Rave and Remix » Remix

Gilberto Gil

tarky7 — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:21:53 +0000

For decades a champion of technology, the singer has invited the public to record and broadcast his music over the Internet when he performs at the club. He also will have a camera crew film the concert and later post it online. During his North American tour he will be promoting his latest album “Banda Larga Cordel” (“Broadband Cordel”), featuring plenty of MPB (musica popular brasileira).

Wikipedeia

Gil sings with his baritone or falsetto register, with lyrics and/or scat syllables. His lyrics are on subjects that range from philosophy to religion, folktales, and wordplay.Gil’s musical style incorporates a broad range of influences. The first music he was exposed to included The Beatles and street performers in various metropolitan areas of Bahia. During his first years as a musician, Gil performed primarily in a blend of traditional Brazilian styles with two-step rhythms, such as baião and samba. He states that “My first phase was one of traditional forms. Nothing experimental at all. Caetano [Veloso] and I followed in the tradition of Luiz Gonzaga and Jackson do Pandeiro, combining samba with northeastern music.”

As one of the pioneers of Tropicalismo, influences from genres such as rock and punk have been pervasive in his recordings, as they have been in those of other stars of the period, including Caetano Veloso and Tom Zé. Gil’s interest in the blues-based music of rock pioneer Jimi Hendrix, in particular, has been described by Veloso as having “extremely important consequences for Brazilian music”. Veloso also noted the influence of Brazilian guitarist and singer Jorge Ben on Gil’s musical style, coupled with that of traditional music. After the height of Tropicalismo in the 1960s, Gil became increasingly interested in black culture, particularly in the Jamaican musical genre of reggae. He described the genre as “a form of democratizing, internationalizing, speaking a new language, a Heideggerian form of passing along fundamental messages”.

Visiting Lagos, Nigeria, in 1976, Gil met fellow musicians Fela Kuti and Stevie Wonder. He became inspired by African music and later integrated some of the styles he had heard in Africa, such as juju and highlife, into his own recordings. One of the most famous of these African-influenced records was the 1977 album Refavela, which included “No Norte da Saudade” (To the North of Sadness), a song heavily influenced by reggae. When Gil returned to Brazil after the visit, he focused on Afro-Brazilian culture, becoming a member of the Carnaval afoxé group Filhos de Gandhi.

Conversely, his 1980s musical repertoire presented an increased development of dance trends, such as disco and soul, as well as the previous incorporation of rock and punk. However, Gil says that his 1994 album Acoustic was not such a new direction, as he had previously performed unplugged with Caetano Veloso. He describes the method of playing as easier than other types of performance, as the energy of acoustic playing is simple and influenced by its roots. Gil has been criticized for a conflicting involvement in both authentic Brazilian music and the worldwide moneymaking arena. He has had to walk a fine line, simultaneously remaining true to traditional Bahian styles and engaging with commercial markets. Listeners in Bahia have been much more accepting of his blend of music styles, while those in southeast Brazil felt at odds with it^.

remixtheory

I later learned when reading an article in the Union Tribune that Gil actually promotes the recording of his concerts by the audience for later upload to video websites such as Youtube. Gil embraces new technologies as a way to communicate and spread his message, which as Brazil’s Minister of Culture includes a sense of responsibility for Brazil’s music history. It seems that Gil is fully in tune with Remix Culture.

BoingBoing

Lessig, just back from Brazil, describes an extraordinary performance/rally/event with Gilberto Gil. Gil is the Brazilian culture minister, a Free Software and Creative Commons activist, and an internationally renowned popstar who was imprisoned and then exiled for the music he perfomed in the sixties, and he blends all three personas seamlessly here in this amazing tale:

The Cool Kids, Yuksek, Fluo Kids, Brodinski

tarky7 — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 02:15:44 +0000

The Cool Kids, Yuksek, Fluo Kids, Brodinski… 33Hz… Bass Ale Open Bar… Free with RSVP
Thursday Sept 13 at Hiro Ballroom

How ridiculously trendy and cutting edge can one night at Hiro Ballroom really be? We don’t know how this happened, but somehow the bookings for this night got a little out of control, and we now find ourselves with a free party featuring:
* a performance from buzzworthy electro-hip-hop crew The Cool Kids (“exciting… feels like the future” – Pitchfork)
* a live set by Yuksek – the excellent new electro act from France (who has been busy remixing the likes of Chromeo, Zombie Nation, Sh*t Disco & Teenage Badgirl, as well as releasing some amazing original stuff on Relish and Rise).
* Fluo Kids (the highly influential French music bloggers) who will be DJing for us
* a DJ set by cool new French electro artist Brodinski.
* and last but not least, we have a live performance by our friends, 33Hz (whose new single featuring Teki & Devin The Dude is just amazing – click here to hear it)…
* Oh… did we mention the Bass Ale Open Bar from 10pm to 11pm (hosted by myopenbar.com)?

