The Bug presents Killing Sound Chapter 5: Radio Voodoo

This mix is dedicated to the memory of Paul Bowles, an incredible writer, music curator and itinerant traveller.
It is for those that seek to keep borders open, when so many, with a vested interest in population control, are trying so hard to shut doors, and limit freedom of thought and movement. When Julian, at RBMA Radio, asked me to put a show together that featured my tracks of the year in 2016, my step off was an incredible 10” by Mark Ernestus where he remixed Nigerian band Obadikah, and set adrift his Rhythm & Sound-past into a seductive, afrodelic future. And that record, together with three jaw-dropping performances I witnessed by Senyawa in solo mode, or together with Rabih Beaini as KAFR, triggered memories of rhythmic fire and bliss, from all four corners of the globe, that I had immersed myself in heavily down the years. I knew I didn’t want to rehash another subjective year end list on radio – I chose instead to centre this show around a coupla personal highlights of ’16, and how those tunes opened up percussive paths, backwards and forwards simultaneously for me.
I remember many years ago, being graciously invited to visit the Jajouka village, deep in the Rif mountains of Morocco by the tribe’s internationally recognized musical leader Bachir Attar, and how, on my first night there, I had been woken by the distant, swirling, magical tones and drones of pipes and drums, sounding like an intense soundtrack to an unforgettable fever dream…
When I later asked Bachir about the music which had greeted the dawn light, he told me that the Jajouka musicians had been playing for a mentally disturbed villager who had been chained to the main village tree, whilst the music was being administered as hypnotic therapy, to cure him of his schizophrenia. That tribal cure for madness had resonated deeply with me, as a fully willing member of McLuhan’s “Global Village,” where digitized tribes amplify cross cultural raids, perpetually morphing electronic nomads ride on phrase shifting alien rhythms, and transgressive 4th world voyagers transform surreal geographical conjunctions into unforgettably fresh mental landscapes.
I remember also, when I finally tracked down Brian Jones’s (Rolling Stones) infamous album of Jajouka field recordings, which he had mixed down thru a wall of phasers, delays and reverbs, how the album had completely washed me away, with its genuinely dreamlike results. And I recall previously, how my first polyrhythmic baptism had bizarrely come c/o Adam & the Ants/Bow Wow Wow shamelessly stealing the infectious stomp of African Burundi drummers, or how 23 Skidoo had eclipsed the legions of goths with their brilliantly exotic melting pot of hand drums, tape looped voodoo, and furious industrial ethno-funk, inspired by gamelan and dub at the ‘Futurama’ festival. Those formulative sonic encounters with mutant wayfarers would lead to me hiring two drummers, and eventually inviting Nana Tsiboe’s phenomenal Ghanian percussionists into the band I formed and led, called GOD.
Transmitting from the echo chamber, deep in a reverb tank, I chose to submerge this mix in a wall of delays, reverberations and filters… it’s a celebration of the joy of movement, so I hope you enjoy the excursion. Hail percussion power.

- The Bug

Tracklist:

1 Master Musicians Of Jajouka – ’55 (Hamsa Oua Hamsine) (Point)

2 Unknown Artist – Burundi - Musiques Traditionnelles: Chant Avec Cithare (Ocora)

3 Mark Ernestus vs Obidakah – April DubHonest Jon’s

4 Tapes meets The Drums Of Wareika Hill Sounds – Datura Mystic (Honest Jon’s)

5 The Sidewinder – Scarification Dub (Mille Plateaux)

6 Mala – Hunter (DMZ)

7 The Spaceape – On The Run (Self-Released)

8 Master Musicians Of Jajouka – Memories Of My Father feat. Bachir Attar (Axiom)

9 Shackleton – Blood On My Hands (Skull Disco)

10 Cabaret Voltaire – Sluggin’ Fer Jesus (Rough Trade)

11 Beatrice Dillon – Can I Change My Mind? (Boomkat Editions)

12 Master Musicians Of Jajouka – I Am Calling Out (L’Afta) (Point)

13 Muslimgauze – No Maps Of Dar-Es-Salaam Show This (Staalplaat)

14 Flux Of Pink Indians – The Stonecutter (One Little Indian)

15 Terry Riley – Persian Surgery Dervishes: Performance One (Shanti)

16 Morphosis – Dismantle (Honest Jon’s)

17 Plastikman – Kriket (NovaMute)

18 Rais Ahmed Ben Bakrim – El Baz Ouichen Song For Male Voice (Tiznit) (Dust-To-Digital)

19 Konono Nº1 – Kule Kule (Crammed Discs)

20 Dayak Benuaq – Ngerangkau (Second Version) (Sublime Frequencies)

21 Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek – Vague, Yet (Faitiche)

2 2Brian Eno & David Byrne – The Jezebel Spirit (Sire)

23 23 Skidoo – Kundalini (Fetish)

24 Scarab – The Castle Of Nonexistence (Bath Badgerd) (WordSound)

25 Senyawa – Gaib (Morphine)

26 Jon Hassell & Brian Eno – Chemistry (Editions EG)

27 Process – Smp-K Option 2 (FatCat)

28 Porter Ricks – Biokinetics 1 (Chain Reaction)

29 Sculpture – Slime Code (Digitalis)

30 Eardrum – From The Nucleus (Leaf)

31 Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force – Walo Walo Version (Ndagga)

32 Demdike Stare – Hashshashin Chant (Modern Love)

33 Unknown Artist – Burundi - Musiques Traditionnelles: Akazéhé Par Deux Jeunes Filles (Ocora)

Listen

HERE

Previously:
Part 1 (Dub Mutations)
Part 2 (Inner Space)

Part 3 (Black Wax Attack)  

Part 4 (Poems & Drones)