Norient April 2014 Selection

Playlist

Norient keeps searching for new sounds and puts together a monthly playlist from Soundcloud. Enjoy or skip through tracks from upcoming and well-known artists from a wide variety of places – urban pop and club music mostly (e.g. footwork and grime - R.I.P DJ Rashad), but some experimental jazz and electronica too. And read what some of the artists wrote to us about their tracks via email.

We asked the musicians and producers of the April playlist the following two questions:

1) What is most important for you in this track (you can select: musically, topic wise, career wise, ….)?

2) How is this track linked to your other work? What can we find out about your work/passion/ideas through this track? This is what some of them answered via email:

Bosaina (Egypt)

Track not available anymore.

1 – Sambel at Mosadaq Sq is just a sample of me being stuck in Cairo traffic. As I note in the beginning of the recording, it's «the dissonant cacophony of Kairo.» I uploaded it on soundcloud whilst sitting in my car, so for me it was about an immediate environment, an unintentional orchestra/call and response between the drivers on the road that I wanted to share with my followers.

2 – I sample my environment and use the sounds I find interesting in most of my tracks of this style (Raw/Organic samples vs. Electronic Instruments). I did it with my EP in New York and I'm continuing these stories in Cairo now that I'm back home. Using these kind of samples gives me a starting point and a base for my story when I write all the other instruments to compose a piece, and to the listener it places my music into a visual context-at least I hope so.

Links: Website, Facebook

Kradadash (Denmark)

1. – For me it was fun to work with a whole new genre, that I didn't know much about before i worked on this track. It's a combination of rasterinha and bass music inspired by bailefunk and was a part of a Rasterinha EP made by Funk na Caixa. I'm thrilled that they asked me to contribute, it's always fun being a part of something new!

2. – My tracks are often a combination of many genres and this track is my interpretation of rasterinha, or what I would like it to sound like. I'm very inspired by bailefunk and the culture around it and I thinks it's fun to work with.

Links: Facebook, Twitter

Samthing Soweto (South Africa)

1. – The most important for me on this song is the silence in between the parts that I sing, I think the silence means more to the song then the parts I sing on it, I hope everyone that listens to it finds their own parts that are important to them – maybe these parts will be new, maybe these parts will mean they have discovered unseen discoveries about this song, or maybe they'll find nothing. thats cool too.

2. – How is it linked to my other work? It is linked to my voice, I sing on all my songs on my own, for now anyway. What can you find out about my work/passion/ideas through this track? Well, to be honest, not much, this song is like a single moment that is captured, drawn from my long and on going life, a feeling leaked from the ocean that is my emotions, it's only that which I have allowed myself to reveal to the listeners in the hopes that they find favour in me and my cause, I feel the need to promote stillness on earth, only some of the time though.

Links: Facebook, Twitter, Bandcamp

Meridian Brothers (Colombia)

1. – This track is a high speed danceable and powerful piece, this is the most important part, the energy, other important part is the mix between peuvian chicha cumbia style and the colombian «cumbion» a fast rhythm, that mix gives the piece its essence. On the topic wise part I have to say that this track has its pair, because it was part of a 45 rpm single the side A is a Jimi Hendrix cover «Purple haze» so the track selected is the complement for the single.

2. – This track is linked most of my music, which points to a combination of styles in my country (Colombia) with other modern influences. This is a path I've been following through the last years. Another aspect of the track linked to my previous work is the search for a danceable intention, some of my recent works are developed within latin dance styles such as salsa, cumbia and dominican merengue, among others.

Links: Facebook, Website, Twitter

Adieu Gary Cooper (Switzerland)

1. – It’s the first song of our first album. Now, rather than trying to show off with a song to dance to to open the album, we decided to go for this kind of weird lullaby. This is probably commercial suicide. Now, it’s not like we were making songs to dance to anyway.

