#tribal music

[dankalbumart]

10.1 Sampler by Ben Sims Theory Recordings 2001 Tribal Techno / Minimal Techno / Techno

[randomvarious]

Today's mix:

Feed Your Head by Michael Dog 1993 Psybient / Ambient / Tribal Ambient / Dub / Downtempo / New Age / Trance

Well, it's definitely not my cuppa, folks, but if you want some early 90s UK spacey ambient acid chillout psychedelia, the Planet Dog label's Feed Your Head series definitely seems like a good place to look. Coming out of a hippy-ish British space rock tradition, Planet Dog, like a whole lot of other UK labels that launched at around roughly the same time, originally started out as uniquely quirky and eclectic club nights, first under the name of Club Dog in the mid-80s, and then as the more popular Megadog afterwards. And here for 1993, the biggest brain behind the operation, Michael Dog, puts together a partially mixed set that reflects upon his new label's then-current electronically-driven state.

Similar to what the San Francisco underground had been putting down at around the same time—as the Haight-Ashbury Grateful Dead spirit of the 60s collided with the contemporaneous techno-libertarian vision of Silicon Valley—this comp pulls ambient, dub, spiritually new-agey eastern tribal sounds, and trance all together, yielding a linked crop of tunes that feels fit for something like Burning Man, which is a festival that you couldn't pay me to ever attend, unless it was enough for me to quit my day job and explore the history of modern music full-time! 😁

And speaking of San Francisco, it also can't be ignored where this series' title obviously derived itself from: Grace Slick's repeated, finishing line on the late 60s psych rock staple, "White Rabbit," by SF heroes Jefferson Airplane.

(by the way, isn't it bonkers that the same band that made that song would transition to Jefferson Starship, and then just Starship, and then release that ridiculous early 80s hit of "We Built This City" too?!)

Anyhoo, I don't mind cyberhippy music altogether, but I'm much more partial to the downtempo side than I am to the ambient one, which means that I prefer the music to have some kind of consistent drumbeat that I can nod my head along to. And the only song on this album that really seems to hit me in that regard comes courtesy of the one-and-only Banco de Gaia, an inimitable pro's pro when it comes to that beautifully lush and psychedelic globally-quilted chillout sound. A more well-known Washington, D.C. duo like Thievery Corporation would take a similar approach to newer generations and masterfully enmesh themselves in that massive global chillout scene that would flourish between the late 90s and mid-2000s, but a song like BdG's "Qurna (Haj Ali's Birthday Mix)" is more or less emblematic of where that type of sound comes from, as it lays beautiful blends of psychedelic and string synths alongside nature sounds, hand-drums, and my sought after steady backbeat 😎.

Another thing worth mentioning here is that even though I don't really like this mix very much, kudos still need to go out to Michael Dog for how he went about making it, because rather than just doing normal transitions like almost every DJ does, he went out of his own way to create passages himself to link these songs together to make the whole experience feel more seamless. Not the first time I've heard of this happening—in fact, some in-house person did it for one of those pre-Jock Jams, MTV Party to Go mixes at Tommy Boy a couple years afterwards—but definitely not a commonplace practice by any means.

Also, the liner notes on this release give a shout out to Beyond Records, another UK label that was in a similar vein to Planet Dog at the same time, whose own Ambient Dub series inspired PD to put out this Feed Your Head one. I prefer Ambient Dub as a whole over this first volume of FYH, and you can find a bunch of my favorites from that series in the earliest sections of my own coveted 90s Downtempo playlists—word to the wise, though: the YouTube one has more Ambient Dub stuff than the Spotify one, including an extra super tasty cut from Banco de Gaia himself 😋.

And one other thing I wanna mention here is how a lot of the music on this album seems to have come from offshoots and side projects of already well-established psychedelic and space rock acts. Astralasia, the group that opens this comp up, are from the Magic Mushroom Band, duo System 7 came from Gong, and Eat Static, Nodens Ictus, and The Ullulators were all directly linked to Ozric Tentacles. All part of the same UK scene and all traveling along this sort of newfangled psychedelic electronic club thing together too. Interesting times, to say the least.

So, once again, not the biggest fan of this broad, early 90s psychonautic ambient vibe, but if that's your thing, or you think that it very well might be your thing, this release feels like a pretty wide-ranging and exemplary capsule of it.

