Refuge Worldwide - Lawrence

Throughout a three decade career & countless of releases under tens of aliases, Terre Thaemlitz has tackled complex issues — queer identity, race, class — through the lens of club music, an art form which relies on simplicity & easy narratives. 

In this In Focus, 150 Session parses through the politically forceful productions of Terre Taemlitz

https://www.nts.live/shows/in-focus/episodes/in-focus-dj-sprinkles-12th-february-2020

In Focus: Terre Thaemlitz / DJ Sprinkles

Live recording at Radio Tempo Não Pára (09.06.2023)

Artist: Mhm, Mhm

Mhm, Mhm @ Radio TNP 09.06.2023

Aestivation

On May 25th 2024, to accompany the launch of his Arthur Russell book "Travels Over Feeling" Richard King put together an event at London's Barbican celebrating Arthur's life with an all star musical cast recreating and reimagining his music.

I was thrilled to be invited to play a DJ set in the foyer afterwards. I have been an Arthur Russell devotee for 30 years and decided to play an all Arthur Russell DJ set*. The atmosphere was very special with lots of love transmitting back and forth from the DJ booth to the dancefloor. I really felt a freedom to slowly build it up playing so many of my favourite AR tracks and it was one of my very favourite DJ gis of 2024 so far.


*Full disclosure - there was an additional 30 minutes finale of this set that didn't record where I played non Arthur Russell, disco / disco adjacent records.

JD Twitch - All Arthur Russell DJ set, live at The Barbican, London 25/05/24

Composer : Alice Coltrane

Featuring 
Jonah Rapino : electric violin
Dave Kadden : oboe

Recorded at Baby's All Right by Devin 
06/27/2016 6pm set

Ptah, The El Daoud

Errors Hit Orient - Take 1

Dancing in the Dark

ROKU022 - Forthcoming late November 2019

LP 1:
SIDE A E-Lail [The Night] East - 19:28
SIDE B Farah ‘Alaiyna (Joy Upon Us) - 20:57
LP 2:
SIDE A + B E-Lail [The Night] West- 34:31

د [Ahmed] – the quartet of Pat Thomas, Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip and Seymour Wright – make music of heavy rhythm, repetition and syncopation set deep into an understanding of jazz and the obscure depths of its history. Across the 2 LPs which make up ‘Super Majnoon [East Meets West] ’the group work and rework the music of the late musician Ahmed Abdul-Malik to create a stamping, swinging, relentlessly propulsive record where profundity and physicality root right back to ecstatic feeling. 

Abdul-Malik was a NYC bassist, oudist, composer, educator and philosopher who fused aspects of American, Arabic and East African thought, ethics, meanings and beliefs in open and experimental ways to make vital, forward leaning jazz. [Ahmed] reimagine the notes of Malik as they push for new ground. Melodies respirate, swell, escalate and combust in a driving jazz which yes is technical, yes is accomplished, but ultimately just foot-to-the-floor swings. 

‘Super Majnoon [East Meets West]’ is a title fused from the leader of the Master Musicians of Jajouka Bechir Attar’s description of [Ahmed] after hearing them in Switzerland last year (Majnoon is the arabic slang for ‘crazy’), and Abdul-Malik’s 1959 album East Meets West. Arriving as a double LP, the first comprises studio recordings of [Ahmed] at Hong Kong’s Empty Gallery in 2018 and the second a scorched live recording at OTO from August 2018. The record features photos by Bert Glinnand Taku Unamiand ‘in and out’ liner notes by James G. Spady – historian and journalist from Philadelphia, the author of books on Marcus Garvey and the trilogy of groundbreaking books on hip hop (Nation Conscious Rap, Street Conscious Rap, The Global Cypha).

ROKU022 - أحمد [Ahmed] "Farah ‘Alaiyna (Joy Upon Us)"

I was blown away by Steve McQueen's recent Small Axe series of films on BBC1. One of them, Lovers Rock, featured a life affirming scene using Janet Kay's "Silly Games", to incredible effect. "Silly Games" is an all time favourite of mine (see below if interested) and one night recently I couldn't sleep so decided to take the A Cappella singing from the film and weld it to Dennis Bovell's dub mix of "Silly Games". Easier said than done, it took hours and hours and did not help me sleep as it was lunch time when I finished. I only ever did it for my own amusement but played it on my NTS Radio show and have been inundated with requests for it, so here it is. If you don't know the original, which got to no. 2 in the UK Top 40 in 1979, and is now a bona fide evergreen classic, I thoroughly recommend checking it out.


"Silly Games" by Janet Kay is one of my all time favourite songs; a definite desert island disc. In the summer of 1979 it was ubiquitous and seemed to be on the radio all the time. I was just falling deeply in love with pop music and this song in particular stood out, both for myself and my sister, and indeed to this day, whenever I hear Silly Games I think of her and that glorious summer spent listening to the radio all day, every day.

In 1979, I didn’t know "Silly Games" was Reggae, let alone Lovers Rock, but it was the catalyst for me falling in love with Jamaican music in all its myriad forms which is a passion that has only grown as the years have passed.

Incidentally, 1979 was such a formative year for me and music that looking at the top 100 most popular hits in the UK singles music charts in 1979 I note that nearly a third of them have featured in my DJ sets over the years - http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/top-100-1979.shtml

"Silly Games" was written and produced by Dennis Bovell, a genuine UK music legend who I am deeply honoured to have had appear on Optimo Music on two occasions. He features in the Lovers Rock episode of Small Axe and indeed you can hear his deep, booming bass heavy voice on this version. As stated, this version was done purely for my own amusement and I don't want to take anything away from the wonderful Janet Kay whose voice is such a wondrous and integral part of what makes "Silly Games" such a great, timeless song.

Janet Kay - Silly Games (JD Twitch Small Axe Version)

A little adventure inspired by This Mortal Coil's Filigree & Shadow.

Errors Hit Orient - Take 1

ChrisEvans

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