A few days ago, while listening to music on Spotify, I came across an interesting playlist collection that was created and published by Spotify themselves. The title was “I’m with the banned” with the subtitle “When people can’t travel, music will”. This completely caught my attention.

After quickly scrolling through the artists and tracks in those playlists, I noticed one notable name. Ahmed Fakroun. One of the best raï singers that completely reinvented the scene by incorporating rock with his mastery of both oriental and western instruments. With such connotative title on the playlist, I instantly jumped on his playlist to listen to his track “Salam”, featuring the jazz organist Dr. Lonnie Smith.

20 seconds into the song, and I knew such a big deal this song is. So beautiful.

Mr. Fakroun being of Libyan nationality, is one of the targeted groups that are affected by the recent U.S. travel bans. Spotify has not only initiated this movement, but also empowered multiple artist from the affected countries and allowed open collaborations across international borders, welcoming alternative content that touches topics such as immigration and LGBTQ equality.

This movement is such a big deal, not just from a social awareness point of view, but also musically, an absolutely significant step toward testament of music being one of the everlasting mediums to connect people regardless of nationality or ethnicity. It is inevitable that all humans are in pursuit of happiness and a safe environment to nourish and live a prosperous life. And it’s great to see a company acting positively to raise awareness for a cause even though it could be considered being of minuscule proportions.

If politics is the inherited source of world problems, then music certainly will be a first step to amplify the voices of people. It has always been this way. And Spotify just made their stance on this issue.

Well done, Spotify.

Below is the playlist with all songs that were recorded for this initiative. There are a few shortfilms that were created for this initiative. Check out the YouTube Playlist to watch them. The films are also available from the Spotify app.

On July 6, this installment will debut on Spotify with a series of enhanced playlists which will feature new music and original video content highlighting six artists from Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Yemen and Iran; the countries incorporated in the proposed travel ban. These international artists collaborated with American artists with whom they share the love of music.

Collaborating artists and record labels include Desiigner (G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam), Pusha T (G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam), X Ambassadors (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope), K.Flay (Night Street/Interscope), Dr. Lonnie Smith (BlueNote) and BJ The Chicago Kid (Motown).

Additionally, “I’m with the banned” brought together producers and songwriters to work alongside these artists. Producers include: The Stereotypes (Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber), Doc McKinney (The Weeknd, Drake) and Matty Tavares (Kendrick Lamar, BadBadNotGood). The songwriters who also participated are Clarence Coffee Jr. (Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez) and E. Kidd Bogart (Beyonce, Ryan Tedder, Madonna).

“I’m With The Banned” Track List

• Kasra V feat. K.Flay – “Justify You”
• Moh Flow feat. Pusha T – “Options”
• Waayaha Cusub feat. Desiigner – “Durbaan Ka Ii Tuma”
• Methal feat. X Ambassadors – “Cycles”
• Sufyvn feat. BJ The Chicago Kid – “Thinking ‘Bout You (Sleepless in Cairo)”
• Ahmed Fakroun feat. Dr. Lonnie Smith – “Salam”

Artist highlights

Kasra V – DJ and record producer hailing from Iran and specializing in techno/deep house, he hosts a bi-weekly radio show on NTS Radio and is a curator of the Dance playlist for 22Tracks

Moh Flow – Singer/songwriter from Syria who co-produces with his brother, AY. While residing in Dubai and traveling the world, the 25-year-old has had the chance to harness his music making skills to release music consistently over the Internet.

Waayaha Cusub – A Somali musical collective that organized the first international music festival in Somalia’s capital since the start of the civil war in the early 90s.

Methal – Yemeni singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who learned to play by watching American YouTube videos.

Sufyvn – Acclaimed producer/beatmaker whose electronic tracks blend American hip-hop and traditional Sudanese music.

Ahmed Fakroun – Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Libya and pioneer of modern Arabic Music, influenced by Europop and French art rock.