Listen to the full mix here.

Highlights:

Banco de Gaia - "Qurna (Haj Ali's Birthday Mix)"

[musicollage]

Pauline Anna Strom ‎– Angel Tears in Sunlight. 2021 : Revenge of the Nerds.

! listen @ Bandcamp ★ buy me a coffee !

[mod-a-day]

2 Unlimited, Deep Bass of Trance-o-Mania "Faces" (669 Remix) No Limits! (1993) Byte Records

[chilltidetrance]

10 Minutes of Powerful and Dynamic Shamanic Drumming ✨ Let the Spirits G...

[divine-nonchalance]

HEALING MUSIC

Listen to this if you wanna have a good cry, I wept like a child... it's so BEAUTIFUL... so natural...

@zielenadel

[heritage-harmony-records]

Heritage Harmony Records Is Now Open!

We are a new non-profit record label for marginalised and underrepresented artists globally. Based in San Diego, California. Providing a space for artists from countries outside of North America and Western Europe (excluding indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities) to showcase their music, with all proceeds going directly to the artist. Focused on world music, folk, psych, fusion, ambient, jazz, indie, blues, funk & more Run by James Sweetlove of @cavedwellermusic. 

[mysticalblizzardcolor]

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The Five Winds Legacy Flute

An Original Ceramic Creation of 5 Wind Instruments in One.

A vision that has been in the works for quite sometime.

Months in the making, slow drying in each process and grandfather fire guiding this creation through each initiation into form.

A Celestial Orchestra of a Double Drone Flute, two High Note Flutes and a Jaguar Whistle with two Smudge Bowls at the end.

[castrationanxietyy]

Interview with 5tr8tch, Neurotek 7/21/23

“You have to be adaptable. There are no excuses in this shit.”

There are a lot of DJs in LA; there is no point in denying that. However, for most, it does take them a while to master their craft, let alone anyone mention their name. During a six month period, Kian Stretch took a liking to vinyl and started spinning techno and other tunes and hasn’t stopped since. 5tr8tch is not someone that you should take your smoke break during. 

I had the luxury of seeing his first gig sometime in Febuary at a small store-turned-soundspace in Santa Ana. At the time of this performance, I had no clue that it was his first time ever spinning for a crowd. He has worked alongside some of LA’s current golden child DJ’s, giving much credit to Amir Karneh or 1Morning.

Originally from Seattle, Stretch moved to LA for a change of scenery. At 13, he was already scratching over hip-hop records, all the while expanding his musical talents. At home, he was a producer for the underground rap scene as well as a talented jazz drummer. Playing in jazz clubs and salsa/Latin groups, he applied the technical skill and trained ear into techno. 

“Drumming helped me with everything most, [...] playing the drums and understanding the timing helps me with everything. You have to be able to keep timing and um, beat matching. I see some people like, learn it on vinyl and its a lot going on. I already had my ear trained to play along.” 

Stretch is completely self-taught in every aspect of his music. Although drumming is no longer a passion he pursues, he commends it deeply. 

Before techno, he credits artists like Burial and LTJ Bukem for introducing him to the world of electronic music. What truly changed for him was watching Karneh spin for the first time. He had already loved the music and seen some DJs, but it wasn’t until his friend of seven years performing that flipped the switch. 

Their friendship had started long before his move dating to when he worked on SoundCloud rap. At the time, Stretch wasn’t taking music seriously and more so just enjoyed being involved in musical projects and the chaos of couch surfing. 

Stretch isn’t stuck to any specific styles yet. I had asked him if this was because he was still relatively new, but he wasn’t sure. For the most part, he does whatever sounds good, his style is fluid more than anything else. 

if anything, his sound is technical chaos. Although I will put my fascination with vinyl DJs and their ability to flip through their records at lightning speed aside, I was curious about his setup and knowing which vinyl he was about to play, to which he replied, “I just winged it.”

“Maybe some people plan it out, I don’t know. The way me and my homies do it, we have a general idea but we don’t like–, fucking memorize the BPM and do it this to this to this. Nah, there's no fun in that.”

I wanted to know if he had noticed any significant mistakes in his set that night. For the audience, if you can play off anything good enough, your worst nightmare could be your best transition.

“I don't think I did. [...] It’s vinyl, it’s never going to be perfect. That’s what it’s about. I don’t want it to be perfect, there’s fun in fixing your shit.”

