End of March, I attended a TEDx event organized in Brick Lane (London). I love speaking in public but I know that my speeches are usually quite messy. Probably because I never rehearse them. This time I asked my friend Gilbert to help me deliver something clean, but never managed to book an appointment with him…

The conference theme being “Redefining the DJ”, I thought about sharing a couple of Laid Back stories but it took me quite a while to figure out how to organize those. Being interviewed by The Word Magazine about my career path gave me the angle for the talk… It’s been 10 years that I launched this Laid back thing without any clear mission statement and instead of considering it as a weakness, I wanted to explain why this is exactly our biggest strength. Because it gives us the flexibility to re-orientate our projects, abandon some, start new ones and stay agile. Time to redefine Laid Back…

Not quite clear for most people (including myself) to figure out what Laid Back is: a radio station, a blog, a label, … well I’d rather use none of them. That’s why we like to call us an agency (if we really have to use an “old school” kind of word to describe our organisation): Laid Back is working on projects and those depends on our partners’ needs. Strand wants to release a new album, LuiGi needed a label to release his 74 Miles Away album, Oli dreams about his first solo show, Farm Prod prepares a street art festival, … and the list goes on. My job is to be next to people when they have an idea that they’d like to make come true. And the great part is that those projects are more and more exciting, always different.

Not preparing this TED talk made me realize that failures, not reaching goals, changing directions have always been for the best… It’s all about telling stories even if, sometimes, some do not have an happy ending.

Thank you Caro for joining me on this trip and helping handle the stress, Rich, Orsii, the Mixcloud team (Nico, Nikhil, Joe & co), Ben & Lee at BBE for the good times and inspiring discussions… last but not least Tunde and the TEDxBrickLane team for inviting me.

More pictures from this event – Make sure to check the other speakers on Youtube… some of them are mind blowing.

• Can I KIKK it?
• Little Miss Sunshiine
• Meet the players

Since 2002, Laid Back and Strictly Niceness are irrigating Brussels (and beyond) with all things soulful. We thought it would be a good idea to celebrate those 10 years together by setting up a common birthday party on May 12th with Mark de Clive-Lowe as guest.

Producer, composer, pianist & DJ, Mark de Clive-Lowe (MdCL) is also a devastating live performer. Anchored by the duality of his Japanese and New Zealander parentage and ignited by a love of playing piano at the age of four, it is no wonder this multi-national phenom has seen his explosive natural gifts blaze across the globe from NZ to the US, UK, Europe, Asia and Cuba. Currently based in LA after a decade entrenched in London, MdCL released his latest album Renegades on Tru Thoughts Records.

Venue: La Bodega, Rue de Birmingham 30, 1080 Brussels (map – rsvp)

… and if you want to know more about the Strictly Niceness parties, check this interview with Philippe Coicou aka Kwak, the man behind the project.

Picture: Kwak at Universal Magnetic (Gent) by David Widart

• Strictly Kwak
• Alice Russell live at Petrol (Antwerp – BE)

When Julius asked me to present my work on Laid Back, I thought about Psoman (see pictures above) right away. Considering the similarity of our respective playlists and the countless hours we spend in bars and clubs, the collaboration seemed obvious. Psoman also lives in Liege. The city where people use to have this strong accent, where the ‘sauce lapin’ covers de meatballs, where people use to party long and offer drinks to people they barely know. We selected the tracks together and he took care of for the mix, that was a one shot. Enjoy…

People who cross my path always tell me interesting stories. I love to capture those moments and illustrate them with a picture or two. Here are some of the people I had the chance to meet in the last months…

Rinchen and Kedrup are brothers and sisters. The first words that come to mind are: good taste, cultured, writing, cinema, anthropology, charisma. I’ve been thinking about taking a photograph of them again for quite a while. Their names were written with chalk on my big blackboard-wall. But this time, I wanted them to be seen together on the picture. I met them in the beginning of the afternoon in Rinchen’s beautiful apartment in the center of Brussels. We chatted, drank some tea, listened to Shlohmo and took these pictures.

Martine has just turned 29. She has a twin sister. In their case, we call them sororal twins. They are real sisters, they were born on the same day with very little time apart from one another. Nevertheless, from a strictly physical point of view, they are not identical. You would not think they are twins by looking at them. Kiki is Martine’s dog, he acts like a human. Misou is her schizophrenic cat that lives hidden in corners. Martine recently bought two books: “The manipulators are among us” and “How to get out of a conflict”. It did not really work well. Not yet. Martine cries when birds fall off their nests, when frogs get lost in her garden and when she watches documentaries on gorillas’ extinction. We should rip her heart out and study it. I think that it would save our civilization.

Sometimes, on Fridays evenings, after a few heart-warming drinks, I am struck by bravery and boldness impulses. I therefore went and asked. He said yes.

Paul says he was a very famous poet in Flanders. He says he could not stand the drawbacks of celebrity any longer, so decided to move out here. He’s got his heart broken several times too. He used a picture I had given him to make this frame. He offered it to me one day I as was doing an exhibition. I remember he had white shaven hair and a globe-shaped earring hanging. Ever since that day, I have not run into him.

In his previous life, Sam was a member of the Crips gang. Whenever he listens to music coming from LA, something physical triggers inside of him. It is set in his chest, it feels like a ball, it is strong. When this happens, he automatically starts dancing and executing bouncy West coast moves. Sam is particularly sensitive to beautiful things. I would not say its sensitiveness is abnormal or extreme but it definitely characterizes him.

As a kid, his two favorite toys were a football ball and a doll. Sam belongs to these people who sense they have something special. Yet, he does not think that he is better or more interesting than the rest of us. It’s just that he finds people’s suggestions senseless. There are many things more essential. Sam’s actual name is Samuel Pompetti. He plays the trumpet because of Miles Davis. Serge Gainsbourg’s face is tattooed on his left arm. It’s been years since he has spent some time inside the tipi he placed in his backyard. Also, he stopped touching other people’s ears. Some of his shirts make him invincible while his earrings balance his left and right brains.

That afternoon, I was flipping through a photo book on Rajasthan while Sam was explaining me how much that part of the world was so violent according to him. The people, the religion, their bonds, what they naturally transmit. Sam knows that he’s from there, he feels it from inside, everything is there, within him. Despite his Italians origins, when one looks at him, one feels there’s something more. Sam will go to India, that’s for sure. He will leave when time is right.

Tagada draws friends. After a while, she glues them on the walls. They are all quite big in comparison to her. Tagada is not able to blink. It does not sound like a big deal but it is a factor to consider as she regularly looks through her viewfinder in order to take pictures. This could also be why Tagada goes to automatic photo booths this often.

Last year, Alain and André went to Tunisia for the holidays. They both work for the municipality during the rest of the year. They take the bus every morning, carrying their big boy-scout backpacks. The old school ones, the ones made of brown fabric with the leather strips. Alain and André always wear identitical clothes. I believe it happens quite naturally. Alain and André live together, they own the house they live in. They call each other ‘brother’. That afternoon, I was in their living room. I was drinking one of these pinkish white beers that we had bought at Colruyt and I was looking at their photo album from their trip in Tunisia. I directly noticed that they were wearing their swimming suits by the pool with a certain pride. Blue swimming suits, the boxer shorts kind with white flower patterns. I asked if they still had the swimming suits.

Franky calls himself ‘Vol-au-vent’. He is an artist. He’s got VAV initials tattooed on his arm. It is the kind of tattoo that you get in prison. Vol-au-vent and his big fragile heart see the countless paving stones of the sidewalk as authentic treasures. You should recognize him one of these days as he walks by with his so large feet. Planet Parfum is not Franky’s piece of cake. He prefers the smells of real life. You should know that Franky rarely calls. He would rather wait for someone to call him. He told me so.

Zineb has always made herself shelters: hiding places, shacks, caves. The latest one, her room, thoroughly resembles a LSD trip. Half fantastic and half oddly frightening. But Zined does not take any LSD. Zined needs to observe this unreal universe in order to find her inspiration. As a kid, she did not like the common dolls because she found them lifeless. Her mother had therefore made her one which has a music box inside that is triggered by a thread. Zined says it looks like Frankenstein, she loves it so, she argues that it brings good luck and can temper any angst.

Stories translated from French to English by Adrien Rorive & N.K.

• Vieille Chaise photo shoot
• Pictures of the Week #5
• Pictures of the Week #3

After the DUB! 7inch, Spanish producer based in Brussels Strand teams up once again with illustrator Oli-B for his new project SLAM FUNK! supported by the Lowriders Collective.

“Another step into his exploration of black music, this record is Strand’s maiden voyage into funk sounds from the 70s and 80s with an un*conservative spirit. SLAM FUNK! is not a look back to the past but a vision of what today and the future could be like. We are living difficult times and forecasts are not good. SLAM FUNK! is one of the many answers.”

I had the chance to visit Strand’s studio quite a few times while he was working on this album and I immediately fell in love with PRINCE… The first time I hear the man singing on a track actually. In order to celebrate this release, we decided to offer you this track.

Check also XLR8R as they offered STRANDALICIOUS a few days ago on their page.

The digital version of this album (10 tracks) is now available. 300 copies of the vinyl record with artwork by Oli-B will be released on the 14th of May featuring … well we don’t actually know which tracks we will press on this 10inch. We have to pick 6 tracks out of the 10, don’t hesitate to let us know us which ones you prefer.


Also available on iTunes

Cover picture: Strand & Oli-B by Gautier Houba

• Focus on… Oli-B
• Night is Beautiful
• Can I KIKK it?

The Red Bull Music Academy has selected 17 Belgian producers and musicians for a unique event held at Trix in Antwerp between March 21st & 24th: the RBMA Bass Camp. Participants will experience lectures by the likes of Mala, Young Guru, Addison Groove and San Soda, work together in the studio guided by CJ Bolland and the Vermin Twins, Styrofoam & Micha Volders; and perform at the Bass Camp After School party (click on the link and find out how to get a spot on the guestlist)…

Glad to see so many familiar names among the participants selected:
Atmospherix, Brownz, Cupp Cave, Discoballistic, Dynooo, goldFFinch, Inne Eysermans,
Jazz Neversleeps, K’Bonus, Lemakuhlar, Locked Groove, Metrobox, MonkeyRobot,
Pomrad, Syndaesia, Title & Voltron

I’ll have the chance (thank you Koen) to sneak into this Bass Camp on Thursday the 22nd so follow @laidbackradio on twitter for some live news.

ps: The Autumn 2012 session of the Red Bull Music Academy will be held in NYC. Time to apply…

Picture: Young Guru interviewed by Chairman Mao during the RBMA in Madrid (2011)
Sources: www.redbullelektropedia.be & www.redbullmusicacademy.com
Video widget provided by Utoolize (thank you Fred)

• Looking back at 2011
• Monkeys for Nothing, Chimps for Free

I was dreaming about those for a long time so when Pascal from Tjunk suggested me to think about a follow up to the LDBK t-shirts released a couple of months ago… I didn’t hesitate for a long time. Actually the most difficult part was to pick a colour.

Hope you like this heather grey LDBK hoodie. Wear it with pride ;)

Order yours on Tjunk.

• Laid Back t-shirts
• Inspired by Dilla
• LDBK compilation: t-shirts and promo mix

Two weeks ago Julius and I met Philippe Coicou aka Kwak, founder of the Strictly Niceness (SN) parties, for a drink in the Flagey area. We mostly talked about SN, Brussels’ nightlife, and music in general. Spinning records by night and journalist by day, Kwak also hosts the Back to Niceness show on FM Brussel.

Simon: Since 2002 you’ve been hosting the Strictly Niceness parties, How did it start?
Kwak: Let me give you some background because it didn’t happen just like that. It began with a party Eleven and I threw for our respective birthdays. We wanted to play music we enjoyed, because at that time Brussels was only about electro-clash, house music, commercial Hip Hop / RnB… Back then I didn’t find what I was looking for at the Fuse, Mirano or Louise Gallery for instance.

Simon: Were you looking for a more old school sound?
Kwak: We wanted a different sound. Once Bernard Dobbeleer (one of our resident DJ’s and programmer on Classic 21) said in an interview: “It’s not counter-programming, but almost.” Its true. We couldn’t identify ourselves with what was given to us at the time. We really wanted to enjoy what we were playing, and it’s really nice to see that after ten years we’re still having fun.

Gilles Peterson & Bernard Dobbeleer – Picture by Michael “Kanfu” De Plaen

Simon: Why the name Strictly Niceness?
Kwak: Another brilliant concept that came out my productive mind (laughs)…  honestly, it is all about the niceness, the enjoyment found in what we are doing. We knew we weren’t going to gather a thousand people at the club with these events. Even though we proved that theory wrong last November…

Simon: You think Strictly Niceness aims for a certain kind of public?
Kwak: No, no, anybody who wants to come to our parties, as long as they have manners, behave well, and most importantly want to be there are most welcome. I don’t want to target b-boys, hipsters or anybody… We just want to present the music that we love.

Simon: You’re not by yourself when hosting those parties…
Kwak: The idea of Strictly Niceness was originally ignited by DJ Eleven and I. Later on, we got Bernard Dobbeleer on board. Bernard is working on Classic 21 (Belgian radio station), has been a dj for 35 years and has a serious musical culture. Eleven eventually left, Bernard stayed. In September, we decided to open a second room (The Attic) with 2 other residents Ric-O and Funky Bompa. And we also invite guest DJ’s on a regular basis.

Funky Bompa – Picture by Michael “Kanfu” De Plaen

Julius: Ten years have gone by, what changed?
Kwak: Music and nightlife have become “niche” businesses. Each urban tribe goes wherever it thinks it will hear the music that corresponds to them. I regret this situation…

Julius: But that does not apply to Strictly Niceness, people attending your parties come for different horizons.
Kwak: Maybe… It’s true we gather different groups of people, that’s a good thing. If we didn’t gather different kinds of people while playing the music we love at the same time, personally it would have been a failure.

Julius: Well I think that’s what you’re what doing right now, how did you achieve that?
Kwak: We offer something different. With us you can hear some rare groove or the latest Azari & III. We can play the whole musical spectrum since the 50s: house, hip hop, rock (it happened), drum n’bass, techno, salsa, afrobeat,… you name it. Within our niche (and I hate this word) we have a rather large vision. We want it soulful, real, givin’ it to you raw butt-naked you know. In that way, yes, we’ve achieved something. But it’s an everyday struggle. Strictly Niceness is of course a lot of joy but its also a lot of work: promotion, graphic design, … a teamwork. So let’s not forget Reedoo who is taking care of the logistics during the parties.

Picture by Michael “Kanfu” De Plaen

Simon: You host a radio show called “Back to Niceness” on FM Brussel…
Kwak: I’m from a generation that grew up with radio. My first radiophonic memory was the night Elvis died. I was 8 years old, in Paris, with my mother in law and my dad, and I spent the whole night hooked on a show live from Memphis, listening to the host talking about the downfall of the king of rock. That memory always struck me. It’s what made me want to become journalist.

“Back to Niceness” was Eleven’s idea. It’s kind of a foretaste, aftertaste, whatever you want call it,… it complements “Strictly Niceness” (the parties). So, how it happened… I made a draft of my project that I sent to a couple of french speaking radio stations, never got any answer from them. Then I called FM Brussel, told them ” Hello, DJ Kwak calling, I’d like to do a show” they said “OK you’re starting next week” … just like that. That’s how I got started, and it’s been 4 years and a half that we do it on a weekly basis (every Saturday 6-8pm CET). Our show is on Mixcloud as well. From a public relation point of view, all of my work is oriented towards the promotion of the Strictly Niceness parties…

Simon: Tell me a little bit about yourself, who is Kwak? What’s your story?
Kwak: I grew up with parents who loved music, so I’ve always been surrounded by records.

Simon: Different styles of records?
Kwak: Yes, my dad was from Haiti, so there was salsa, Haitian music, rock, soul, jazz,…. And since I was an 80′s kid, I got into Sugarhill Gang and Motorhead’s Ace of Spades… In my face, both of them, at the same time (laughs) Thats where I come from. Afterward I started listening to hip hop then soul/funk, and then back to hip hop (trying to spot who sampled who), then I listened to rock. After this musical journey I phased out for a while… and then I met Geofroid Simonart during my studies (whom I salute if he’s reading this) he was really into music and made me listen to a load of punk tracks, new wave…

Back then, music wasn’t categorized like it is today. You could really mix different genres. We stopped considering music as a whole. I regret that, I’m someone who’s against communitarianism, in terms of religions, ethnicity, music, …

Kwak – Picture by Michael “Kanfu” De Plaen

Simon: You’re a journalist for Focus Vif as well…
Kwak: That’s right I do a weekly column for Focus Vif. It’s called “In My Hard Drive” and I write about what I’ve been listening to lately. I started in October with Motorhead for example, which I saw live about 20 times! I’m a huge Motorhead fan as much as a Public Enemy fan. So I write about rock, hip-hop, or even the latest dubstep record. I’m a music lover. A punk/skinhead record from the late 80′s, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, Souls of Mischief’s 93 ‘Til Infinity, John Coltrane’s Alabama, Agnostic Front’s Liberty and Justice for All… Music feeds my soul.