2. – This song is sort of our Smile Era Beach-Boys inspired track. It’s got its sort of Hawaïan mood because of our use of the lap-steel guitar. But sounding weird. So that’s in line with the title of our album which you may translate as «weird blue». It’s called Bleu Bizarre in french. We sing everything in French and that’s weird enough.

Links: Website, Facebook, Bandcamp

Mamba (Argentinia)

Track not available anymore.

1. – The lyrics in this case are based on a personal experience I've had recently, which made me deal for the first time in my life with some dark feelings such as hate, not being heard, or respected or comprehended. So I though it was going to be good, to transform that odd and poisonous feelings in a very strong and vibrating song. Also I think, that unfortunately there are some people who will feel this lyrics express what they being through and take that pain out of them. The reason why I have chosen English language for this and some songs we are producing is because If I would like the world to understand my message, I have to try to do it in an universal one.

The way this song was created was very spontaneously. We were rehearsing for a show that night, and I started mumbling repeatedly the way a «bombo legüero» sounds when you play it «to tak to tak to tak to tak» and by the repetition, Reptilian Commander (Mamba's Producer) though it was going to be really great to use Argentinean Folklore's rhythms fusion with electronic elements, so he did the main base of the chorus, at the same time I was changing the nonsense sounds to «to talk, to talk, to talk, I needed» and after two hours we got the song and lyrics created and finished. It was really incredible!

2. – I am a digital Psychedelic Pop artist who also used to go out on the streets at night to do some graffitis (you can see some of my art works at Facebook) . So the people I used to relate myself with in that old days as well as the places I've being, made me got in touch with Hip Hop Music. Artists such us Alika and I also became a very big fan of Keny Arkana. But in anyway, I think the most important thing that linked my Artwork with Mamba's music sound, more than this specific song, is that I've did some digital artwork for other producers and djs from the Artistical Underground in Buenos Aires. For example I've worked for El Remolon, one of the most important ZZK artists in Argentina who presented his new album Flashback giving me the great chance to be part of the Art team on the videoclip. Also did some cartoon portraits of El Mayonesa, CatNapp and Villa Diamante at PepinkArt Studio, mostly Mcs and Djs. And the last but not least Reptilian Commander. I have always loved his music and the way he gets to be fresh and new in every song, also this future boy is my best friend, so was nice to have the chance to get «Fl Studio» classes with him.

One day I showed him some recordings I've got since 2012 of myself singing each song and he really believed there was a lot of potential that could be worked out and refined with his musical expertise and experimenting to create Global Bass music fusion with Latin rhythms and Spanish lyrics. He also felt very exited to become my producer and work with me as a great artistic and creative team. So instead of letting me ruin the material with my beginner «this will take a long time to learn have no clue» possible rhythms he transformed them into an incredible product, were we have the blessing chance to express what we think a lot of people feel but no one wants to say out loud. Now we are mainly working on Mamba's first EP, also preparing it's artwork, we hope we will be releasing it in Jun or July 2014.

Links: Mamba Facebook, Reptilian Commander Facebook, Pepink Art Facebook

Facial Index (Poland)

1. – This track is, first and foremost, just a rough microphone recording of people in their sleep. It's not «music» or «career» oriented move, it's more of an internal prank and sketchy reporting than anything else.

2. – It's very hard for me to guess what specifically can be transported through this «piece» to its potential listeners. Guess the idea was to freeze the specific moment, two musician friends continuing their performance without being fully aware of it. It has no other meaning than anything what can be read into it. Snoring as an equivalent of automatic writing?

Mike Pride (USA)

1. – I am a drummer, improvisor and composer. My two most recent albums are Birthing Days (for my jazz quartet From Bacteria To Boys) and Drummer's Corpse (two 30 minute compositions about density & rules, featuring 7 of my favorite drummers). Recently, I began writing & recording MOOG quartets, or music for 4 synthesizers. This is 2nd of the 3 I have completed. I would say this music expresses a post-Stockhausen mentality, anti-careerism and also a focus on microtonal melody & harmony.

