Shpongle - Star Shpongled Banner(Fantastic Planet)

I don't know much about this band Shpongle but I had to post this because their music fits well with a clip from what is by far my favorite animation of all time. I don't even know if you can simply call it a animation as it is much more than that. It's a French movie called Fantastic Planet (La Planete Sauvage) from 1973. I've watched it with original audio many times but I've also muted it and put my own music to it as well. Once you understand what is going on and what lessons it is teaching, you can watch it to all kinds of trippy music/with your favorite medicine of the day and still sort out what is taking place.

Free 2 hour mix from yours truly part 2

Dirty December Thirty by MadCoins

Part 2 of 2. Part 2 starts with cumbia, then some dancehall into old school hip hop, rock and more hip hop. Live at Natt Spil lounge 12/30/10. Again, click the link above to check it out and feel free to download if you dig it.

Free 2 hour mix from yours truly part 1

Dirty December Thirty by MadCoins

My last live set of 2010. Part 1 of 2 (The file was too big for a 1 part mix). Part 1 starts a bit into my set with dubstep, then into some new school & old school hip hop. Live at Natt Spil lounge 12/30/10. Click the link above to check it out and feel free to download it if you dig it. Enjoy.

The Pharcyde - Runnin'

I posted Pharcyde's/Spike Jonze's brilliant "Drop" video a while back but I owe them another tip of the hat for their great performance I witnessed on Saturday in Austin. So here is "Runnin" of their Labcabincalifornia album from 1995.

Amon Tobin - Easy Muffin [HQ] | Operation Tumbler-Snapper

This is one of my favorite tracks by a Ninja Tune artist. Easy Muffin is off the Bricolage album by Amon Tobin. Something about this track defines the late nineties for me. It's probably because I listened to Amon Tobin and other similar artists every day during that period of my life (which was filled with uncertainty). The backdrop of US soldiers getting radiation poisoning adds another layer to this track. The images both add to and take away from the track in the sense that it alters what your imagination could conjure up on its own. The track possesses tension, exhaustion and a creeping uncertainty. For me the video adds straight up creepiness to that mix due to the fact that the effects of that footage on these men will never be known to us. That, as well as the fact that nuclear weapons are still all around us and the consequences of that, or hopefully lack thereof, have yet to be fully realized.

2010 Dubstep mix

I imagine this cat ran to its room right after screaming this and blasted some dubstep. Below is a mix I did for some cats for a Festivus gift. I took a few of their favorite dubstep and club tracks from 2010 and sewed them together. Enjoy. 

2010 Dubstepness by MadCoins

Dr. Octagon - Earth People

I post this because I went to see Kool Keith Saturday night at The Mohawk here in Austin. After he rocked some Kool Keith tracks he went into some old school Ultramagnetic MCs and then transformed into Dr. Octagon. I never realized Q-Bert did the scratching on this track until recently. He apparently did almost all the cuts for his debut album: Dr. Octagonecologyst.

E-Pocalypse from Madison, WI

I had to post this along with the Yak Films posts in order to help this kid get seen and to represent some home town pride. E-Pocalypse (<---more vids here) is only 17, from Madison, WI and here he's body rockin to some dubstep at a high school. A lot of schools/cities the size of Madison would not embrace/allow a performance like this but as you can see it goes over well. My hope is for schools from all over the country/world to start incorporating new relevant arts into their activities more. As far as viewing the arts goes, the human, analog experience for kids is massively important in these days of digital.

TURF FEINZ "RIP Oscar Grant" | YAK FILMS | Fruitvale BART shooting in Oa...

This Yak Films I just found on Youtube is pushing mad change on a massive level. Based out of Oakland, and moving onto Paris, Tokyo and beyond, Yak Films is going to make some serious noise. Their films feature some of the best modern dance you will find anywhere. Here is one of their videos they did as a tribute to Oscar Grant/protest to the police murdering him. Respect to Yak Films for doing what they are doing. I couldn't describe it any better then they do on their channel:

"Since its inception, YAK has been dedicated to emerging multimedia production as a voice of resistance and an alternative to the mainstream. At its core, YAK is a visual wrecking crew that uses multimedia to share the talents of young people around the world - and elevate and inspire the masses."

Here is a 5 minute clip about their origination in East Oakland and their purpose/ideas. Brilliant.

BIRDSEYE BONES | YAK FILMS | PARIS FRANCE | FLEXING DANCING

This birds eye view of flexing just might be the illest thing since the swine flu.

TURF FEINZ in "It Was Written" | YAK FILMS | TURFING, TURF DANCING, East...

More Dubstep flexing from Yak Films.

TURF FEINZ in "R.I.P 211" | YAK FILMS | TURFING, DANCING | HIP HOP STREE...

Check out this freestyle dance to Nero's "This Way".

TURF FEINZ "RIP Rich D" | YAK FILMS | DANCING in the RAIN, DANSE SOUS LA...

I posted this a while back but they took the video down so here is this amazingness again.Watching this makes my heart beat a bit stronger. I found out this was put together the day after the brother of the guy in the white shirt died in a car accident on the same corner. A memorial dance. I can't imagine a better memorial service than this.

