Changing gears

It’s always a pleasure to announce a new album, like a newborn baby that is being introduced for the very first time amongst friends and relatives.

After 2 years of relative silence (since the release of our first eponymous album on Melting Pot Music back in 2011), 74 Miles Away slaps back with a full-grown and anticipated sequal. This time we decided to go for a full “in- house” production (without record label), in collaboration with our trusty partner from Laid Back. Distribution though, will be handled by the fine people at Pusher Distribution (vinyl) & Fine Tunes (digital).

As we were (and still are) too eager to play and please, we put emphasis on our dynamic live shows during the last 20 months. Having the honour to play a dozen of nice venues and several awesome festivals (national & international), resulted in this new album entitled ‘Gear Change’. An 8-tracks, fully instrumental album mostly based on our live-gig experience.

We’re also glad to welcome flutist Stefan Bracaval as fourth band member. With other words, changing gears on the staff was nescessary to make this album happen. The input of Stef, his background and experience, his expressive flute sound, and the symbiosis with lead keyboard player Pierre Anckaert (they are playing together for years now in several other jazz-related projects) made it possible to elevate this project to another level. On the other hand we must admit that our full time day jobs  various musical projects, kiddies and other time-consuming activities,…  didn’t make it easier to gather everybody for the recording sessions.

 Live recording

As our material was written for the live gigs, we had to work the other way around during the recording process. By decomposing every song into suitable and studio friendly layers. With the help from our engineer, Jean Vanesse (owner of Greenhouse studio), we managed to record the album in 2 days. Though often less precise than practiced studio-arrangements, a live recording offered us a more realistic, exciting and raw feel (all musicians & instruments took place in the same room, beside the amps). Very few overdubs were executed to keep that organic and unpolished sound.

We all love the live album format, the idea that the moments or evenings they document are epochal and worthy of preservation, the narratives they aim to present and the stories they sometimes tell in spite of themselves. A lot of influences can be found on ‘Gear Change’, from 70’s jazz-funk to stomping boogie joints, all drenched in vintage analogue synths with a 2013 modernist feel.

This is what “Gear Change” is all about. An album without words where the music speaks for itself.

Credits:

Pierre Anckaert : Fender rhodes piano – Korg leads – Nord Stage
Louis Van de Leest : Moog – Wurlitzer piano – Synths
Eric Paquet : Controllers - Sampler – Guitar
Stefan Bracaval: Flutes

All tracks written & produced by  74 Miles Away
Recorded and mixed by  Jean Vanesse @ Greenhouse studio
Mastering by Vincent De Bast @ Sonar studios

Distribution by The Pusher Distribution &  Fine Tunes
Powered by  Julien Mourlon @ Laid Back

Vinyl (06/06/2013): Favorite recordings – HHV – Juno
Digital (17/05/2013): iTunes – Bandcamp

Bookings & contacts: futurestandards.be - dieter@futurestandards.be

On April 18th, VK* will host another Ninja Tune night. After Herbaliser and Anti-Pop Consortium, it’s Daedelus and Slugabed‘s turn to do their thing in Brussels… I have 3×2 tickets to offer for this show, just send me an email to show@laid-back.be with the answer to this question: “When was the 1st Ninja Tune night organised in Brussels?” Congratulations Dominique, Bram & Christophe for winning the tickets.

Don’t come too late because Pomrad opens the night with a performance that might very well steal the show…

Hailing from Antwerp, this young rising electronic savant and jazz trained keyboardist, producer and live performer’s debut EP “Vlotjes” was released to a feverish fan base built around his electric stage shows, funky and raw through his noted virtuoso use of keyboards, samplers, keytar and talkbox. Inspired by Herbie Hancock to Zappa, his forthcoming release on Earnest Endeavours, set for April 2013 comes highly anticipated.

Tickets:  13€ /16€ via www.vkconcerts.be (doors: 7.30pm) - RSVP
Production: VK* - DIGIZIK -  Back in the Dayz

On April 3rd, Anti-Pop Consortium start its European tour at VK* in Brussels.

Anti-Pop Consortium is an abstract hip-hop group that released several singles and two albums before being signed by Warp Records in 2000. The group is made up by Beans, High Priest, M. Sayyid and producer Earl Blaize and met at a poetry slam in New York City. The group disbanded due to creative differences in August 2002. In 2007 the group re-formed, without Beans however, and signed to Big Dada for the release of “Fluorescent Black” (2009). The group have been touring a lot performing with Public Enemy, Massive Attack, Radiohead, DJ Shadow to name a few… (read more: wikipedia – ninjatune.net)

Support Act

Following their collaboration with M Sayyid on “Down the Spine”, Zucchini Drive seems like the perfect opener for APC.

