this year is nearing it's death, and here is short review what i've
been listening to all this year..
sandi lopicic orkestar - balkea (network, 2004)
i have never been in "russendisko" described by wladimir kaminer, i
just read the stories. i don't like dj shantel and his eclectic
balkan gypsy techno sound, i simply find it too damn german. if
there is something remotely similar to russendisko in balkan, then
it is slo band. their music is difficult to describe, they are able
to transcend the borders of musical genres, to bring music that is
not only fun to listen to, but fun to dance too. i watched them
twice, once long time ago in sloga in sarajevo, second time on "jazz
ost west" festival in nuremberg. both times no one stood still.
originally started as a theater project about the balkan wars, band
consisting mostly of jazz musicians and students from graz
university (about two dozens of them), continued playing and
released their first album "border confusion". and just when we
thought they are going to sacrifice band's future for the sake of
their personal careers, they released their second lp. this album
brings more mature sound, fusion of big band jazz, south serbian
trumpet mastery, macedonian melodies and bosnian passion.
recommended!
amadou et mariam - dimanche a bamako (2005)
i think they were big. it is just that we didn't know that. as much
as we have no idea what does an average indian listen to, or what is
the favorite band of a brasilian worker, or a senegalese student.
this blind couple had been famous in their native mali for a while.
thanks to manu chao, this musical genius, which nationality
(nationalities are very important to us bosnians) we can't figure
out, they were made big internationally. he produced their "dimanche
a bamako" featuring some of saharan africa's finest sound, with
characteristic lo-fi buzzing and peeping sounds of manu chao. they
call their music afro blues, although it is miles away from what ry
coder and ali farka toure were playing. amadou & mariam were not
ashamed to put syrian violins rock guitars, cuban trompets, indian
tablas to make enjoyable world sound. world music purists might not
like it, but to me this is definitely afro pop at it's finest.
youssou n'dour - egypt (warner/nonesuch, 2004)
there is a new generation growing up in bosnia. one that is brought
up with war, nationalism, blood and all that shit. islamic religious
music is something no one has heard of before the war, and i really
believe such thing had not even existed before the so called
democracy came. yet i'd be able to turn that whole generation
against me if i dared to compare this music to the worst of serbian
war production. every nation has it's founding cult and alija's
islamic bullshitism is ours. it is even impossible to describe
musical width of youssou's project to a consumer of low budget
synth-pop-islam.
this cd represents the celebration of islamic - african sufi
connection. it took him years to record and produce this album,
which ultimately payed off - he won grammy as the best world music
artist this year. this project was deemed to success, there is
something african, tribal, ritual in this music that can best
address this religious idea.
there is huge discrepancy between high art and ideological music.
and each serves it's purpose: finally hitler sent their soldiers in
war not with the symphonic orchestra, but with bavarian
"musikanten".
various artists - crossing the bridge - sounds of istanbul (2005)
fatih akin's movie started as the side project while shoting "gegen
die wand - head on" in istanbul. he took einstürzende neubauten's
musician alexander hake, and his studio in a box and returned to
turkey to record the best of contemporary turkish music. sounds
completely forgotten in the west are still to be found in turkey:
baba zula - a psychedelic collective, ceza - old school rap. this cd
features not only mainstream of turkish music (such as the wonderful
sezen aksu), but also the music of turkish minorities: gypsies and
kurds. to my surprise this movie features brenna maccrimon a
canadian ethnomusicologist, who speaks perfect turkish, or orhan
gencebay, a star of turkish westerns.
to be continued...
meet the pr0n 2.0
it all started few years ago when i saw natacha merritt's "digital
diaries", essentially a personal (should i say autoerotic) photo
blog, dating back to the dawn of digital photography. although this
work seems a bit outdated now it is still a nice piece of art (as
much as the autor is a nice piece of ass). it was a milestone of the
postmodern act photo: somewhere between the lomography, punk, bisex
fetishes.
i have finally found something similar. that thin string that
separates pr0n from high art, and plays with our fetish heavy
aesthetics: indieporn. this may be described as a bourgeois porn,
porn for intelligentsia.
here are few links:
http://www.nerve.com
http://www.indienudes.com/main.html
http://fatalbeauty.com
http://suicidegirls.com
and how this fits into our open source world: the porn made by it's
consumers http://www.ishotmyself.com