John Tripp Creative

Author: Editor

  • Organic Techno — France’s Agoria Releases “Impermanence”

    Agoria has created an album that is at the same time constantly changing while also having a unique flow and mood of its own.

    Sebastien Devaud, aka Agoria, entered the world of electronic dance music at a peculiar moment in time. Unlike the first generation of techno producers, he’s too young to have been actively listening to early 80’s electronic pop by groups such as Depeche Mode or New Order. But unlike younger DJs and musicians, he’s been exposed to house and techno more or less since the start of these genres.

    Living in rural France, Agoria first got hooked to electronic music through listening to Kevin Saunderson’s classic Good Life on the local radio as a twelve-year-old kid in 1988. He was so impressed by the Inner City hit that he spent the following afternoons washing his neighbours’ cars to earn enough money to buy his first 12″. His next revelation came a few years later when one of the first DJ sets he experienced happened to be from Jeff Mills in nearby Lyon. It was the first time that I saw a DJ using three turntables and a drum machine. He really created something completely new rather that just playing records. And the way he moved, his precision and speed, impressed me.

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  • Chancha Via Circuito Rides the Slow Train

    “Rio Arriba” is the sophomore album from ZZK artist Chancha Via Circuito who molds local South American rhythms into global artistry. 

    Rio Arriba bubbles up from the Andes like percussive lava, seething as it is soothing.  Layers of drums play out like water and earth battling heat – heat brought by Chancha Via Circuito, the Pig on the Circular Train.

    Chancha has forged a path from his town outside the urban sprawl of Buenos Aires in the east of Argentina up across the border with Bolivia and into the Northern hemisphere where he’s bringing new fans to native drum traditions.  In his first release, Rodante, Chancha took cumbia into uncharted territory retrofitting the Latin rhythm for a worldly audience.  With Rio Arriba, South American folklore takes the reins and, under Chancha’s steady hand, obscure backwoods rhythms take on a top shelf lifestyle as folklore hits the club.

    Obscure backwoods rhythms take on a top shelf lifestyle, mixed and chopped by Chancha.  Chancha developed his singular craft playing for crowds at Zizek Club in Buenos Aires and on tour DJing across the US, Canada and Mexico.  Fans from Chile to St. Petersburg to Coachella have found love for his music; Chancha’s production was requested by National Geographic TV for a New Zealand band and won a remix contest of Angolan kuduro put on by Mad Decent.  He imports raw material to metro landscapes, reminding listeners of the mysteries of nature lurking beyond urban gates.  A sentry on stage, Chancha tracks lead listeners up ancestral mountain paths to leap streams and strut summits, on dance floors from Brooklyn to Los Angeles to Montreal.

    Cumbia made Chancha’s first album Rodante a stand out, Rio Arriba takes his sound primal, rooted in rhythm, but worldwide in scope.   With recent remixes of The Ruby Suns (Sub Pop) and Gotan Project (Ya Basta/XL Recordings), Chancha proves his production can cross continents and pollinate.  Rio Arriba annihilates the obvious – it’s a fresh breeze from the city of good air flooding the urban habitat, sending you dancing upstream.

    Available at ZZK Records shop

    TOUR DATES

    Rio Arriba Tour – Page

    Fri 4/8 – Unsound Festival @ NYC, NY
    Sat 4/9 – Tormenta Tropical @ SF, CA
    Sun 4/10 – @ Atwater Crossing Courtyard, LA, CA
    Fri 4/15 – @ Peligrosa, Austin, TX
    Sun 4/17 @ Communikey Festival, Boulder, CO
    Tue 4/19 @ Team Tuesdays, Santa Fe, NM
    Fri 4/22 @ Mundial de Musica (MdM) Festival, Chicago, IL
    Sat 4/30 @ Round Corner Cantina, Pittsburgh, PA

  • Belleruche Video for “3 Amp Fuse”

    Belleruche – ‘3 amp fuse’, Official Video, third single from the album 270 Stories.

    Read MundoVibe’s interview with Kathrin de Boer

  • Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 — From Africa With Fury: Rise

    The brian eno produced album sees Kuti finding his own idiosyncratic voice as songwriter, singer, and band leader, heading up Egypt 80, the extraordinary combo first fronted by his renowned father, Fela Kuti.


    The mighty ‘From Africa With Fury: Rise’ is produced by Brian Eno, John Reynolds and Seun himself, with additional production by Godwin Logie. Eno – an avowed fan – has nothing but the highest praise for Seun and his band, hailing them for “making some of the biggest, wildest, livest music on the planet.” Co-producer Reynolds (whose work as musician, producer, and mixer spans such artists as Sinéad O’Connor, U2, and Natacha Atlas) agrees, applauding Kuti and Egypt 80’s distinctive Afrobeat as “a musical adrenaline rush.”