Warm Up

Supafly is a collective of seven hip hop minded ladies, promoting hip hop with a female touch through their radio show on FM Brussel and the various events they take part in!

Tickets:  13€ /16€ via www.vkconcerts.be (doors: 7.30pm) – RSVP
Production: VK* - DIGIZIK -  MDN Events

After 10 years touring around the world, collaborating with former James Brown’s background singer  Martha High and recording 4 albums, the Shaolin Temple Defenders (Bordeaux, FR) are back.

Deeply inspired by 60’s & 70’s Rhythmn’ Blues, Raw Funk and Sweet Soul, their new album, « From The Inside » discloses a more modern and more personal aspect of their musical world.

To celebrate their new release, we asked the funky monks to produce a show featuring some of their landmark tracks.

Bonus:

Free download “It’s so easy” - Full album released on Soulbeats available on iTunes

Discography:
From The Inside (2013)
Take It Slow (2010)
Chapter II : Gettin’ the Spirit (2009)
Backing band on Martha High « W.O.M.A.N. » (2008)
Chapter I : Enter the Temple (2006)

Picture by Julien Simier

A couple of months ago, Niels sent me a sketch inspired by listening to LDBK radio and asked me If I had any idea what we could do with it. I liked the poster project that we did last year and was looking for a way to renew it… Then I saw this colouring contest launched by Fremdtunes and loved it. So we decided to ask people around us to finish Niels’ poster.

The original version was quite good, but what you came up with is just next level ;) As we didn’t want a purely digital project, we decided to print 12 of our favorite remixes in postcard format.

Set of 12 cards – 105×148 mm – 350gr – Limited to 250 numbered copies.
Order: 17euros (worldwide shipping included) via checkthis or send us an email.

Thank you Feriz for designing the cards and big up to the 27 artists who sent us their take on Niels’ poster. Check all the contributions on facebook or checkthis.

Disco Love is a series of disco records that you have probably never heard of. All superb records presented to you by the legendary Al Kent from the unlikeliest disco haven of Glasgow. Al’s been buying records a few years now, usually ignoring the in-demand or more obvious titles and searching a little harder for fabulous disco records that you have probably never heard of. Disco Love 3 contains just some of them. Not only that, but most of them are exclusive, unissued re-edits, spliced specially for this album by Mr. Kent.

If you like your disco music deep, soulful and/or funky, you can buy “Disco Love vol.3″ on iTunes or through BBE Records

 A few words from Al Kent about this release: 

I’m always pleasantly surprised by some of the feedback I get when I put out one of these albums… I mean, liking good music isn’t exactly rocket science is it? Judging by some of the records I see changing hands for staggering sums of money though, it’s maybe not as easy as it looks. Perhaps seeing past the rarity of a record and actually liking something for its beauty rather than its value is the key. Perhaps being broke is a good position to be in after all.

Whatever. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; this album isn’t about me showing off my “collection” (despite the use of the word “rare” in the title), it’s simply my choice of as many good tracks as I can fit on a CD, most of which I hope you’ll like as much as I do.

Al Kent, October 2012

Check also the “Disco Love vol.3″ review on soulandjazzandfunk.com
More about Al Kent and his “Million Dollar Orchestra”

* releasing Strand’s new album
* inviting photographer David Widart & painter Sandrine Astier to translate their art into music
* giving a talk at TEDxBrickLane
* going on a trip to ELBjazz in Hamburg with 74 Miles Away
* celebrating 10 years of Laid Back and Strictly Niceness
* teaming up with the Farm prod team to give Louvain La Neuve a facelift
* assisting Oli-B and RoseStudio in their collaboration
* …

Plus of course supporting a few events / releases, and curating a lot of music (and art in general) on various platforms including our booming Mixcloud account.

Celebrating the Best of 2012 on Mixcloud

Speaking about Mixcloud… My favourite London startup just announced their Best of 2012 charts and we are delighted to be number 2 in this year’s Top 100 Music Cloudcasters, leaving some of the world’s best music radio shows and DJs behind us ;)

Congratulations to DJ Vadim (#28) & mister critical (#25) for representing LDBK in Mixcloud’s Best of 2012 Music Cloudcasts.

Thanks to all djs, labels, artists & listeners supporting us!

Whatever you do in 2013, have fun and… stay tuned!

Last summer, right after the release of his Slam Funk project, Strand went back to Madrid. Invited by Mondo Sonoro to record in the Red Bull Studios, he gathered Mario Zamora (from Madrid psych-rockers Lüger) and Javier Diez Ena (from jazz-surf-psyche-punk outfits Dead Capo and Ginferno) for some serious jamming.

