For Immediate Release THE VERY BEST’S DEBUT ALBUM WARM HEART OF AFRICA TO BE RELEASED THIS FALL GROUP WILL PERFORM RARE U.S. SHOWS IN JULY
“…The most listenable and flat-out enjoyable record of the year.”—Pitchfork
The Very Best’s—European production duo Radioclit and Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya—debut full-length Warm Heart of Africa will be released this fall on Green Owl. The album follows the surprising global success of Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit Are The Very Best, a free mixtape made available online late last year. Without promotional assistance or financial support, the collection of well-known pop, dance, afro and indie tracks remixed by Radioclit featuring Mwamwaya’s singing in Chichewa, Swahili, Portuguese and English charted more than 200,000 downloads and was hailed by tastemakers including Pitchfork, FADER, and Gorilla vs. Bear among many others. In anticipation of the new album, the band will cross the Atlantic for a series of singular U.S. performances including stops in New York City and Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival. See dates below.
While The Very Best mixtape caught fire with Mwamwaya singing over remixes of Michael Jackson (Free Willy theme), Vampire Weekend (“Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”), Hans Zimmer (True Romance theme) and M.I.A. (“Paper Planes”), the full-length consists of original songs. For the recording, the band brings some guests on board: M.I.A. for “Rain Dance” and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig sings on “Warm Heart Of Africa.”
The Very Best embodies a without-borders approach to music-making that could only happen in the 21st century. The band came together when Mwamwaya first met Radioclit’s Etienne Tron in 2007 while haggling over a bicycle in the London second-hand furniture shop he ran near the duo’s studio. Following the exchange, Mwamwaya was invited to Tron’s house-warming party where he met the other half of Radioclit, Johan Karlberg. Esau was asked to come to Radioclit’s studio after he told Karlberg he was a drummer. It turned out Esau was a singer too and they decided to collaborate, combining Radioclit’s vast production experience and self-described “ghettopop” style—having produced and remixed tracks for the likes of M.I.A., Lily Allen, Justin Timberlake, Santigold, Britney Spears, TV On The Radio, David Banner, Buraka Som Sistema among others—with Mwamwaya’s emotive vocal approach. Karlberg dubbed Mwamwaya “the African Phil Collins,” and they have been recording songs together ever since.
Green Owl is a New York City-based record label started by artists for artists with the idea that great music can be sustainable—both economically and environmentally. Green Owl is committed to respecting this planet through sustainable technology, news and information. Please visit greenowl.com for more information.
These dudes look like nothing to fuck with. A Nigerian
militant group called the Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta are warning
officials that the safety of international travelers for the World Cup is not guaranteed.
The under-17 World Cup is scheduled for October 24 to November 2. MEND warned
“the international football association FIFA that it should 'rethink' allowing Nigeria
to host the upcoming under-17 World Cup series later this year.”
The disputes
are a result of MEND putting immense pressure on the Nigerian government for
what they called “unprovoked attacks.” As a means of retaliation, MEND has destroyed
several oil facilities which have limited their oil exports my 40%. What the CNN posts fails to clarify is that MEND was formed out of desperation and the mistreatment of the Nigerian Delta people. Multinational oil companies have distributed NONE of the wealth that has been a result of the environmentally destructive oil drilling in the Delta. I would be pissed too; Africa has been raped of its natural resources for too long by foreigners and if it means the little guys suiting up to defend their land so be it. Homeland-fucking-security bitches. Stay up.
Genetically modified foods are bad! If you're a vegetarian, you're more than likely getting a dose of pork with your peas and carrots. As brother wills suggested, urban farms are an interesting and
needed concept to combat genetically modified foods. Although they are being applied to more dense cities, the benefits
are not geographical specific. For example, the average produce you
see in the store has traveled an average 1400 miles – making it near impossible for fruits
and vegetables to endure travel without the assistance of being genetically modified.
Urban farms would allow folks to grow there own hippie eats in the buildings where they work our
live. Instead of eating tomatoes modified with fish genes, they could grow them
outside their sad little cubical. Building up instead of out is something we need to enforce in our developments. Because sprawl is like Katy Perry -it looks all fine and dandy but in reality
it’s a horribly packaged entity that pollutes and destructs (also like genetically modified food!) Check this Pete Seeger-esque jingle, it will make you make you many pleasures! Stay up
y’all.
