Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site lasspvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!hogpc!houti!ariel!vax135!cornell!lasspvax!gtaylor From: gtaylor@lasspvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.music Subject: Re: NEW MUSIC??? Message-ID: <78@lasspvax.UUCP> Date: Fri, 12-Oct-84 10:53:44 EDT Article-I.D.: lasspvax.78 Posted: Fri Oct 12 10:53:44 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 16-Oct-84 05:01:08 EDT References:<> Reply-To: gtaylor@lasspvax.UUCP (Greg Taylor) Organization: Theory Center (Cornell University) Lines: 96 Summary: Mr. McCrae, the person you're talking about is the *famous* Fela Ransome-Kuti, now just Fela, he was Fela Anikulapo-Kuti for awhile, etc. His current band is Africa '80m which replaced Africa '70. I'd suggest you try out "Original Sufferhead", which is about his best bit of work in terms of putting his riffing together with his Politics. And we aren't talking just sloganeering here...this turkey gets pitched into jail on a regular basis before the elections because he's perceived as a threat to the government. Juju, on the other hand, is of a different tribal origin...it's a sort of Yoruba moon-spoon-june music, with more lilt and less bite. I'm tailing this article out with a recent review I penned for a regional University newsmagazine here. I hope that it encourages you to go and find the stuff. Note: the more distinctly African stuff is found on Ade's "juju music" lp. The new, hybrid stuff might be of more interest to you right off. The market system that puts much of the music you hear (and _s_o_m_e of the music we review here) in your ears is by nature acquisitive. In much the same sense that "the music business" needs a record--buying public as a source of capi- tal, they also need a stock of "new ideas" every so often to keep the aforementioned public coming back to the well. Contained in this regular transaction is one of the great paradoxes of what we call "style"--for the artist or artists, style is a collection of choices made: decisions about _w_h_a_t it is that you do best, and the commitment to _d_o it. To the system, "style" is convenient way of defining groups of similar products or objects--it's a sort of utili- tarian way of figuring out what something is, so that you can tell who will buy it. And you'd better believe that anyone who sits down to write a review runs headlong into the same paradox. It's a reason- ably rare occurrence to come upon an album that is continues an artist's personal concerns and still manages to be suc- cessful in terms of a well-defined genre: That is a _v_e_r_y delicate balancing act. In a way, that search for "new ideas" isn't all bad...some major record company _i_s responsible for putting King Sunny Ade and His African Beats' _A_u_r_a on the turntables of Amer- ica. His exuberant potpourri of African percussion, dub technology, and pedal steel guitar (yes, that's right--your favorite country and western weeper instrument in the hands of the Nigerians) has made his own "juju" music tremendously successful in Africa, and in turn he has become one of the major figures in the recent interest in African popular music, along with Fela Kuti, Chief Ebeneezer Obey, and Sonny Okusun. _A_u_r_a does a marvelous job of solidifying Sunny Ade's posi- tion as the most commercially viable of the crossover Afri- can stars: he's even got Stevie Wonder riffing frenetically away on the album's opening cut. What makes the album a slightly more subversive success involves King Sunny's talent at a sort of "reverse colonialism"--he's made an interesting African album by judiciously plundering the day- lights out of current musical fashions, and mixing it in with his own work in a way that compromises neither source: this album manages to be interesting _m_u_s_i_c, without the modifying adjectives that denote source. As a case in point, take the opening cut "Ase": the track opens like the 1 millionth generic breakancing single--with an opening flurry of drumbox. But something is afoot. The drum machine picks a fight with a bongo drum. King Sunny separates the combatants with a Guitar lick stolen from B.B. King, Stevie Wonder drops into the mix on harp (at this point, it sounds a little like the old War stuff, with Lee Oskar on harp). In comes the talking drum, a bunch of people start singing away in Yoruba, and all bets are off as to _w_h_a_t comes from where. In any case, the agreeable percolations tumbling out of your speakers render it a moot point. You don't need Italian to cry when Mimi kicks off in "La Boheme", and you don't need a dictionary for this. I've also noted an unusual side effect of this album that may be of interest to the hardened partygoer, partygiver, or dancer. In a way, it's not surprising in any situation where the drummers in the band outnumber the guitars by about three to one. Nearly every cut on this record comes with about three or four radically different dance tempos built in. The discriminating terpsichorean can choose among them depending on the state of fatigue or excitement at any given moment. In addition, this album also sounds very nice at lower volumes and more intimate surroundings. That ability to be listenable _a_n_d danceable is no mean feat in _a_n_y cul- ture. ________________________________________________________________________________ Traditionele communicatie is een controlemiddel omdat het gestructureerde, omlijnde visies opdringt. Door die communicatie te versplinteren halen we ook de controle eruit, en krijgt persoonlijke intuitie weer en plaats. ________________________________________________________________________________