They came out the studio with two tracks rapidly picked up by record label Lovemonk to enter their catalog as a 7inch nicely illustrated by Punzon…

“Cajas Sin Ahorros” is a slice of oddball, white android funk with a hint of exotica and some cosmic guitars that would make Roy Batty shit his pants, and “Intervención/Rescate” is a floating downtempo jam, with a dubby bass line and all kinds of percussion and analogue space noise going on.

… and story goes on… Early January Strand plans to go back to Madrid and record more tracks with an extended rooster of banksters.

Strand gave me a two copies of his three latest releases: Dub! (7″ – 2010), Slam Funk (12″ – 2012) and Cajas Sin Ahorros (7″ – 2012) asking me to offer them. Send me an email -show@laid-back.be - with the answer to the following question: Who did introduced me to Strand? (Hint: use the search button and go back to… 2009). First two correct answers get the three records. Congrats to Cas and Ricardo, you should get the records soon!

The Herbaliser is a jazz rap band formed by Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba in London, England during the early 1990s. Although currently releasing on their own label and having previously been signed to !K7 Records, they were one of the best-known acts from the Ninja Tune independent record label. They have released 11 LPs, including two DJ mixes: one for Ninja Tune’sSolid Steel series and the other for Fabric’s Live Mix series. The Herbaliser’s album Same As It Never Was was their first release on !K7 Records. Their latest album “There Were Seven” was released in September of 2012 on their own label Department H. (via wikipedia)

On December the 15th, The Herbaliser will perform at VK in Brussels and our friend Mister Critical is responsible for the warm up.

We have 3×2 tickets to offer for this concert. Send us an email – show@laid-back.be – with the answer to the following question: “What is Mister Critical’s most popular solo mix uploaded to LDBK’s mixcloud account? ” The first three correct answers win a duo ticket. Good luck! Thank you for playing the 3 duo-tickets are now gone!

Line up

19:30 doors
19:30:21:00 Mister Critical
21:00-22:30 The Herbaliser
22:30-00:00 Wagner Party (after show dj-set)

Tickets: 15/18 euro - Presales – RSVP
Venue: Vk* – Schoolstraat 76 Rue de l’école – 1080 Brussels (map)

Partners: VK* - DIGIZIK - LAID BACK - F*CKIN BEAT - BACK IN THE DAYZ

It’s been three years that I have the chance to work closely with painter Oli-B and I love how each project turns into an adventure full of surprises… A couple of weeks ago, interior designer Robert Bockowski from RoseStudio invited us for a last minute trip to Warsaw to check the production of their first collaboration: “Olga”. (read more about this trip / project on CheckThis)

On November 29th it was finally time to present “Olga” and open Oli-B’s first solo show… What an opening that was!

Thank you Oli & Robert for inviting me to participate in this great project.

Pictures by Idgency Creative Studio – Complete set on RoseStudio’s facebook page

Exhibition open on Fridays until January 18th, 2013 (11:00 -18:00)
Closed from December 22nd 2012 until January 6th 2013
RoseStudio – 97 rue Saint-Georges – B-1050 Brussels (map)

A few months ago, Madrid-based advertising agency Swing Swing – inspired by the project we developed last year – invited Desta to collaborate with Spanish jewelry company Gayubo.

Gayubo wanted Desta to create a song for their new collection, focusing on its colours and four different contrasting styles. 

In June, Desta gathered her dream team and flew to Madrid to record “Black, Pink, Gold & White” at Red Led studios.

Last week, Vinyls & CDs with this tune plus three other tracks were released… Make sure to follow our facebook page as we might have a few copies to give away soon. In the meantime, enjoy the free download.

Well done Desta! Let’s hope 2013 will bring you more collaborations like this one!

Desta’s team on this project:
Piano – Julien Bosuma
Flute – Esinam Dogbatse
Percussion – Jojo Demeijer
Pictures – Santi Rodriguez -
Make up – Ignacio Fernández Ruiz
Dress – NUO

Two weeks ago, French MC Pumpkin released her new EP “Silence Radio” in collaboration with LDBK Radio and recorded this exclusive radio show featuring all the project’s guests.

Pumpkin, French female emcee, made her fist moves into Hip Hop in the nineties under the influence of MC Solaar. After spending 6 years in Barcelona where she multiplied collaborations and concerts with artists such as Aerolineas Subterraneas, Beatspoke, Debilorithmicos or DJ Chavez, Pumpkin released “Le Vernissage” EP in 2006. In 2007, Pumpkin and Supafuh started working on a LP “L’Année en Décembre” which was released in 2009.  In 2011, Vin’S da Cuero and Pumpkin launched Mentalow Music to release their own projets.

