March 14th, 2010 |
Posted in Articles, Live Music Reviews by zack
I’ve been trying to convince my work to switch over to a four-day workweek. It’s been shown to improve employee efficiency and effectiveness, as well as control costs. Actually, I don’t care about any of that. I just want to be able to wild out on Thursday without having to wake up early the next day. This is because Thursday has already become the precursor to the weekend and musicians in the city have been taking that prelude and running with it.
For instance, last week. DJ Vadim and Yarah Bravo were on hand at The Source store to give an insight into their creative process with a workshop and Q&A. It was actually an uncomfortable setting, but it turned into something better for us later on. Why was it uncomfortable? Well, some people decided to take it as a social occasion and insisted on chattering aimlessly during the whole thing. This was mixed with the problem of a less-than-booming PA system at The Source, which combined to make it pretty damn impossible to hear what the artists were saying. Then people started to get agitated at the talkers and admonish them on the microphone, but their admonitions were ignored, which made things doubly awkward. So it wasn’t the greatest thing to behold.
However, things got better when everyone left because Benoit from Free the Wax set up a private interview with the pair for Layabozi. We sat down to talk and it became obvious that Vadim and Yarah could not be any nicer or more expressive. The interview went down and then we proceeded to have another unrecorded conversation for an hour. I was asking him about everybody in hip hop I could think of and he was happy to tell me everything I wanted to know. He’s a really smart and well-traveled guy, but at the same time humble and funny. He even bestowed upon me my new MC name- Deadly Silence. We eventually got onto the subject of the fall of the United States empire and, inevitably, like all empires, the conversation ended.
We went to see Gary Wang and a soul set at The Shelter, which was made more enjoyable by the band there, which included Asaph on guitar, piano, and vocals, along with electric beats. I enjoyed the whole thing; awesome records were played after the live set and it was a cool night. Shelter really has good stuff going on most of the time. I still have yet to check out The Swap Meet, but I will do it, although I don’t have a turntable. I just want to see what’s on hand.
And that was just Thursday!
Friday night I had a good time at the Local King show going down at Mao. The atmosphere was great because it was a free show and totally packed out. There is something great about a packed out show at Mao, that’s why I hope it survives. When you are there with all those people you just feel a collective energy that amplifies the vibe of the bands. The bands (Pinkberry, whom I missed, Candy Shop, Sonnet, and Boys Climbing Ropes) were just OK, except for Boys Climbing Ropes, who seem to do well no matter what the stage, but it was really the vibe in the place that won me over.
Saturday night I went out to see St. Vincent, for which I was really excited. This little lady has a control of the guitar, as well as a tremendously beautiful voice. She brought along a violinist and they managed to do justice to many of the tracks off of her Actor album and also threw in a couple other numbers. Good show. More on that show from Emma later on.
It was a good weekend of music, thanks to Free the Wax for Vadim, Splitworks for St. Vincent and the ongoing JUE Fest, and Jagermeister (WTF?) for the Local King show. Good job, guys. Keep it coming.
tags: Boys Climbing Ropes - Candy Shop - DJ Vadim - Free the Wax - Jue Festival - Pinkberry - Sonnet - Splitworks - St. Vincent - The Shelter - The Source - Yarah Bravo - YuYinTang
March 8th, 2010 |
Posted in Album Reviews by zack
1999 was a long time ago, but it doesn’t really feel that way, does it? Maybe this is because The Aughts Decade never really spawned a true zeitgeist identity, but it undermines the fact that a decade has passed, a long time to continue to show and prove in the hip hop game.
In 1999, my friends and I thought the world was about to end. Maybe it did, for all we know. Maybe we just listened to too much Prince and The Isolationist.
That year, DJ Vadim released an earth shattering album for those of us who were waiting for the end. The album was The Isolationist. At that point, it was about the most cutting-edge shit you could get into. The MCs, M. Saayid, Beans, and Priest (known collectively as Anti-Pop Consortium) were off-the-wall (“Your ears are my punching bag/ Hydrogen slush), utilizing the negative space (where no raps live) as much as they did their own idiosyncratic flows. Much in the same way, the beats were spare and foreboding.