The Spotify Blog

Here is a short introduction to Bahramji from his website:

Bahram (Bahramji) was born in 1952 in the Kurdish city of Kermanshah in Persia. As a child he heard the ancient Sufi melodies, which are the inspiration for his music today. At the age of 13 he learned to play the Santoor and started to perform at several places in his hometown. Through playing whirling music for wanderers from different cultures, his style has changed from the traditional approach to his own. He melts old songs into a new form, creating a meditative sphere to uplift body and soul.

I was inspired to incorporate some samples from his tracks, and the album Sufiyan [Blue Flame Records, 2009] was the culmination of spiritual and poetic music in the world of chillout and meditative music. Deriving its roots from Persian poets such as Rumi, Hafez and Saadi, the mystical renditions of the poetry was reflected in beautifully arranged songs that portrayed the mysticism surrounding Sufism, and the one notion of monotheistic beliefs. To draw parallels with Western music, Madonna’s song “Bedtime Story” (released in 1995, written by Björk et al.) has a similar lyrical and graphical inspiration drawn from Sufism.

The track is unmastered and has not been tweaked in post. The levels were adjusted as I played along and there was a slight phaser effect on the electric pianos, and a generous amount of L/R delay was applied across the main instruments. Everything is processed in PA900.

Arrangement rundown

I started with a downbeat arrangement, added a few layers in the sequencer and played a custom turkish Mey reed sample, and the Live Piano RX. The RX, Real eXperience technology on my Korg PA900 is truly amazing.

As for the effects, on FX B, I used Reverb SmoothHall and Stereo BPM Delay. This particular delay effect enables the delay time to match the song tempo, which is optimal for downbeat melodies. The tempo was set to 70 BPM. In the future, I will consider applying a dynamic modulation source to the XY controller, to have more control over the note velocity when I am playing the Mey.

Last, as mentioned earlier, the track is an attempt to play with a 9/8 beat. The 8/8 time signature would be similar to a 4/4, thus resulting in 9/8 having an extra beat. This is certainly one of those challenging signatures that I often avoid and rarely attempt to play.

Hope you will enjoy this track.

I realized that I never posted anything about this track.

There is so much to say about this dancepop/synthpop track, and I almost feel that I am short of breath…
…it has been long due to finally give a little background info on how it came to life.

So Noel (real name Noel Pagan) is an awesome singer that had two #1 hit dance chart songs in the late 80’s; “Like a Child” followed by “Out of Time”, both released in 1988.

The track “Like a Child” has a very distinct bassline that piqued my interest, when I first heard it in the mid 00’s, way later than its release date. At this time, I was also a huge fan of Joachim Garraud, a french DJ and producer known for his co-op with David Guetta, Jean-Michel Jarre, and many more. He also created “F*** Me I’m Famous records” with Guetta, and had a huge success on the Electro house scene overall. Along with his busy music production, he also created the Space Invader mascot that became his signature alias.

Fast forward; while listening to Noel’s track, I received an acapella of Joachim Garraud’s “Space Invaders”, and the vocals were just the right tool to accompany with “Like a Child” – knowing that the original Space Invaders was a classic arcade game by Tomohiro Nishikado in the late 70’s.

So these components resulted in some experimentation with my studio setup at the time, and a 192 kbps MP3 was exported — just for fun.
It was never meant to become an actual remix track. But now, after all these years, I have uploaded it to my YouTube channel, followed by this short trivia about Noel, Joachim Garraud, and Space Invaders.

And here is my version of Like a Child, mashed up with some phat vocals and funky basslines:

You can download Like a Child (Space Invaders mix) for free and have taste of the good ‘ol 80’s.

Two years ago, on January 18th 2012, our website joined the SOPA strike to stop Internet censorship bills, SOPA and PIPA.

Today, on September 10th 2014, we are once again joining the battle for Net Neutrality. Don’t let the cable companies destroy the open Internet!

