4
6
7
10
12
27
331/3
45
Monday, April 19, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou
Some groovy-ass African music. From Benin's capitol Cotonou. They appear on several comps such as A Real Thing and African Scream Contest. Check out some archival recordings of the group on the label Analog Africa.
http://analogafrica.blogspot.com/
-Z
http://analogafrica.blogspot.com/
-Z
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Music and Language
I have recently been enrolled in French Classes which means I have been studying French for 30 hours a week for the last three weeks. My head has been spinning with a mélange of French and English, as well as the idea of a language. I am taking a class made up of mostly immigrants that speak multiple languages already, and my appreciation for the amount of effort and sacrifice that immigrants make to become Canadian has awakened. I had no idea of the difficulties, why do we have to give some many wonderful people a rough time? I guess humanism is dead in this part of the world and most. Especially with wars being replaced by homeland security, but this is for another time.
What I really want to talk about is the globalization of art and music, and in particular the use of music as a language. The phrase, music is the universal language, I doubt is anything of a surprise to the people reading this blog, but music itself is a blanket term for countless numbers of musical dialects, most of which are very hard to learn. However what makes music interesting is how over centuries musical dialects have mashed and mixed with one another, creating new languages and fashions for creation. The laws of the language of music are extremely flexible and adaptable. Like the English language I will argue, after years of colonization, has undergone a constant and rapid evolution. The English rose to global power with the great advancements in technology, distribution, capitalism, and of course the United States. New methods of distributing the mass amount of American Culture emerged in the 1900s, which of course backboned by capitalism. These technologies, which ultimately led to digital technologies, the Internet, and today’s musical landscape, have allowed the language to mash and bend faster than the technologies can keep. The spell check on the Microsoft program I am using to type this is a prime example.
I have an interest in world music, and in particular pop, rock, and psychedelic music of the 60s and 70s. I am amazed at just how well artists from around the world were able to synthesize the evolutions in rock and integrate them into their own cultural characteristics. Artists like Omar Khorshid, who did his version proto-eruption guitar heroics, melding fiery Egyptian modes with American surf music. He is perhaps, only rivaled by Dick Dale or Link Wray. Another example is Korean guitarist Shin Jung Hyun, who was doing his own heavy, fuzzed, out, wah-worship, proto-prog jams, around the same time as Hendrix. But unlike Hendrix, he music does not seemed to be rooted in blues, but in something way far out, or just foreign to my ears.
It is amazing how these cultures were able to understand the musical dialects, syntaxes, and accents. Just listen to groups of the above-mentioned artists. Someone learning a language will attest to how difficult it is to learn an accent. It takes years to learn a language if you are not born into it.
This idea of musical globalization should not be mistaken for western imperialism; it’s symbiotic. This is particularly obviously with late 60s American psych-rock or the experimental music of the minimalists. Both borrowed heavily from India and African musics. They took their ideas of musical architecture, rhythm, improvisation, and trance. Globalization in music is in fact way older. An early example is that of the chaconne, a popular dance of the baroque period. Bach composed a famous Chaconne. The rhythm itself however, actually comes from South America, imported by colonization. Mozart too, Rondo a la Turk, was largely inspired by Turkish music (hence the name). As well as Ravel who was deeply moved by the music of Indonesia.
With technology our world gets smaller, and global consciousness increases, but as we can see our world has always been small, and maybe music points to a future where we speak a melting pot language.
-Z
What I really want to talk about is the globalization of art and music, and in particular the use of music as a language. The phrase, music is the universal language, I doubt is anything of a surprise to the people reading this blog, but music itself is a blanket term for countless numbers of musical dialects, most of which are very hard to learn. However what makes music interesting is how over centuries musical dialects have mashed and mixed with one another, creating new languages and fashions for creation. The laws of the language of music are extremely flexible and adaptable. Like the English language I will argue, after years of colonization, has undergone a constant and rapid evolution. The English rose to global power with the great advancements in technology, distribution, capitalism, and of course the United States. New methods of distributing the mass amount of American Culture emerged in the 1900s, which of course backboned by capitalism. These technologies, which ultimately led to digital technologies, the Internet, and today’s musical landscape, have allowed the language to mash and bend faster than the technologies can keep. The spell check on the Microsoft program I am using to type this is a prime example.
I have an interest in world music, and in particular pop, rock, and psychedelic music of the 60s and 70s. I am amazed at just how well artists from around the world were able to synthesize the evolutions in rock and integrate them into their own cultural characteristics. Artists like Omar Khorshid, who did his version proto-eruption guitar heroics, melding fiery Egyptian modes with American surf music. He is perhaps, only rivaled by Dick Dale or Link Wray. Another example is Korean guitarist Shin Jung Hyun, who was doing his own heavy, fuzzed, out, wah-worship, proto-prog jams, around the same time as Hendrix. But unlike Hendrix, he music does not seemed to be rooted in blues, but in something way far out, or just foreign to my ears.
It is amazing how these cultures were able to understand the musical dialects, syntaxes, and accents. Just listen to groups of the above-mentioned artists. Someone learning a language will attest to how difficult it is to learn an accent. It takes years to learn a language if you are not born into it.