He compared techno and its similarity to jazz music, my friend adding that techno became the evolution of jazz. Stretch has learned how to play the audience and never show sweat, something which can be attributed to his time in jazz bands. 

While he doesn’t have a signature yet, he doesn’t believe he can place that label upon him. He wants the audience to decide, with the only end goal being a good set that others can enjoy. 

“Every time you do that shit and the homies have you hyped, it’s not like you can remember what you did.”

Stretch also vends at the Silverlake Flea market and eventually is planning to open up a record store.

TOP INFLUENCES:

Jeff Mills 

Claude Young

[dankalbumart]

Silence by Silence FAX +49-69/450464 / Rising High Records 1992 Ambient / Experimental / Tribal Ambient / Space Ambient / Dark Ambient / Ambient Techno / Ambient Dub / Drone

[randomvarious]

Today’s mix:

Sessions Twelve (The Magic Sessions) by "Little" Louie Vega, Tony Humphries and Tedd Patterson 2001 House / Garage House / Deep House / Tribal House

A little history before getting into this overlooked double-disc triple mix from 2001 that features sets from three of the greatest DJs that house music has ever had the pleasure of bearing witness to...

The time is February 1986 and the place is, strangely enough, a Marriott in Fort Lauderdale. This is where the first annual electronic music convention of any kind, the Winter Music Conference, is set to take place. It's an event in which dance industry insiders, musicians, and DJs can all rub elbows, plan, and build a future for their music and culture.

And of course, alongside the business of dance music at WMC, are also the parties. And after moving the conference to a much more club-hospitable city in nearby Miami, both the WMC and its corresponding parties flourished.

The most important party for a number of years—until the advent of the Ultra Music Festival—was one that started in 1991 called Magic Sessions. And the three DJs whose mixes feature on this release—Louie Vega of Masters at Work, Tony Humphries, and Tedd Patterson—were all fixtures of that annual event, which became a must-attend affair for DJs, because these guys would load up each of their sets with plenty of tracks that had yet to have actually been broken. The way we've come to define the word 'influencer' over the past decade or so wasn't around in those pre-social media days, but these particular parties played a role in shaping dance music history, because previously unheard bangers that got played in those sets would get their official release afterwards and then manifest themselves into their own underground successes. So, DJs of this caliber were some of dance music's biggest influencers at the time, and one of their domains was this event that took place during the Winter Music Conference every year.

Now, coincidentally, there was a DJ mix series that was put out by gargantuan dance labels Ministry of Sound and Defected from the early 90s to early 2000s called Sessions. And even though the first installment was by Tony Humphries himself, and another one from '95 was by Masters at Work, it doesn't appear that this series had anything to do with the similarly named Magic Sessions party. That is, until 2001, with Sessions Twelve, when the series and the event appear to have converged.

None of these three sets, of course, are live recordings, though; a Magic Sessions night was known to have gone on for seven hours or so and this album packs three short mixes onto two separate discs, with Tony Humphries' portion split between both of them (I actually don't think I've ever seen something like that before??). But what it does seem to offer is some of what a specific Magic Sessions event during the WMC at Miami's Crobar club in March of 2001 might have sounded like, because all three of these DJs played there on that very same night. In fact, here's a *very* 2001 flyer for the exact event!

So, this release, all in all, is sublime. It's lined with a whole grip of contemporaneously spectacular garage house tracks—the New York-derived, largely vocally female-fronted, more rooted in the traditions of gospel, soul, and R&B type of stuff that originated at legendary DJ Larry Levan's Paradise Garage in Manhattan. Each DJ on here supplies their own fill of that garage style, and two of them lace it with other sonically different types of house music too. Louie Vega, who, I think, delivers the best mix of the three on here, starts with some Afro-Latin and Caribbean fare, and Tedd Patterson initiates with a blend of some tribal and deep stuff. Tony Humphries, on the other hand, hews to the garage theme pretty closely, but he also kicks off his set with a piece of just straight-up gospel-house.