Reedoo – Picture by Michael “Kanfu” De Plaen

Simon: Are you planning big things for 2012?
Kwak: Strictly Niceness will celebrate it’s 10 anniversary this year. We already made two prestige parties, one with Gilles Peterson, the other with Rich Medina. Two guys with mad skills. I’m really proud we made it to 10 years. You know, projects come and go and they depends on wether the original idea was good.

In June we’re planing a birthday party featuring just the family, 3 teams of DJs: Funky Bompa & Ric-O, Eleven & Reedoo, Bernard Dobbeleer and I. I never forget that I’m not the only the person who founded Strictly Niceness. I didn’t get the idea by myself, Eleven thought about it with me. He’s my friend and I’m proud that we launched this project together. Even if he is not part of the team anymore, he’s 50 percent responsible for the birth, success, and longevity of Strictly Niceness. It’s simple math.

Julius: Would you sign up for 10 more years?
Kwak: I’m not sure… would you?
Julius: Yes why not, as long as we don’t do the same thing twice..
Kwak: In 10 years, I’ll be 53. I don’t know if I’ll still want to DJ at parties until the break of day at that age… Right now I’m really excited by these events. So I don’t know if I’d sign up for 10 years, but 5 for sure.

Simon: Any last words?
Kwak: One more thing, I’d like to wish LDBK a happy 10th anniversary. Laid Back and Strictly started at the same time and I’m glad to see where we are now. We followed a similar path, went through the same struggles, grew up together… Even though our shows, our techniques are different I’m glad we went through this journey together. Happy Birthday LDBK!

More about Kwak: facebook – twitter
More about the Strictly Niceness parties: web – facebook

• Celebrating 10 years of Laid Back & Strictly Niceness
• One Love
• AM & Shawn Lee – Betamix

Joanna Bee met aCatCalledFRITZ thanks to her fellow SupAfly Collective member Jee Nice (Anattitude Magazine) in 2009, their paths crossed for the first time in Brussels at the SupAfly hip hop party launching event, where this Paris based beatmaker, producer, DJ and graphic designer showed off his skills behind the decks.

Two months later, they met up in Paris and that’s when their collaboration and friendship kicked off, by sharing similar musical feelings, with souls mixed and spiced up by jazz and hip hop, they spent great times in studio near Paris, with Cat’s crew and label Coffee Break Records. They have become musical family, working on new tracks and simply having great time!

Having released her jazz/pop album The Falling in 2011 under JoBee Project, Joanna is now preparing new releases. In the process, aCatCalledFRITZ picked up The Falling by JoBee Project and decided to leave his footprints on it by remixing “Honey” and “Falling”. The footprints of a shadow of a lonely Cat Called Fritz, who likes to anonymously wander big cities in the dark, amongst crowds, shed bright new light on the Falling and announces what more we can expect from their path crossing.

Leave your email address on bandcamp or “pay” with a tweet and download those remixes.

Make sure to also read Cat’s interview on Anattitude magazine.

Follow aCatCalledFRITZ on www.facebook.com/acatcalledfritz
Follow Coffee Break records on www.mixcloud.com/coffeebreakrecords
Follow JoBee Project on www.jobeeproject.com

Tracks written by JoBee & composed by Elien De Schryver & JoBee
Remixed by aCatCalledFRITZ for Coffee Break records.

Cover designed by aCatCalledFRITZ – Text by JoBee

• JoBee Project – The Falling
• JoBee Project – My Life

Since 2003, Farm Prod has produced countless creative works and taken part in events, shows and international projects such as the Kosmopolite Art Tour (Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo, …). Sometimes considered as street artists, their style isn’t restricted to graffiti, they are first and foremost painters…

Guifari by Ugo Cab (Adikt)

Simon: What is Farm Prod?
Guifari: We are a collective based in Brussels and made of painters coming from different backgrounds. We mix techniques such as spray, brushes, paste up on walls, canvases, wooden boards… We do quite a lot of murals both indoor and outdoor. And sometimes we paint those murals live in front of an audience…

Live Painting (Brussels, 2011)

Guifari: While painting murals our aim is to unite all of the individuals’ influences, to a point where the public will not be able to tell who did what because everyone added his own touch.

Guifari: Right now there are five members working on various projects, but historically there were ten members and those are still active from time to time. The artists making up Farm Prod are painters, illustrators, graphic designers,… but most of all a bunch of friends united around common values.

Simon: How did you guys get together?
Guifari: Most of us met in 2002 during our art studies at Saint-Luc, in Tournai, where we were following an illustration/graphic design degree. We were living in a farm located near the school.  This is actually where the name Farm Prod comes from. There we had a common studio and used to work on various projects… School related or not. This is where Farm Prod was born: the spirit, the friendship…

Later on, we moved to Brussels and had a studio in a rather symbolic place. An abandoned Hotel from the 70′s: Hotel Tagawa. Most of us had 9-5 jobs at that time but weren’t too happy with them, so we told ourselves “Let’s do what we love together again”. This is when we decided to work as a true collective. Farm Prod was born.

Room 44 at Hotel Tagawa – watch the video (picture from Arno Debal’s archive)

Simon: Is it more convenient to work as a collective rather than individually?
Guifari: There are both pros and cons. We get more notoriety with Farm Prod than working individually, we have more to offer that way. FP serves as a platform on which individuals can rely on. Not only do we keep motivating each other but we also always try to complete and influence each other. “United we stand, divided we fall” it’s not a myth…

Now, of course, there are some disadvantages. As in all groups, things tend to heat up from time to time, there are always individuals with attitudes in collectives and God knows there are many strong personalities in Farm Prod (laughs…) Working together is our strength, but at one point you need to leave some room for individual expression. That’s why in our exhibitions, we display our solo creations.

Nelson Dos Reis by Ugo Cab (Adikt)

Simon: What are your influences?
Guifari: Our influences are pretty varied. It depends from one artist to the other. Right now, we’re catalogued as street artists, and we accept it because we appreciate the graffiti movement and embrace it as an influence. However, we do need to watch out to not be labeled only as graffiti artists since we come also from an illustration / contemporary art background.

Our influences vary from the likes of Picasso, Egon Schiele to some graffiti artists. Today, we live in an era where so many different styles co-exist that it seems impossible for us to be inspired by a particular movement.

Guifari & Nelson reworking the LDBK logo

Simon: You’ve collaborated with Laid Back in the past, how did that happen?
Guifari: We’ve known each other for a while now. This collaboration came out of mutual appreciation. We used to listen to the early LDBK podcasts while painting for example. Our first collaboration goes back to the Belgikolor event in 2008 where we did a live painting. From that point on we kept in touch with Julius and the Laid Back team

Indigo Studio during KAT Brussels. Picture by Alex Alonso.

Guifari: Later on we teamed up with LDBK for the Kosmopolite Art Tour 2010 (KAT) in Brussels. This event already existed in Paris for 10 years, so we imported the concept over to Brussels. The idea was to gather 60 international & local street artists around various walls, exhibitions, debates and parties all revolving around street art. Seb, Pierre and Julius helped us manage the communication and administrative parts of this project.

Nowadays Julius helps us improve our communication and project management skills.

Simon: You just moved in new studio at BAF…
Guifari: Yes, BAF stands for Brussels Art Factory. It really is a great place to work in because it gathers fashion designers, painters, photographers, special effect artists and a lot of creative people. It gives out a great energy. Keep a keen eye on the BAF’s activities because loads of varied projects will be initiated here.

Farm Prod exhibition at CC Ottignies by Ugo Cab (Adikt)

Simon: Speaking about projects, what can we expect from you?
Guifari: Right now we’re doing an exhibition at the Centre Culturel d’Ottignies, (until the 17th of February). Not only are we displaying our newest pieces, but we also decided to show some older works as well since it’s the first time we do an exhibition in this region. As opposed to our work as muralists, this exhibition shows what we can do individually as painters.

Kosmo Art Tour Paris (2011) – video

Guifari: We are also planning the Kosmopolite Art Tour 2012. The event will take place in Louvain-la-Neuve from July 29th until August 5th. The city and the university were motivated and eager to help us and made walls available to us. Which is a big difference compared to Brussels were we had a hard time to convince institutions to help us. This will be OUR big project in 2012. The tour itself, which started in Paris, then moved to Amsterdam and Brussels, eventually got more and more exposure and end of 2011, we had the chance to paint in Brazil with a cast of international artists. (video from Sao Paulo)

Farm Prod x Lafinekip pasting session (Brussels, 2011)

Make sure to follow Farm Prod on Facebook facebook

• Pictures of the Week #30
• Can I KIKK it?
• Celebrating Mixcloud’s 2nd birthday

On Feb 7th, 1974 James Dewitt Yancey, aka J Dilla or Jay Dee, was born; on Feb 10th, 2006, this emblematic hip hop producer sadly passed away… and so we claim this week as “Inspired by Dilla”

In honour of Dilla’s musical legacy, how inspired he was by music and how much of an inspiration he still is to others, Tjunk decided to raise money to support the J Dilla Foundation! In their store you’ll find a series of ‘Inspired by Dilla’ T–shirts including one designed by LDBK’s favorite Oli-B. The profit made on these T-shirts will be fully donated to the J Dilla Foundation, to help them fund inner-city music programs.

LDBK regulars, Vlada Stojanovic and TomE composed this playlist telling Dilla’s story: starting with a track featuring his father, originals he sampled, his own creations and ending with tracks from artists that he inspired… you can listen to this playlist on 22Tracks and on Mixcloud.

This is also the perfect occasion to offer this track recorded some 3 years ago by Louis Van de Leest Jr. aka LuiGi (drums), Louis Van de Leest Sr. (violin), Hendrik Vanattenhoven (double bass) & Pierre Anckaert (fender rhodes) aka the Louie Gee Ensemble: a bossa-jazz version of Rene Costy’s Scrabble used by Dilla for “Fuck the Police“. More about this project released by Laid Back in collaboration with Jazzy Sport.

Turn it up!

Thank you Pascal at T-Junk for managing this project and to all artists involved.

• LDBK hoodies
• Laid Back t-shirts
• Merry Christmas

Like many of you, we’re big Ninja Tune fans and we were delighted to hear that our friends at Digizik & MDN Events are launching a series of official Ninja Tune events in Belgium, kicking off with Ninja Tunes Night #1 at Blaes 208 (Brussels) on Feb. 24th, for which they invited some of London’s top players from the Ninaj Tune crew: The Qemists, DJ Food vs. DK & King Cannibal

Digizik is now looking for Belgian talent to complete this crazy line up. Here’s all the info about this competition and make sure to listen to the entries on their Mixcloud account and share/like your favorite contestant.

To get you in the mood, DJ Food kindly accepted to make a mixtape on our Dragontape channel, featuring some of his current favorites and all time classics.

He even sent us a little descriptive of every track:
1// Amazing Stanislaw Lem Google Doodle
Google honors the Polish godfather of science fiction and future philosophy.

2// Lone – Rapid Racer [R&S]
The ever-brilliant Lone from the Echolocations EP with a video of found footage of Vince Collins animations

3// EAMES: The Architect and The Painter – Trailer
Trailer for the new Charles & Ray Eames documentary

4// Kraftwerk – Autobahn (Animation by Roger Mainwood) – Video (1979)
1979 video for the Kraftwerk classic, commissioned for a laser disc, yellow submarine in space

5// I Met the Walrus
Amazing animation of a John Lennon interview from 1969, conducted by a 14 year old in their hotel suite during one of their famous bed-ins

6// Edgar Winter Group – Frankenstein (Live on the Old Grey Whistle Test 1973)
Killer 10 minute version of the classic, complete with solos, percussion battles and analogue keyboard theatrics.

7// Sculpture – Mix Assembled at Sculpture Studios UK 2011
The amazing zoetropic creations of Sculpture

8// The Pink Panther – 039 – Psychedelic Pink Come On In!
One of my favourite Pink Panther cartoons

Check also King Cannibal’s mixtape…

1// Justice – Stress
Chris CunningWHO? This one is work of pure adrenalin and a lesson that the bad guys always win out leaving you both beaten and on fire.

2// The Horrors – Sheena is a Parasite
One of my favourite Chris Cunningham videos and probably one of his most straight forward.

3// The Weeknd – Glass Table Girls
Not an official video, but a fan edit (even then, it is editted to the second half of Glass Table Girls) Whilst i’m not a fan of The Weeknd the drugged out element of the track really really grabbed me, and the video is pure degraded VHS genius.

4// Rhythm Device – Acid Rock
Much like The Weeknd’s video earlier this is not an official video. Make no mistake, some things are beyond parody. A classic slice of New Beat with paired with some killer wardrobes. See also Tragic Error – Tanzen

5// Tragic Error – Tanzen
So you’ve not heard of Tragic Error before? Google Patrick De Meyer, the man behind Tragic Error – you couldn’t escape him in the 90s.

6// Ema – California
Call me a big hipster but this was one of my favourite songs of 2011, with one of the all time best opening lyrics.

7// Atari Teenage Riot – Activate (live 2010)
Directed by Zan Lyons, this really captures the balls out ATRs live show which does its best to blind you with strobes and deafen you by playing every song like its their last. Its a spirit that reminds me a lot of Minor Threat.

8// Kid 606 – Sometimes
A beautiful piece of work from the one man rave machine behind Tigerbeat6.

9// Kenneth Anger – Invocation of my demon brother
Not strictly a music video but a short film from Kenneth Anger – the man that first placed popular music to film and who some say Lynch stole the central idea of using the Blue Velvet from. This features an original soundtrack by Mick Jagger, that probably beats Thomas Bangalter’s droning ‘Rectum’ piece for Irreversible, to an award for ‘most unsettling piece of synth work of all time’. The film, originally conceived as ‘Lucifer Rising’ features Love member and Charles Manson associate Bobby Beausoleil as Lucifer. Legend has it this film was assembled from cutting bin scraps after Beausoleil fell out with Anger, stole all the original footage and buried it in Death Valley.

10// Sonic Youth – Teenage Riot
To play us out, one of my favourite songs. A self directed video tribute to those one time underground pin ups of teenage rebellion.

More about Ninja Tune Night: facebook – website

• Celebrating Mixcloud’s 2nd birthday
• AMAI release party
• LDBK loves Supafly

Early December Danny from The Find Magazine told me that he was working on a magazine for the See-A-Sound exhibition (a project bringing together 10 designers and 10 producers/DJ’s in Tilburg, NL) and asked me if I wanted to book ad space… I checked with Oli if he was inspired by the challenge.

And he was… what started as an ad led to a limited edition poster and to make (y)our experience complete, Oli compiled the soundtrack of his drawing sessions, the playlist of his creative nights. His first Laid Back mix.

Enjoy!

Night is Beautiful – 100 Posters (more info)
50/70cm - Offset printing + pantone gold – 170gr paper

www.oli-b.be – www.facebook.com/OliB.art

PS: We have 3 copies of the See-A-Sound magazine (Dutch written) to offer, mail show@laid-back.be if you want one. Congratulations to Cyril, Rob & Gary for winning the mags.

• Strand – Slam Funk!
• Can I KIKK it?
• Focus on… Oli-B

“I’m interested in the painting of portraits because faces are not processed by the brain as mere objects but spontaneously interact with the viewer. Everyday, we automatically perceive a multitude of faces. Each of them gives us both a sense of familiarity and strangeness” says, Sandrine Astier.

Sandrine Astier is a Brussels based painter whose series of musicians’ portraits caught my attention. I like to add visual elements to complement the listening experience but it also works the other way around so I asked Sandrine to compile a set featuring her favorite tracks from the artists that she painted… The soundtrack to her paintings. Make sure to check the painting / track list below.

“I hope you will be carried away by the musical rhythms and colours as much as I was when I represented them on canvas. Thanks for listening!”

Next exhibitions:
APDM, Rue de Flandre 92 – 1000 Brussels, from 31 March to 6 April 2012
L’amour fou, Chaussée d’Ixelles 185 – 1050 Brussels, from 5 April to 4 May 2012
De Kleine Hedonist, Sint-Jacobsmarkt 34 – 2000 Anvers, from 19 April to 19 May 2012
APDM, Avenue Jean Volders 42 – 1060 Brussels, from 5 May to 1 June 2012
KiLi Galerie, rue de la Samaritaine 18 – 1000 Brussels, from 5 to 27 July 2012
KiLi Galerie, rue de la Samaritaine 18 – 1000 Brussels, from 13 Sept to 5 Oct. 2012

More info: www.sandrineastier.com – download Sandrin’s portofolio.

