Madison Music Review

What a pleasure listening to cuatro music from Puerto Rico courtesy of the Nieves family this past weekend at Madison’s oldest park festival. The cuatro is a 10-stringed instrument belonging to the guitar family, and is the national instrument of Puerto Rico. Christian Nieves is today probably the most well known of the cuatristas and has been active in the revival and resurgence of tradition-inspired music akin to a country orchestra, with newer flavors of jazz and pop infused in. The brother and sister team were accompanied by William Gracia (conga), Josue Figueroa Ferrer (drums), Joy Emmanuel Santiago (bass), and Manolo Hernandez (chorus, percussion). The band does sure know how to get a crowd dancing on their feet, with Christian tearing it up on the strings… here are some pictures from the show. Enjoy!

Seldom do I come across an album that has me go searching the corners of the world to snag a copy on vinyl. That was the case with Charanjit Singh‘s Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat, first released back in 1982 on EMI India and more recently, restored and remastered edition in March 2010 on the Amsterdam/Mumbai-based label, Bombay Connection. I first heard about the album a couple of months ago through friends and blog post discussions centering on the use of the Roland Jupiter 8 synthesizer, TB-303 bass synthesizer and TR-808 drum machine by a Mr. Singh to create futuristic acid tracks on this 1982 release. I had come across the name once before in a Bombay Connection release A couple of listens to tracks on Youtube and I was hooked on the synthesized melodies, so-Detroit basslines and insanely-fast-for-the-times techno beats. The music sounded fresh, more like stuff produced in the current century rather than some 30 years ago! The tinny sounds emanating from my laptop speakers do not do justice to the sound and I had to get my hands on the sweet, sweet vinyl.

And so began the chase. We like to support local business so first a couple of e-mails and trips to all the local record haunts. No luck. In fact, none of the distributors for the local stores had the album listed on their catalogs. With no possibility of getting a copy in Madison, the search expanded to stores across the US but no luck there either. A couple of raised expectations but those withered away into the ether when I clicked on ‘submit order’… go figure? I had been trying to avoid shipping the album in from Europe, with the painful shipping charges and all, but had to succumb to the beat and ended up picking up the Bombay Connection release along with a stack of wax from Honest Jon’s in London… some Moritz Von Oswald, Scion, Rob Hood and more (:))… but I digress.

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We have all heard about and seen pictures of the tragedy that unfolded at Love Parade in Germany this year. The shock and horror of the moment notwithstanding, it is appalling to see the blame game play out with the authorities and organizers of the parade pointing fingers at the “Techno Movement”… We here at Madison Music Review would like to share our opinion on the matter – BULLSHIT! Chris Liebing, world renowned DJ, producer and artist issued a release earlier today that expresses our sentiments in a more lucid manner:

5 days after the tragic events at the Love Parade in Duisburg / Germany, I would like to share my thoughts in a more detailed statement. First of all I want to again express my sincere compassion for all the relatives and friends of the victims, as well as for the injured and traumatized who will have hard times to recover from what they experienced. I am still shocked about what I have seen and heard so far.

The Love Parade has been developing throughout the 90s, parallel to what I would call the “Techno Movement”. More precisely speaking, the Love Parade has been an expression of this movement. It has been a movement beyond any profit or image seeking ideas, which developed completely self-sufficient out of the underground. It was all about celebrating, dancing and having fun together.

Over the years, the numbers of attendants have been rising, and so have the financial needs. The costs were rising (city cleaning, etc.) and so has the profit (for the community and the others involved), and suddenly there was a certain “image” attached, which brands could use to increase their value. Looking back, it is actually a logical consequence and maybe also easy to recognize, that an event like this would eventually fall into the hands of people who see “celebrating, dancing and having fun together” not as the main reason to host a Love Parade. This would actually still be tolerable, as long as human life would not be endangered, but what happened here is beyond anything one would have ever imagined.