Cable companies want to slow down (and break!) your favorite sites, for profit. To fight back, let’s cover the web with symbolic “loading” icons, to remind everyone what an Internet without net neutrality would look like, and drive record numbers of emails and calls to lawmakers.
Are you in?

Join the battle for Net Neutrality

The Philly festival hosted by Budweiser is officially going bi-coastal with simultaneous festivals in Philadelphia and Los Angeles for the Labor Day weekend.

Tickets run from $185 for a 2-day package to $599 for the VIP 2-day package, and the festival is being held at L.A. Grand Park.

The lineup (which is curated by Jay Z) for the Made in America Philadelphia will feature Kanye West, Kings of Leon, The National, Pharrell Williams, Spoon, Grimes, Chromeo, Girl Talk, and De La Soul, among others.

Unfortunately, these artist will not be playing at the L.A festival since it will be held at the same time and days, so the west coasters will be entertained by artists such as John Mayer, Steve Aoki, Afrojack, Kendrick Lamar, Cypress Hill, Wolfgang Gartner, and many more. Ain’t so bad, is it?

Tickets

Tickets can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com or LiveNation.com. These are the only approved ticket outlets for “Budweiser Made In America.” It is not recommended to buy from any other outlet as Budweiser cannot verify ticket authenticity.

Ticket purchase limits are Eight (8) Early Bird 2 Day passes per person.

“Budweiser Made In America” is an all-ages event. However, to enter the festival beer garden areas, you must be 21+ and have valid photo ID.

Official website

Budweiser Made in America 2014 Lineup

I received an email a couple of months ago from Vision Collective Recordings and they wanted to send me some promo tracks. I gladly accepted the offer, and have been receiving a few emails ever since with some of their releases.

While being on a Kraftwerk craze lately, I thought of playing around with some of their classic songs while mashing it up with some promos from the aforementioned label. What better than promoting some new electronic music.

So here it is, my mashup of George Moraitis – No Fate vs Kraftwerk – It’s More Fun To Compute (Computer World, 1981).

George Moraitis

George Moraitis is a DJ/Producer/Remixer from Attica, Greece who’s style ranges from Deep to Tech House.

His interest in house and electronic music initially started as a hobby and soon became a passion when he studied Technology & Electronic Music Production at IEK DOMI in Athens. Productions and releases soon followed and to date he has had a number or tracks and EPs out on Deepna Records, Santos Recordings, B.A.B.A Records and Kiss Dance Recordings

As a DJ, George has played at several high profile venues in Greece and Crete and he hosts his own weekly house music radio show on West Radio Greece

We are delighted to welcome George to our label and his first release with us will be out in April 2014

(Text from Vision Collective Recordings’ website)

George Moraitis – No Fate (Original Mix) on Spotify:

Download link below
[117 MB | 85 min]

It’s here! Yet another EP mix is out, and I am excited to share it with you.
For this session, I tried to mix things up (huh, pun intended!) by playing around with a bit more mellow and rhythmic tunes, thus calling the mix Deep Afro House.

The first third of the mix has some top-drawer Afro Beats that were gently mixed with tasteful and smooth jazzy beats which slowly transition into Vocal House, borderline Progressive House.

The second third offer some really sexy Central African beats by Boddhi Satva and Game Walla (the track was recorded in Angola, Africa!). They have somewhat an interesting backstory to their collaboration, as described below.

Early 2012 Boddhi was touring in Angola and connected via friend and fellow music producer Djeff Afrozila with Kuduro sensation Game Walla. Recorded at Kazukuta Studios in Luanda (Angola), Apaga O Fogo (Stop the Fire) is an ode to social awakening. It is inspired by the actual state of the African Continent. A fast rising economy leaving behind the “weakest” in it’s necessary quest for recognition in the Globalized World we live in.

As the mix progresses, I’ve incorporated some techno-esque beats by Citizen Kain, which is so masterfully produced. The final third of EP29 is simply a journey through the world of Afrojazz, German Deep House and Afro Beats.

