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A set of Jungle/D’n’B, Juke/Footwork, Afro-Rave, Rap/HipHop, and Reggae/Dancehall that I had a lot of fun playing on the awesome A-Sound System. Turnup!
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Category Archives: Dopeness
Digital Africa 5
Official Ngoma Avant Classical List
Last year on this day i made the following post on Facebook:
Deleting everything from Avant Classical collection which i don’t LOVE listening to. DON’T GIVE A FUCK how highly regarded it is. Sorry Luigi Nono; sorry Brian Ferneyhough, sorry Georg Friedrich Haas. Some to all of your material has got to GO.
And some people requested screenshots.
The Journey Part 2
Rhythms of the mother continent meets Sound of Berlin: NGOMA envisions dance music of a society that we want our grand children to live in. Decolonized poly-scyncretic drum machines of a high-tech egalitarian future, constructed from the plurality of various life experiences and multiple sonic perspectives today, NGOMA fuses the best of many worlds for maximum mind expansion, soul elevation, and body intoxication.
NYEGE NYEGE Festival Official Mix
Nyege Nyege Festival in Jinja, Uganda, is about the infinite and timeless rhythmelodic traditions from the motherland and its myriad mutations around the globe, and their sometimes difficult to perceive but indivisible connection. It is my duty as rhythm ambassador to reveal the truth about these connections between ancient and future, between the so-called “East” and so-called “West”, in a visceral way on the dance floor; and it is what i have tried to do with this mix.
Videos for Hearts, Minds, and Bootays
Indonesian… Children’s Theater?
Vote DjZhao!
click on image to vote *djzhao* (one word) in the *world* category.
thanks!
MUTANT 4 – Meta House
Evil twin of the last MUTANT mix of brightly hued, sun-kissed club music for endless summer nights, Meta House is heavy, narcotic. Including lots of deep techy tracks, some jacking, bassline, healthy dose of ghetto, a touch of shuffling, and material which may be in the category of “House Not House” — but as abstract or bassy as any part of it may be, i made sure that all selections are primarily, unmistakably House – all steady kicks and offbeat hi-hats.
Ohangla
There is a new Ohangla sound in Kenya, and i am so addicted. Traditionally the music and dance for serious ceremonies of the Luo, it has recently gained cross tribal popularity all over the country, and performed for pure fun.
Celebrity Endorsement
He's Chinese, he lives in Berlin, and he's one of my favorite DJs of African music: the great @dj_zhao: https://t.co/YOUvs6cwSw
— Teju Cole (@tejucole) June 14, 2013
Drumming
Electro Gamelan
a brilliant Electronic Gamelan mix by Nautilus Sound from Australia. beautiful as it is suspenseful, subtle and powerful, totally epic. includes all kinds of tasty Nu-Gamelan (lol) treats from Downtempo Gamelan to Gamelan-Step to Tribal Gamelan Tech to even Junglist jump up Gamelan.
Komodo, Sofa Surfers and Jam’N Mix
Dj Zhao – Unknown Indonesian Traditional + Spring Water
Monkey Chant Traditional
Resident’s – Santa Dog
System 7 – Borobudur
Komodo – Shadow Dance
Gamelan X – Flutterswarm
Komodo – Bali Dub
Tomosuke – Gamelan de Couple
System 7 = Simon X Files
Dj Zhao – Deadbeat+ Lost Luggage
Sevish – Islands
Imperial Tiger Orchestra
Thanks to the good people at Free Music Archives: Heavy Ethio-Funk jams by Imperial Tiger Orchestra, live at the OCCII in Amsterdam 20/11/2009 (where i played with Rebel Up crew 1 year later – and dropped one of my Ethio-House edits as grand finale for the set :)), for free stream and download.
the meaning of Ngoma
“No matter the ceremony, whatever the cause, Ngoma set the beat, involving people in tradition and message. To this day, Ngoma is all about involvement, about joining rather than watching. Spectator and performer become one, and the beat rolls on.”
To me many similarities exist between Molam and Cumbia: it is a music of the underclass, embedded in rural folk traditions stretching back decades and centuries; it has a mid tempo swing and a sensuous groove you can easily clap and move to; if reversioned for modern club sensibilities it would work wonders on the dance floor.
Yet is unlikely that Molam will enjoy a revival and become as popular with a western audience as happened with Cumbia in recent years, because South East Asian music have not historically circulated as much as Latin American music (of course due to no doubt a slew of political/economic reasons and not creative merit of the music itself).
Fusion Festival 2011 Video
when we started, Matchume just flew in from Portugal 2 hours before, and Congo from France the night before, and I had just played at Berghain the night before… so all 3 of us were running on zero to very little sleep. which might be reason that we forgot to bring a disc recorder to record off the board, so that’s why the camera stayed on the stage and didn’t move around this time, because it was attached to the sound board. also, the Camera man wanted to dance for the last hour, and put the camera down… which was too bad as that was the most hype hour: 3000 jumping and screaming. But despite all this i’m still happy with the way it turned out.
NGOMA SOUND 