Nat Geo Music residency w/ DJ's from
Nat Geo Music & Green Owl Le Poisson Rouge - Gallery Bar /// 158 Bleecker St. btw. Sullivan &
Thompson 9pm-2am // FREE
From Eisenhower to Condi, I know it all seems a lot better with Obama in the big chair but the escalation of troops in Afghanistan isn't sitting right with me and i'm sure it ain't sitting right with you. What are we over there doing? Are we ever going to find Osama Bin Laden? Is this really what we are paying taxes for? Is Osama really worth these billions of dollars and these American/Iraqi/Afghani lives? Why are we fighting wars we can't win so the Military Industrial Complex can get even more powerful? Why aren't the politics of Washington changing?
Big ups to our friends over at Midnight Rockers Express where i stumbled on the Rick Reyes testimony as well as the Kucinich footage. I'm surprised i hadn't seen the latter as i've been YouTubin' Dennis quite a bit as of late. I guess me and the Rockers guys are secret Kucinich/Paul fans! I know it's hard to come out and say it but once you do, you feel a whole lot better.
Watch the videos whilst listening to some Gregory Isaacs. They go well together. Leggo Beast in the stream.
This week's Mugshot Monday lands on DJ Teenwolf (Kevin) of Brooklyn's crunk dynamo, Ninjasonik. Kevin is the driver behind this machine, revving up the nicest beats this side of the East River (or any river, for that matter). Find him DJing hot spots like Happy Endings (NYC
China Town,
Wednesdays). He's all about ripping your head off -- oh yeah, and he's into music and the community, doing
several shows to benefit schools, skate parks and so on.
What part of you is most like a wolf? Gotta be my facial hair
What's the fiercest piece of music in your DJ set? Tight Pants has to be one of fiercest songs of all time. I also love to play (Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go by Curtis Mayfield. I love at the beginning where he's like..."sisters,
niggas, whiteys, jews, crackers...dont worry, if there's a hell
below...we're all...gonna goooooooo!!!" that has to be one of the
toughest things anybody has ever said on a record.
How does you beard affect the way you live your life? Gotta be careful when eating. Food gets stuck in it a lot.
What kind of music do you listen to that has the least to do with Ninjasonik? I love soft rock radio. You can catch me singing along to mad oldies and
pop songs. For instance Dancing in the Moonlight or I believe I Can Fly by R. Kelly.
What's the strangest thing someone has said to you after a gig? One
time we did a show where we played three songs before we we're thrown
off stage, cuz Reverend McFly kicked a monitor off the stage. I was
hella upset and pissed, but then some kid came up to me and said that
was the best show he had ever seen and he asked if we get kicked off
stage a lot. He proceeded to tell me that as an artist the highest
compliment I could receive is for people to try and ban my work. He
changed my world with those words.
What's farthest from home you've been? What's further away, Cuba, California, or Prague? One of those.
Where will music be in a thousand years? According
to the Black Eyed Peas it will sound like "boom boom pow" but I imagine
(and hope) it will sound way differenter-er and better.
Your sandwich of choice? Grilled cheese.
What don't you believe in? Organized religion.
If you were in Iran right now... I'd be prepping for an invasion by the US.
Who do you love the most? My family, meaning both my blood relatives and my musical brethren.
What's the relationship between music and environmentalism? Man, I wish I could say there was a beautiful symbiotic relationship between
the two (see below), but unfortunately, I don't think there is. There are some
smart people spreading smart ideas through music, but there are also a lot
of ignorant people spreading ignorant ideas through music. Even music
festivals (where supposedly a lot of progressive people assemble) are
gross and destructive to the environment. So much waste and trash. It's sad to see sometimes. Regardless though, music heads tend to be both
conscious and progressive. They generally wanna do the right thing. Now we just gotta get the ideals of environmentalism to match the
realities of the music industry.
People Will Come to See Us Ride (Teenwolf Remix) in the stream below.
For most of us westerners, Twitter is another obnoxious way
to feel culturally relevant in a hip way. However, Twitter has found itself in
the revolutionary/political ranks in other countries. A few post back we
discussed the phenomena occurring in Guatemala. Remember when dudes were
getting thrown in prison for twittering about the corruption taking place in the
government?
Now, Iran
is facing the same dilemma and with 66% of Iranians being under the age 30, it’s
no surprise Twitter has been a prominent tool in communicating the election trials.
After the Presidential election between former hard-ass President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi
implied fraud, people protested. Iran's twitterevolution is mostly in English. Gory pictures of bloody protesters were also twittered as a means to bring awareness to the situation
going on in Tehran. As Iranian officials shut off texting, Facebook, emails, BBC and Myspace during the election disput; they forgot about Twitter. How culturally relevant do you feel now? It's a twitterevolution baby. Stay Up!