: DJ Eleven of The Rub

tarky7 — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:16:46 +0000

GBH – Friday July 27 at Lotus
GBH: DJ Eleven of The Rub – Upstairs
Loaded: Michael T. & Melody Nelson… Elhaam Guest DJs - Downstairs

Come and hear some of the finest music in the city, drink, dance and soak up the opulence of your surroundings at the lovely Lotus this Friday night.

In the main room, DJ Eleven of The Rub will be spinning a mix of hip-hop, disco, funk and R&B…
Hosted by Alejandro GBH, Jeanette, Ruben & Noel, Mike DeGuzman and Avi.

Meanwhile, at the Loaded party in the downstairs lounge, Michael T. and Melody Nelson will be playing some good, solid electro, rock’n'roll, ’80s new wave and party jams.
Hosted by Amanda Lepore, Miranda Moondust, Nico XO!, and Daniel Barbosa. This week, Elhaam will be guest DJing.

Loaded Drinks Specials (available downstairs only):
$7 PBR & Shot
$5 Beers 3AM-4AM

Pictures by nickydigital.com. Drinks Specials.

No Cover on the Loaded Guest List click here

Doors Open 10pm. 21+ w/I.D.
Lotus: 409 W14th St. between 9th & 10th Ave.s

Josh Wink – “Higher State of Consciousness”

tarky7 — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:53:10 +0000

Well here I go, ripping something else off the pages of GBH.TV, but again, it was sent to me by my friend Ross Von Berg.

Thank you Ross, now I only wish those folks over at GBH.TV would resolve some of their server bandwidth issues so I can watch the videos without the music being broken up. You listening out there GBH.TV ?

Josh Wink – “Higher State of Consciousness“

Now this is unexpected. The last time we heard anything from Josh Wink, he was making minimal-ish techno records that people sort of liked, and doing minimal-ish techno DJ sets that people often liked, and now…he’s reissuing singles he put out ten years ago? Good for him, we guess…

It’s only appropriate that Wink’s people got him a video to match this change, too. We’re not sure who directed this, but something tells us he/she/it is part of whatever apparatus made all those titillation-crazy videos for Armand Van Helden and such. That, or two different directors use a lot of the same models.

the norm in modern dance music

tarky7 — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:04:55 +0000

Remixes have become the norm in modern dance music, allowing one song the ability to appeal across many different musical genres or dancefloors. Such remixes often include “featured” artists, adding new vocalists or musicians to the original mix. The remix is also widely used in hip-hop and rap music. An R&B remix usually has the same music as the original song but has added or altered verses that are rapped or sung by the featured artists. It usually contains some if not all of the original verses of the song however, these verses may be arranged in a different order depending on how the producers decided to remix the song.

Remixing has become very Very !

tarky7 — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:01:33 +0000

Remixing has become very prevalent in heavily synthesized electronic and experimental music circles. Many of the people who create cutting edge music in such genres as synthpop, futurepop, and aggrotech are solo artists or pairs. They will often use remixers to help them with skills or equipment that they do not have. Artists such as Delobbo and DJ Ram are sought out for their remixing skill and have impressive lists of collaborations, yet no solo albums. It is not uncommon for industrial bands to release albums which have half the songs as remixes. Indeed, there have been popular singles that have been expanded to an entire album of remixes by other well-known artists.

Some industrial groups allow, and often encourage, their fans to remix their music, notably Nine Inch Nails, whose website contains a list of downloadable songs that can be remixed using Apple Computer’s GarageBand software. Some artists have started releasing their songs in the U-MYX format, which allows the buyers to mix songs and share them on the U-MYX website.

rise of powerful home computers

tarky7 — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:00:22 +0000

In the 1990s, with the rise of powerful home computers with audio capabilities came the mash-up, an unsolicited, unofficial (and often legally dubious) remix created by “underground remixers” who edit two or more recordings (often of wildly different songs) together. Underground mixing is more difficult than the typical official remix, because clean copies of separated tracks such as vocals or individual instruments are usually not available to the public. Some artists (such as Björk and Public Enemy) embraced this trend and outspokenly sanctioned fan remixing of their work; there was once a web site which hosted hundreds of unofficial remixes of Björk’s songs, all made using only various officially-sanctioned mixes.

extended mixes

tarky7 — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 04:37:13 +0000

Early pop remixes were fairly simple; in the 1980s, “extended mixes” of songs were released to clubs and commercial outlets on vinyl 12-inch singles. These typically had a duration of six to seven minutes, and often consisted of the original song with 8 or 16 bars of instruments inserted, often after the second chorus; some were as simplistic as two copies of the song stitched end to end. As the cost and availability of new technologies allowed, many of the bands who were involved in their own production (such as Depeche Mode and Duran Duran) experimented with more intricate versions of the extended mix. Madonna began her career writing music for dance clubs and used remixes extensively to propel her career; one of her early boyfriends was noted DJ John Jellybean Benitez, who created several memorable mixes of her work.