ethnoclash

Hello out there, I'm back from holidays in Latvia! It's time for a small report.

Apart from the usual ways of spending time there, I was playing at the open-air ethnic/folk and Jamaican music festival Laba Daba, a rather interesting and conceptual event in a beautiful place surrounded by a forest and sea-side nearby.

My initial idea was to present some (danceable) music that reflect meeting different cultures, styles and epochs, which is an interesting phenomenon particularly nowadays, when the world, indeed, turns into a global village physically and virtually. One can observe exciting musical mutations when local musical traditions (traditional music) get exposed to musical concepts from other regions or to the dominant global popculture.

Well, I guess, I could at least partly implement this idea and the party hapenned despite some problems with a tent for DJs etc. Ethnoclash (I call it this way, because "world beat/music" is a bit outdated, one can speak about "urban culture music", but it's not exact as well...) worked well. From brazilian funk carioca, which is influenced by Miami bass and hip-hop, to afrofunk/afrobeat -- a hybrid of African and Afroamerican music, to London's 2-step merged with Pakistani popular bhangra, to Finnish dancehall, to Konono (Congotronics), to gypsies music etc.

For downloading I offer a piece produced by Jacques Lu Cont (a.k.a. Stuart Price, a.k.a. Les Rytmes Digitales, he also produced the latest Madonna's album) with vocals from General Degree. It comes from the concept album Two Cultures Clash on Wall of Sound, which involves dancehall/reggea singers produced by well-known electronic music producers. Breeding Jamaican music with the electronic one, of course, is not a new idea (see Rhythm & Sound from Berlin, for instance), however, this album contains some interesting tracks. By the way, I was really surprised hearing this track after few days in the Fontain Palace, Liepaja.

Jacques Lu Cont feat. General Degree - And Dance