Leon Thomas – American avant-garde jazz singer who collaborated with Pharoah Sanders
55.1 in x 55.1 in – Mixed media on canvas.  © pic by Sandrine Astier (2011)

Ramsey Lewis – American jazz composer & pianist.
55.1 in * 55.1 in – Mixed media on canvas. © pic by Emilie Danel (2011)

Herbie Hancock – American pianist, band leader and composer
39.4 x 39.4 in – Mixed media on canvas © pic by Sandrine Astier (2011)

Roy Ayers – American funk, soul, and jazz composer and vibraphone player
39.4 x 39.4 in – Mixed media on canvas.© pic by Emilie Danel (2011)

Don Blackman – American jazz-funk pianist, singer, songwriter.
39.4 x 63 in – Mixed media on canvas.© pic by Emilie Danel – 2011

Betty Davis – American funk, rock and soul singer.
23.6 x 78.7 in – Ink, acrylic paint on canvas.© pic by Sandrine Astier (2011)

Marlena Shaw – American Jazz, Funk, Soul & Disco singer
31.5 x 15.7 in – Ink, acrylic paint on canvas.© pic by Emile Danel (2011)

Amy Winehouse  - British singer, songwriter and author of jazz, blues and soul.
55.1 x 35.4 in – Coloured pencil, paint marker, ink, acrylic paint on canvas. © pic by Emilie Danel (2011)

Georgia Anne Muldrow – American hiphop, soul, funk singer and musician
15.7 x 31.5 in Mixed media on canvas.© pic by Emilie Danel (2011)

Erykah Badu  - American funk,hip hop, jazz and soul singer.
15.7 x 31.5 in – Mixed media on canvas.© pic by Emilie Danel (2011)

Asha Puthli – Indian-born singer, songwriter, producer and actress.
31.5 x 15.7 in – Ink, acrylic paint on canvas. © pic by Emilie Danel (2011)

Ursula Rucker Singer and performance poet.
27.6 x 31.5 in – Paint marker, ink, acrylic paint on canvas.© pic by Michael Deplain (2009)

Betty Davis – American funk, rock and soul singer.
31.5 x 15.7 in – Ink, acrylic paint on canvas. © pic by Sandrine Astier (2011)

• Win your art on a canvas!
• Kosmopolite festival: Day 1 & 2
• Benson Technologiks

This weekend, on January 21st, RELEASE will be going back to the basics. Together with On-Point, Onda Sonora and Eckelwood we’re looking forward to provide you with some fresh new talent in music, graphic art and video. And yes, still all for free. All info on RELEASE part. 6 can be found here!

Artists featured in this 6th edition:

- Smaakwaterval

A Brussels based duo composed by Joeri Bultheel and Michiel Claus,and inspired by the quest for ways to incorporate electronic elements into live music. Smaakwaterval released a live jam on Gentle Tapes, the cassette record label of Simon Halsberghe and Fredo De Smet, also known as Pitch & Hold. Their releases are limited to 50 hand numbered copies each.

- Roselien

Influenced by all music that reveals it’s soul, this young talented songwriter tells stories about faith and trust, sewn together by innovative rhythms and harmonizing lust.

- Pomrad

This Antwerp producer effortlessly appropriates any genre of electronic music, and blends them in his very own crossover funky and raw Pomrad sound. His live act is refreshing and singular for a beat maker. Each track is played live on keyboards and sampler, and different sets include talkbox singing and rapping. Pomrad’s live sets are delightfully eclectic, with amazing improvisations and are danceable as hell.

- Cupp Cave

‘Drink from my cup he says, with his regal tone, king-sized and street-wise – an easy task you might say when you can count your streets with both your hands – as he rolls them out, lazy beat by hazy bleep. I feel like Don King. I feel like chewing on a wafer. This colour’s not right. Everything’s plastic’

No longer Belgium’s best-kept secret, François Boulanger aka Cupp Cave aka Kingfisherg aka Ssaliva is a highly prolific beat-maker, baking his beat by the dozen as part of the Vlek rooster.

- VJ Maty

Technical wizard responsible for the visuals during the Monkeyrobot live sets. Recently he showed his skills at the Dour Festival 2011, accompanying Flying Lotus, Dorian Concept & Richard Spaven’s show.

- Exhibition

The artist responsible for the exhibition part is none other than Ghent based illustrator SeQ. You might remember him from the “All School Flavor” poster or the Double Trouble illustration… Looking forward to see what he has been working on lately…

- DJ’s

On-Point, Onda Sonora & Azer

• In the studio with… Desta
• Laid Back posters (sold out)
• RELEASE x Nuit Blanche

If you follow us on a regular basis, you know how Mixcloud is a key service and partner in our “strategy”. When we stopped our FM activities in Nov. 2010, I wanted to prove that we could reach a bigger audience and generate more interactions through online channels. In order to reach that goal, I decided to heavily “spam” our Mixcloud account. So much that some people around me questioned that strategy: 3/4 mixes a week, isn’t it too much? (might be hard to put more indeed) Are you filtering? (Yes and I am also challenging dj’s to reach the next level) Isn’t there a risk to alienate our audience? (Apparently not judging by the response… well tell me if I’m wrong)

So I was looking forward to see Mixcloud’s best of 2011 lists… Even if numbers and awards will never define what we do, I see it as an opportunity to measure our impact. And I’m really really glad we got so many many mentions in various categories:

- #42 in the best group category: visit our group – See the complete results

- Orsii‘s Little Miss Sunshiine show reached #23 in the best playlists category

- Lexis’ Music Is My Sanctuary ended up #13 in the best playlists category

- The “LDBK friends & collaborators” playlist peaked at #8 in the best playlist category

- Lefto‘s Carpooling session is #46 in the best music cloudcast list.

- Wini Two‘s perfect genres blender is #33in the best music cloudcast list. `

- For a long time Orsii‘s Little Miss Sunshine #26 was our most popular mix and it’s only right to find her at #13 in the best music cloudcast list.

- The DJ Vadim x Mister Critical x SEQ “Double Trouble collaboration is a game changer (more about that soon) and reached almost 20.000 listeners… This one really has all the Laid Back ingredients: a mix of genres, a dope original artwork and a collaboration between two ace dj’s. I’m proud to see it considered as one of the ten best music cloudcasts of 2011.

Let’s be honest… It’s the best music cloudcaster category that I’m considering as a barometer of our impact. After getting the #1 spot in 2009 (Mixcloud was then only publicly open for a few months) and the #4 in 2010, my goal was to stay in the top 5 and sometimes I admit I’m dreaming about getting that first place back… but Mixcloud grew up tremendously lately and some big names are now using the platform. So staying in the top 5 and improving last year’s score (#3) is quite an achievement. A collective achievement because one of our specificities is to have an open account, a radio station account where guest dj’s, promoters, music lovers and basically anybody with a dope concept can share their passion and stories. It’s their bronze medal.

Thank you for sharing your music with us.

Thank you for tuning in and spreading the word about our programs.

Let’s keep pushing in 2012. I’m glad we didn’t get that #1 spot so I will keep dreaming about it!

• Long Arm’s Strange & Wonderful World
• One Love
• All School Flavor in London

During the 1960s, a certain big band would tour Europe. It was led by a classically schooled Belgian pianist and an African-American drummer best known for his part in the development of bebop. The 17-piece (sometimes 21) orchestra consisted of men from half a dozen religions and twice as many nationalities. Yet, despite being an assortment of personalities with different artistic backgrounds, the band succeeded in creating a unique sound and was simply one of the finest formations that jazz has ever known.

The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band (CBBB) was formed around the rhythms of drummer Kenny Clarke and the arrangements of pianist Francy Boland. It featured as soloists some of the top European jazz players of the moment: Dusko Gojkovic, Jimmy Deuchar, Ronnie Scott, Åke Persson, Fats Sadi and Derek Humble, as well as American expats such as Sahib Shihab, Benny Bailey and Johnny Griffin. In the decade of its existence, the group released almost 40 albums for highly-regarded labels such as Blue Note, Atlantic, MPS, Polydor and Vogue among others.

Holding together an all-star group of this size and of which all musicians have a solo career is not an easy task, to say the least. Creating the necessary funding, matching the schedules of seventeen people, booking the flights to get them all together in the same place and last but not least get a large group of top musicians with their own ideas and egos in the same musical direction: one would think that the Clarke-Boland Big Band had a team of managers, producers, roadies and assistants behind it. Not so with this band: it was held together by just one man: the Italian jazz enthusiast and café owner Gigi Campi, who supervised the orchestra out of his café in Cologne.

CAFÉ CAMPI

Pierluigi ‘Gigi’ Campi was born in 1928 in Cologne from Italian parents who, because of their socialist background, had fled their home country a few years earlier. Aged eleven, Gigi was sent back to Italy out of fear for Hitler’s upcoming regime. It was in those days that he learned to love jazz “without knowing it was jazz, in times when jazz was forbidden.”(1) As a young boy in a Jesuit college in 1940s fascist Italy, Gigi listened to the radio station of the American forces when lying in his bed late at night. He enjoyed the sounds of Louis Armstrong and his contemporaries and slightly started to develop a love for jazz that would grow into a deep passion when he attended live jazz concerts later on.

After finishing school, Campi returned to Cologne, where he took over his parents’ ice cream and coffee parlour, Café Campi. Thanks to the flourishing business, Gigi Campi was able to invest in his jazz hobby. He started promoting jazz concerts, set up his own label Mod records, and hosted concerts in Café Campi, which quickly became a hot spot for modern jazz where many European and visiting American jazz musicians came to meet and play. That gave Gigi the opportunity to keep an ear on the scene and discover the talent that would be needed to develop an idea that had been brewing in his head for some time…

CAMPI’S IDEA

After having seen a concert by Kenny Clarke, a drummer from Pittsburgh who caused a revolution in jazz by shifting the main rhythm from the bass and snare drums to the cymbals, Gigi Campi had already decided that his next project would be a band based on a great rhythm section. It wasn’t until he heard the orchestra of Kurt Edelhagen perform a Francy Boland arrangement of ‘Johnny One Note’ that the pieces of the puzzle started to come together. Campi was so amazed by Boland’s arrangements that he decided to form a band with Kenny Clarke and his then bassist Jimmy Woode as the rhythm section and with Francy Boland as the pianist, arranger and main composer.

In 1961, Campi booked Clarke, Boland and Woode for a recording session and added soloists who would become regular members of the band in the making: Dusko Gojkovic (trumpet, Yugoslavia), Derek Humble (alto saxophone, UK) and Carl Drewo (tenor saxophone, Austria). Enthusiastic as he was, Campi sent the tapes of the session to none other than Alfred Lion, who released the album on his Blue Note label in America as ‘The Golden Eight’.

Now the group had a foundation, Campi could put his dream of a big band to reality, and he made calls throughout Europe to find the right musicians: Sahib Shihab (baritone saxophone and flute) was an American residing in Copenhagen, Nat Peck (trombone) was an American who had been living in Germany, France and England, Åke Persson (trombone) was from Sweden and Jimmy Deuchar (trumpet) was one of the top players of the British jazz scene. Other artists that would join the band regularly were Francy Boland’s old friend Fats Sadi (vibraphone, Belgium), Joe Harris (percussion, USA), Johnny Griffin (tenor saxophone, USA), Ronnie Scott (tenor saxophone, UK) and Tony Coe (tenor saxophone, UK) among others.

The CBBB had a unique sound with a recipe composed of a just a few elements. First and foremost were the genius arrangements of Francy Boland, who knew just which note to write for which musician and who was also “an enormous and highly original talent on piano. He has a forceful, masculine way of playing, yet manages to achieve a unique, subtle-but-distinct bell-like ring to the keys he strikes.”(2) Then there was the solid and powerful rhythm section, which was enforced with a second drummer, named Kenny Clare, halfway through the sixties. To top everything up, the solos of musicians like Sahib Shihab added unheard dimensions to the sound of the orchestra.

From then on, the band got together a few times per year for recording sessions, concerts and radio broadcasts. The group was received with positive critical acclaim and gained interest from many record companies such as Saba/MPS, Vogue, Atlantic and Polydor. In between the sessions with the full orchestra, Campi also recorded smaller versions of the group. These sessions were released as records by the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Sextet or as solo records from Sahib Shihab, Johnny Griffin or Fats Sadi, often with added vocals from Jimmy Woode. The jazz from these sessions is some of the finest music to have ever been recorded, yet remains little-known to the mainstream jazz audience of today.

THE THIRD MAN

When the band was in the studio or was on tour, the differences in nationalities, religions or artistic ideas were long forgotten. German jazz critic Joachim Ernst Behrendt once wrote: “It is the achievement of the two band leaders (and of Gigi Campi, the hidden third man behind the scene) that they have really succeeded in moulding their musicians into one unit despite the difficult conditions encountered by a free big band.”(3)

That the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland orchestra was something unique was also perceived as such by its musicians, who didn’t mind the substantial lower fees that Gigi Campi offered them compared to the fee they got at a solo gig. In an interview with Gerald ‘Jazzman’ Short, Campi said: “Johnny Griffin, with his trio, was getting $2500 a night; with us, he was getting $500.”(4) He considered the big band as a family and could offer his musicians something more valuable than money: artistic freedom. As musicologist Manfred Miller wrote in the liner notes of ‘Latin Kaleidoscope’: “Gigi Campi allows full musical freedom to the CBBB. He does not put on the A&R-man show, does not force upon the musicians commercial compromises.”(5) When the band felt like recording an Afro-Cuban jazz suite, that was fine for Gigi. When they wanted a specific American bass trombone player for one of their sessions, Gigi was already on the phone with someone in the USA, no questions asked. He believed in his musicians and put their artistic motives above his commercial incentives.

By the early seventies, the CBBB was ready to find new directions. The band recorded the album ‘Off Limits’ which included hints of a new and different sound. In the liner notes, critic Bob Houston wrote: “‘Off Limits’ shows that the CBBB has broken through to another era in its unique progress. If it’s anything like the one that went before, we can only rub our hands in anticipation.”(6) Unfortunately, the band ceased to exist not long after, in 1972. The main reason for the disbanding of the band was the death of Derek Humble, the leader of the saxophone section. After that “the band was never the same”(7), dixit Kenny Clarke. In a last attempt to revive the spirit of the orchestra, Gigi Campi tried to set up a large American tour, but found hardly any enthusiasm among the group members. The band’s last recording session (‘Change of Scenes’, with Stan Getz), even made him say that his once beloved band was “a sorry shadow of its former self.”(8)

About Gigi Campi, who sadly passed away in January of 2010, Manfred Miller wrote: “His friends know that he has only been able to supply a page of jazz history by respecting the integrity of each member of the Clarke-Boland orchestra.”(9) There are only a handful of people that despite not being musicians have earned a place in the history pages of jazz. People who could step away from their commercial motives and let their musicians do their thing. People like Alfred Lion from Blue Note or Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer from MPS. People like Gigi Campi, an Italian jazz lover who ran an international all-star big band out of his coffee house in Cologne.

Article written by Blast Kid. Music selected by Jazzman Gerald and Orsii, mixed by Jazzman Gerald.

—-

1 CAMPI, G., Liner notes of ‘Out Of The Background’, SABA 15137, 1967.
2 PARRY, F., Big Idea, article in Wax Poetics °19, November 2006.
3 BEHRENDT, J.E., Liner notes of ‘Sax No End’, SABA 15138, 1967.
4 PARRY, F., Big Idea, article in Wax Poetics °19, November 2006.
5 MILLER, M., Liner notes of ‘Latin Kaleidoscope’, MPS 15213, 1968.
6 HOUSTON, B., Liner notes of ‘Off Limits’, POLYDOR 2310 147, 1970.
7 HENNESSEY, M., Klook: The Story Of Kenny Clarke, Quartet Books London, 1990.
8 HENNESSEY, M., Klook: The Story Of Kenny Clarke, Quartet Books London, 1990.
9 MILLER, M., Liner notes of ‘Latin Kaleidoscope’, MPS 15213, 1968.

• Focus on European Jazz #4
• The story of Hein Huysmans
• Focus on European Jazz #3

12 months ago I had no ideas what would Laid Back look like in the future and I still don’t know.

We still add the “radio” label to our name so I guess we are some kind of online radio station providing on-demands mixes next to a stream. But honestly if our role would stop there… I would be bored. So I like the fact that we don’t know what we are and ended up being a platform supporting various projects… Here are (in no particular order) some of the players who shared their passion with us and some of the games we played together. Thank you all for the good times!

* Carlito who published massive photo series from his walks in the New York streets and especially the mind blowing Bronx Riviera piece.

* Jason “ClassicBeatz” Minnis who released his Ntale’s Groove album, a remix EP and even a classical piano CD next to collaborating with Miles Bonny and Tokyo Dawn.

