October 19th 2018

Brain Damage
«¡Ya no mas!»
(Jarring Effects/ L’autre distribution)

On Frédéric Péguillan's initiative, Brain Damage performs for the first time in Colombia, within Télérama Dub Festival in 2016. Over there, the encounter with Gatos Negros was decisive. For years, with unflinching dedication of Macky Ruff and La Gaitana, supported by budding or legendary artists, as well as by many socio- cultural coordinators, the collective has been engaged every day in some overlooked districts of Bogotá, towards deprived youths, representing the majority of the population. A common creation was immediately on the table, and fruitful studio sessions spontaneously popped with some of the most atypical artists of the city.
One year later, supported by Jarring Effects label this time, Martin Nathan returns to Bogotà within ‘France-Colombia Year’, with firm intention to bring the project to completion, far from the glitz, accompanied by Romain Etienne — photographer from Lyon-based Item Collective — for an original and subtle illustration of the adventure. New meetings happened during marathon studio sessions, to complete a dream team casting.
Pioneers like Javier Alerta Kamarada or Kontent Thug — who respectively first brought reggae and hip-hop in Colombia in the nineties —, and Jimena Angel — pop icon with a world-class voice, keen on traditional songs —, take turns in the recording booth, alongside with Macky Ruff and La Gaitana, themselves, for militant anthems. Numerous musicians also took part in the sessions : percussionists, trombonist, flautists, harp and marimba players, featuring an ancestral knowledge and a cultural diversity, characteristic of the country.
With this raw material, Martin Nathan returned to his own studio to finalize the project, prompting it into an unexpected direction, as he is used to, at odds with reggae and dub scene current trends that are crushed by UK influences, but also million miles away from electro-cumbia clichés flourishing here and there since a few years.
Yes. A new Brain Damage album is indeed what it is all about : the 14th, never really where expected, always swimming against the tide. Falsely lo-fi latin ballads, unlikely fusions between digital techniques and centuries-old traditions, polished aesthetics to highlight raw texts and incisive lyrics : all the ingredients are there for a new alien album, unique, telling about the constrast between the cultural treasures of a country and its everyday life harshness.

Brain Damage : "¡Ya no más!"

Extracted from the album «¡Ya no mas!»

October 19th 2018

Brain Damage
«¡Ya no mas!»
(Jarring Effects/ L’autre distribution)

On Frédéric Péguillan's initiative, Brain Damage performs for the first time in Colombia, within Télérama Dub Festival in 2016. Over there, the encounter with Gatos Negros was decisive. For years, with unflinching dedication of Macky Ruff and La Gaitana, supported by budding or legendary artists, as well as by many socio- cultural coordinators, the collective has been engaged every day in some overlooked districts of Bogotá, towards deprived youths, representing the majority of the population. A common creation was immediately on the table, and fruitful studio sessions spontaneously popped with some of the most atypical artists of the city.
One year later, supported by Jarring Effects label this time, Martin Nathan returns to Bogotà within ‘France-Colombia Year’, with firm intention to bring the project to completion, far from the glitz, accompanied by Romain Etienne — photographer from Lyon-based Item Collective — for an original and subtle illustration of the adventure. New meetings happened during marathon studio sessions, to complete a dream team casting.
Pioneers like Javier Alerta Kamarada or Kontent Thug — who respectively first brought reggae and hip-hop in Colombia in the nineties —, and Jimena Angel — pop icon with a world-class voice, keen on traditional songs —, take turns in the recording booth, alongside with Macky Ruff and La Gaitana, themselves, for militant anthems. Numerous musicians also took part in the sessions : percussionists, trombonist, flautists, harp and marimba players, featuring an ancestral knowledge and a cultural diversity, characteristic of the country.
With this raw material, Martin Nathan returned to his own studio to finalize the project, prompting it into an unexpected direction, as he is used to, at odds with reggae and dub scene current trends that are crushed by UK influences, but also million miles away from electro-cumbia clichés flourishing here and there since a few years.
Yes. A new Brain Damage album is indeed what it is all about : the 14th, never really where expected, always swimming against the tide. Falsely lo-fi latin ballads, unlikely fusions between digital techniques and centuries-old traditions, polished aesthetics to highlight raw texts and incisive lyrics : all the ingredients are there for a new alien album, unique, telling about the constrast between the cultural treasures of a country and its everyday life harshness.

¡Ya no más!

Luna llena (feat. Jimena Angel)

Afrika - kaliente (feat. Javier Fonseca)

¡Ya no más! (featuring Kontent Thug & Macky Ruff)

... 𝟮𝟬+ 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝘂𝗯 & 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 ...

𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗮𝗹𝗯𝘂𝗺 '𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵' : "𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗲" 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟴𝘁𝗵 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭


With more than 14 albums and 750+ concerts behind him already, Martin Nathan ventures for 20 years now, into many artistic and stylistic experiments, under the name of Brain Damage.

Acclaimed as one of the founders of the French dub scene in the late 1990s, he soon appears as a major influence for a whole generation of musicians. But the artist is definitely not among those who forever rest on the models he founded, and he constantly reinvents himself, as his myriad projects flow, especially multiplying always more prestigious collaborations with figures like High Tone (fr), Vibronics (uk), Horace Andy (Ja), Harrison Stafford (usa), or Big Youth (jam) more recently.

Along with his many productions, it is also with his truly live and explosive performances, that Martin Nathan has grown a solid reputation throughout the international scene, and it is exceptionally rare to see an artist celebrating his 20th career anniversary, with so much vitality and creativity.