SELECTED WORKS #13
Summertime, music, books, relaxation.
Hello there,
It’s been a swift start to the year for the world, but a slow start for me. I feel like a koala slowly creeping down a tree towards the ground, and the ground is the working year. So, given that metaphor, I don’t have a lot to report back right now; but I do have a little. Here we go.
WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING:
On Sunday the 10th of January 2021, I was lucky enough to once again broadcast with Palestine’s Radio Alhara. It’s summertime right now in Aotearoa, so I put together a mix of sun-kissed local tunes for them. If you need some sunny vibes, you can listen to the archive via my Mixcloud page (here)
At the end of last year, the community-led music discovery website beehype asked me to help contribute to their BEST VIDEOS OF 2020 round-up for the year. Of course, by videos, they mean music videos. My contribution was ‘Force Field’ by KŌTIRO, plus another tip. You can look through the list (here)
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:
Lara Putnam, Radical Moves: Caribbean Migrants and the Politics of Race in the Jazz Age (The University of North Carolina Press)
In Radical Moves, Laura Putnam maps out the the roots of the black-internationalist and anticolonial movements that remade the twentieth century. Beginning with the generations after emancipation, she follows the hundreds of thousands of working-class men and women of African-descent who left their homes in the British Caribbean to seek a better life abroad. From tin-roof tropical dancehalls, Putnam’s history stops off in the goldfields of Venezuela, the cane fields of Cuba, Panama’s canal construction era, the streets of Brooklyn, and the elegant black-owned ballrooms of Jazz Age Harlem. Along the way, we learn how Afro-Caribbean migrants tackled borders, barriers, racism and anti-immigration laws, while rethinking allegiances of race, class, and empire. Powerful and deeply detailed, Radical Moves is a history which is inextricably connected with the present. Essential reading. (click here)
WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:
Benedek, Mr. Goods (L.I.E.S Records)
Sample Song: ‘Street Level’
Peoples Potential Unlimited and Leaving Records alumni Nicky Benedek aka Benedek steps up to the platter or New York's L.I.E.S. Records with "Mr. Goods". Over seven well-formed dancefloor heaters, the Los Angeles-based producer and Delroy Edwards collaborator pays homage to latin freestyle dubs, WBMX drum tracks and 78th Street Project era Joey Beltram. Equal parts breakdance machine rhythms, squelchy future-nostalgic synths and pumping bass, Benedek delivers on L.I.ES Records promise of "street beat at it's finest," taking a set of comfortably-worn motifs from the era of arcade machines, street corner dance battles and questionable haircuts and slams them straight into 21st century. 1986 meets 2020 type vibes. You're gonna want to listen to this one loud. (Purchase)
WHAT I’VE GOT COMING UP:
In just under two hours time (13:00-16:00 NZT), I’m hosting The Late Late Breakfast show on Wellington’s alternative radio station, Radio Active 88.6 FM. I’ve got a bag full of old street soul records and a guest mix from my friend Dam G. It should be a pretty cruisy vibe. (stream here)
THAT’S ALL FOLKS!