2. – This piece is linked to my other work in that I have always been infatuated with obtuse structures & new sonic landscapes. I would say this piece expresses a fairly skeptical – if not cynical – view of development.

Links: Website, Facebook, Twitter

Carlos Nunez (Brasil)

1. – Most important in this track is the fusion between two diferent styles (baile funk and trap), showing that both combine well.

2. – This track is my vision of an overall musicality without limits and what I see as the future of music.

Link: Facebook

Published on April 29, 2014

Last updated on October 26, 2020

Topics

Music Production

Place

Sampling

All Topics

Snap

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Sounds from India and Pakistan

Mixtape

by Arshia Fatima Haq

Arshia Haq from the LA based Discostan collective made an exclusive mix for Norient titled «Line of Control». She is presenting us forgotten scores and current field sounds from India and Pakistan. Listen to this colorful mix and dive into the sounds of the Indian subcontinent.

Making a mix from the sounds of the subcontinent proved challenging as these are the sounds I am closest to, so I tried to use that to my advantage. What I came up with is a personal audio memoir, using scores from lesser known films, children's songs, and field recordings of my own in Pakistan and India (thus the raw quality of some of what you'll hear), and playing on nostalgia, exile, the tension between the sensuality of the soundtracks and the austerity of the religious dogma over loudspeakers (both Muslim and Hindu) as well as political broadcasts in these places.

Tracklist

1. Excerpt from Zinda Laash (Dracula in Pakistan)

2. Sohail Rana: «Al-Vida»

3. Pakistan Television Corporation news broadcast (archival)

4. Anupama Deshpande: «Laher Laher Chanchal Huyee»

5. Arshia Haq: «Birdcaged»

6. Excerpt from Pakeezah

7. Ahmad Zahir: «Instrumental»

8. DJ DrAk: «Love Mera Hit Hit» (Vocoder Remix)

9. Ilaiyaraaja: «Love Theme»

10. Pakistan air force demonstration (archival)

11. Runa Laila: «Romance»

12. Excerpt from Pakeezah

13. Nahid Akhtar: «Goli Naal Begi Aey»

14. «’Ek Anek Ekta’ Theme Song»

15. Ravi: «’Do Kaliyan’ Love Theme Music»

16. T.K. Ramamoorthy: «Ranjani»

17. Noor Jehan: «Disco Jugni»

18. Unknown: «Pashto saaz and attan»

19. Unknown: «Pashto saaz and dhol»

20. Tableeqi Jamaat sermon, Islamabad (field recording)

21. Azaan recitations (Muslim calls to prayer), India and Pakistan

22. Ayatul Kursi recitation, Bhit Shah, Pakistan (field recording)

23. Dawn Vedas, Andhra Pradesh, India (field recording)

24. Taliban on the ground, Waziristan, Pakistan (archival)

25. Qari Waheed Zafar: «Nabi-un-Nabi-un-Nabi-un-Nabi»

26. Aneesa Umme Habiba: «Nabi-un-Nabi-un-Nabi-un-Nabi»

27. Excerpt from Pakeezah

28. Ahmad Zahir: «Awateen Eshqam Tu Boodi»

Biography

Arshia Fatima Haq is Los Angeles based filmmaker, writer and DJ, and is the founder of Discostan, a collective of artists curating sound, image, and text from an imagined federation of states spanning the regions of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia and eastward to the edge of the earth – from Beirut to Bangkok via Bombay. Narrative threads include migration, celebration, warfare, nostalgia, homeland, borders, often within realms of Islamic influence, through the lenses of timeless traditional forms, the kaleidoscopic reinventions of pop culture, and everything in between and beyond. Most simply, Discostan is a love letter to the Dis-Orient. Follow her on her Website.

Published on May 28, 2014

Last updated on August 11, 2020

Topics

Nostalgia

Religion

Soundscape

Tradition

All Topics

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Norient February 2014 Selection

Playlist

by Norient

Norient keeps searching for new sounds and puts together a monthly playlist from Soundcloud. Enjoy or skip through tracks from upcoming and well-known artists from a wide variety of places – urban pop and club music mostly, but some experimental jazz and electronica too. And read what some of the artists wrote to us about their tracks via email.