“Hydrogen Slush from The Isolationist
I bring this joint up because it was 10 years between this ground-breaking album and DJ Vadim’s last release, U Can’t Lurn Imaginashun. 10 years is a long time in the hip hop game. It was long enough for Jay Z to morph from an up-and-comer to a mogul, for De La Soul to go from top of the heap to over the hill. Long enough for Kanye West to arise from obscurity to ubiquity and back again and for Common to jump the shark completely, making an atrocious album on whose cover he wore guy-liner. Countless labels and artists have come and gone since then (Def Jux or Canibus, anyone? OK, Def Jux is still around, but it seems like they’re more of a clothing and accessories company now.) Hip hop since 1999 has become a part of the pop music template, a seemingly seamless co-option that has basically killed the genre or bestowed upon it everlasting life, depending on whom you ask.
To be sure, DJ Vadim has changed a lot since 1999, too. He got married, to Yarah Bravo, went through some loss as well as cancer of the eye (ouch), toured the world, and participated in countless collaborations. His most recent effort, U Can’t Lurn Imaginashun is a mish-mash of styles that should please everyone.
“This is something I would never have done ten years ago, let alone on my last album,” avers Vadim. “I feel like the album bridges gaps between what is eclectic and what is mainstream, as well as between genres like soul, hip hop, reggae, downtempo and electronica. It’s definitely a move towards more electronic sounds from The Soundcatcher” – maybe like Soul2Soul meets Daft Punk.”
That quote exemplifies the spirit of this album completely. It swings back and forth from reggae to dubstep, from pop hip hop to underground banger. Imaginashun holds your attention due to this genre schizophrenia, as well as the overall accessibility. The first three tracks: “Soldier,” “Imaginashun,” and “That Life” run the gamut from reggae/dancehall to a trance-like club track to a “conscious” hip hop cut with infectious soul samples. Imaginashun goes on like this, refusing to conform to the contours of its container, breaking free and breaking molds.
Maybe you can lurn imaginashun.
In 1999, I admired The Isolationist for its single-mindedness; its willful determination to conform to a style. I could see myself ridiculing Imaginashun ten years ago, calling it too pop, maybe even a sell-out. However, now I realize that there is a difference between becoming accessible and selling out. Maybe it has taken me ten years to become a more eclectic and receptive listener. Or perhaps it has taken Vadim these ten years to find the right balance. It’s like a colorblind person suddenly seeing in Technicolor.
He seems to move effortlessly between styles. In addition to the three aforementioned tracks, “Thrill Seeker” is a wriggly, slippery funk number, featuring the powerful voice of Sabira Jade. “Saturday,” featuring Pugz Atomz, reminds me of an early-90s commercial radio jam. You know, like when you used to sit by the stereo and press record when your favorite song came on, played it non-stop on your Walkman, then recorded over it two weeks later when the new flavor came out, until the tape eventually melted down to the basic carbon atoms. “Strictly Rockers” and “Under Your Hat” move to the reggae/dub realm with satisfying results. Yarah Bravo dominates “You Are Yours” with both her singing and rapping. “Maximum” featuring La Methode takes us to France with a creepy track built around old chanson samples. This cut kind of weirds me out a little bit, but in a good way. It sounds like the soundtrack to cartoons based on a trip to the haunted house. Pugz Atomz returns strong, along with Wes Restless on “Always a Lady, ” a sweet little hip hop love joint. Vadim even drops some disco on us, cashing in on the latest revival with “Thrill” and “Rock Dem Hot”. “Hidden Pleasure” plays around with ska.
“You are Yours from DJ Vadim feat. Yarah Bravo
If you had a qualm about the album, it would probably be that it is not cohesive. It is more like a great mixtape, which I happen to like. However, some people like more of an overall conceptual cohesion that is lacking here. I like to hear Vadim working in a select genre over the course of an album, like he does on The Isolationist or the album La Mami Internacional. Also, in my opinion, there are some weaker tracks that act as filler. “Beijos,” kind of a ballad-y hip hop beat; and “Game Tight,” which samples an American soap opera theme song, come to mind immediately.