The mix ends with a fairly unknown (and talented) artist that goes by the name Blanco-Teez, which has impressed me way too much in his latest EP ‘Soul Something’ that was released under Skall Records.

I hope that you will enjoy this mixtape as much as I did while mixing it.

DOWNLOAD EP29 Deep Afro House Mix
[117 MB | 85 min]

Knuckles developed diabetes in the mid-2000s having already contracted the bone disease osteomyelitis after breaking several metatarsals in his right foot while snowboarding in Switzerland, in 2003.
Against doctors orders, he continued to DJ and in July 2008, he had his foot amputated.
‘When I saw it was gone I had a good cry, but when I woke up the next morning I felt 1,000% better,’ he told the Guardian in 2011, ‘I didn’t realize how much pain I’d been in until it was gone. It was like all of a sudden the sun came out.’

Frankie, which was known as “The Godfather of House Music“, was born in the Bronx, NY but later relocated to Chicago where he played an important role in the development of house music during the 1980’s. He was active in the music scene for the past 40+ years and has contributed immensely to the electronic music scene. He remained active up until his death.

Frankie Knuckles performs during day 2 of the 2009 Electric Zoo Festival on Randall’s Island on September 6, 2009 in New York City.

Starting in the disco era of the 70’s, Frankie became a resident DJ at Chicago’s Warehouse Club and later launched his own music venue, known as the Power Plant. As the disco music declined in popularity, he soon started experimenting with various musical styles such as soul, disco and electronic music which later became “house music”.

His musical career consisted of several noteworthy collaborations, including Luther Vandross, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Toni Braxton as well as a long list of remixes for Chaka Khan, Pet Shop Boys, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and many more.

One of Frankie Knuckles latest DJ sets was in 2013 at the Boiler Room in New York.

Rest in Peace, Frankie.

The show started just a few minutes after 7:30 p.m with the 1981 album Computer World. Prior to the show, everyone in the audience were given a pair of 3-D glasses that had been nicely tucked in a yellow envelope. The cover of the envelope displayed the retro computer with the faces of the (original) band members on the computer screen.

The band, which sadly only consist of Ralf Hütter as the original member, were standing on the stage as the stage drape fell to the floor. There was a light projection of the classic red robot stance of the four members on the screen, which slowly faded into the number 1 through 8.

This show was dedicated to bring forward an exclusive modern interpretation of Computer World, which originally featured the songs Computer World, Pocket Calculator, Numbers, Home Computer and It’s More Fun To Compute.

A wave of applauses and shouts echoed throughout the concert hall.

Numbers were displayed on the screen, with an accompanying robotic voice “Eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht”. And the show started.

Their stage positions were same as usual, with Ralf Hütter to the far left, where he performs live keyboards alongside Henning Schmitz which plays most of the effects and electronic percussion. Next to Henning, we see Fritz Hilpert which is the electronic percussionist and effects guy. To the far right on stage, Falk Grieffenhagen monitors the projections and make sure that the tracks are synched up.

As the first part of the show progressed, I realized that they were mixing and tweaking as the songs were sequencing through the pre-recorded audio tracks. To me, it appeared as if most sound effects and samples were initiated by as Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz put their musical flavors to the classic tracks on the fly. The set in the first segment of the show (Computer World) was: Numbers, Computer World, Home Computer and Pocket Calculator. This sequence of songs didn’t take more than 30 minutes, so I was surprised that this would be just a minor part of the entire show.

Overall, the impromptu interpretation of Computer World by the band left me puzzled whether the entire show would be continuing with the same style, or take a turn. I wish I felt a stronger musical bond between the “new” band members and Hütter. The organic flow that was presented, merely reflected a disruption rather than symbiotic harmony which, in my eyes, always has been one of Kraftwerk’s strongest attribution throughout the years.