We asked the musicians and producers of the February playlist the following two questions:

1) What is most important for you in this track (you can select: musically, topic wise, career wise, ….)?

2) How is this track linked to your other work? What can we find out about your work/passion/ideas through this track?

This is what some of them answered via email:

Ganges Baby (Argentina)

1 – The most important thing in this track is the message we want to transmite. It's like a spiritual party, the chance to rise through powerful sounds and words of wisdom. As a state of trance in a positive dancehall riddim.

2 – This track is like a synthesis of our work. The conjunction of all the elements that are part of our life. On the one hand we have the spiritual search that we had already mentioned, we have movement, rap and hip hop as a thread of all songs and fusion with elements of other cultures such as India, Jamaica, UK and Latin America. We believe that artists must make a significant contribution to planetary evolution, working to meet that goal. On the other hand we are ordinary people who live normal lives trying to learn a little every day to carry out that task. Peace!

Links: Website, Facebook, Twitter.

Joey le Soldat (Burkina Faso)

1 – Both lyrics and music are important aspects of DMD. The instrumental reminds me of salou, a traditional burkinabé dance. I can hear it in the music, which is something very important to me. And the lyrics are equally important, because DMD is the cries of pain of a youth that wants to change things, the expression of kids packed in the ghettos of Ouagadougou. In regards to the political system, the youth wants to bring its requests in order to enjoy better living conditions.

2 – This song expresses my ambition to make rap in Mooré, which is still listenable by everybody. You don't need to speak Mooré to like this rap. The song is a symbol of this energy I put into my music, in particular my flow techniques.

Bit-Tuner (Switzerland)

Track not available anymore.

1 – «Bad Combination» is one the most playful tracks i’ve ever made. It’s build on a arpeggio theme played with a virtual Upright Bass. The Beat is quiet hard, slow and has an Industrial flavour, the Synths are pretty nervous and the atmosphere is gloomy. I like this different moods together in one track. And it’s feels, that kind of a Metal Band playing this tune.

2 – I think the atmosphere and the sounds in this track, are pretty «Bit-Tuner Style». Dark, noisy and kind of a soundtrack theme. I love the raw and nervous energy, especially for playing it live (and loud).

Links: Website, Bandcamp, Facebook, Twitter.

Dr. Das (UK)

Track not available anymore.

1 – I don’t attach different levels of importance to different aspects of a piece of music. If something is not as important as something else, it is simply not included sonically nor considered within the concept of the track. There is no hierarchy in my compositions between the sounds. If someone asked me to produce a song, saying the lyrics are the most important aspect, I would ask them «why bother with the music?» To many people I say if you consider bass and drums as «backing», why have them at all? The term I use instead of «importance» is emphasis. The music I make emphasizes the BASSLINE MELODY. For me, this is a cyclical, modal bass motif, which resolves quite quickly, like an Indian raga. (It is not the same as «melodic bass playing» which is linear and more to do with the bass melodically following a chord structure or harmony, and which is often written by someone else.) The bass in a lot of rock and dance music is an ANONYMOUS FREQUENCY, meaning, it might be loud and omnipresent (not really in the case of rock), but its melodic content is INDISTINCT, through both the actual choice of notes and the way it has been equalized and placed in the mix. For me, in contemporary dub even, the bass frequency has been divorced from melody, with more emphasis on sub frequencies, and so has lost its ability to convey EMOTIONAL and POLITICAL SENTIMENT. To me, that was perhaps the greatest gift dub had to offer.