* Oli-B not only illustrated the LDBK compilation and Ntale’s Groove album but impressively brought his game to the next level… Keep an eye on him.

* One of my personal highlights of the year was attending the International Radio Festival in Zurich, meeting so many like-minded people, getting interviewed by one of the biggest japanese radio station and most important: going on a trip with Benny and hosting our first radio show together.

* Working on an almost daily basis with long time friend and collaborator LuiGi was a true blessing. What an experience to release the 74 Miles Away project in collaboration with Melting Pot Music and have one track selected by Lefto for his Brownswood compilation. Seeing MonkeyRobot and Pierre Anckaert playing their electro-jazz on the most prestigious stages of the country with huge smiles on their faces brought joyful tears to my eyes.

* It’s always good to go outside of your comfort zone and that’s where you end when teaming up with JoBee to help her release her first Jazz project… Make sure to check the mix on top of this page if you want to know what she has in the pipeline for next year… This is Magic and I want to be part of it.

* I had to go to Istanbul to hear about singer Desta Haile and she happened to be in Brussels upon my return… so I asked filmmaker Sylvain to document the recording of her acoustic tracks. Let us know when you are back in town Desta.

* Releasing the LDBK compilation gathering 25 artists and entirely financed by our audience was probably the best illustration of what Laid Back is. All credit goes to Pierre for pushing this project.

* When it comes to writing about Jazz, Blast Kid is our go-to-guy and once again he delivered big time with this in-depth articles on Czech Jazz … one that even got noticed by the Czech Arts and Theatre Institute while his pop corn documentary ended up being one of the most popular pieces on the blog this year.

* With more than 250 mixes, 10.000 followers and hundred thousands of plays: Mixcloud is more than ever our platform of choice when it comes to sharing our shows. But it’s more than that. Over the years the Mixcloud boys (thank you Nikhil, Sam, Nico, Rich & Matt) became partners and even offered us to organize the compilation release party in London. Special shout out to Teru (FR), Orsii (UK), Lexis (CA), Tome (HR), Vlada (SR) and others for sharing their sets on our page.

* Probably the biggest collaboration on our Mixcloud page was the one between the legendary DJ Vadim, LDBK’s hottest DJ Mr. Critical and new kid on the block SeQ who did an amazing on the illustration front. Gathering a couple of people on the same show is probably something we will do more often in the future.

* Getting interviewed or speaking at conferences helps me understand what it is that we are doing. Thank you  Caro at Lezarts Urbains, Sam at Brave New Radio Symposium, Sven at Poppunt magazine and Gilles at KIKK festival for the opportunities. Looking forward to more of those talks.

* I hope to find a proper office / studio space to host our activities in 2012 but in the meantime, I like my nomadic workstyle especially when I’m around St Gilles and drop by to spend a few hours at Digital Park‘s with Laure, Ali & Tom. Inspiration and good vibes in the air!

Thank you’s are tricky because you know you will forget somebody but thanks to Find  Magazine, RELEASE, BlueFunk District, Dragontape, Tjunk, Limited Addiction, Eugene Wisotow, Supafly collective, Simon at Divergence FM, Caro Lessire, Jan Wafflez, Joep at Namahn, Dirk Vermeiren (Soul Sendikasi), BBE, Strand, Project:Mooncircle, Tokyo Dawn, Mpumi, Fato, Royal Groove, Bar du Matin, FM Brussel, Kwak, Seb, Caro and everybody who supported us in one way or another.

Can I make a wish? For 2012, I’d like a great 10th birthday party, a new 74 Miles Away album, a new iPad app, a new site, organizing exhibitions, … Haha I sound like a spoiled kid. Nah I just want plenty of next level collaborations with talented and like-minded cats from all over the world.

Whatever you do in 2012, have fun and… stay tuned,

J.

ps: Big up to the Farm Prod team for giving our logo yet another facelift.

• RBMA Bass Camp in Antwerp
• LDBK compilation
• Monkeys for Nothing, Chimps for Free

Blue lines: potentially interesting street art & graffiti streets. Street walls are constantly changing, don’t hesitate to also check the streets near the suggested walk, you’ll never know what hidden gems you’re about to find around the corner.

Yellow marks: galleries with a focus on urban art. Most of them are online too so I provided links to check if there’s an exhibition / opening etc… You’re allowed to take pictures in most galleries, but ask first to be sure…

www.picturesonwalls.com - www.stolenspace.com - www.thebricklanegallery.com
www.villageunderground.co.uk - www.tonysgallery.com - www.pureevilclothing.com
www.blackratprojects.com - www.nellyduff.com - www.blackallstudios.com
www.redgallerylondon.com - www.signalgallery.com

Green marks: bars and restaurants to gather calories for the rest of your safari (+ some clubs) … and a special red mark for Rough Trade record store

Evol

Bastardilla

Nathan Bowen & Escif

Needed:
* A camera with fully charged batteries and empty memory-card.
* a paper map or a gps/smartphone (be careful data roaming could cost you a leg)
* a couple of coins for the tube (or a prepaid oyster card)… always check if there are planned weekend works.
* an umbrella… you’re in London after all.

Where to start?
A good place to start is the Aldgate tube station (Circle line / Metropolitan line / Hammersmith line) or the Old Street tube station (Nothern Line). Starting at Tower Bridge is also an option.

Extra hint for shoppers: Markets on sundays ( Middlesex Street / Brick Lane & Truman Brewery / Columbia street)

More pictures from my latest expedition in Dec. 2011 can be found on flickr.

Websites for street art & graffiti in London:
Art of the State: blog – event calendar
Street Art London + guided tours
Invisible Made Visible
Graffoto
Ravish London
UK Street Art
Vandalog

Have a nice day if you plan to follow my steps…

KrieBeL

• Pictures of the Week #62
• Berlin Street Art Safari
• Pictures of the Week #53

When people think about classical music typically images of wealth, concert halls and older people come to mind. Too often music genre’s are attached to unfair stereotypes distract from  to the art form. Fortunately, I was taught to look past these stereotypes and see classical music for its true beauty.

Like many genres of music, the world of classical music is large and full of sub genre’s. I was drawn to a style of classical musical called Romanticism. It emphasized  raw emotion and the revolutionary ideas of the 19th century. As a kid I heard the music of Chopin and Debussy along side the music of James Brown and Curtis Mayfield. This musical diversity can be attributed to my father who is an avid listener of classical music. This in turn influenced my playing style when I decided to take up the piano at age 12.

Also available on iTunes – CD’s on bandcamp.

With Romantic Reflections I wanted show the vulnerable side of the classical music. I understand that people are not expecting a solo classical piano EP from a hip hop/funk/soul producer from Brooklyn. But I’m a firm believer that classical music has the power to reach the hearts of many people from all lifestyles. So I am confident  this EP can transcend generations and cultures from around the world.

The recording of Romantic Reflections was a intensive process. The project was recorded over a 12 month period  in an apartment in Park Slope Brooklyn. Each piece took months of practice before it was ready to be recorded. So in essence, each song contains my own interpretation of the composers work along with the emotions that I was feeling at the time. None of this would have been possible with out the encouragement and support of my long time piano teacher Rachel Jimenez. She also acted as the executive producer, recording engineer, and mixing engineer for this project.  I am also very thankful to Charles le Brigand and Ali  Nassiri for helping me create a visual representation of Romantic Reflections.

With that being said I sincerely hope that you enjoy this project.

Jason Minnis aka ClassicBeatz

Credits:
Pianist – Jason Minnis aka ClassicBeatz
Executive Producer, Recording & Editing - Rachel Jimenez
Mixed by Jason Minnis aka ClassicBeatz
Mastering by Pete Maher for Top Floor music
Photography, Videography and Visual Direction by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand
Graphic Design by Ali Nassiri from Digital Park

• Romantic Reflections – Photoshoot
• Carlito’s 1 million views challenge
• Hasidic Brooklyn

Six months after the release of our first compilation album and given that the CD’s are now out of stock, we decided to offer those 15 tracks as free download. In order to grab them, you can either leave your email address on bandcamp or “pay” with a tweet / facebook post.

Make sure to keep following the artist featured on this project:
MonkeyRobot & Pierre Anckaert aka 74 Miles Away (BE)
ClassicBeatz (US) & Lisa Preston (NZ)
Melissa Czarnik & Eric Mire (US)
Bongholio Iglesias (DE)
72 Soul (BE) & Flow State (UK)
JoBee (BE – PL) & Dr. Kwest (BE – RDC)
Strand (BE – ES)
40 Winks (BE)
Amede Soundsmith (UK)
K’bonus (BE)
The Compositive Two (BE)
Lefto (BE)
Turtle Master (BE) & David Martin (FR)
Incksalonious (US)
Cris Prolific (BE – FR) & Soul T (RW)

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this project, everyone who made this possible! Be it Oli-B who did all the visuals, Rik from Limited Addiction for the t-shirts, all the artists who are featured on the compilation, played at the London release party or at the Brussels one. The Mixcloud team who gave us a massive support through every step of this project. Caroline Lessire and Alex aka Senz who filmed the night in London and interviewed pretty much all artists present.

All the bloggers who helped us spread the word about the compilation and reviewed it. And of course every one who contributed to the crowd funding campaign. You guys all played a very important role and enabled us to release this CD, which is probably the best example so far of what Laid Back is all about: people from around the world sharing their love for urban culture and making it real!

• Looking back at 2011
• Focus on… Oli-B
• What’s up with the LDBK compilation?

Classical music and pigeons. It is definitely not a natural association, I have to agree. Pigeons are usually seen as gutter birds, affectionately named rats with wings or flying ashtrays and are probably the most despised birds around. People simply don’t like them and kids just want to kick the shit out of them.

Yet for years, pigeons were war heroes and saved countless lives by carrying vital communications across enemy lines. I have also read recently that Charles Darwin was fascinated by pigeons and studied them extensively for his theory of evolution. Back in the days, people used to love them.

Personally, I never really cared too much about them. I simply ignored them. I have ignored them until the day that my friend Chris Arnade invited me to meet pigeons keepers as part of his series “The Pigeons Keepers of NYC”.

In the heart of the city, up on buildings’ roof-tops, pigeon fanciers love and cherish pigeons. These guys collect, breed and fly them daily to contemplate the beauty of their aerial performances. Believe me, being surrounded by flocks of birds flowing and swirling under the latest sunbeams of the day is an astonishing spectacle. It is a mix of motion and multitude contrasted by solitude and an intense feeling of serenity. These guys are true artists.

When Jason explained me the concept behind his classical piano EP, I immediately thought about doing a photo-shoot on a roof-top, with birds. With hundred of birds. Without revealing too much of the project, Jason explained his desire to diminish the elitist stigma around classical music and portray the dignity and the sense of class in the so called “hood”. I just thought that the urban scenery and the raw-ness of the shots would convey perfectly the “blue collar” approach and the everyday beauty that Jason was looking for.

So I reached out to Luis. Luis keeps birds with his son Anthony on his roof-top in East New York. He has been doing so since the age of seven and says that it kept him out of the streets and out of trouble growing up as a kid in the Coney Island projects. Luis kindly opened the doors of his pigeon coop and let us shoot for a couple of hours.

We started the day early, around 6.30 am, in order to catch the light of the sun rising over East New York’s public housing projects. The day was punctuated with a couple of anecdotes.

While we were waiting for Luis, we spotted a magnificent white vintage car parked in the block. While I was shooting Jason next to the car, the owner Bill showed up and told us that the car was unlocked and that we could get in if we wanted to. When I asked him if he wasn’t too worried about car thefts, he retorted: “Everybody knows Bill around here…plus, I have a GPS tracking device…”

The shoot was interrupted for a couple of minute when we saw a drug dealer hiding his stash and jumping two stories to escape the cops on the roof top across the street. The guys broke his two legs and got arrested by the police a couple of minutes after. CSI New York style…

We ended-up the session on a sad note. Luis told us that a hawk was hanging around since a couple of weeks, and unfortunately the predator caught one of Luis’ bird while flying.

Stay tuned for the release of Jason Minnis’ Classical EP (15/12) called Romantic Reflections including the album cover designed by Ali Nassiri from Digital Park, more pictures of the day, a behind the scenes video and essentially, the beautiful music.

Make sure to check my friend Chris Arnade’s fantastic series “Pigeon Keepers of NYC”. I also have an on-going series about pigeons called Wings with me if you want to see more pictures of birds in the city.

Words and images by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand
All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2011

• Romantic Reflections
• Carlito’s 1 million views challenge
• Hasidic Brooklyn

On the 13th of September, JoBee announced her first Jazz project with a free download of “My Life” and a show at Roskam (Brussels). Today we celebrate the release of “The Falling” (CD & digital). If you are in Brussels on Dec. 7th, make sure to head to the Sounds Jazz Club and join us for the release party.

The Falling has been born out of real life as well as imaginary experiences. Life can be a struggle sometimes and an everlasting fight shaping our lifetime path. Even sweet honey can turn its taste into bitter sometimes… Fly high without being afraid of falling, since even if you fall down and break a leg you can still release an album, make your dream come true… and turn scars into stars…

You can buy this album on Bancamp (CD & digital) or iTunes

JoBee Project features:
JoBee: lead singer, song writer, composer, backing vocals
Elien De Schryver: piano, composer, violin (in Wondersong and Femme Fatale)
Pieter Dedoncker: drums
Andries Baele: violin (in Madness and Femme Fatale)
Manuel Hermia: saxophone, flute
Jef Gravez: contrabass

All songs written by JoBee
All songs composed by Elien De Schryver & JoBee
Recorded and mixed by Peter Morris at RTR Studios
Mastered by Vincent de Bast at Sonar Studio
Produced by JoBee

Design by Digital Park
Photography by David Widart
Make up by Cut Up Collectif
Hairstyling by Zineb Benchemsi
Video by Eckelwood

See also: www.jobeeproject.com – facebook – twitter – soundcloud

• aCatCalledFRITZ meets JoBee Project
• JoBee Project – My Life

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to visit the Dogstudio & Superbe offices in Namur. While having lunch with Gilles & Gaetan, they told about their new project: KIKK, a festival for digital natives held in Namur on the 24th and 25th of Nov. Exciting!

Next to Konferences by Ben Hammersley (Wired), Hector Ayuso (OFFF), Nico Perez (Mixcloud) and many more… KIKK also features a series of workshops, eksperiences and a kontest… Check the full schedule and make sure to register if you want to attend this free event.

Gilles kindly asked me to join the KIKK line up and I’ll use this opportunity to develop the ideas presented in the interview published in Poppunt magazine last week (see below) and share some of my favorite laid back stories.

Technology, music, art, radio, online communication, community, collaboration, content production… See you in Namur to discuss all of these and more. (Session starts at 5pm)

Picture “Chillin’ in the Farm Prod studio with Oli-B” by Koen Bauters
Thanks to Sven De Potter at Poppunt for the interview.

• TEDxBrickLane redefining the DJ
• Strand – Slam Funk!
• In the Farm Prod studio

Last week, I asked Azer to select a playlist for our Dragontape account. I wanted him to test the system and give us feedback but most of all I wanted to listen to his selection because to me he is a reference when it comes to hip hop.

Listen (watch?) his current favorites …

This mix is also intended to promote the next “All Eyes On Hip Hop” party (White Cat – Ghent, BE) where Azer is spinning. The idea behind AEOH is to create a cosy vibe with great hip hop tunes not only for the die-hard hip hop fans but also for music lovers in general.

The next AEOH party will be on the 24th of november (feat. Vaneeshua, Azer & DNS) - Visual by C13

Coincidently we also have a second playlist on Dragontape this week, one by Simon who will start an internship at LDBK early 2012. Welcome on board, sir!

• Laid Back’s 8th anniversary
• Azer’s 2009 favorites
• Azer – RELEASE mix

I still remember the day in 2003 when Ali told me about some of his friends (Eric, Pat & Louis) and their Infinitskills project. They had just released the “Retaliation” mixtape and their first record. When I first heard their sound, I immediately felt that we were on the same page and the next 8 years proved me right. No way can I remember the countless hours we spent together and the crazy project we launched: covering the city with tape, recording radio shows, releasing music in every format possible, filming documentaries, organizing events, … or simply chilling. We did it all and together.

End 2010, when we decided to stop our weekly radio show on FM Brussel, one of the reasons was that we wanted to free some time to work on other projects. From that day on, Eric & Louis focused on the production of their anticipated Electro-Jazz project “74 Miles Away” in collaboration with pianist Pierre Anckaert and flutist Stefan Bracaval. At the same time, they changed the name of their production outfit to MonkeyRobot.

Before going back to the studio during the winter months to record 74 Miles Away’s 2nd album, Eric and Louis decided to put forward their beatmaking activities. Last Sunday they played a beat set for Lefto‘s show on Studio Brussel live from Pluto Festival (listen to their set – check the pictures) and during the next 7 weeks, they will offer music from their archive vaults as well as new and freshly cut material on their soundcloud account… New tracks will be added every Thursday.

