The fight for diverse and conscious voices

Between the weather and work and life I haven't had time for a while to collect up some of this good stuff. This story starts in France, and ends up in the Middle East by way of the Ukraine.

http://www.myspace.com/mrrigolo
Last month I discovered the weird and fun sounds of M'siou Rigolitch, a French DJ with decidedly eclectic taste. I still recommend starting with the full MySpace stream because there's a lot of great stuff here, but let me show you a few of the threads I chased because the sounds made me sit up and take notice.

http://soundcloud.com/mr-rigolitch/the-wonderlust-king-the-black-betty-the-bad-name
Gogol Bordello is not your typical mash-up fodder, and long-time readers know I have a thing for "Black Betty" mash-ups. So, yeah, this one got my attention. One of the commenters on this mix describes it as "terrifying at first but absolutely amazing" which is spot-on. You start listening to this stuff and your eyes bug out, then you say "hunh, that's actually pretty good."

http://soundcloud.com/mr-rigolitch/pretty-beat-for-dancing
The description of this is "Ukranian Dance House Kitch Mashup" which is startling accurate, as well as mind-bending. M'siou layers Offspring and Michael Jackson over Verka Serduchka, a Ukranian drag pop/dance comedian. No, really. I can't make this stuff up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verka_Serduchka. Verka is a little on the mind-bending herself (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpJ44NV6m-E) and provides just the right level of frantic. The transition to a sped-up mix of Eiffel65 midway through is amusing, too.

http://www.mixcloud.com/rigolitch/
At the end of the MySpace stream there's a whole hour-long set mix that is awesome in its own right. I understand just enough French to pick up some of what's being said - the protest songs in particular. And of course there's influence after influence pulled in from around the world I noticed one track and I wanted to know what it was so I dropped M'siou a note and he pointed me to this page - Mixcloud, hosting not just the full hour-long mix - "Mets du son Sans Frontières" - but an item-by-item track list. So go ahead and listen, and tell me if there isn't one voice that makes you sit up and take notice. Hint: it's about 32 minutes in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l00iSHXktJM
Well it turns out that that track that caught my attention was this one, "El Nur" by Soulico (http://www.myspace.com/soulicocrew) - an Israeli rap 'crossover' group. They blend US-style rap/hiphop with traditional Middle Eastern sounds, particularly Israeli and Arab/Palestinian instruments and beats. On this track Soulico list a bunch of featured guests, and a quick listen to Soulico on its own convinced me that it was one of the featured I was looking for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN9zm6xJKYk
Riham is the one that made me sit up and take notice. Her voice in the Soulico mix reminded me of Shahin Badar's startling appearance in The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up." The online information on Riham is sketchy - I can't figure out if she is Palestinian, Israeli Arab, or a neighboring Arab. To be honest I can't always tell if they're singing in Hebrew or Arabic, or a mix. Most of what she seems to do is more chill than the Soulico track. This one, Erja Ya Habebi, is a fairly traditional Arabic love song given a modern low-tempo house beat by Srulik Einhorn (http://www.discogs.com/artist/Srulik+Einhorn) an Israeli DJ/producer.

So there you are, one musical journey done. Next up, good old American funk and house.

Still not making much progress against the backlog. Hooray for being busy, I guess. Also, stuff keeps being interesting and interesting requires investigating. At the end we'll revisit an old friend.

http://soundcloud.com/zebramix/zebra-rock-n-soul-best-of-bootlegs-2010
We begin with an end-of-year/best-of-year podcast by French DJ Zebra. If nothing else it's fun to listen to this mix because the fast-talking Franglais ("zehbra rockandsoul!") is amusing. He hits on several good mixes I've heard already but also a lot that's new.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2OWWYjDr9U&has_verified=1
One of the nice things about the future we live in is that you can ask artists questions and sometimes they'll respond. In this case I posted a comment on the Soundcloud mix asking about a clip from early in the set, which clearly used the Star Wars Imperial March. Zebra responded by pointing me to this mix of his, which is called "Joey Star Wars" and uses the iconic John Williams music mixed over Daft Punk and a French hard rap act called Joey Starr.

http://soundcloud.com/fissunix/mcs-just-want-to-celebrate
Fissunix (who I noted last time for a nice James Brown/Led Zeppelin mash) turn in a multi-layered scratch mix. The base tune is Motown favorite Rare Earth's "I Just Want To Celebrate" over which they have laid at least 6-8 different vocalists, mostly rappers. I love this kind of pairing and this one is brilliantly composed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo5bBq2j2EE&feature=related
Girl Talk has two appearances in this set, both of which are good. This one is a megamix from their "All Day" album, which is itself a massive compilation. You can and should get the full (free) download of the album. I highlighted this track because it has some of the really clever transitions and juxtapositions that set the really great mixers apart. According to the Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Day_%28album%29) the entire album has 372 samples which sounds like a prescription for disaster but you just need to listen to this track to feel how smoothly they flow. If you're curious, the album site has them in alphabetical order: http://illegal-art.net/allday/samples.html

http://www.mashup-industries.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=310&Itemid=36
I'm not sure how I managed to miss this thunderously fun mix from DJ Schmolli. He puts the 70s funk faux-grou Incredible Bongo Band's "Let There Be Drums" against AC/DC's "Let There Be Rock". Schmolli's trademark is heavy metal and something, and this one really does it up in highly danceable style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6bgz3VOjtc
Finally I had to pull out this bit because it's something so cool and so mind-bending at the same time. Daft Punk "Technologic" - been done to death, right? Over and done with, right? Can't possibly be novel, can it? Uh, hit play and then say that. This is only describable as a demented circus reinterpretation of the techno theme song. You can find the artist M'siou Rigolitch on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/Msiou.Rigolitch?v=app_178091127385) and MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/mrrigolo) where there are a lot more tracks to listen to. I may have more to report after I go through that list.

http://www.astonmusic.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rCW8ZICToA
When I was listening through G3rst's collection I happened upon a remix he did using Aston which inspired me to go back to their Web site and see where they're at. The news is good - they have an actual album out and they've improved their wardrobe since last time.

But the best part is their new song, which is a cover of La Roux's "Bulletproof". Back when they had their poll up I voted for this one and I'm pleased to see it won. The adaptation is pretty good - the violins do a passable job of covering her vocal range - and the band members haven't yet lost that sense of "hot damn this is fun" that made their other vids so enjoyable to watch.