Googoosh... again.

One of the greatest consequences of the current trend of reissues, record digging, and overall of the vinyl resurgence is directly to the benefit of the stars of a passed era. 

Everyone knows now of Sixto Rodriguez, whose story inspired a music label, a movie producer and tour promoters. He's not the only one who, thanks to a few diggers of good stories and talented musicians, enjoyed a late well-deserved fame. 

Lately, the Ethiopian masters such as Hailu Mergia gained some worldwide exposure and managed to record again after decades of silence. 

Googoosh, the Iranian icon of the pre-Islamic Revolution era, is among those stars who aged well. Her story and her skills have attracted the attention of the music world in the last few years. It started with some reissues and compilations on labels like Finders Keepers, which were followed by concerts and press articles. Check those two from 2018, by Vinyl Me, Please and Red Bull Music Academy, and also this one by the L.A. Times written before a concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

The downside, and this will never stops, is that original recordings from all these stars now fetch for hundreds if not thousands of euros/dollars. Some would argue that this is a new face of colonialism, which dries the originating countries out of the original stock of records, making them unavailable to the people and consequently pillaging the culture... Are record collectors salvaging these pieces or are they damaging the local cultures ? Could records possibly be sanctioned as non-exportable items by some countries, kind of like architectural artefacts ?

Catherine Ribeiro.

The label Mexican Summer (a parent label of Anthology Recordings), lately known for releasing the latest album by Allah-Las, had the very good idea of reissueing three of Catherine Ribeiro's albums (with the band Alpes), the excellent "N°2", "Ame Debout" and "Paix", originally released in 1970, 1971 and 1972, which ensured the consistency in sound, message and overall quality. 

The awesome idea would have been to reissue the first album of Catherine Ribeiro + 2Bis, as well as "Le Rat Débile et L'Homme des Champs" with Alpes, but it is a good start and I guess you need to start and stop somewhere. Plus, an anthology was released in 2015 by Mercury/Universal, but only on CD (the major also issued the album "Paix" on vinyl in 2017, within the Back to Black series, but I can't explain why they printed only this one...). 

At least it gives the most interesting introduction to nowadays crowds (... well, amateurs let's say) who don't have an easy access to original pressings. 

This effort by the Brooklyn label (no, it's not a Mexican label) sheds some well-deserved light on Catherine Ribeiro, her old mates and their impressive catalog of free-minded music and words. Although she explicitly rejects all comparisons with Nico and Brigitte Fontaine, you have to admit that they all share a certain spirit of this era. 

Lately, a lot of articles and interviews have surfaced, which deserve a read. Interestingly enough, Catherine Ribeiro, who now resides in the middle of a German forest, sometimes posts links on Facebook. 

Noisey had the privilege of a phonecall with the hippie psychedelic poetess, which they transcripted, in French. Gonzaï, also in French, published in 2015 a lenghty article on Catherine's (and her bands') career. For the English-speaking souls around here, thank Julian Coppe for his article on the diva's album "Paix"... and the Guardian. 

My best advice of the day : go listen. 

Kiosk Radio.

Another great thing from Belgium...

If ever in need of a dope webradio that is into no genre and all genres at the same time, then you should drop an ear at Kiosk Radio. 

Airing from a wooden cabin located in the heart of Brussels, under the trees of the Parc de Bruxelles in front of the Royal Palace, it explains why the radio only broadcasts during the afternoons. 

What makes it special is that "programmers" are actually DJ's and music lovers who play live with the CDJ or turntables. The style vary from one hour to another, according to the tastes and intent of the person behind the boards. Expect everything from dub to hip-hop to techno to soukouss to molam to jazz to rock to anything that makes people shake or nod their head. 

Some hosts are regulars, and most hosts are local Belgians. Others are friends of the radio passing through the city, sometimes to play live shows in some venue of the Capital City of Europe. 

Also, the shows can be watched and listened to on the Facebook page. Awesome.

Make yourself a favor. Listen.   

small talk about records...

I could be wrong, but it seems that the Fuse-produced YouTube series "Crate Diggers" has been discontinued since January 2017. That's bad, real bad. Wrong even. What remains is an incredible bank of 56 videos, filled with stories of records, digging, collecting, trading, ordering, rarities etc. 

Along with the also discontinued Radio France-produced "Radio Vinyle" (en passant, thanks to the compiler of those videos) series, "Crates Diggers" was a great contribution to the record digging and collecting culture. Sure, it wasn't perfect, episodes were rather short, so choices had to be made. 