Bonobo - Pick Up

Speaking of great use of flute and funk, dig this track by Bonobo, one of my favorite artists off the Ninja Tune record label that just turned 20 years old! Man, I feel old and I've only been listening to Ninja Tune (my favorite label) music for about 13 years now. Coldcut must feel ancient. Here is a recent radio show from Sinden talking with the founders of Ninja Tune and playing a bunch of new cuts: 20 years of Ninja Tune. By the way Bonobo released a new album in 2010 called Black Sands. It's gotten some great reviews so if you like it support the man with some rupees. 

SO FLUTE - ST. GERMAIN

Great use of flute and funk by St. Germain off his 2000 album Tourist.

Raga Megh Malhar - 1982 - SYNTHESIZING: TEN RAGAS TO A DISCO BEAT - Char...

Get ready for your face to melt off when you listen to this piece of "Wait, this track was made when?". Charanjit Singh must have had access to a time machine in 1982 is all I can figure. Only a few hundred of the LPs: Sythesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat (now released on cd) were ever pressed, with only a handful surviving. He performed these massive tracks on the synths that would much later define Acid House, specifically the Roland TB-303 and TR-808. I challenge anyone to find any type of House music or Acid that predates these gems. To me he inadvertently created proto-House when he was really digitizing Ragas (a brilliant idea in itself). After hearing this I realize many Ragas would sound quite amazing digitized. I could actually imagine Ali Akbar Khan (posted on this blog weeks ago) and his ilk smashing a rave better than any deejay if the sounds they make with their fingers (when their Ragas get going fast) could be digitized.

Los mirlos - La danza de los mirlos - The Roots of Chicha

This is my newest post over at my MadChange blog which I just recently launched for 2011. I am sometimes going to post what I post over there here at Madcoins (and vice versa) to give readers a chance to know about both blogs. Both of them are, on a basic level, based in musical influences/knowledge I have rattling (like change) around in my head that I want to document and share. I think in 2011 Madcoins will end up being a bit more based in electronic, experimental, instrumental and ambient music whereas MadChange will be based more in roots, global, tropical, folk, jazz, and hip hop music. I will also post an occasional music blog that I dig or mix I've made and I promise not to limit myself to the genres listed above for either blog. Keep evolving, reading, listening and breathing. Welcome to 2011.

This blog is mostly about how music is constantly evolving, no matter how far we look back into history or how present the time frame. Music, like all things, is constantly changing to something new, something strange. Peruvian Chicha music is a good example of the beautiful strangeness to which everything evolves to. Chicha is a particular brand of Peruvian pop music that educated Peruvians usually look down on. The music is often labeled tropical, which means that it uses rhythmic elements of Afro-Cuban music noticeable in other mixed musical traditions like Cumbia. Chicha is also known simply as Cumbia Peruana. According to Wikipedia, Chicha is “a lower version of the Cumbia, which is more popular with the lower social class.” And so it is: very much like Forro, Musette, Tango, or Son (not to mention jazz), Chicha is popular music played by, you know, the common man… 

The rhythms don’t vary much: they are either mid-tempo Cumbias or fast Cumbias called Cumbión. The music, however, has retained a strong regional flavor in part by relying heavily on the pentatonic scales associated with Andean folklore. Chicha started out in the late 60’s, in the oil-boom cities of the Peruvian Amazon. Cumbias Amazonicas, as they were first known, were loosely inspired by Colombian cumbias but incorporated the distinctive pentatonic scales of Andean melodies, some Cuban guajiras, and the psychedelic sounds of surf guitars, wah-wah pedals, farfisa organs and moog synthesizers. Chicha, which is named after a corn-based liquor favored by the Incas, quickly spread to Lima. It became the music of choice of the mostly indigenous new migrant population – mixing even further with rock, Andean folklore and Peruvian creole music. Very much like Jamaican Ska or Congolese Soukous, Chicha is western-influenced indigenous music geared toward the new urban masses who wholly identified with the new hybrid . Chicha is at once raw and sophisticated, familiar and exotic, traditional and modern - and until recently, it had never been released outside of Peru. 

There are two quintessential Chicha albums for those looking to familiarize themselves: Released in 2007, The Roots of Chicha volume 1 and (released a few years later) The Roots of Chicha volume 2 are on Barbes records. You can buy them and learn much more about the history of Chicha here . There is also an interview with Oliver Conan, the man responsible for putting these releases out here. 

Four Tet-Hands

Kieran Hebden is Four Tet. He makes art nerd electronic music. He makes it beautifully. I bought his second album (Pause) when I was traveling and found that on trains it sounded amazing. A nice traveling track off that album is Everything Is Alright <---video. It's hard for me to believe I have been listening to this guys music for a decade already. The above song Hands, off his 2003 Rounds album, has an ambient, almost searching first 2 minutes. At the 2 minute mark in the video a dog is found right when rhythm & happiness take hold in the music. I'm in agreement with the video as dogs often seem to do that for your life. Enjoy.