This idea of musical globalization should not be mistaken for western imperialism; it’s symbiotic. This is particularly obviously with late 60s American psych-rock or the experimental music of the minimalists. Both borrowed heavily from India and African musics. They took their ideas of musical architecture, rhythm, improvisation, and trance. Globalization in music is in fact way older. An early example is that of the chaconne, a popular dance of the baroque period. Bach composed a famous Chaconne. The rhythm itself however, actually comes from South America, imported by colonization. Mozart too, Rondo a la Turk, was largely inspired by Turkish music (hence the name). As well as Ravel who was deeply moved by the music of Indonesia.
With technology our world gets smaller, and global consciousness increases, but as we can see our world has always been small, and maybe music points to a future where we speak a melting pot language.
-Z
Saturday, January 16, 2010
SHOW THIS SUNDAY!!!
Sunday January 17th, doors open at 8pm.- THE BLIND SHAKE (Minneapolis -- http://www.myspace.com/theblindshake)
- OMON RA II (Halifax / Montreal -- http://www.myspace.com/theyproject)
- FUTENSIL (http://www.myspace.com/futensil)
- INTERRACIAL LOVE TRIANGLE (http://www.myspace.com/interraciallovetriangle)
@ Friendship Cove (215a Murray - Metro Bonaventure)
PAY WHAT YOU CAN
-----------------------------
THE BLIND SHAKE are one of Minnesota's best bands in recent years. In 2007, they released a collaborative album with 60s Minneapolis psych / weirdo rock legend MICHAEL YONKERS called "Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons," which was amazing and one of the most critically acclaimed albums of that year. On their own, the band play a distinct style of psych influenced post-punk that has given them favorable comparisons to bands like The Urinals, Fugazi and The Intelligence. We are really excited to have them up here for the first time.
Check out this review in the Seattle Weekly (http://www.seattleweekly.com/2008-10-29 ... cary-good/)
And their tracks on Last.FM and myspace to see for yourself.
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Blind+Shake
http://www.myspace.com/theblindshake
OMON RA II are a new band that have risen from the ashes of Halifax psych rockers (and Divorce and Fixture Records alumni) OMON RA. The band is lead by composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Zachary Devereux Fairbrother, who upon moving to Montreal, started up the band again and expanded the lineup to four members (including long time collaborator Chris D'Eon). A force to be reckoned with live, this is one of just a handful of shows the band has played since their re-birth in Montreal.
FUTENSIL are a three piece garage punk band from the St-Henri borough that bring to mind Thee Oh Sees jangly guitar parts and male / female vocal harmonies, but with the added warped experimental bent of weirdos like The Residents. They were one of three bands hand picked to perform live on CKUT's "If You Got Ears" program during the station's annual funding drive week last year, and their catchy songs and killer live shows make them one of the city's most exciting up and coming bands.
INTERRACIAL LOVE TRIANGLE are an awesome new two piece minimalist garage rock band who have been blowing audiences away with their incredible live shows recently. Their drum kit consists of two metal salad bowels turned upside down, and their riff heavy, raunchy guitar sound and super charismatic front man make them this city's long awaited answer to The Gories.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/even ... 71&index=1
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Some New Prints
Some New Prints by me and Emily Tortalia. These were used as small Christmas gifts. Colors are not as vibrant as in the flesh but after the scanner treatment they now sort of look like washed out double exposures.
-Z
Saturday, December 12, 2009
***SHOW TONIGHT**
***AT L'ESCO MTL 4467 ST-DENIS***
***PAY WHAT YOU CAN!!!! SHOW STARTS AT 9PM***
***WITH POSTCARDS AND THE HOA HOA'S***
***THE HOA HOA'S RECORD RELEASE SHOW***
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
*SOLO DEBUT EP ON DIVORCE RECORDS*
Tim Crofts performing my piece "Buddha Box 1.0"I just released a solo EP on Divorce Records as a part of the FREEWAVE series; a series free download-able EPs. You can donate to the label if you wish, all proceeds go the label and to the artists. Other artists featured are Mess Folk and Husband & Knife. The EP is a single 15min solo piano piece that I wrote for my friend Tim Crofts. Tim Crofts is a lecturer, improviser, and performer living in Halifax. He regularly performs with the SuddenlyListen concert series, the Upstream Music Ensemble, and his own group Zakugaku. Be sure to check him out and get to know him because you'll learn so much about music talking with him.
Here's what Divorce said about the EP!
Buddha Box was performed in a university concert hall last spring as part of Zachary Fairbrother’s thesis recital in modern composition. I am not sure what the usual crowd looks like for these events, but I saw a lot of cosmic kids tripping in the soft seaters, waiting for their man Fairbrother be born as a professional composer. A special day. This piece involves a grand piano, singing bowls, Buddha machines, various effects and piano treatments. It starts and ends in the most delicate ambient webs, but somewhere in the middle it’s like the piano is on fire and rocketing through space. Quite overwhelming, at the time. Includes a pdf of the score and a photo by Jacobo Garcia.
***GET IT FOR FREE HERE***
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