I also asked them to go back to their “Radio Hijack” roots (the name of their initial interventions in the Laid Back radio show) and record a new set. In the pure LDBK tradition that they helped establish this one flows between Jazz-Funk, Breaks, Soul, Library music & Hip Hop to the future beat sound of today.

Make sure to follow MonkeyRobot on twitter & facebook
Picture taken at De Kreun (Kortrijk, BE) by Christophe Miroir
Video by Matthieu Cadet

• RBMA Bass Camp in Antwerp
• Looking back at 2011
• 74 Miles Away opening for Smoove & Turrell

Last May, during a trip to Istanbul, I had the chance to record a radio show with my friend Dirk… while chatting between the tracks, he told me that his next guest would be Desta Haile and was quite surprised that I never heard about her as she frequently resides in Brussels… Back in Brussels a couple of days later, I had an email from Desta in my mailbox, telling me she was in town… Brilliant!

English-Eritrean singer songwriter born in Bangkok, Desta has travelled through, lived in, studied or worked in nearly 50 countries. As backing vocalist for artists like Baloji, Zap Mama, Michael Bublé and Hadise and as lead singer with her own multicultural soul & funk band “The Elements”, she has collaborated with a colourful spectrum of people. You are likely to find her in Manila, Brussels, or Istanbul always cooking up a project or two.

So we decided to cook up a little project together… 3 acoustic tracks and a video.

Performed by Desta Haile: twitter – facebook – soundcloud
Guitar by Yovanny Adant
Written by Yovanny Adant & Desta Haile
Mixed by Lorenzo Marotta at Codfish studio

Video by Sylvain Nouveau
Picture by Hylke Gryseels - Styling by Cut Up Collectif

ps: I have two CD’s from The Elements (Desta’s band) to offer. Just send me an email to show@laid-back.be telling me what is the name of Dirk’s show on Açik Radio (Istanbul). Congratulations to Jan & Bernt for winning the 2 cd’s. If you didn’t win the CD, you can always download the tracks on Soundcloud.

• RELEASE #6
• RELEASE x Nuit Blanche
• JoBee Project – My Life

And now here they are: the 2011 version of the classic Laid Back t-shirt:

Orders yours: men – women

Thank you Pascal and the whole Tjunk team.

ps: The gentleman on the left side of the picture is none other than dj and producer Full Crate.

• LDBK hoodies
• Inspired by Dilla
• LDBK compilation: t-shirts and promo mix

Long Arm took up music when he was a kid. In music school he studied how to play piano. Impressed by a DJ’s perfomance that he saw on TV. Long Arm devoted all his free time to listening to records and playing with turntables. He then spent his university years writing his own tracks, playing in various bands and participating in different projects. Long Arm released two albums on Project:Mooncircle and was featured on various compilations.

Enjoy this exclusive mix while reading the following interview:

LDBK: Tell us about yourself
Long Arm: My name is Georgy. I live in Saint-Petersburg.

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
Long Arm: I born in Orenburg. And I lived there most life.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
Long Arm: In 2006 the first time I heard music from UK label Ninja Tune! And I was really impressed!

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
Long Arm: Bonobo

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
Long Arm: Daedelus – Stampede Me

LDBK: Is there any kind of philosophy behind your music?
Long Arm: I can speak about music philosophy only after finishing some album. Because when I make track I try not to think! It’s like experiment. I don’t want to know what I’ll get in the end. I just love the process of creating music! It’s the most important for me! And when I get a few conceptual tracks or album I can see a full picture! Bioniq often helps me to brainstorm… When we work on cover design, we spend a lot of time for discussing. It’s great! He really understands me!

LDBK: Tell us about your previous projects
Long Arm: I created my first album “The Branches” alone.  It was a good experience, like a deep conversation with myself. It was an interesting period, because my son was born around that time, and it was the beginning of a new life. It inspired me very much. Eventually, I got album which I still love.

“Organic” is a collaboration album! We worked with many artists. I wanted to do it like a follow up to the first album but in the process we got a few great remixes and I also did a remix for Tinavie… and we have simply united everythnig! You can hear many vocal tracks on this EP: Teknical Development of Obba Supa (Chakra Sounds label) on “Ogranic”, Graciela Maria on “When We Fall”, Valentina Manysheva of Tinavie on “Letter From the Space”.

Some musicians also took part in “Organic”: Eugenia Peters added a perfect piano part on FiJi remix, Ritmo from Moscow is the co-producer of “When We Fall”, Krts and Daisuke Tanabe made amazing remixes. It’s too many people for one little EP, but it’s cool… People who never met collaborating on a common project!

LDBK: What about your upcoming projects:
Long Arm: I’m currently writing a new album. And I want to use more live instruments, invite many musicians to record. I’m also working with a great drummer from Saint-Petersburg at the moment. His name is Ruslan Gadzhimuradov. We play live together and write new songs. I think it will be an interesting collaboration. We’ll see!

I will keep on collaborating with German label “Project: Mooncircle“! It’s a really good label which releases interesting music. I’m just back from Germany. It was my first European tour. I played in three cities (Oberhausen, Berlin and Dresden). I like the German audience… sometimes not so emotional at concerts, but you can tell that they really feel the music. And I got warm reception! So thank you to all the people who supported me in Germany! And of course special thanks to the PMC team and Gordon!

My next concert will be in Vienna on the 11th of November at Cafe Leopold with Robot Koch, Gordon and Szenario. Make sure to drop by if you are in town.

More about Long Arm: facebook – soundcloud – project:mooncircle
Mix illustration by Bioniq & Skeon

• Mixcloud’s Best of 2011
• One Love
• All School Flavor in London

Celebrating your 10th anniversary is quite a milestone. Ursula, David Cordero‘s project, reached it. Much has happened (including five LPs and various EPs) since they released their acclaimed debut album “La banda sonora de mi funeral” on Barcelona’s Foehn Records.

To celebrate this anniversary, they present a compilation album of alternate versions of some of their songs. “Ursula, 10 Anos por Amigos” features musicians who have crossed Ursula’s road and that David befriended along the way.

And I’m proud to be part of them with this track:

Strand – Lo Que Pienso Los Domingos (version de Ursula) – Listen to the original version

LDBK has one copy of this CD to offer to the first one emailing show@laid-back.be with the correct answer to this question: “Who is the painter who designed the cover of the 7inch that I released with LDBK in 2010?” Congratulations to Victor for winning the CD. The correct answer was Oli-B.

Images taken for the CD booklet. Check www.ursulaweb.es for more.

• Homenaje a Mario Pacheco
• Strand – Slam Funk!
• Focus on… Oli-B

10 artists got together in one of Soweto’s neighborhoods called Mofolo. These artist were to paint at the Mofolo Park. Aiming to inspire the community through painting beautiful murals. The painting went on for a weekend.

The boys from Thesis Social Jam Session were fully involved in making sure that everything went well in Soweto. I’m really glad I had the privilege to be a part of this project.

By Hacone

By Ello

By Dathini

By Fuzzy Slipper

by Innocent Mukheli

by Justice Mukheli

by Freddy Sam

by Xanele

by Yumanizumu (Tokyo).

These images were printed for the exhibition. Prints were sold and the funds raised would go to distributing art materials to nursery schools in Soweto (Johannesburg) and Woodstock (Cape Town).

The exhibition kicked off at the Maboneng Precinct in Johannesburg CBD. The turn out was really overwhelming… great nonetheless. Joburg people really love their art. We support each other too. Damn.

• Urban Safari in East London
• Focus on… Oli-B
• The Berlin Walls

I immediately created an account, tested it, felt in love with it and spread the word on twitter… On the next day, I received an email from the Dragontape team asking me if I would be interested in having a iPhone / iPad presenting LDBK’s tapes… Of course I do!

You can now download this app in the iTunes store. Enjoy the music!

Thank you Orsii, Teru & Grown So Ugly for sharing their tapes on Laid Back’s account:

Thank you also to Tamas at Dragontape for the opportunity! Can’t wait to test the functionality allowing to generate dynamic playlist via Twitter!

• LDBKMG on iPad
• LDBK iPhone/iPod Touch skins

With this set I want to establish a dialogue between artists and listeners… Let’s go back to the origins of things we consume. Being so used to shop in stores, malls or on the internet, we never bother to think about those who produce the goods. Contact between producers and customers is very important. Music is no exception.

I will briefly introduce you to artists from all over the world, from Brooklyn to Tokyo! You’ll find below interviews of all artists listed in the mix. I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to get in touch with each of them

Thank you all for being part of this project!

One Love!

EW

LDBK: Tell us about yourself.
OLIVER LOWE: My name is Oliver Lowe, I am a MC and producer from the Czech Republic. I released my debut CD “Peníze nebo Život” last year. It is live hip hop (except percussions) with a soul / jazz feel to it. I am currently finishing the second album together with beatmaker Talpas and featuring artists from Japan, US, France, Poland or UK. You can find my music on www.oliverlowe.bandcamp.com. A few years ago, I also launched a label www.everydays.bandcamp.com.

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
OLIVER LOWE: I was born in town called Domažlice. I spent my childhood there. When I was 15 years old, I moved to Pilsen, where I studied and worked for 11 years. Nowadays, I’m back in Domažlice. It’s quiet and I’m loving the nature here.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
OLIVER LOWE: My mum, Michael Jackson and 20syl from Hocus Pocus. Haha. I am as creative as my mother is. She is painter, arranger and designer. I think that I inherited her feeling for beautiful things. At 13, I was a Michael Jackson fan. Since then I simply love black music. And 20syl? He is a genius.

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
OLIVER LOWE: I listen to tons of music: jazz, soul, funk, hip hop, pop, old disco. I do not have one favorite artist. I could name: James Brown, Miles Davis, Michal Jackson, Roy Hargrove, Soulive, Ovall, Freddie Cruger, Hocus Pocus, JRawls, Kraak & Smaak, Miles Bonny, Movits!, Kero One, Brother Ali, Smoove & Turrel, Krafty Kuts, ASkillz, Kyteman and the list goes on.

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
OLIVER LOWE: I live in a house in a small town, close to the nature, with a garden for my dog and with my own studio… this is actually my dream place. A bigger studio to record with the whole live band would be nice. My dream is to travel across Europe.

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
OLIVER LOWE: I often listen to:
The Upstarts – The Know How (2007)
Movits! – Ur ur min skalle (2011)
Ovall – Don’t Care Who Knows That (2010)
Miles Bonny – Lumberjack Soul (2011)
Melodiq – Straight From The Soul (2009)

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
OLIVER LOWE: Hello to all fans of Laid Back. You are listening to the right radio. Laid Back is for me one of the few radios, which play the real music without any useless gingerbread. It is not influenced either by trends or policy. I wish it to stay that way. Thank you for the interview.

LDBK: Tell us about yourself.
BUGSEED: I’m Bugseed, beatmaker from Tokyo born in 1989.

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
BUGSEED: Nishikasai, it’s small city in ends of the tokyo. near the “tokyo disneyland”.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
BUGSEED: Skateboading. I have been skateboading since I was 16.

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
BUGSEED: Myself.

LDBK: Tell about your dream place?
BUGSEED: Amsterdam & Germany. I really wanna go there.

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
BUGSEED: My 1st beattape “bohemian beatnik LP”.

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
BUGSEED: Check bugseed.bandcamp.com

LDBK: Tell us about yourself?
BTS: Balance And The Traveling Sounds combine a variety of musical tastes, cultural backgrounds, eclectic grooves and lush harmonies to create an innovative, captivating and addicting sound accessible by any music enthusiast. This powerhouse of soul, funk, jazz and hip-hop-inspired grooves is composed of seven diverse musicians from a variety of metropolises up and down the Golden Coast: producer EBO, MC KIRB, vocalist Mike Eddie, drummer Julian Hogan, saxophonist Jeff Kolhede, guitarist Ryan Kern, and bass guitarist Scott Fulton

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
BTS: Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
BTS: Nas, J Dilla, Stevie Wonder, MB 20, Tupac, Motown, …

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
BTS: Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, Ray Charles

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
BTS: Our dream would be traveling the world while being influenced by everything and anyone we meet along the way, then writing about it and recording and sharing our music with anyone who cares to listen.

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
BTS: The Roots – How I Got Over, RadioHead – King of Limbs, Oddisee – Rock Creek Park.

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
BTS: Thanks to everyone listening and keep soul and hip hop music alive. Visit our website and download our new album “Departure EP” for free at btscentral.com

LDBK: Tell us about yourself
Little Jackie: My name is Imani Coppola. I’m a singer, songwriter, violinist, producer, bad ass who curses a lot.

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
Little Jackie: I grew up in Long Island a block away from the water.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
Little Jackie: I come from a very creative, very musical family… Everyone plays instruments and does art and my mother is a brilliant writer. They all influenced me creatively.

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
Little Jackie: Ziggy Stardust

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
Little Jackie: My dream place? I guess it would be an enchanted forest with all sorts of magical creatures… something like the forest in Avatar.

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
Little Jackie: I’m way into dubstep at the moment. Skrillex, Noisia. Can’t get enough. It’s like crack.

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
Little Jackie: I hope this brief interview helped you to feel more laid back. I want you to feel comfortable and relaxed at all times.

LDBK: Tell us about yourself
JBMS: We are JBrown & The Mic Smith, we make bluesrapsoulfunkjazz music for the people!

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
JBMS: In Auckland, New Zealand

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
JBMS: Life, culture, art, other music

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
JBMS: To many to name ;) Who’s yours?

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
JBMS: A place of peace, good music, good food

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
JBMS: This

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
JBMS: Greetings from NZ and thank you for the support of JBrown & The Mic Smith

LDBK: Tell us about yourself
PICKWICK: We are six guys from Seattle who play in a basement haunted by Spoon, Chad VanGaalen and Ike & Tina Turner.

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
PICKWICK: Seattle, Southern California, Colorado, and Eastern Washington.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
PICKWICK: The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Radiohead. More recently Spoon, The Walkmen, Chad VanGaalen, Damien Jurado.

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
PICKWICK: Besides Bob Dylan?… Swamp Dogg.

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
PICKWICK: Chad VanGaalen’s backyard, where he makes crazy mechanical drum machines.

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
PICKWICK: Mississippi Records Tape Series Vol. 1 and House of Broken Hearts Part 1… Early R&B, Doo Wop Rockabilly & Instrumentals

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
PICKWICK: We would like to say thank you so much for listening and we hope to have the opportunity to visit your fair shores next year when we release our debut record.

LDBK: Tell us about yourself
DAPDOWN: We are a duo consisting of a producer / turntablist and a bass-player from a place in Russia which you probably never heard of before.

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
DAPDOWN: Grown up in our hometown Omsk, West Siberia.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
DAPDOWN: Influence is absolutely everywhere.

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
DAPDOWN: Probably one and only Godfather of soul James Brown.

LDBK: Tell us about your dream place?
DAPDOWN: Yeah! We would love to visit some hot beach, it’s too damn cold in here!

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
DAPDOWN: Will Sessions – Represent

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
DAPDOWN: Keep on supporting your favorite music and don’t forget to take care of your family and yourself

LDBK: Tell us about yourself:
ANONYME: I’m a french beatmaker and dj from France. I’ve been making beats for more than 10 years now. In my music, I mix samples (a lot of jazz) and real instruments played by friends of mine, or by myself. I feel good in downtempo.

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
ANONYME: I grew up in Normandy, North of France in a harbor called Le Havre. I love being in the docks at night, It gives a feeling of 70′s movies!

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
ANONYME: Jazz!

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
ANONYME: At this time, I can’t choose between Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Ahmad Jamal.

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
ANONYME: My dream place is filled with instruments, records and two turntables!

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
ANONYME: Right now, I’m listening to “Jazz from Czechoslovakia”, on Laid Back Radio.

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
ANONYME: Keep up the good vibes and big up to Jazz!

LDBK: Tell us about yourself
HAZEL: I’m Häzel aka Hazeldizzy, 28 years old. I’ve been producing for more or less 10 years and I worked in the industry for 4. Still Bangin’

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
HAZEL: I traveled a lot when I was a kid, I grew up in Latin America and Europe

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
HAZEL: Everyday life, the hustle, the love for music, my people and god

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
HAZEL: Jay Dee is my god

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
HAZEL: Probably between forest and beach, with wife and kids.
I found the place, just working on the second part

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
HAZEL: I’m only listening to TFOX at the moment, he is THE man

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
HAZEL: Say wuddup yo? I wanna play in Russia! Thanks for all your support! One love .

LDBK: Tell us about yourself.
LOTUS: The band is split between Philadelphia, PA and Denver, CO. We are an instrumental band (guitar, keys, bass, drums), but we incorporate synthesizers and samplers as well for a true live/electronic hybrid. We don’t sing, but occasionally use guest singers in a studio setting.