But other ressources exist on the web. And the most interesting ones are basically... words. And a few photos. When well conducted, interviews are increbily interesting, especially since they allow everyone to have access to the correct spelling of record titles and musicians without having to guess... The prominant websites for such ressources are :

• the obvious Dust & Grooves : founded by Israeli NY-based photographer Eilon Paz, its pace of interviews is irregular but they are always, always, essential. Eilon makes the reader feel at home, right in the middle of a casual conversation... every now and then, the reader may feel lost and buried under the amount of exchanged information, but what a sweet exhilarating feeling... Being able to interview the crème de la crème of record collectors, Eilon Paz signed a book (two editions actually) which, of course, displays his impeccable photography skills.   
• the Belgian Vinyl Frontier : sponsored by Red Bull, this website is a gold mine for anyone interested in record digging in Belgium, but not only. The interviewed collectors, all based in Belgium, have crazy stories to tell. Which is understandable as most of them are or were actors of the music industry in Belgium, either as DJ, radio host, club manager, store owner, label founder, etc. And it's in English (the best way to solve the Belgian linguistic quarrel). 
• the well-named Vinyl Factory : it is indeed a pressing plant, and a source of articles about vinyl records. You'll have to browse the website by yourself to find the interviews of crate diggers (under the "Features" category), but it's absolutely worth it. Interviews are long, intimate, well documented, and feature pretty pictures. The Vinyl Factory also has a series of mini-interviews of collectors, called Home Grown, but it is insubstantial compared to the real deal.  

I'm aware there are other websites (such as Koeppel Design, and strangely several websites dedicated to metal/hardcore) that dedicate space to interviewing record collectors, or even interviews floating here and there, but I wanted to select the most consistent websites in terms of interview conducting skills, also in terms of genre diversity. 

Oh, and this is a treat : an interview of Hans Pokora, the guy behind the world-famous Pokora guides of rare psychedelic records, courtesy of the excellent It's Psychedelic Baby blog. Not the best interview, probably done via email, but whatever, the guy is a legend. 

Dans Le Club.

For the European heads, and especially the German and French ones, Arte has been labelled as a TV channel for old people, one that is so boring that everyone would know its primetime schedule without even checking : half the time, you would fall sleep in front of black and white films of World War II. 

This is however a misleading reputation, because it totally discards the fact that Arte has also been instrumental in promoting the underground cultures and trends, provided that you could watch TV in the middle of the night. For instance, a program like "Tracks" is probably unique in the history of French/German TV. 

A few years ago, Arte started making use of the internet to broadcast countless pieces of material related to music. 

"Dans le Club" is my latest discovery from the Arte website. 

Simply explained, it's just (and so much at the same time) artists from the French underground hip-hop scene playing their music live surrounded by a small but lively young crowd. 

Those who sweated on stage are Belgian veteran Isha, Jok'Air, the multi-talented Grems, Rémy, Nusky (wow), Lefa, 13 Block, Sopico (alone with his guitar...unusual), and even the mighty DJ Pone who showed his latest tricks and tracks on the newest gear from Rane. 

Enjoy those vids until... 2021. Nice use of our taxes. Sweet.

hip-hop journalism.

 

There was a time before internet blogs, before websites, before forums. There was also a time when all these internet media, applications and uses were sharing the space with the good old newspapers and magazines. Ah, magazines... Those were the good old days. But the thing about the old days is "they the old days".

And now, even more with the closure of the Wax Poetics adventure on paper, quality magazines about hip-hop are nowhere to be seen.

So it was a good surprise to see that Pitchfork published an article on the days when hip-hop journalism played a major role in the culture. Remember that quest for the "5 mics" status ?    

education and knowledge.

For those who understand French, and possibly German, English, Polish or Spanish, Arte constantly publishes new documentaries, about one hour long each, on fascinating topics including pictural arts and of course music. 

As they are only available on streaming for a short period of time, Arte's website is worth regular visits. 

At this moment, interesting documentaries include one on Jean-Michel Basquiat, the bursting disco phenomenon in Europe, as well as one on the queen of dirty funk, Betty Davis. Another series is dedicated to the beginning of the graffiti scene. 

great things from Belgium.

Belgium is the birth place of many great things. French fries (I know, the name is wrong), Magritte, Tintin, Eddy Merckx, the saxophone, Brueghel, Horta... and a lot of music, more than most know. 

Recently, Boiler Room dedicated a documentary to the revolutionary electronic movement that was the New Beat, first developed by innovative Belgian teenagers and geeks. 

"The Sound Of Belgium" is a well made trip into the eighties, as well as an instructive dive in the factors that allowed such a trend to emerge. 

It's not all. Belgium, and particularly Brussels, is home to numerous independent labels such as the eclectic Crammed Discs. Not a reissue label, Crammed Discs does a great job at giving a world exposure to local acts accross the world. It's no wonder that their catalog include current music from Africa, Eastern Europe, South America etc. 

To be honest, I don't know if this label has any limits in terms of genre or geographical area, which is confirmed by founder Marc Hollander in an interview with Noisey (in French). Note that Mr. Hollander regularly provides mixes available on Soundcloud, notably showcasing the music of the label. 

More great things from Belgium soon... 

 

Prince on Wax.

Wax Poetics is dead, long live Wax Poetics. 

The paper version you could buy for around 10 euros if you were lucky is no longer. Due to the increasing prices of printing and other expenses to maintain their business model, the team behind the reference music publication decided to transition to a new format : fully digital, that you can also receive printed in your mailbox, on demand. Not a bad idea, even though it may be a bit pricey. 

This announcement came as a shock for some, especially those who were waiting for the Prince special issue. Well, here it is, available for pre-order.