Maybe there is no over-arching conceptual theme, but the omnipresent vibe on Imaginashun is fun. This can be one of those albums you put on at a party and just let it run straight through. It is apparent that Vadim has honed his craft over the years, expanded his stable of collaborators, and found a way to dabble in almost every imaginable genre. What’s next, DJ Vadim, klezmer? Polka? I wouldn’t put it past him. Judging from this album, he would probably make it super rump-shaking.
Good news for you: Vadim and Yarah Bravo are coming to Shanghai (again). This is a Free the Wax show at the Shelter on March 12th. More awesomeness: Vadim and Yarah Bravo will be putting on a workshop/show at the Source store the day before. Come down to find out how Vadim makes the tracks so funky.
tags: DJ Vadim - Free the Wax - Hip Hop - The Isolationist - UK - Yarah Bravo
November 20th, 2009 |
Posted in Playlists by mache
Leo Messias is the rhythm behind Free the Wax and together with Katrina Lui, his partner in crime, started this adventure more than a year ago. Their movie nights at Kat’s place, what became known as “The Rooftop”, became a Free the Wax classic, and a refreshment for the music here (you can read more about their beginning and motivation in this interview we published last year). They set on the music scene with a great concept: to bring creative and talented electronic musicians, providing us with the quality sounds that have helped to build a smarter and more interesting music scene in Shanghai.
Leo is an always smiling and kind guy, a positive person with a deep knowledge of the world of music and always happy to share it when it’s time. And this is one of those times. We asked to Leo to do a playlist for us, and he did this beautiful collection of tracks, each one belonging to one of the great musicians Free The Wax brought to China, of course including his own story for each. We are very proud to bring to you this little piece of an anthology of the music that we have experienced in Shanghai because of Free the Wax.
01. James Pants “I Choose You”
02. Onra “My Comet”
03. Samiyam “Wrap Up”
04. DJ Vadim “Skit”
05. Free The Robots “Lalune (Do Over)”
06. Harmonic “Falling Away”
07. Hermitude “Ruffwon”
08. Nosaj Thing “Aquarium”
09. Dorian Concept “One For Oh Ate”
10. Eliot Lipp “Beam Rider”
11. Daedelus “Just Briefly”
12. The Gaslamp Killer “Birthday Music”
Leo comments: “Since I don’t DJ and am not musically gifted in any way, I, completely lacking in originality, decided to present some tunes from artists that we have brought to Shanghai in our little-over-a-year of FREE the WAX existence. It just kind of made sense, aiight? It’s supposed to work as a kind of mix, with a certain progression. It’s a Sunday rainy day mix. It’s also a goodbye mix. Goodbye Shanghai.”
01. James Pants (November 2008) – James Pants is one of the most underappreciated producers of quality 80s-infused sonic niceness among many other things. This is an appropriate starter, I think, for a mix with nothing but one goal in mind: chill. It’s a chilled tune dressed up in dance lingo. And James likes Bruce Haack, which makes him a friend.
02. Onra (July 2009) – Onra has an incredible ear for choosing the right samples to make beautifully atmospheric songs. Be it sampling Chinese and Vietnamese tunes, Indian nuggets or 80s disco-ey funk, he has an indubitable penchant for suspending us in time, like this tune does.
03. Samiyam (September 2009) – A killer tune that would be a soundtrack for my life if we were all like, stoner zombies who didn’t have jobs and had nothing but hash brownies to live on all year. Samiyam is keeping it real on the sloppy THC side of things, and he’s all the better for it.
04. DJ Vadim (January 2009) – I like this tune cuz it sounds like a bunch of other things that I like (David Holmes, Medeski Martin & Wood, Angelo Badalamenti) and not really like Vadim which, for the sake of this mix, works better. It has a predominant keyboard leading the way, hammering that sexy funky lick over and over again.