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
LOTUS: I (Jesse Miller – bass/sampler) grew up in Denver, CO but now live in Philadelphia.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
LOTUS: Music just presented itself as the highest form of art. My family wasn’t particularly musical, but I took piano lessons in elementary school. After that I was mostly self-taught until college when I studied music composition. I draw musical influence from everything I hear: music, environmental sounds, machines, sounds of the city.

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
LOTUS: David Byrne. He is always pushing himself creatively to do something new.

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
LOTUS: Currently on my turntables – T. Rex – The Slider – The Kills – Blood Pressures, !!! – Myth Takes – Siriusmo – Mosaik, Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
LOTUS: Be sure to check out the new Lotus album which just came out. I am very proud of it and think it is our best album yet.

LDBK: Tell us about yourself
B.Kun: My name is Fabrizio Pollice, I was born on June 27 1985 in San Marino. I come from a family of musicians. Music is my only passion since I was 5. I played all kind of instruments as drum, bass, guitar and pretty much everything I found in my home. When I was 18 I started scratching and producing electronic music. After a while I started working in recording studios and equipment exhibitions as a demonstrator for Apple (Logic), Digidesign (Pro Tools) and Native instrument (Traktor). In 2008, I decided to focus all my energy on the turntables and got the second place in the Italian “DMC” and “GainSkills” competitions; with Dj Drugo I won the “IDA Italy” and in 2009 the “IDA World”, one of the two most important competitions for turntablists. Lately I took part at the rmx contest for Amalia (Tokyo Dawn Record), and I won over 70 producers from all over the world.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
B.Kun: I listen to many things. I never got stuck on a single music genre, but I love funk and hip hop. I get inspired from every sound that I think is interesting, then I try to mix it up with my music, I think the secret is to build it as a puzzle backward.

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
B.Kun: I have many… first that came to my mind is Herbie Hancock.

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
B.Kun: It’s an hard question, there is so many amazing places all over… How can I pick just one?

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
B.Kun: The cars running on the freeway in front of my crib, plus the neighbor’s dogs.

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
B.Kun: I hope you don’t live between a freeway and a guy with 4 dogs (joking) I say “Hi” to all Laid Back Radio listeners and I hope to listen to more and more serious beats!

LDBK: Tell us about yourself:
The Nothing: Beatmaker and lurker in Oakland California. Been listening to jazz for 32 years and making hip hop for 13.

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
The Nothing: I grew up an hour north of the bay area in a sleepy little bubble town called Davis, CA.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
The Nothing: The first hip hop that really got me was from Hieroglyphics “93 till infinite”, and Tribe’s “Midnight Marauders”. It was the 1st time I heard jazz and hip hop mixed together well. KDVS in Davis helped lead me to DJ Shadow, Soulsides, Pete Rock, Prince Paul, De La. These days I listen to 40 Winks, Infinitskills, J-live, Brothers Amor, Beatmakin Troopa, Mr. Cooper, Blu, Exile, Scientist, Kankick, Bugseed, Grooveman Spot, Jazzy Sport Crew, Dr. Oop,

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
The Nothing: My nothing box were thoughts and time can roam freely. A place where people smile at each other and say hello.

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
The Nothing: the new J-Live track “Life comes in threes”….makes me walk fast and nod my head slow.

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
The Nothing: I was one of you (fan/listener) for so long, downloading and streaming the laid back mixes and artists for years. Creativity inspires creativity and if you are on here also, then we are in the same tribe. Very nice to meet you. I love you

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
Pavel Dovgal: Grew up in Vladivostok, then lived in a few places in Ukraine, grew as a musician in Kharkiv. Right now living in St-Petersburg, and really happy about it.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
Pavel Dovgal: I guess it was Roma Litvinov (Mujuice) who has had a significant influence on me. Listening to his old tracks encourages me to write good music.

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
Pavel Dovgal: Madonna

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
Pavel Dovgal: A small bungalow on an island, with no internet or other modern facilities. Ocean, sun, and hand-made musical instruments.

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
Pavel Dovgal: “Tibetan Alphabet Special” for Laid Back Radio

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
Pavel Dovgal: Listen to good music/regardless of time and popular trends

LDBK: Tell us about yourself
Loft Produxions established approximately in 2008. There are two producers and sometimes invited musicians. We define our music as Instrumental Intelligent Hip-Hop.

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
Loft Produxions: We both grow up in Crimea – Ukraine.

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
Loft Produxions: Damu the Fudgemonk, Funky Drummer, Sinuous Productions

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
Loft Produxions: It’s a little bright house somewhere on an island in Mediterranean sea

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
Loft Produxions: Rare Soviet jazz ensembles

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
Loft Produxions: Let there be more light in our lives.

LDBK: Tell us about yourself
Mono:Massive: I am a beatmaker/producer from Innsbruck (Austria). I usually make traditional sample-based hiphop beats, but I am also experimenting with more synthetic stuff and futurized beats. I started making beats in the mid 90s using a windows-computer and some pieces of software. Later i switched to hardware analog production using AKAI MPC and SP1200 legendary hiphop sample machines.

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
Mono:Massive: i grew up in Salzburg and moved to Innsbruck when I was 6 years old where, until now, I spent most of my life. HereI started making music with friends, some of them still making music and working together in the same studio. In 2005 I joined forces with the chicago hiphop group “vertual vertigo” which I first met on myspace. A few years later I produced a vinyl EP “drink tickets” together with them which was released in 2010 on the Austrian label “duzz down san”. Right now our second EP “stalactites” is just finished and will be released next week on the same label. I also started several new projects which will be announced on my facebook page and on the duzzdownsan website.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
Mono:Massive: my influences are well spread over several different music styles, from well known hiphop artists like j-dilla, madlib, DJ premier, kool keith, tribe called quest up to ninjatunes artists like DJ krush, DJ shadow, herbaliser and also things from flying lotus, boards of canada, aphex twin…i also get lots of inspiration from jazz and soul artists that I sample

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
Mono:Massive: my personal favorites change very often. Artists from the German label “melting pot music” are one of my favorites at the moment. Same goes for flying lotus. Of course everything from vertual vertigo gets my attention. I also enjoy listening to ninjatunes or stonesthrow artists which are two of the greatest labels ever for me…

LDBK: Tell us about yourself
Grey Sky Appeal: DEFCON, the Boston-based hip-hop group comprised of Subtex and Producer Taj Campman, released their sophomore effort, THE LOST GENERATION in 2010. The album, which featured guest appearances by C-Rayz Walz, J the S, Goretex (formerly of Non-Phixion), Koki-Man and others was met with critical acclaim and mass appeal. Another Boston-based MC, Outwrite, who was also featured on THE LOST GENERATION, released his sophomore effort, HUMAN GARDEN, around the same time. The three artists acknowledged a near-immediate chemistry when working in the studio together and one year later, DEFCON and Outwrite are proud to present GREY SKY APPEAL, a collaborative full-length LP featuring Moe Pope, Singapore Kane, Left Over Wine and others. The trio has been touring tirelessly; performing three shows a week on average, which included a premiere of their upcoming album at the 2011 SXSW Music Festival. GREY SKY APPEAL features a handpicked batch of singles from nearly 40 songs recorded throughout 2010. The songs embody the personal and collective struggles of three artists that have endured great trials over the past year. GREY SKY APPEAL provided an outlet for DEFCON and Outwrite to convey a bittersweet appreciation for the day-to-day challenges that so many of us face.

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
Defcon – Brattleboro VT
Outwrite – Newmarket NH

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
Grey Sky Appeal: Family freinds and life.

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
Taj – Amy Winehouse
Outwrite – Father
Subtex – Father

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
Grey Sky Appeal: A place where family and friends are always welcome. Where the fridge is always full, worries always empty. Huge BBQ pits, modest sized water-slides, a place to throw outdoor shows without attracting police or shitty neighbors. Fresh running water, in a forest of fruit tree’s. Maybe a roller coaster or two?

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
Grey Sky Appeal: Grey Sky Appeal

LDBK: What would you like to sayto our audience?
Grey Sky Appeal: Get some sun in your life, and enjoy our music.

LDBK: Tell us about yourself
Zoen: Hi, my name is Raphaël, I’m making music for the last 10 years. I recently released 2 indie Hip Hop album as “Zoën”. One solo album and one as a “Beatmaker”. But I also produced for people like James P Honey (UK), Noah23 (CA), MC Homeless (US) and Kay the Aquanaut (CA).

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
Zoen: I grew up in a small city called “Tours” (France). I’m still living here.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
Zoen: I don’t know exactly, I think I need to get out and travel to be happy, so music is perfect for that.

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
Zoen: I don’t have an icon, but I’m a big big fan of “Why?”

LDBK: Tell us about your dream place?
Zoen: Wow, I don’t know, maybe a house, with a big studio in the basement!
But I love travelling, so my dream places is also, the places where I’ve never been yet!

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
Zoen: Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, Bands of Burier, Astronautalis, Dark Time Sunshine.

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
Zoen: Support your local scene!

LDBK: Tell us about yourself.
Inkliing : My name is Conrad aka Inkliing. My friends call me Conzo. I am 23 years old and have grown up for the entirety of my life with my family in Shepherds Bush, a lively, vibrant and inspiring place found in the west of London. Ever since a very young age music has been one of the most important things in my life, whether it was the classical piano I was playing as a kid, the heavy metal/hardcore which I played and listened to as a young teenager or the chillout, jazzy and experimental beat based music I got into at around 15 and still love to this day. I’m grateful to my parents who encouraged me as a youngster to take up musical instruments and although at the time I didn’t enjoy waking up at 6.30 in the morning before school to practice piano, now I realize what a great help this has been in the creation of my own music!

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
Inkliing: For me, I would have to say Madlib from the amazing Stonesthrow label is my music icon. His masterly use of hardware samplers, jazz samples and chopping was the biggest inspiration for me to have a crack at music production in the first place. Moreover I was hearing so many producers who were getting props for beats which were to be honest, boring. My aim at the time was to make songs which were predominantly loop based but had enough detail/work and change-ups to keep the listener interested. I began to listen to a lot of classic old jazz/soul/funk records, from the likes of Alice Coltrane, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock to Sun Ra, Roberta Flack and Earth Wind and Fire and true to say, I have sampled a fair few of these in my time. However, a very important element in my music is the selection and blending together of small cuts from different songs and different sources to create a whole new track in its own right. Also the challenge of finding more obscure and untouched samples or manipulating a sample in a certain way as to render it unrecognisable has always been something I have enjoyed to do. Ever since my first purchase of the SP404 at the age of 17 I have not looked back and I am always looking for new bits of hardware to add to the studio. More personally, the sound I create is greatly influenced by my chill and relaxed nature as a person (although not on the tennis court haha!). I was also quite shy growing up so it has been an important means of self expression for me.

There are really too many artists to name who have influenced my music over the years but here are a few: Nightmares On Wax, RJD2, J Dilla, DJ Shadow, Pete Rock, Burial, Portishead, Bonobo, Onra, Chemo, Massive Attack, Flying Lotus, Samiyam, Kankick, Damu the Fudgemunk, Mike Slott, Hudson Mohawke…More recently I have been listening to a lot of dope house music, with the likes of Floating Points, Jaques Greene, Moodyman, Motor City Drum Ensemble and Kyle Hall all on heavy rotation.

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
Inkliing: I would absolutely love to come to Russia and have heard great things from my friends about the country from their experiences travelling. As a history student I have studied Russia in some detail from the early 1800′s onwards and it would be great finally see first hand the sights of Moscow and St. Petersburg which I have read so much about. Perhaps one day soon I will come and play to you, my Russian friends :)

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
Inkliing: My personal soundtrack at the moment would have to be Samiyam’s latest LP ‘Sam Baker’s Album’. It is a fantastic collection of head-nodding beats, big bass, mad compression and of course his signature synth. What more could we want?

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
Inkliing: Thanks so much for reading and much love to Laid Back Radio and it’s listeners, I am now one of them! Check out my facebook and myspace for updates on the music. In the very near future I will be releasing a free EP which I am excited about, so be ready!

LDBK: Where did you grow up?
Alf Alpha: I grow up in the California Desert known as Coachella Valley.

LDBK: What or who influenced your musical creativity?
Alf Alpha: Early Hip Hop Djing really inspired me to get into music. I love the art of mixing records and party rocking. I got inspired to started DJing & producing music. Today I continue the get inspired by music both old and new. I love digging thru old records searching for gems just as much as finding new music via internet.

LDBK: Who is your music icon?
Alf Alpha: I would have to say Q-tip from A Tribe Called Quest. He’s one of the Dopest MC, Producer, and DJ ever. Since the early 90′s, Q-tip has continued to put out timeless music. I love his ear for samples and his work with Jay Dee.

LDBK: Tell as about your dream place?
Alf Alpha: 1970′s New York block party featuring the original Hip Hop DJs like Kool Herc & Africa Bambaataa mixing funky breaks on a summer afternoon.

LDBK: What is your personal soundtrack at the moment?
Alf Alpha: Zig Zag – Voyage Voyage & Earl Sweatshirts – Earl

LDBK: What would you like to say to our audience?
Alf Alpha: Thank you for listening & your support. Looking forward to sharing more music with you in the future. Cheers.

• AM & Shawn Lee – Betamix
• Strictly Kwak
• Mixcloud’s Best of 2011

A few weeks ago, illustrator / graphic designer Kevin “SeQ” Devroo got in touch touch and asked me if he could rework the Laid Back logo. I didn’t know what to expect but I had no doubt it would be a winner. We then decided to use his drawing as main visual for the Mixcloud birthday party that we organised last week but that wasn’t enough… We had to do more with it.

So here is the first LDBK poster! Limited to 100 copies printed on 300gr A3+ paper.
If you want one (25€ shipping included), please send me an email to show@laid-back.be (sold out)

Make sure to follow SeQ on twitter & facebook

• RELEASE #6
• Pictures of the Week #45
• LDBK t-shirts (sold out)

Brussels, Friday 27th of May 2011 – 7am.

Missed my train.

The train that would take me to London, where the LDBK family was expected to team up with Mixcloud. A couple of arguments concerning cancellation insurance, the purchase of a new ticket and a Eurostar ride later, I had to look right-left-right in order not to get run over.

Reason to invade big homie Ben’s city was the release of the first official Laid Back compilation. An end of studies project by Pierre de Schaetzen (aka Grown So Ugly) who studies music management. In 2010 Pierre did his first internship at LDBK and became a driving force within the organisation. This year he headed to Mixcloud for his second internship. So while working in London he connected the dots to make the compilation see the light and put up a proper 11h(!) release party in collaboration with Mixcloud.

Friday afternoon started with a little stroll in Shoreditch and first hand stories on how young people (try/struggle to) make it in this city. Since the release party was on Saturday, Friday night offered us the chance to discover London’s nightlife. On the programme were Letherette, Lone and Bibio at The Garage and an Outlook Festival party at Cable with a secret line-up. Not bad at all I’d reckon!

The Garage turned out to be a really neat venue. Cool public, cosy atmosphere and good music. Letherette got me shufflin’ my feet, Lone made me dance and Bibio was pure sweetness. I was having a blast already. Then it was off to Cable. A sort of old warehouse turned into a massive club, located in the side wall of a tunnel. This clearly was something else. Another thing that set it apart where the cues to get in. “Normal” I was told. “Normal?” I don’t think I want to whitness ‘extraordinary’ in that case. Having bought tickets in advance made things go a bit faster. Standing-in-line-for-over-half-an-hour-instead-of-one-and-a-half-faster that was. Name check, ID check, body check, metal detectors,… in. And there it was, dubstep the UK way. Tre-men-dous-ly loud, 4(?) rooms completely jam packed, cues everywhere (bars, lavatories, cloackroom, smoking area,…) and the most diverse public you could imagine: roughnecks, trucker trash, hipsters, ravers,… The one thing they had in common: going all out. Each in his or her own way. It was a spectacle and an experience to say the least. Since I was there with people who had been to Cable more often, it’s save to say that it wasn’t just me who found it all just slightly too excessive though. So after an hour or so of decibel torture, looking for but not finding a spot to be at ease, we decided to call it a night.

When one is sleeping in a living a room, he should take into count that weird things might occur. Like a party squad coming home and continuing to go crazy around you. Luckily playing ‘asleep’ avoided further encounters of the doped kind.

Hardly a surprise that I didn’t wake up too early, right? Anyway, today was the day.  After helping out miss “Sweet sweet fantasy baby” to get a new pair of fresh kicks we headed to the Big Chill House. Mixcloud has a monthly residency over there and each time they invite an acclaimed user of their platform to throw a party together. On arrival the rest of the fam had also arrived. Around 5PM yours truly kicked off the event on the beautiful roof terrace. Despite the grey clouds the atmosphere was totally laid back. Splendid. Dr. Kwest took over and while JoBee laid down some vocals over his beats the sun came out. The perfect weather for Fatoosan’s groovy set and us dancing to it. BBQ, shades and cocktails included.