It is absolutely appalling and shocking that the responsible organizers of the Love Parade and the city council in Duisburg have misused the “Techno Movement” with those fatal results. In their striving for image and profit, they have disregarded all measures of control and security and put people who really just wanted to celebrate, dance and have fun together in a situation in which 21 innocent persons had to die and countless have been injured and traumatized. I hope that it will be possible to entirely clear up what has happened and that the guilty persons will be held responsible and punished as soon as possible. But even this will not lessen the caused pain. The least we owe to those who have died and those who got injured, is that we make sure that something like this won´t happen again in the future. New laws and rules won´t really help. We have seen that we can´t even trust those who should make sure that those rules are getting observed.

To really change something, we have to start with ourselves. We as DJs, we have to be even more sure about the “Who” we are playing for and the “Where” we are playing at – only like this, the fans can get a better orientation of where it is worth going and where it is save to celebrate. Basically everybody can change a lot with his or her behaviour in this world. The more alert we go through life, the more conscious we can make choices between good and bad products, services, events or other things. Like this we minimize the scope of action for cold-blooded profiteers.

In memory of the victims of the Love Parade in Duisburg 2010, Chris Liebing
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Fusing staccato bhangra beats of the dhol with funky, soul-filled horns, New York City’s Red Baraat were in town a couple of weeks ago to treat us to some DnB of a different kind. The band claims to be the first and only dhol ‘n’ brass in the States and recreates (with a twist) the music, mood and excitement generated by a marching band that leads a Hindu wedding procession. Baraat is the Hindi word for a marriage procession… somewhat akin to a New Orleans second line. The hour and a half long, high energy set was perfect for a mid-week’s night of dancing with the band providing helpful tips to get some bhangra action going on the dance floor. It is a pity that folks did not show up in numbers that would be more along the lines of a shaadi (wedding). Well, we are hoping the band is back in town this Fall for some more of the percussion-horn-dholki combo, when the baraatis are back in town from summer break.

Combining burlesque, vaudeville, magic show, music and an assortment of oddities, the Yard Dogs Road Show headlined this year’s Fire Ball Masquerade making for a fun night of carnivalesque revelry at The Majestic. Madisonian’s were out dressed/dolled up in fancy attire ranging from Edwardian/Victorian to the ’20′s speakeasy style, making a hot summer night even hotter… here are some pictures from the Yard Dogs Road Show on stage. Enjoy!

One eskimO, a four piece indie pop group out of London, England were in town for a well attended mid-week performance at the Majestic. The band’s music is melodic, dreamy pop, with rich sonic layers of electronic loops, samples and percussion overlaid on the acoustic base of the songs. The live show also featured a projection of silent animation videos structured around the group’s songs that feature One eskimO, an adventurous young man seeking his place in the universe and accompanied on his adventure by his bandmates, Giraffe, Monkey, and Penguin. Highlights of the evening for me included the songs “Chocolate” and “Kandi” (featuring an indelible chorus sampled from Candi Staton’s classic “He Called Me Baby”), both from the band’s self titled album One Eskimo (get it online here or from your local record store)… and some pictures from the evening.

One of my favorites and standing tall amidst the new crop of folk/country/Americana artists, Justin Townes Earle was on a whirlwind trip through town to play a short but sweet set at the Union Terrace this past Saturday. The large crowds that had gathered at the lakefront to view the July 4th fireworks display had diminished to a degree, but there were plenty of fans and curious hanger-on’s (he is the son of Steve Earle, literally Nashville royalty!) to see and hear the not yet turned 30 junior Earle perform. And perform he does! With an endearing stage presence, sharp wit and fashionable attire, Justin Townes Earle’s songbook covers old folk standards (‘John Henry’) and newer material (‘Mama’s Eyes’ from last year’s Midnight At The Movies) with equal measures of grace and zest. A magical voice coupled with a fine finger picking style of guitar play, JTE puts the heart and soul back in folk and country music. We’ll be seeing more of him soon as Harlem River Blues, Justin Townes Earle’s much-anticipated new record (supposedly with a more bluesy, grimier sound than the previous production), hits stores in September this year. We’ll keep you posted!