05. Free the Robots (March 2009) – By now you should have realized that I like synths. I can listen to a tune with moogs all day long. Moogs are the juice of life. Buy a moog, shut yourself in your room, forget about getting drunk at Logo trying to find any girl scraps to sleep with, slash your penis off and change your name to Wendy Carlos the III, compose an awesome moog-centered 12-minute piece that no one but music nerds will listen to, make the world a better place. There are no moogs in this song by the way, but fuck, it’s just girlfriend music to help you have that last wet goose action before becoming a Moog God! And it’s got keys anyway…
06. Harmonic 313 (December 2008) – In my worthless opinion, one of the most gifted producers of all time, Mark Pritchard simply knows what he is doing. He talks music all day long too, which can sometimes do your head in. He’s a studio rat, and you can hear it in this song. Listen to all those textures being juxtaposed one on the other, synths smoothly coming in and out of your speakers and you will know what I mean. Beautiful vocals from his long time collaborator Steve Spacek. This is pure headphone bliss, love in a bottle.
07. Hermitude (October 2008) – These Aussies are pretty much the best guys in Australia playing electronic/instrumental hip hop cinematic-ness for the good people of the Earth. Never broke out of Australia, though. This one sounds like Bonobo or Cinematic Orchestra. Look them up, buy their albums. House pets tend to like their first 2 albums best.
08. Nosaj Thing (April 2009) – Aaaaaaah ooooooooh uuuuuuuh. This makes the hair on my back stand up in excitement. Like being hit by a thousand giant bubbles blown up by a blue whale swimming just beneath you. Just fucking beautiful.
09. Dorian Concept (February 2009) – I love his weirdness. He always has a way of playing a tune which doesn’t sound quite right, like things don’t belong. The drums are always out of place, the synths over-layered to an almost uncomfortable dissonance, the atmosphere is spacey and his stuff can sometimes be super noisy too. And this dude is like, a 15-year-old Austrian Lang Lang drunken on good beer. Respect.
10. Eliot Lipp (November 2009) – This tune is weird. I don’t know why I like it. Maybe it’s that falling bass drum going bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum and that vocoder singing thing, the electro distortion and, well, the synths.
11. Daedelus (September 2008) – My favorite Daedelus tune. It’s everything alternative Brazilian music should be sounding like in the 21st century, but instead we continue doing cheap bossa nova renditions of old dinosaur tunes people who hang around Glamour Bar get jiggy with, doing hip hop with samba samples from the 70s (so 90s!) and making baile funk booty tunes for opportunist gringos like Diplo and Shanghai circuit DJs who can’t make people dance by any other means. Thanks, Daedelus. Your music sounds nothing like Brazilian music.
12. Gaslamp Killer (November 2009) – Man… listen to this… man… you wanna be this guy’s friend after you listen to this. You wanna hang out. It’s 1950s science fiction flick soundtrack meets the Beach Boys meets Beyond the Valley of the Dolls meets Bruce Haack on an electrified Serge Gainsbourg trip, the latter sleeping with underage girls to make an album later, desperately trying to make sense of this mad, mad world. Genius…
Catch FREE the WAX’s last show this Saturday at The Shelter, 10pm, 50 RMB. FREE the WAX and Subculture present: GASLAMP KILLER – Brainfeeder Showcase Vol 2.
tags: Free the Wax - Katrina Lui - Leo Messias
November 20th, 2009 |
Posted in Editor's Picks by mike
Friday:
BIZ, Crystal Butterfly, Crazy Mushroom, Jason Falkner
The line-up for the grand opening of Mao Livehouse is: a super veteran Shanghai act, a favorite of the last couple years in Shanghai, a new local act, and a critically acclaimed even more super veteran singer/songwriter/session musician from the US. Sounds just right and their doubans/myspaces sound better: metally, punky, straight rocky, a little of everything, and everything nice and SOLID. Don’t laugh that they’re having the grand opening now when they’ve been open for months and everybody knows about them, because the show is free! Nice work, Mao Livehouse!