While Trust In Dust started to warm up the main room, Title completely tore the roof (top) down. Time had come to move inside and check out the main and second room. The main room too was taken over by Laid Back affiliated dj’s and by the time I got downstairs Mr. Critical was already scorching the decks with 45’s and funky cuts.

The rest of the evening was all about running up and downstairs to get down to the heavy weight selections by dj Azer, Eric Lau, Lefto, Paul Pre, Simbad and Kutmah covering ‘beats’ in the broadest way a dance floor could handle. Both rooms were boiling ‘til the fat lady sang. I think the video speaks for itself ;). At 5AM the question got popped: “So who is going to sleep where?” All I remember is that a couple of us ended up at a couple of others’ place; that whatever booze and food got pulled out of the cabinets, hazy talks and sock wrestling followed and that it all got topped off with some solid passing out.

On Sunday we said goodbye to our hosts and some of our fam who had to head back already and went discovering Shoreditch some more. Bricklane in full effect has such a great and lively atmosphere. By the evening all plans to go out once more got cancelled, so we settled for a Mexican restaurant in Notting Hill. Ending up in the most boring part of London afterwards where it took us more than an hour to find a simple beer was a bit too much of tranquility though. On the other hand it made us map out our last day in London town to make full use of the time left. Result: saw every corner of Tate Modern and did some last minute shopping before going back to Bruxelles ma belle. Just marvellous!

I cannot thank Pierre, Juliette, Tim, Caroline, Julien, Rich, Nikhil, Eric, Joanna, Fatou, Toon, Benny, Lefto and Alex enough for what will easily be remembered as one of the best, if not THE best extended weekend of 2011!

Video directed and edited by Caroline Lessire
Sound by Al Senz
Sound mix by Felix Blume
Color grading by Ryszard Karcz
More pictures on Flickr

On Friday the 14th of October, Laid Back invites Mixcloud to celebrate their 2nd birthday in Brussels. More info.

• Mixcloud’s Best of 2011
• Urban Safari in East London
• Long Arm’s Strange & Wonderful World

It’s been 2 years that Mixcloud officially launched their service and it’s been two years that we have been heavily using it: more than 225 mixes, 8000 followers and hundreds of thousands of plays.

Last May when we launched the LDBK compilation, Mixcloud offered us the best release party we could dream of in their hometown London. Now it’s time for us to invite the Mixcloud team to Brussels…

Friday 14th of October at Bar du Matin (free entrance)
72 chaussée d’Alsemberg – 1190 Brussels (map)

++ LINE UP ++
* 21h – 22h30   Alex Corbi (Brussels, Soulfood – Molokhia)
* 22h30 – 00h  DynomiteSoul (Brussels, 22 Tracks – Vinyl Freaks)
* 00H – 01h30 Orsii (London, Jazzman – Fat City Records)
* 01h30 – …     Mixcloud dj’s (London)
- Sketchy (Mixcloud / ManMakeMusic)
- Rez (Mixcloud / Peanut Butter Soundclash)
- Rich Roast (Mixcloud / Peaceful Progress)

Thank you Pierre aka Grown So Ugly for taking care of this project.
Illustration by Kevin “Seq” Devroo inspired by the LDBK logo.

• Little Miss Sunshiine presents Jazzman
• AMAI release party
• Little Miss Sunshiine #13

“Slow Down” is the 1st single of the “Eccentric Audio” album from British duo consisting of singer John Turrell and producer Smoove. Contemporary Northern Soul at its best!

After Dour, Gentse Feesten, Bruksellive and other summer festivals, this is only the 3rd time that 74 Miles Away will perform in their hometown Brussels… and we have 2 x 2 tickets to offer you!

Just send me an email to show@laid-back.be with the answer to this question: What is the name of the flute player who is part of the 74 Miles Away project? First two correct answers get a duo ticket. Congratulations to Jonathan and Fato for being the fastest to send us the correct answer: Stefan Bracaval.

When: Wednesday 12th of October – 8pm
Where: Ancienne Belgique (club) – Anspachlaan 110, 1000 Brussels

Picture by Kmeron.

• Monkeys for Nothing, Chimps for Free
• 74 Miles Away at Dour Festival
• 74 Miles Away… as live as it gets

On Sunday the 16th of October, Ursula Rucker will be in Brussels to perform at the “Paroles Urbaines” awards (an event presenting the best French speaking spoken word and slam artists in Belgium).

Born and raised in Philadelphia, poet and performance artist Ursula Rucker  started sharing her art at open mic nights in 1994 before collaborating with producer King Britt on “Supernatural” and becoming the Roots’ favorite when it comes to closing album with “The Unlocking” on “Do You Want More?!!?!!” (1994), “The Adventures in Wonderland” on “Iladelph Halflife” (1996) and “Return to Lost Innocence” on “Things Fall Apart” (1999).

After many other collaborations, Rucker released her first album “Supa Sista” in 2001, followed by “Silver or Lead” (2003), “Ma’ at Mama” (2006), “Ruckus Soundsysdom” (2008)  and “She Said” (2011). Among other projects, she worked on a book with Pullitzer-prize winning photographer Clarence Williams and  was named a Creative Ambassador by the City of Philadelphia in 2010.

Don’t miss this chance to see her live in Brussels… especially as we have 5×2 tickets to offer you. Just email your name to show@laid-back.be and they’re yours. Congratulations to Antoine, Loïc, Charles, Karim and Manuel for winning those tickets!

… And if the rumor is correct, she will even perform this track that she recorded for Cris Prolific’s “Art / Money vol.1″

Cris Prolific – Music is feat. Ursula Rucker

This event will also feature a live performance by Brussels’ finest Veence Hanao

Lezarts Urbains presents Les Prix Paroles Urbaines – Sunday October 16th (starts at 4pm)
At Botanique – Rue Royale 236, Brussels
More info: www.prixparolesurbaines.com – facebook

• Cris Prolific on FM Brussel
• Cris Prolific – Art/Money
• Cris Prolific presents Da Bluefunk District

Challenge: What was Carlito’s first image to be published on the Laid Back blog?

Please send your answer and the link to show@laid-back.be. The winners will be revealed as soon as we have 3 correct answers. Good luck! Congratulations to Alia, Jan and Nick for sending the correct answer so fast! The correct answer is “Franklin Passage” published in September 2009 as a Pick of the Week, a picture that we later used to illustrate Nicholas Kopernicus’ “Audiocentric” CD cover.

I took this image in Brooklyn during the West Indian Carnival. There is something about this guy’s eyes, a mix of sadness, courage but also an incredible sense of pride and belonging. One can almost see his
soul.

I took this shot accidentally and this image made me realize that there were more “things” happening in the streets beside street art. A definite turning point in my approach to photography.

I took this shot in the Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn. The pride sign of the gas station is the perfect representation of this Ultra-Orthodox community. This shot is the part of my Hasidic Brooklyn series.

Deep in the heart of Chinatown, surrounded by graffiti and buildings. Only New York offers such imagery.

There are many reasons why I like this picture. It reminds me of a younger version of Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction. I like the expression and the self-confidence of these kids, the car’s awesome mustard color, the vintage feel to it etc…but above all, it reminds me of all the people I have met and who shared a slice of their lives with me when shooting the series 100 days of summer.

One of the many shots I took in the Freedom Tunnel. This place is absolutely fascinating. One of the most bizarre and uncommon journey I’ve ever taken.

Believe it or not, I took this image in front of my house during our annual block party. Trevor skanked all day long making sure to stay within spitting distance from the pile of speakers.

I am not a big fan of panoramic shots, but the 360 degrees view of New York from the top of the Grain Terminal is jaw-dropping.

I had the opportunity to follow a friend this summer during his favorite pastime: chasing pigeons and meeting pigeon keepers. This pictures encapsulates everything I love about street photography. Splendid urban sceneries enhanced by the golden hour, grittiness, motion, agitation and multitude contrasted by solitude and an intense feeling of serenity.

I took this shoot in Detroit last year and it is part of my series “The Ruins of an Empire“. This place is called Fisher Body 21 and used to house a body assembly line for Cadillacs and Buicks in the 1920’s and ceased operations in the 1974.

Check this set for a selection of my favourite images.

Big up to my friend Julius and the Laid Back family for the support, the advices and the kind words along the way.

Images by Charles le Brigand
All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2011

• Romantic Reflections
• Romantic Reflections – Photoshoot
• Hasidic Brooklyn

On October 1st, a new episode in the RELEASE series will take place at Beursschouwburg (Brussels – Free entrance) as part of the Nuit Blanche festivities. Expect live gigs by Full Crate & Mar and Sam A La Bamalot, 2 killer acts from the Netherlands.

The Onda Sonora, On-Point and Laid Back Soundsystems (represented by Grown So Ugly) will take care of the rest of the night… Enjoy this warm-up set by Onda Sonora:

RELEASE is brought to you by Onda Sonora, On-Point, Eckelwood and Laid Back

• Release and other parties in Brussels
• White Christmas on FM Brussel
• RELEASE #6

In order to provide you with a soundtrack while visiting her blog (check the links below), I asked Ouni to select her favorite stories/tracks and present them as a cloudcast.

Thank you for playing the game Ouni!

Selected by Ouni : A Polaroid Story – Twitter – Facebook
Mixed by Nosedrip
Cover by Emeka (GCTC)

Erykah Badu – Read the full story

J.Cole – Read the full story

Method Man – Read the full story

Mos Def – Read the full story

Guru – Read the full story

Theophilus London – Read the full story

The Roots – Read the full story

Mayer Hawthorne – read the full story

Spoek Mathambo – Read the full story

Baloji – read the full story

Busta Rhymes – read the full story

Q-Tip – Read the full story

Mark Ronson – Read the full story

Aloe Blacc – Read the full story

DeDeMouse & Donnis – Read the full story

Jamie Woon – Read the full story

Gil Scott-Heron – Read the full story

• Some postcards from Brazil #3
• Carlito’s way
• Pictures of the Week #47

After the song “Don’t You” for the LDBK compilation, Joanna sent me a few early versions of her jazzy project “The Falling”, a music collaboration that she initiated in 2009 with Elien De Schryver… and I loved those tracks. So much that I asked Joanna to keep me posted on the evolution of JoBee Project.

Next thing you know, we decided to join forces to release this 7-track project and in order to do so we will use the same recipe that did miracles for the LDBK compilation: crowdfunding! Meaning you can support this release by pre-ordering the album (digital or CD) on Indiegogo.

To set you in the mood, here is the first single “My Life” available as free download:

And oh… we decided to launch this project today, since it is JoBee’s birthday. Do us a favor and share this article around you if you like her music!

Happy Birthday Joanna!

J.

Follow JoBee Project on facebook, twitter & soundcloud.
Picture by David Widart – Make up by Cut Up Collectif

• aCatCalledFRITZ meets JoBee Project
• RELEASE #6
• A Tribute to Gigi Campi (1928 – 2010)

On September 7th, ZineGlüb Arenberg and Lezarts Urbains invite director Marc Aurèle Vecchione (who also worked on “Writers: 20 years of graffiti in Paris“) to present two of his documentaries: Black Music and Antifa.

Blues, Jazz, Soul, Rap, …  “Black Music” recounts the African American community’s perpetual struggle for freedom, the ways in which this struggle was declared, amplified and celebrated through music, and the ways in which it acquired a universal dimension.

“Antifa” documents the violent opposition between “redskins” and “white power skins” in Paris during the 80′S.

Schedule:
9pm: Black Music: des chaînes de fer aux chaînes en or (100 min.)
Debate with director Marc Aurèle Vecchione
11.30pm: Antifa: chasseurs de skins (70 min.)

Location
Cinema Arenberg – Galerie de la Reine 26-28, 1000 Brussels (map)
This event on Facebook

Guestlist
We have 10 x 2 tickets to offer. Just drop an email to show@laid-back.be and we’ll put you on the guestlist.

• New York Minute at Arenberg (12/01)
• Wallifornia Soul documentary
• Megunica – street art road trip

Ask any random person about Czechoslovak music and chances are most likely that he or she will talk about either classical or folklorist music, rather than modernist or avant-garde jazz. Yet, Czechoslovak jazz has a very creative and distinct sound that is of course inspired by American jazz in the first place (check out the cover versions of Cubano Chant, Jordu & Sister Sadie for example), but that is also deeply rooted in European classical and folk music. This is the case for most European jazz, but it’s definitely more pronounced with Czechoslovak jazz. Karel Krautgartner, for instance, was one of the main figures on the Czech jazz scene, but also recorded classical music.

Where American jazz is centered around improvisation, Czech jazz is much more oriented towards composition. Many composers experimented with long suites, rhythm changes, strange sounds and melodies and unusual arrangements with an avant-garde flavour (or what else to think of composer Karel Velebny’s piece entitled ‘Neo-realistic variations on the ground plan of a two-room flat with a kitchen core (danse-macabre)’?).

Jazz in a communist regime

The modern jazz scene of what was then called Republic Of Czechoslovakia started to slightly develop in the late 1940s. Previous to that, jazz had been forbidden during the Nazi occupation. Because of the distinct American and individualist character of jazz, the new Stalinist government of the country wasn’t in favor of the genre of music either. However, despite the communist regime, the jazzscene was able to develop little by little. It was this climate of oppression that made people yearn for independence and freedom, a freedom which the musicians found in jazz music.

It was during these days that a new movement of free thinkers, writers and artists arose, which would lead to the Prague spring in 1968. This movement was closely connected to the jazz scene. That same year however, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, causing important jazz musicians such as Jan Hammer and Karel Krautgartner leaving their country.

Prague Jazz Festival

In 1964, the first edition of the International Prague Jazz Festival was held. Since then, the yearly festival was a chance for jazz enthousiasts to hear foreign jazz musicians from all over the world. In the first few years, some of the performing artists were Mark Murphy, Charles Lloyd, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Palle Mikkelborg and many more. The festival is still held every year to this day.

Supraphon

Most jazz records were released on the state owned Supraphon label (or, since the late sixties on its sublabel Panton). Thanks to the international succes that Supraphon gained because of the famous classical artists and its innovative recording engineering, the label was able to release many jazz records too. Its Gramofonovy Klub (record club) for instance, released an overview of the jazz scene each year since the early sixties.

The Studio 5 Ensemble – the birth of modern jazz in Czechoslovakia
(Picture taken from the liner notes of ‘Cesky Jazz 1920-1960′)

Studio 5 Ensemble – Spanish Fly (Modern Jazz 10” LP – Supraphon)
Founded in 1958, the Studio 5 Ensemble was a sextet centered around Karel Velebny and Ludek Hulan, two of the most important figures on the Czechoslovak jazz scene. Their sound is inspired by the West-Coast jazz scene, mainly by Gerry Mulligan and the Modern Jazz Quartet. They released one 10” LP (from which this piece is taken) and disbanded soon after.

S+H Quintet – Cubano Chant (SHQ + Friends LP – Supraphon)
The S+H Quintet was the follow-up of the Studio 5 Ensemble. The main soloist was Jan Konopasek, who played baritone saxophone and flute. The bandleader and composer was Karel Velebny, whose compositions (some 200 pieces) and multi-instrumentalism (vibraphone, saxophone, piano and percussion) gained him the nickname ‘the father of modern jazz in Czechoslovakia’. The group had a small core of members, but performed and recorded with numerous variations in line-up, ranging from a quartet to a big band, which is the case in this superb interpretation of the Ray Bryant tune, heavy jazz for the dancefloor.

Gustav Brom and his Orchestra – Cloud (Orchestr Gustava Broma LP Supraphon)
Gustav Brom had a long and varied career: it spans from the 1940s until his death in 1995. He played different styles, from dixieland and swing to modern jazz and fusion. Although he played the clarinet, he’s best known as a band-leader, composer and arranger. This tune was recorded with a small combo in the late sixties and is a groovy jazz tune with wordless vocals.

The legendary S+H Quintet, with Karel Velebny on saxophone
Copyright Zdenek Taichman, 1964
(Picture taken from the liner notes of ‘Jazz In Czechoslovakia 5′)

S+H Quintet – Jordu (Jak Hràl LP – Supraphon)
The S+H Quintet (short for Spejbl and Huvinek, referring to the theatre they were part of in the beginning) covers the classic Duke Jordan composition so well here. I love the fact that they play this tune because you can really hear the difference in sound between a US and a European approach here. The solos are superb too.