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  • Unsound Festival 2011 Guide

    FRIDAY APRIL 1st

    Unsound Labs: COLLABORATIONS 1
    Issue Project Room, Brooklyn – Price $12/$10
    HATI (Poland) duo with Z’EV (UK) / ANNA ZARADNY (Poland) duo with AKI ONDA (Japan/USA) / DAWID SZCZESNY (Poland) duo with MERCE (USA)
    File Under: Experimental, Improvisation, Electronic, Industrial

    SATURDAY APRIL 2nd

    Unsound Labs: TOUR / ARTISTS TALK / SCREENING

    Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building, New York – Price – FREE
    Tour COLUMBIA-PRINCETON ELECTRONIC MUSIC CENTER,
    Listen to sound artists KABIR CARTER + ED OSBORN discuss AURALITY, MOTION, ARCHITECTURE and watch the film MISINFORMATION featuring music by MORDANT MUSIC
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  • Azam Ali Sings Lullabies on “From Night to the Edge of Day”

    Azam Ali’s From Night to the Edge of Day explores traditional lullabies of Iranian, Turkish, Lebanese, and Kurdish origin. And as Azam Ali’s decidedly “grown-up” treatment of them testifies, lullabies are not really just for children. They attempt to cope with difficult lives and the harshness and sorrow of the world, with loss, exile, and pain.

    In a career which spans over a decade and includes eight collaborative albums and one solo project, Azam Ali has confirmed her place as one of the most prolific, versatile, and gifted singers on the world music stage today. Her dedication to defying cultural specificity in music, and her unwillingness to settle into one form of musical expression have earned her the respect of both her peers and critics worldwide. When one looks at her entire body of work, it is hard to deny Azam her rightful place among the best singers and composers in music today.

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  • Ursula Rucker Talks About “She Said”

    TALKING WITH PHILLY SOUL POETESS URSULA RUCKER ON HER FIFTH ALBUM “SHE SAID”

    As a poet and performance artist, Ursula Rucker has enchanted critics and fans across the globe with her diverse repertoire, captivating vocals and accessible poetic verse.

    Born and raised in Philadelphia, she began documenting her observations of the world when she was just a girl. A graduate of Temple University’s journalism program, Ursula kept her creative writing as a prized, personal possession until she was prepared to share with the world. In 1994, she introduced an open-mic night audience at Philadelphia’s Zanzibar Blue to the beauty and urgency of her poetry.

    Word quickly spread throughout the city of Ursula’s poetry and stage performance, which has been described as “strong, vulnerable, wounded and raging.” Producer King Britt invited her to create her first recording, the 1994 single, “Supernatural” (Ovum/Slip N Slide UK).

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  • Ebo Taylor — a True Great of Ghanaian Highlife Music

    Ebo Taylor links with Strut Records for his first ever internationally released studio album and retrospective album

    During the 1950s and ’60s as Ghanaian highlife music exploded as big band highlife pioneers like E.T. Mensah and Ebo Taylor became a major figures. Cutting his teeth with leading big bands like Stargazers and Broadway Dance Band, Ebo Taylor quickly rose through the ranks and became a prolific composer and frontman.

    Taylor moved to London in 1962 to study. “I had the Black Star Highlife Band sponsored by the Ghanaian High Commission, mainly comprising music students. We tried to incorporate jazz into highlife and progressed through talking and through jam sessions, trying to develop our skills and ideas.”

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  • Wildcookie Mix Up a Batch

    ‘Cookie Dough’ is the new album from Wildcookie, aka Freddie Cruger and Anthony Mills

    Since his last release on Tru Thoughts in 2006 Freddie Cruger, aka Red Astaire, has been busy travelling the world as a DJ and releasing music on his own label, Homegrown Records – one of these releases was the debut, and now extremely rare, Wildcookie 12”. The “Drugs EP” received support from Gilles Peterson on BBC Radio 1 and the lead track, “Heroine”, also features on ‘Cookie Dough’. Wildcookie is not a one man band though; each one of Freddie’s ultra-crisp productions and sophisticated synthline melodies are backed with the pitch perfect, often freestyled, vocals of Anthony Mills.

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  • Katalyst and Steve Spacek Bring Space Invadas

    Space Invadas is a project of two well-known artists: Katalyst and Steve Spacek. Their debut project Soul Fi is coming out on BBE.

    Two great souls come together in space. After releasing two huge radio hits in 2009 — “Original” and “Life” — and the radio smash & film clip “Done It Again” in 2010, Space Invadas are about to release their LP, “Soul Fi” on BBE records.

    space-invadas-imaginist

    Steve Spacek originates form London landed in Sydney via LA. He has worked with the likes of J Dilla, Mos Def, Slum Village, Common and many more. He is likened to classic soul singers Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye and has been championed by everyone from Entertainment Weekly to Mos Def.
    Space Invadas album Soul-Fi is receiving rave reviews and airplay from tastemakers around the globe as well as having 4 singles smashed on national radio in Australia where the record has been released earlier this year. Getting much love in the US and throughout Europe where the record is yet to be released via BBE Records. Looks like its going to be a big year ahead for Space Invadas.