In 2003, a few crafty scientists in Japan put together a 1,124 pound space probe that will, a year from now, fall from the heavens, and onto us. Well, actually, it may not make it to us - the smart bets say that the Hayabusa spacecraft will burn up in the atmosphere. In any case, the spaceship-turned-experiment is currently hurtling through space back toward Earth after landing and collecting samples from the asteroid Itokawa. The astrological prizes will be safely jettisoned in a heat-resistant capsule before the Hayabusa enters the atmosphere, just in case. Upon its entry, scientists will be tracking the craft's movements and trajectory. This information will allow them to better understand and track the movements of future interstellar threats.
Scientists are not sure what they will be able to learn from the abducted chunks of asteroid. They are, however, especially looking forward to examining the pieces because they will be the first "pristine" asteroid samples ever analyzed.
A two lane road that cuts through Kutai National Park, in Indonesia, has recently drawn local scrutiny and international attention. The once quiet avenue has become a strip of newly built homes and businesses. Squatters, finding the national park an enticing environment, have planted themselves in the pleasant nature "reserve". While the land is rich and hospitable, the park rangers and Sumatran Tigers are less than happy with the intrusion. Unlike the tigers, however, who have attacked invasive settlers in multiple locations, Kutai Park's rangers are close to powerless in preventing the encroaching trespassers from reaching further into the forest.
The biggest problem facing Kutai National Park, in light of the settlements, is wildlife destruction. It is estimated that as much as half of the park's 490,000 acres have been destroyed or contaminated by development. A plethora of rare and unique species that populate Kutai's thick forests have been put in jeopardy by the recent developments. On top of destroying habitats and polluting, the settlements give the impression that utilizing the parks resources is acceptable. Since the road's growth, a number of illegal mining and logging operations have begun to pursue ventures in Kutai.
Local authorities, encouraging economic development over environmental protection, have actually urged people to build homes inside the park. The growth of settlements in Kutai plays into a greater national issue of local governments pushing against the national agenda - the conflict, essentially, points to an instability in Indonesia.
Four former Guantanamo Bay prisoners were recently relocated to Bermuda after president Obama's Administration decided against letting former prisoners of Gitmo reside in the United States. You may have seen the controversy come to a head last week through mainstream media outlets shortly before the administration made it's announcement. The four men hail from Xinjiang, (translates to "new territory" in Chinese) an area of China where the population is made up of mostly Muslim Turks (an ethnic minority in China) who call themselves Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers) which means "Confederation of Nine Tribes." Since Sept. 11 2001 the Uighur people (also spelled Uygher, Uiger, Uyger ) were considered a threat to the Chinese government as it adopted the same anti-terrorist policy as the United States, and others. These men fled China to start the liberation movement of the Uighur people in Afgahnistan where they were detained by United States Military forces and eventually held as suspected members of Al Qaeda. The War on Terror was and is a mandate to pursue nationalistic impulses. We've seen it infest our own government as well as others such as Britian and Sri Lanka. Now we watch the aftermath as it trickles down to lives of individuals like these men here.
The good news is, these guys now get to hang out by the ocean and eat ice cream and fish for their own food as they work towards becoming official Bermudians which means they'll have citizenship rights and be able to travel anywhere in the world (except most likely, the United States). Times article here. Uighur Wiki here.
Here is a different teaser version of Bermuda's Dinosaurs on the Ark featuring Esau Mwamwaya in the stream...
Wow, yesterday I endured the longest train ride ever since moving to the Big Apple and after a stupid amount of hours I arrived all the way back in 1969 Todd P style. Mr P delivered another one of his D.I.Y. events, this time on Rockaway Beach. The energy was carefree as musical melodies blended with the crashing wavvvvvvvves.
This past Friday, I hopped the Chinatown bus from NY and leaned into the 2009 album from Mulatu Astake + Heliocentrics on my ipod. It was the most blissful listening experience I've had in a while. Other-worldly pianos, bells and horns ringing with grit, deserts caught in cities, nomad jazz-poems that take forty years to write.
I made it to DC at midnight, then hit Dukem with my buddy, Drew. During the day, Dukem is the spot for Ethiopian cuisine in DC, but at that hour, the story changes. It gets local -- Ethiopian pop cooks (see photo below by B. Eyre) and old people dance.
If you can't make it to Dukem, or even if you can, throw Kapuscinki's book, The Emperor on your Kindle. The Emperor concerns itself with the decline of Haile Selassie. A short, perfect summer read.