In an interview last year, Hütter commented on the authenticity of their live performances:

“In the 70s there was more drumming and physical action in the music, but today it’s more sensitive,” he smiles. “We’re turning the knobs, we’re switching the switches, we operate the faders. We have all kinds of little gadgets.”

And I am sure that this hasn’t changed during the current tour. Kraftwerk has always to some extent played back their music on live performances, while “operating” the faders and knobs.

Fahn, fahn, fahn aus der Autobahn

As the first segment came to an end, the 3D screen faded into an animated and cartooney view of Autobahn. And boom, a blazing rush was felt through my body, as I realized that they indeed were going to play some iconic songs in addition to the less impressive first part of the show.

The order of songs that were played, if I recall them correctly, would be as follow:

Autobahn
Radio Activity
Trans Europe Express
The Robots
Spacelab
The Model
The Man Machine
Tour De France
Boing Boom Tschak
Musique Non-Stop

Some interesting references were included in Radio Activity, as I think it was one of the best songs during the performance. The 3-D screen showed names of nuclear meltdowns and atomic bombings, including Chernobyl, Harrisburg, Hiroshima and the most recent Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. The visuals started with random sound waves that were scrolling on the screen followed by a hand that was tapping morse code. This was the same visuals and music that the band has performed since 2012 at the No Nukes gig in Tokyo. The melody was accompanied with Ralf Hütter’s vocals in Japanese, and coinciding visual effects with Japanese words on the screen.

Another superb track was The Robots, which they performed with excellence. The live vocoder, sung by Hütter was flawless, and it seemed that

Musique Non-Stop ended the show

As the show came to its end, the band members took the opportunity to, one by one, flex their musical muscles by making an on-the-fly solo performance, tweaking their knobs and turning buttons and keypads. starting from the right, Falk took a few steps to his left where a spotlight was shining down on the stage. He thanked the audience with a bow which was followed by an applause by the audience. Shortly thereafter, Fritz started going crazy on his conductive pad (eh, ‘scuse my use of terminology) by adding some cutoff and resonator to the looping sound in Musique Non-Stop. After completing his insane part, he thanked the audience with a gentle bow and walked off the stage.

And then there was two men remaining on the stage.

Henning Schmitz, which had been doing some neat tricks on his single octave keyboard and mixer board took the opportunity and showed off his skills by doing some type of trigger pad action. He too, bowed and walked off the stage, and… there we had him. Ralf Hütter. He played a short closing solo prelude that wrapped up the final song (Musique Non-Stop.. TECHNO POP).

He, just like the others, walked off to the same cross-marked location on the stage, bowed to the audience and said “Good night, auf wiedersehen”. And those where the only words we heard, before the auditorium lights turned on.

And that was my experience from Kraftwerk’s fifth gig of The Catalogue tour (Computer World) at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA on Thursday, 20th March 2014.

What a great evening. To start off the Spring with a one-and-only Kraftwerk concert.

The first set started at 7:30 p.m. and offered the 1974 release of ‘Autobahn’ which was Kraftwerk’s debut album.

At 10:30 p.m., the quartet took the stage again to perform its second album ‘Radioactivity’ from 1975.

And I am glad to have tickets for the Thursday performance, at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday’s first performance will be ‘Computer World’, which is one of my absolute favorite albums that Kraftwerk has released. I have been impatient about this concert, and can’t wait to experience the surround-sound setup with the 3-D graphics interchanged with glimpses of retro art. The excruciating wait is ending soon.

GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR THE CONCERT(S)

Give yourself plenty of time! Arrive at least 30 minutes before the show.

Each concert will start promptly at the listed time and will run approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. Doors open 30 minutes before the start time. Don’t be late!

GETTING IN

This is a ticketless event. Make sure to have the credit card you used to purchase your ticket and a photo ID for entry, and if you purchased two tickets, you must enter together. These tickets are non-transferable.

Concert schedule