AFREAKCAN RIDDIMS 4 SUMMER!

ZOMG IT'S SO HOT OUT!
Great weather in the AA, and everyone knows sunny weather calls for appropriately "sunny" music. And while Sublime and Bob Marley may be staples for tropical tunage (at least for me), recently I've been really digging on "African themed" dance tunes. There's just something so happy and vivid about contemporary African dance music that I find completely irresistible in weather like this.


If ur into the whole mixtape-dance-music-'electro-bro'-blog-scene thing, then the Culture Club Mixtape #1 by DJs Genie and M!G!H! is a must download. I threw it on my pod when I read about it on Mad Decent and didn't really give it much of a chance, but after listening it today amidst the warm sunshine and budding trees, I fell completely in love.


Download/listen here:
Genie & M!G!H! - Culture Club Mixtape #1

Now I know what yall cynics is thinkin: all that 'modern african dance music' is too repetitive and abrasive for me. And yeah, this is true a lot of the time. I prolly like the stuff that's like "140+bpm (lil faster than house, doubletime of dubstep) with 4 on the floor kicks and sporadic snare/tom offbeat flurries and repetitive mono-chordal samples on the downbeat" as much as the next bro, but srsly, the stuff on this mixtape digs deeper than that.

It's able to retain pop sensibilities and interesting samples that keep middle class white boys like me listening. at about the 4:30 mark, for instance, the mix goes into some African bros singin over Architecture in Helsinki. There's even some lion king samples in there! (Think 'aahhhhh-za-bennya---a'feli-si-mamaaaaaa' etc.)

I don't speak any African lingos, but it sounds to me like it spans more than just Angola (which was all the rave for like a week late last summer) and maybe even more than Africa (do I hear portuguese/espanol around the 25 min mark?) Not very many repetitive moments in this mix that characterize all too many 'niche-mixtapes'.

(wish i took this photo but i totally jacked it from flickr)

I work on the radio @ WCBN FM Ann Arbor 88.3 FM, and one day while I was jes chillin in the fm studio I decided to rip some South African dance chune 'best of' compilations. Among the many gems, the "hope diamond" among them (if you will) was def this 1999 tune by Brenda Fassie:

LISTEN YO! (=^D) (<
Brenda Fassie - Vuli Ndlela


Prolly the sweetest part of the whole thing is the intro before the beat drops (cuz the beat just sounds a little uninspired to me, but it's not bad). I relly want somebody to sample the beginning and use it in a mixtape or something. Her voice is just so perfect. and did you here them ANALOG SYNTHS? Just sounds so sexy to me. And it really truly does make me want to get up and dance. The downside is that it comes in at around 110bpm... too slow for an electro house mix and too fast for hiphop... Maybe could fit in a disco set or sumthin? It's funny cuz the rest of the tracks on the compilation are about that tempo, too.


Okay, I couldn't help myself. I love this track too much to not put it up. It's from the same comp as the last track. The organ is absolutely fucking unreal. Trust me. You'll listen to it and be like, goddamn... that organ is fucking unreal. but, kinda like brenda's jam, it kinda loses something once the track gets goin. It's not that it's not a great song--cuz it is--but it just doesn't continue to keep picking up. BUT-->great sample material nonetheless.


All I ask is you hear like the 1st 30 seconds and not fall in love.
Soul Brothers - Mama Ka S'Bongile

Yeah, so that's all I gotta say. We're gonna have an interview with electronic artist BOAS comin up real quick. And also>>>>

SUBVADER'S EP IS COMIN SOON!!!
Like, we're talkin it's a matter of less than 2 weeks or something. Here's the artwork:

You can preview one of the tracks on his soundcloud called "Ghost Ship." There gonna be some CRZY, bizarre vibes on it, you can betchurr booty!

most importantly:
Kkeepp the SUNSHINE COMIN!!

Much sunny love,
Pac to the Man