March 18, 2006

Mandalay Marionettes and Cultural Show | The Magic of Burma--Mandalay Marionette Music |Blueberry Buddha | Burma

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While Judeo-Christian-Muslim religion tends to emphasize a conformity of thoughts in followers (submission to Allah or accepting Jesus into one's heart), many Eastern religions require instead a conformity of action. It doesn't matter so much how you feel or think about it--as long as you do your ritual duty, the gods and spirits will be content. In places like China and Burma this can lead to some good entertainment. During the Chinese Hungry Ghost Month, for example, it's common for temples to put on operas or screen martial arts films for the entertainment of the spirit world. If the human world just so happens to enjoy a Jackie Chan film in the bargain, that's fine too.

Blueberry Buddha's The magic of Burma: Mandalay Marionette Music represents one of these artistic fringe benefits. Rooted in Burmese traditions of nat (spirit) worship, youq-the-pwe (Burmese puppet theatre) is considered by many to be the country's finest performance genre. The shows, which often portray the lives of various incarnations of Buddha, begin with an offering to the nat made by the puppets themselves. This CD features the loose and exuberant music that accompanies the actions of the wooden performers. Fans of Thai, Chinese, Indian and Indonesian music will find familiar timbres such as double-reeded horn, gongs, and metalophones, but the presence of some very distinct tuned drums gives this music a sound all its own. As it's tied to the action onstage, the music never stays at the same tempo for long. Occasionally, a reverby vocal will enter the mix. It's intriguing, joyful music that would surely be considered avant-garde if it was created by a westerner.

The performers on this disc are those of the Mandalay Marionettes and Cultural Show, an ensemble that often performs for tourists and has toured the United States. Blueberry Buddha's Ken Lee originally purchased this recording as a cassette in Burma after attending a performance. Lee, a musician and activist, has bootlegged that tape for this CD release and is donating all proceeds to the Burma Forum of Los Angeles, a non-profit working towards democracy in Burma. Even if you could find an original copy of this cassette (very doubtful), your money would be helping the military junta of Myanmar. This is one bootleg you can feel good about buying.

March 07, 2006

News | Red Chamber on the Empty Bottle Podcast |

The inaugural podcast of the Empty Bottle, Chicago's legendary indie venue, features an interview with yours truly in my capacity as manager of Red Chamber. In case you haven't caught wind of them yet, Red Chamber is an ensemble of masked players and dancers who throw down the Asian surf sounds of yesteryear.

The interview was done shortly before the band took the Bottle stage on Feb 1. In the words of co-hosts Fred and Gabe, "They're wrapped in a shroud of mystery and tight musicianship... Man, these guys are crazy. It was an insane show... Not many bands playing right now that are that tight."

You can listen to the entire podcast, which features music by Test Icicles, Plastic Crimewave Sound, Field Music and Mogwai, or just catch the 11-minute Red Chamber segment. Big thanks to the Bottle, Gabe and Fred for the show and interview!

March 03, 2006

News | How to flow in Japanese. |

For most non-Japanese speakers who know anything about it at all, hip hop from Japan is represented by turntablist/producer DJ Krush. Working a genre that crowns lyrical excellence to the near-exclusion of melody, star rappers like King Giddra are unknown quantities for most outside of Japan.

So how does rap work in Japanese and what do its lyricists write about? A couple of scholars provide us with multimedia windows onto the hip hop soul of Japan.

CUNY PhD student Noriko Manabe's "Globalization and Japanese Creativity: Adaptation of Japanese Language to Rap," the lead article in the current issue of Ethnomusicology, explains that rapping in Japanese is no simple matter. Here's a bit of a red flag: the Japanese language is ill-suited to rhyming and the country has little or no tradition of rhyming poetry. Secondly, Japanese lacks stress accents, which are crucial to lyrical flow in English. As a result, Manabe tells us, Japanese emcees have to be very creative in their efforts to emulate African American verbal styles. This is a key theme in transnational studies and ethnomusicology--globalization doesn't create a monoculture of imitators. Instead each culture adapts styles to suit its own local purposes.

Check out this 45-minute lecture by Manabe in streaming video. She gives a quick history of hip hop in Japan, then breaks down flow in Japanese.

If you want to know what's on the minds of these Japanese artists, Ian Condry is your go-to man. The MIT Assistant Professor has assembled a Japanese Hip Hop page that includes English-subtitled music videos by the likes of Giddra, whose crew unravels the geo-political complexities of 9-11 with lyrical aplomb.