Diversity of Tactics has a few related basslines. In earlier versions, the basslines were busier and the arrangement more complex. Throughout the last seven years, in my absence from Asian Dub Foundation, I have attempted to rationalize my basslines, moving towards the more minimal classic dub feel of the likes of Flabba Holt- more economic and more like a memorable hookline. The bass melodies were inspired by the tabla and darbourka loops. These were equalized and distorted to give a particularly militant feel and together with the «4 on the floor» bass drum and aggressive snare, there is a determined and disciplined forward propulsion- like a peoples’ army on the move. «Diversity of Tactics» is a term and concept I only recently encountered in Peter Gelderloos’s books The Failure of Nonviolence and How Nonviolence Protects the State, relating to how restricting any movements’ struggles against repression to only nonviolent tactics, effectively limits its number of options to make any real impact and ultimately effect real change.

2 – This track shares the same minimalist approach of the rest of my «dubnoiz» work whereby I only make use of electric bass and electronic drums, percussion and noiz. I’m trying to show people how much expression can be achieved with so few elements. These sounds have their own beauty and melody but are widely considered to be just «backing» and producers, including dub producers are often in a hurry to cover up or embellish them, for fear of losing the listeners’ attention. The beauty of space and repetition has also been forgotten. Also, music has gravitated towards the middle and higher frequencies of the sonic spectrum – I’m trying to encourage people pull out and plug in their old ghettoblasters and stop listening to everything on their computer speakers! This track will appear on my next album Outsider Dub. The album title relates to my long ago having left the dub scene, taking my basslines into a more experimental and electronic environment. I have even started to incorporate extreme jazz improvisation. I listen mostly to Miles Davis’s music from the seventies, albums like Dark Magus and to older dub like Scientist and early On-U. The current dub scene with its neglect of the bassline melody, lack of emphasis on experimentation and lack of analysis in any lyrical content, simply has no appeal to me. In relation to the little response I’ve had from dub musicians over time, this feeling is mutual, though I work consistently with the label Indigenous Resistance as a bassist, producer and remixer. Outsider Dub will follow on from my current album Preparing 4 War which is available now on Bandcamp.

Links: Tumblr, Bandcamp, Facebook.

Mais Um Discos (Brazil)

1 – This track has been one of the most talked about from our compilation Daora which showcases new directions in Brazilian hip-hop, Afrobeat, jazz and beyond (Daora means «dope» in Sao Paulo slang). Afrobombas is a new project from mangue-beat originator and Nacao Zumbi front man Jorge Du Peixe with the vocal sung by the daughter of the legend of mangue-beat Chcio Science. With such names involved the expectation for this new project was always going to be high yet this track «Of salt and sun I am» lives up to the hype with an elastic bass-line, understated brass, shuffling percussion and killer vocal from Chico's daughter.

2 – This track is a perfect example of our work which is to represent the new sounds coming out of Brazil. I set up Mais Um Discos to promote sounds and artists from Brazil that weren’t getting exposure internationally. Brazilian music that typically gets international profile is samba, bossa nova or funk carioca yet there are so many other styles to enjoy and artists who’s music cannot be easily categorised in these genres, such as Lucas Santtana for example, who combines the influences of these 3 genres in his music as well as other styles such as dub, afrobeat and electro. «Daora» was compiled by Sao Paulo’s Rodrigo Brandao and represents another new perspective on Brazilian music focussing on «urban» music such as hip-hop, afrobeat, reggae and dub influenced grooves from across Brazil. Brazilian hip-hop rarely gets any coverage but as «Daora» shows there are so many talented producers using Brazilian rhythms and MCs coming with great rhymes and interesting flows. Follow us on social networks or sign up to our mailing list to hear more new sounds from Brazil!

Links: Website, Facebook, Twitter.

Neobyrd (Egypt)

Track not available anymore.

1 – I love that song, it has a very simple structure and very classical progression and melodies and that's what I love to listen to.

2 – I mostly like the retro feel regarding the composition, samples and the sounds I choose «Good Things Like Chocolate» might have this kind of style and I think it sounds very much me.

Links: Twitter, Facebook.

C-drik (Belgium)

Track not available anymore.

