked that up a while ago. it's pretty great afro funk. not much eno in it. another one of his productions i recently grabbed is Zvuki Mu. russian talking heads from 89. http://www.robotsinheat.com/trax/TheSourceOfInfection.mp3

posted this in the beardo balearic beach party thread. apparently it should go here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkUbw9fFEe4&feature=player_embedded

recently picked up the best album that would fit in this thread. Saqqara Dogs with members of Factrix and the Contortions doing noisy fake world music.
http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=saqqara_dogs

this song isn't on the album i got (not as good imo), but it was the only youtube i could find.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKUzLUzu_oc

dude, awesome. not trying to be a thread nazi, just kinda wanted a revive of this one too

noisy fake world music is where it's at. i'll have to look for more saqqara dogs.

i forgot about this thread. the album i found (called thirst) is on mutant sounds

yay zvuki mu -- i heard that for the first time recently.

i think i like a lot of "fake world music"

me too! from the afro-electric thread

i knew this was a jason thread
― david allen grier (dubplatestyle), Thursday, July 27, 2006 12:54 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what can i say, i like my chocolate in my peanut butter
― Mike Hooter (jaxon), Thursday, July 27, 2006 1:05 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i'm way interested in hearing this comp: http://www.discogs.com/Various-Music-And-Rhythm/release/451683