And while most of these songs appear to have seen their official light of day by now, there's at least one on here that I don't think ever has, and that's DJ Spen's "Unreleased Mix" of Warren Clarke's "Over You," from Tedd Patterson's mix, which dispenses itself of most of its lead vocals from the great Kathy Brown (who gets her chance to shine on Louie Vega's mix), and replaces them with this highly satisfying, perpetually wandering and whining lead synth instead. Basically, what I'm saying is, if ever there were a reason to listen to this particular release, it's that song. And also, the way Frankie Knuckles unleashes this wobbly synth a couple times on the track that precedes it, "Keep On Movin (Dub)," hits *so* much deeper than any version I've run into on YouTube.

A sampling of what it probably sounded like on the night of March 27, 2001 at Miami Beach's Crobar for the highly anticipated annual Magic Sessions party during the Winter Music Conference, with three of the greatest house DJs to ever do it providing miniature sets chock-full of exquisite garage goodies. Just an excellent and underappreciated early 2000s house music time capsule right here. It doesn't get more ephemeral than this one, folks 😊.

Listen to the full album here: CD1 // CD2

Highlights:

CD1:

"Little" Louie Vega mix:

Gypsy Men - "Babarabitiri (Tee's Inhouse Mix)" Africanism - "Bisou Sauce" Julien Jabre - "Voo Dance" KOT feat. Julie McKnight - "Finally (Little Louie Vega Main Mix)" Urban Magic Presents The Slammin' Boys - "Dreams" Kathy Brown - "Give It Up" James Ingram - "Lean On Me (MAW Mix)" Nathan Haines feat. Verna Francis - "Earth Is the Place (Album Version FK Edit)" Erro - "Don't Change" Tony Humphries mix: Mysterious People - "Fly Away (Jason Jinx Disco Jam)" 4:20 feat. Farid Unique - "Let the Past Rest"

CD2:

Crystal Clear - "Live Your Life" Photek feat. Robert Owens - "Mine to Give (David Morales Happy Mix)" Lisa Millett - "Runaway" The Rooster Presents Funk Deluxe Feat. Mintzy Berry - "Music is Everywhere (Rooster's Bangin' Vox Mix)"

Tedd Patterson mix:

Deep Swing feat. Xavier - "Takin' Me Higher (Bini & Martini Mix)" Frankie Knuckles feat. Nikki - "Keep On Movin (Dub)" Warren Clarke feat. Kathy Brown - "Over You (Spen's Unreleased Mix)" Arnold Jarvis - "Spread Love (Vocal Mix)"

[independent-music-review]

Listen/purchase: Raise (compilation 2005-2008) by GOTARD

Gotarda subiektywny przegląd muzyczny-zaczynamy!

GOTARD to projekt muzyczny łączący brzmienia elektroniczne i tradycyjne, od zawsze mocno inspirowany muzyką średniowiecza oraz historią. Tu poza opisem poszczególnych wydawnictw czy utworów własnych poświęcę dużo miejsca muzyce, która zatrzymała ucho na dłużej inspirując, intrygując czy po prostu dając frajdę słuchania. Mnóstwo ciekawej muzyki znajdziecie także poza głównymi środkami przekazu i dystrybucji. Niekiedy są to zupełnie darmowe dźwięki, niekiedy mające rzeszę fanów uznane już projekty czy zespoły ale wszystkie je łączy jedno; niezakłócona odgórnym przymusem pasja tworzenia, luz artystyczny czyli niezależność każdego z twórców. Często zawitamy na Bandcamp , Soundcloud czy YouTube by poza tworami Gotarda podzielić się z Wami spora dawką ciekawej muzyki. Zaczynamy jednak od tego pierwszego;

"Raise" to pierwsza kompilacja, która podsumowała pierwsze trzy lata działalności naszego projektu a może bardziej podziękowanie dla pierwszych fanów i przyjaciół Gotarda za wsparcie.

Początek utworu “Raise” to nawiązanie do średniowiecznego świata miast Hanzy, klimatu wielkich ówczesnych ośrodków portowych jak Lubeka czy Gdańsk. Na płycie znalazły się także trzy niepublikowane wcześniej utwory. W przyszłym roku minie dokładnie 20 lat od pierwszych kroków Gotarda. Kompilacja jest dostępna zarówno w wersji skróconej bezpłatnej na Jamendo oraz w wersji pełnej zremasterowanej na bandcamp;

Free short original album: https://www.jamendo.com/album/54380/raise-2005-2008compilation

Remaster 2024 full album: https://gotard.bandcamp.com/album/raise-compilation-2005-2008