Thursday, January 17, 2013

Awesome Tapes From Africa DJ Set in AK


Via Cheese On Toast, this sounds way cool... "Brooklyn’s unchallenged authority on rare African cassette tape jams – Mr Brian Shimkovitz who runs the very excellent blog AWESOME TAPES FROM AFRICA is going to be DJing in Auckland for one night only next week…
Playing at Golden Dawn on Tuesday 22 January – entry is free!

some background... via The Wire...

Collateral Damage: Awesome Tapes From Africa's Brian Shimkovitz
May 2012

Digital transparency has revealed dimensions to African music beyond Western received ideas. But how to market it sympathetically, asks Brian Shimkovitz

"I started Awesome Tapes From Africa (ATFA) as a way to make artefacts available from the cassette based music economy I have encountered around Africa. Something that began quite innocently as a means of filling the wide gaps in international music distribution – nearly every musician and producer I’ve met in West Africa wants to find a way to get their music beyond their borders – has become a spark in the often fiery debates surrounding suspected post-colonial tendencies of the Western music industry vis-à-vis the developing world.

My fascination with tape culture in West Africa led to the rather ironic activity of spreading analogue recordings via digital technology. It’s a pursuit that adds to outsiders’ appreciation of the breadth of musical subcultures in myriad African regions, many of which have been passed over by the otherwise excellent labels which have released music from the continent...."

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