Combo 4 Bratislava – Sister Sadie (Jazz Na Koncertnim Podiu LP – Supraphon)
We leave Prague for a while and take a look at the scene in Bratislava (currently the capital of Slovakia), with a cover of a Horace Silver standard, courtesy of the Combo 4 Bratislava. A strange fact though, on the sleeve this song is titled ‘St. Vitus Dance’ (another Horace Silver classic), although it’s obviously Sister Sadie.

Bratislava Jazz Quartet – Silhouettes (Jazz In Czechoslovakia 3 LP – Supraphon)
A great groovy vibraphone track here. In the liner notes of the Jazz In Czechoslovakia vol. 3 LP, piano player Ladislav Gerhardt says: “In style our group is inclined to soul jazz, though at the same time we are trying to attain our own expressive means and creative approach to it.”, which kind of explains it all, if you ask me.

The Bratislava Jazz Quartet with Ladislav Gerhardt at the Piano
(Picture taken from the liner notes of ‘Jazz In Czechoslovakia 3′)

Ladislav Gerhardt Jazz Quartet – Meditations (Jazz In Czechoslovakia 7 LP – Supraphon)
Ladislav Gerhardt was a composer and piano player who was influenced mostly by Bill Evans. With this quartet (basically the same line-up as the Bratislava Jazz Quartet, except for L. Martonik (trumpet) replacing the vibraphoneplayer), he worked at different clubs and also at the Bratislava Radio. His discography as a leader is limited, but he appeared on many albums as a sideman and on some of the Czechoslovak jazz anthology albums. This tune is written and played in a Miles Davis kind of way.

Jazzovi Solisté – Ztrata Nalezeneho Syna (Ceskoslovensky Jazz 1966 Lp – Supraphon)
Back to Prague, back to Karel Velebny, for one of his own compositions on which he plays piano too (in English it means ‘The Loss Of A New-Found Son’). It starts with a beautiful deep guitar solo intro and has a great hard bop theme with a killer horn section. From what I could make up of the liner notes, this was a piece that he had recorded before, but rearranged to fit in the spirit of Horace Silver, one of his favorite musicians.

Karel Velebny at the vibraphone
Copyright Lubos Svatek 1967
(Picture taken from the liner notes of ‘Ceskoslovensky Jazz 1966′)

Junior Trio – Balada (Ceskoslovensky Jazz 1964 LP – Supraphon)
Jan Hammer is a very famous keyboard player and composer these days. He played with the Mahavishnu Orchestra and even composed the theme for Miami Vice in the eighties. He formed his first group together with Miroslav Vitous (of later Weather Report fame) and Alan Vitous in the early sixties. At the time of this recording, Hammer and his mates were only sixteen years old!

Gustav Brom – Calling Up The Rain (Plays For You Pop Jazz And Swing LP – Opus)
To illustrate the eclectism of Gustav Brom, I also selected ‘Calling Up The Rain’, a long-time favorite among DJ’s because of the funky percussions and wah-wah guitars. The trumpet solo is great too.

Prague Big Band – Gee Whizz (Portrait LP – Panton)
We end up this overview of Czechoslovak jazz with one of the most badass fusion records I know. The Prague Big Band is led by Milan Svoboda and features Czech fusion legend Jiri Stivin with a super heavy flute solo here.

• A Tribute to Gigi Campi (1928 – 2010)
• The story of Hein Huysmans
• Focus on European Jazz #3

You know that I like to test every social network and online service that pops up (yeah it’s part of my job). Every time I do it I try to figure out how to incorporate it to this Laid Back project…

Foursquare recently upgraded their “Brand” pages system (they not quite there yet but it’s better than the previous version – see what’s new in this post) so it’s time introduce you to our Laid Back Foursquare page.

This page will allow us to recommended you Laid Back places from all around the world and will allow you (if you follow us) to benefit from our tips and unlock the All School Flavour in your city (+ win stuff next I decide to organize a treasure hunt…)

So far, most of the places that are referenced in our list are located in Brussels, but I asked Carlito Brigante (NYC), Orsii (London), Mpumelelo Macu (Johannesburg) and Dandy Teru (Paris / Toulouse) to join me… more ambassadors will be added to the team in a near future. In the meantime, if you think we should reference one of your favorites places on our page, just let us know: show@laid-back.be

Thank you Ali (Digital Park) for the design of the banner.

• Pictures of the Week #65
• Urban Safari in East London
• Romantic Reflections

It’s been a while DJ’s are asking me to print LDBK slipmats so when Blast Kid contacted me a few weeks ago and suggested to take care of everything I knew we had a deal!

Send me an email to show@laid-back.be if you want to order yours: 30€/pair (shipping incl.)

And for those who have no clue what a slipmat is check Wikipedia.

• A Tribute to Gigi Campi (1928 – 2010)
• Focus on European Jazz #4
• Belgian Popcorn

A few days before the release of their first collaboration “Celestial Electric” we’re glad to present this exclusive mix from American musician and multi-instrumentalist now based in London Shawn Lee and indie artist AM from Los Angeles.

Mr. Critical also had the chance to ask Shawn Lee a few questions about his fruitful career and upcoming effort…

Mr Critical (MC): You have produced quite a body of work in a relative short period, is this the result of a very strict structured way of working or is most of your music created spontaneously?
Shawn Lee (SL): I am very driven to create (i.e. write & record). I feel like there is a real natural urgency inside of me. I do always work 2 or 3 days a week making new tracks so after while that really builds up. This is what I love to do: make records!

MC: I really love the fact that you are a multi instrumentalist. What inspired you to pick up and study all these different instruments ? Did it take you a long time to get the hang of it or did it all come naturally ?
SL: Sometimes it is a matter of necessity. Other times it’s the wide open childlike approach to instruments I don’t know that well what keeps the creativity flowing inside of me. I tend to be a very natural musician. Having said that, I’m learning each time I pick up an instrument. That’s one of the things that keep me going… there’s so much to learn.

MC: The Ubiquity website mentions that you are an avid collector of vintage instruments. I guess each of these instruments have a story to them. Can you share with us which instrument has the most sentimental value, and how you acquired it ?
SL: Yes this is certainly true! I have a 70′s Gibson 335 guitar that was a present from an former girlfriend. I have had the guitar for nearly 20 years now and it has appeared on literally hundreds and hundreds of records and traveled the world with me. She sued her then boss for sexual harassment and won! She bought the guitar for me out of her ‘out of court’ financial settlement…

MC:Can you tell us about your up & coming album with AM  How did you guys meet and decide to work on songs together ?
SL: AM reached out to me via the internet years ago. He had heard my music on the radio in LA and became a fan of what I do. We became cyber friends staying in touch via emails. When he came over to London to play a show we met up and struck an old fashioned friendship. That lead to us ‘sitting in’ with each other’s respective live bands in both LA and London. Also, we hung out playing each other music bonding over a mutual love for Italian & French soundtracks, library music & Finders Keepers label. It seemed logical to make an album together and the rest is history! Our album ‘Celestial Electric‘ has taken us both on an amazing musical journey. It’s exceeded all I hoped for on this record, this is some next level shit! Look out for us on tour in September in the US.

MC: You have collaborated with many artists already, which artists are still on your “want to collaborate with” list ?
SL: MF Doom, Ananda Shankar, Beck, Jack White, Jamie Lidell just for starters. To be honest there are so many talented people out there to work with that the possibilities are endless. Much more to come…

MC: What about the never released debut album “Discomfort” that you recorded back in the days for Talkin’ Loud? Is the music available anywhere or will it be in the future ? Can you tell us about this project or is it a subject you’d rather not get into ?
SL: You can find it on Ebay and Amazon. It was only promo released in France back in 1996-so it’s pretty rare. I recorded the album in London in 94-95 for Gilles Peterson. The album is chock-full of ideas and still sounds pretty darn interesting. I keep meaning to re-release the album myself so eventually I’ll get around to doing just that. I’m still quite proud of it.

MC: The Ping Pong Orchestra albums have a “library” feel to them. Was the music on these albums created from that point of view ?
SL: Yes it was very influenced by library music plus film soundtracks and incidental TV music. I also composed a lot in the classic library 2 minute format. Get in and get out! It really sharpened my composing skills.

MC: Many TV series have picked up and used your music (Malcom In The Middle, Lost, Desperate Housewives, CSI:Miami, Ugly Betty etc) How did this affect your career, I guess it opened many doors for you ?
SL: Well it’s made me known in LA and NY among music supervisors,directors and ad agencies. This sometimes leads to scoring work but more often than not my music being used in film & tv shows. All good things.

MC: Are you a record collector? Who would we find in your collection?
SL: Everything from Shuggie Otis, Ennio Morricone to De La Soul to Hall & Oates to Jimi Hendrix to Miles Davis to the Banana Splits!

MC: Why moving to London a couple of years ago?
SL: I moved to London in 1994. Gilles Peterson signed me to his then Talkin Loud record label, I fell in love with london and stayed. That was 16 years ago and i’m still here! It’s a great international launch pad.

MC: Any news about Clutchy Hopkins?
SL: Clutchy is still in his cave in the Mojave desert making songs and beats. The mystery continues…

AM & Shawn Lee will be touring in US, UK & France from September.
More infos: facebook – site
Thanks to Benny “Mr Critical” Janssens for the hook up and the interview.
Illustration by Tim Geelen

• One Love
• Strictly Kwak
• Mixcloud’s Best of 2011

Over the past 10 months I have had the pleasure to work with Gerald Short, also known as Jazzman Gerald, so it only seemed fit to introduce him and the label he runs, Jazzman Records, to you all. I am aware of the fact that some readers and listeners have raised the concern that my views about him are biased, after all, he is the reason that I am able to earn my daily bread. But I can assure you that my views are completely genuine, and contrary to what some might assume, one of the reasons why I got my job in the first place was because I don’t suck up to him and I tell him my honest view about everything, even if that means that we sometimes end up disagreeing on certain things.

Jazzman Gerald has been collecting music and records for about 30 years and it is rumoured that he has one of the best record collections in the world. I guess, if you have people like Madlib, J Rocc and Cut Chemist coming around to check out and sample the records you got, and you have high profile DJ’s such as Gilles Peterson amongst your customers, it is only fair to say that you must be doing something right…

Gerald started up Jazzman Records in a market stall in Camden in the early 90′s, selling rare and obscure vinyl, and has since then released over 200 releases on LP, CD, 12″ and 7″ – a number that excludes his subsidiary label releases on Soul 7, Funk 45, Jukebox Jam, Popcorn, Fryers and Soul Spectrum.

To me, he is one of the hardest working people in the music industry and that goes beyond just looking at the number of releases he has been putting out for the past 10 odd years. He puts his heart and soul into every release that he does and he never releases anything that he doesn’t have the rights to – something I very much respect him for.

I met him for the first time when I went for a casual job interview for my current job and one of the key things that struck me about him was that he is very honest and fair. He was telling me stories about how he had traveled to the US in order to find these old musicians who’s records and music he wanted to reissue, how he had spent months, sometimes years, trying to track them down, and how good it felt being able to not only share their amazing music with a broader audience, but also to finally make sure that they got the recognition they deserved and paid for the amazing music they had once made.

We were sitting in the office the other day discussing the radio show we had made for Laid Back when Gerald said: “I’m in the happiness business Orsi. My job is to make people happy with the music I release” which I think pretty much sums it all up. A LOT of work goes into these reissues – blood, sweat and tears, and Gerald is always striving to outdo himself by trying to make the next release better than the previous.

As you will hear on the radio show, it is not about scamming artists or customers and making big profits doing these releases and reissues. It is about finding excellent music, some that might be very rare and expensive, and making it available and accessible to a broad audience of people who might not otherwise be able to listen or buy those kind of records.

Apart from obviously being able to share some of the gems Gerald has in his record collection, my main aim of the show was to be able to share his story with you and to shed some light on issues that certain people might have been criticising him for. I had a great time recording it with him (Thanks Gerald!!) and I love the music he pulled out exclusively for this show, so I can only hope that you will enjoy it just as much as I did.

Orsii

• Celebrating Mixcloud’s 2nd birthday
• Little Miss Sunshiine #13
• Mixcloud’s Best of 2011

I am sure most of you have heard, read and seen some of the riots and unrest that has struck London and the UK in the past five days. I have been trying to encourage people I know here in London and in the UK to go out and help their communities if they have been affected, now the time has come to appeal and encourage the worldwide music community to step in and help/support.

On the evening of August 8, 2011, London rioters looted and burned the Sony DADC warehouse in Enfield, North London. This warehouse was also used by PIAS UK (formally Vital), a distribution company established over 15 years ago and housing over 150 independent labels. When it was confirmed that they lost everything in the fire I thought to myself that this was very dark and sad day, not just for the communities here in the UK, but also the global independent music community as a whole.

I am not a music business expert, but I would like to give you a very quick summary of the importance of distribution companies and why this fire can have disastrous consequences and potentially threaten the very existence of some smaller independent labels we love.

To give you a very brief background: A distribution company  is in charge of getting record labels releases into record shops and other relevant businesses. The distribution company promotes the labels releases to shops and businesses, obviously trying to get them to buy in as many as possible, and then ships those records to all the shops and businesses, who later sell them to the public. Depending on the size of the distribution company, they can have distribution networks all around the world and they are a vital part of “the music industry structure” because they are the businesses who have the know-how and big network to get the physical products to places around the world where you as a consumer can buy them from.

Now, I want to give you a very basic example of how this fire might affect a small label that  had their stock in the warehouse that burnt down, just so you can understand why the independent music community needs your help (please keep in mind that this is an overly simplified example with many other factors excluded):

Imagine you are a small record label who has been around for a couple of years. You might have taken out a loan or forked up money from your own pocket to fund your first release X. You press up 1000 copies of release X and send it off to the distribution company. They might only pay you for the records they are able to sell on to other buyers, so let’s assume you earn £10 per record sold on. They manage to sell 500 copies of X and have 500 copies left in the warehouse.

The initial money you got from the 500 copies sold of release X gives you £5000, that helps you to fund your next release Y (but it might not cover all the costs of release Y). However, you still have £5000 worth of records in the distribution company’s warehouse waiting to be sold on to record stores.

Imagine you keep doing this for a couple of years, but never managing to fully sell-out on all your releases – that means that you might have more than ten thousands of pounds worth of records in the distribution company’s warehouse. Those records that are being stored serve a purpose because record shops restock releases they sell out of, so you as a label might be getting a small, but steady, amount of money every month from your back catalogue (as well as new releases), enabling you to do certain things like paying the business rent, paying your employee/s or artists, expanding your business etc.

Then imagine from one day to another, that investment and money that enabled you to run your business, disappears in flames. How will you be able to pay your rent? How will you pay any loans you might have? How will you pay the employee/s or artists on your label? How will you, a label that makes a living out of selling physical records, survive when those physical products that were bringing in the money that’s enabling you to survive, have gone up in smoke? I could go on…

Toddla T mentioned on twitter yesterday that Ninja Tune, one of the labels affected by the fire, had lost a bit over 123000 records in the fire. I wanted to link to it but he has taken down the tweet. I can’t confirm if this is true, but if it is anywhere close and they only represent one label that was hit, then try to imagine how many records must have gone up in flames if over 150 labels were affected…

Do you like the music from artists signed to labels such as Brownswood Recordings, Soul Jazz, Brainfeeder, Warp, Ninja Tune, Young Turks, Finders Keepers and Big Dada?
Well, they are just 8 labels out of 150+ who’s stock was destroyed.

So instead of going out this weekend and drinking 5 beers, drink 3 and spend the rest of the money buying a digital download of an album from any one of the digital retailers that stock the labels and artists hit by the fire. Or if you prefer physical, go to your local record shop and see what they might be able to offer you from those labels. With your support and help, the labels affected will be able to replace their vinyl and CD’s more quickly, and as a result, resupply record shops, especially any that were hit by the riots, and start earning the money they need in order to operate and release good music again.

For the full list of labels, visit the PIAS website.

So let’s stay positive people and try to help each other out! We have more influence and power than what we sometimes give ourselves credit for.

Thanks,

Orsii

//UPDATE//

PIAS has released a statement on how you can donate money to help the labels affected. You can find the information on PIAS website.

• Little Miss Sunshiine #4
• A Tribute to Gigi Campi (1928 – 2010)
• Urban Safari in East London

Here is a new series on Laid Back radio, ‘Elevate” hosted by DJ & producer Dbefekt. For the first episode entitled “the Soul that made us Hip Hop”, DB invited Reks.

A Deer Studio production

• Mixcloud’s Best of 2011
• Long Arm’s Strange & Wonderful World
• One Love

Again (Amsterdam)

Apollo

Asom

Dead

Delta (Amsterdam)

Dema

Gane

Keso

Phaze

Reas (New York)

Reox

Soc

Stak (Paris)

Zao

More pictures by Vivian Hertz aka Paviani on www.paviani.be

• “Brussels Cats” by Paviani
• In the Farm Prod studio
• Celebrating Mixcloud’s 2nd birthday