Crystal Butterfly
Crazy Mushroom
Jason Falkner
Mao Livehouse, 570 Huaihai Xi Lu, near Hongqiao Lu
9:00 start
No cover
Rich Medina
Straight from New York! Back to the Roots brings Rich Medina and his broad spectrum of funky danceability and eyebrow-raising ingenuity (the “I like what you’ve doing there” eyebrow-raising not the “what the hell are you done there” eyebrow-raising) to Ye Olde Shelter. Scope the Shanghaiist interview. Support from his friend and colleague Jay Soul, and the Lab Crew.
The Shelter, 5 Yongfu Lu near Fuxing Xi Lu
10:00 start
60 RMB cover
Saturday:
Rock for Roots and Shoots, with Booji, Triple Smash, Boys Climbing Ropes, Duck Fight Goose, Varde, and Resist Resist
I was going to pick Au Revoir Simone in this spot because I’ve picked shows involving BCR and Duck Fight Goose in my last two columns, but Au Revoir Simone don’t feel natural enough, and the show is expensive besides. Maybe if I was in a car on a rainy day and the girl I had a crush on liked them I could get into it, but I can’t in good conscience tell people to pay a lot to see them perform. It’s too bad because I saw the listing and thought to myself, “Oh, they have some Brooklyn Hipster band that everyone likes? Maybe I’ll finally make it to Mao.” It looks like I’ll have to wait for next time.
So on to the show I am picking: It’s all those bands you see above, and it’s to help pay for the planting of one million trees in Inner Mongolia. That’s a lot of bands. And trees up there in the North are pretty important. It’s way too dry up there.
YuYinTang, 1731 Yan’an Xi Lu, enter from Kaixuan Lu
6pm start (really? wow.)
50 RMB (The equivalent of 2 trees apparently. And that money all goes to Roots and Shoots.)
Brainfeeder Showcase II with the Gaslamp Killer
This will be the last Free the Wax show in Shanghai for a little while. Leo is on his way to Italy soon and Kat is already there. There will certainly be way fewer live electronic nights without them. Anyway, this final show is presented with Subculture and features Gaslamp Killer, aka MOTHERFUCKING GASLAMP KILLER, apparently. He plays some pretty far out but groovy dark stuff with a rock flava. According to Morgan’s Mp3 Monday “he’s ‘the shit’ right now in underground hip-hop DJ circles in the States.” So don’t cry, Shanghai. With Deville, dji, Drunk Monk, and MC Didje.
The Shelter, 5 Yongfu Lu near Fuxing Xi Lu
9:00 start
50 RMB cover
Sunday:
Reso No. 9
Finally, it’s Sunday, so why not get a little out there with sound and word worker Yan Jun from Lanzhou via Beijing, and free improvisers Jun Yuan (of MTDM) and Mai Mai (aka 卖笑国大使), both from Shanghai?
YuYinTang, 1731 Yan’an Xi Lu, enter from Kaixuan Lu
9:00 start
30 RMB
tags: BIZ - Booji - Boys Climbing Ropes - Brainfeeder - Crazy Mushroom - Crystal Butterfly - Dj Deville - dji - Drunk Monk - Duck Fight Goose - Free the Wax - Gaslamp Killer - Jason Falkner - Jay Soul - Jun Yuan - Mai Mai - Mao Livehouse - MC Didje - Resist Resist - Reso - Rich Medina - Roots and Shoots - Sub-Culture - The Lab Crew - The Shelter - Triple Smash - Varde - Yan Jun - YuYinTang
I’ve been trying to convince my work to switch over to a four-day workweek. It’s been shown to improve employee efficiency and effectiveness, as well as control costs. Actually, I don’t care about any of that. I just want to be able to wild out on Thursday without having to wake up early the next day. This is because Thursday has already become the precursor to the weekend and musicians in the city have been taking that prelude and running with it.