1 – This track is a memory, it is connected to a travel I made in Thailand many years ago; it represents a connection between what we use to call nature (birds, insects...) and modern technology (the electronic sounds I use that melt in this so-called natural environment seem to perfectly fit such as did some parts of the concrete in the park where I recorded this atmosphere).

2 – This piece is only linked to one part of my work. It is a work about memory, something above all personal but I suppose some people can relate to it. I use one or more field recordings, sometimes pure, often with additional sounds and filtering to create a new atmosphere, a new virtual space that brings me back to a certain moment of time but a modified version of it. Without this recording, in most cases, I wouldn't remember that exact period of space and time but by modifying it, I create a new and somehow fake event, that is distorting a reality I experienced. I consider that I emotionally improved it. This is a sort of way of taking a picture and improve it. I often prefer field recordings than photographs when I travel.

Links: Website, Facebook, Twitter.

Nils Wogram (Germany)

Track not available anymore.

1 – This is the title track of my new album. Riomar is a beautiful place in the ebro delta in katalonia which inspired me to this song. The track was recorded by my long term working band «root 70» plus three string players and is the 3red album of a series we call conceptional works.

2 – I am more and more interested in simple songs that have a strong mood. It was also recorded live to two track with all analogue equipment and to tape. I like this vintage sound and recording together in one room.

Links: Website, Bandcamp.

Indigenous Resistance (UK)

1 – The most important thing for us is that this track continues the work of Indigenous Resistance to focus on issues that are important to indigenous peoples that are often not covered by the media but which are vitally important. Some of the issues we have dealt with in the past has been the murder of the Pataxo warrior Galdino, the resistance of the people of Atenco, Mexico against developers taking their land and the liberation struggle of the indigenous people of West Papua against the Indonesian government. This track is a poem written by an indigenous woman from Guatemala Rosa Chaves and voiced by Ixquick which is poetically addressing the issues of land rights and the mistreatment of the earth. On a musical note this work is connected to other IR Indigenous Resistance through the production and musical contribution of Dr Das who has been working with IR for the past ten years as a remixer, producer in addition to contributing militant bass for other IR tracks. Dr Das has an album of dubnoiz entitled Preparing 4 War. On this track Dr Das applies this philosophy with the contributions of the musicians Dj Soundar and Jerome Klur. Also very importantly in this track you hear moments of silence. This is very deliberate. If readers access the new IR book IR 30 Indigenous Visions In Dub you will find passages where indigenous people from the Solomon Islands discuss the significance of silence in their worldview. We always encourage people to do their own investigation so check it out if you are inclined.

2 –This track is a preview of a much longer project that IR is currently working on. The first part IR29 New Generation Dub was just released. You can learn more about that release at http://newgenerationdub.wordpress.com/.

Links: Website, Facebook.

Gabriel Muzak (Brazil)

1 – The track Belém não para is a declaration of love to Pará (a state in the north region of Brasil - Amazônia Jungle) and to one of the many great paraense folk typical styles, called guitarrada. It's something like a kind of roots Carimbó played with electric guitar, like a mix of forest, desert and urban music. I composed «Belém não para» just playing my guitar alone, the melody haves some arab influence but immediately I knew that the track had to be recorded searching for some Carimbó rythm. I live in Rio de Janeiro and never have been in Pará state (very big country!), but as I know many artists of that place, I felt confortable to make this tribute. I hope you enjoy it.

2 – My principal passion in music is to travel using the songs for my boarding tickets, my obsession is about the whole power of each song. I think that every song can be an entire piece, so when I compose some song, It have no compromisse whith my previous songs. I think an album can tell some history, but I prefer to make my albums tells many diferent histories, with many personas, places, smells and atmospheres helping me to sing this strange tales.

Links: Facebook, Bandcamp.

Published on March 07, 2014

Last updated on February 23, 2022

Topics

Activism

Nature

Place

All Topics

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Norient April 2014 Selection

Topics

Snap

Sounds from India and Pakistan

Tracklist

Biography

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Norient February 2014 Selection

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