After a series of collaborations, concerts with beatmaker Vin’S da Cuero and DJ Lyrik (Paris, Barcelona, Brussels), opening for artists such as DJ Vadim, Ladi6, Grooveman Spot et Mitsu The Beats or J Live, Pumpkin started working on “Silence Radio”… Boom Bap, Soul and Electronica are the main ingredients for this project featuring an eclectic international team such as 20syl (Hocus Pocus/C2C), DJ Vadim, Ty, Pugs Atomz, Metropolis (Foreign Beggars), Vin’S da Cuero, Supafuh, Quiet Dawn…

Buy the full digital EP on iTunes
CD’s and vinyls available via Mentalow records or Bandcamp
Free download “Silence Radio / Mute”
Make sure to also read Pumpkin’s interview on Find Magazine

We have 3 CD copies of “Silence Radio” to offer. Be the first to send me an email to show@laid-back.be giving me the name of the artist responsible for the “Silence Radio” artwork and it’s yours!

We team up with French artist Tchad Unpoe for the release of his new album “UNDOE“.

Dandy Teru who worked as artistic director on this project introduced me to Tchad a couple of months ago so I had the chance to follow the various steps leading to this album release. Active since 1994, Tchad already released 2 albums (Emcique Furilla – 2005 & Musique de France  - 2006), collaborated with various artists and collectives such as Grems, Sept, Keny Arkana, Sako (Chien de Paille), Insight, La Fronce, Keny Arkana ,… and was featured on the soundtrack of “Mesrine”.

While this album is mainly in French, you’ll also hear Tchad rapping in Spanish and English on productions by Le N?ko, Richard Colvaen, Jr Eakee and Dandy Teru.

Musically speaking French rap is where i’m coming from and, although I mostly avoided the genre during the past years, I’m glad Tchad, Teru, Pumpkin, aCatCalledFritz and a few others are bringing me back to it!

Tchad Unpoe on Facebook – Twitter – Soundcloud
UNDOE is now available on iTunes, Bandcamp or directly on www.unpoe.com
Picture by Elise Boularan - Album artwork by THEA

As part of our partnership, Tchad accepted to offer one track out of his album to LDBK’s audience. Enjoy “What we play is life“!

I’m really glad to launch another collaboration with my friend Gilles previously known as This One from Dust Shop records. Last time we played together it was for  some urban exploration in 2010. Today he is back and he is not alone. Now part of the Tailor Made beatmakers collective together with Zedika and LosChaviCheckers, the trio just released a new beat tape.

You can download “Off the Grid” on via the soundcloud widget on top of this page or just visit our wetransfer channel for a free download.

If you want a physical copy of this tape, just mail me a picture of your tapedeck/walkman to show@laid-back.be… only 10 available (and those contain tracks not available in the digital package)

Make sure to also check this short movie/documentary featuring a Tailor Made soundtrack.

A couple of months ago, Niels sent me a sketch inspired by LDBK and asked me If I had any idea what we could do with it.

I liked the poster project that we did last year and was looking for a way to renew it… Then I saw this colouring contest launched by Fremdtunes and love it… So we decided to ask people around us to finish Niels’ poster. Right now the black and white version is quite good, but we think you could help us put the final touch to it or put differently, we’d like you to remix this poster.

I asked Niels if there were any guidelines to be followed and apparently you’re quite free…  ”It is acceptable to draw other things next to the subject, or draw over the drawing itself. Everything you like to add/change to the artwork is good.”

Feel free to download the pdf version and freestyle with it. Early March 2013, we’ll print a series of postcards featuring our 10 (15?) favorite remixes… Please send yours to show@laid-back.be before the 15th of January if you want to join the fun (each participant will receive a set of cards).

Quite curious to see what you will come up with.

J.

ps: Check some of the designs that we already received on facebook or  checkthis.

About the artist: Niels Benoot, (Bruges, 1990) studied photography and artistic education at the Public aAcademy of Fine Arts in Bruges and went to Ghent to study graphic design at the School of Art. His work incorporates a wide arrange of paper, printing methods, folding techniques and unique type design. Niels likes to work with quality fonts from new and young type-developers and young type-foundry’s. In 2011 he designed his first artist collab-book called ‘amor vacui’ with Belgian painter Jan Deconycnk.

Special thank you to Cédric Déondré for his tips.

That specific Sunday, I was suddenly awakened by the sounds emanating from a pile of stacked speakers in the middle of the street, right in front of my house. A couple of neighbors had chipped in to rent the speakers for the occasion. Another neighbor, Elvis, was fine-tuning balance levels while Trevor (see picture below), who happened to be passing by, started to dance. I ran to the bodega and bought some ice-cold beers and hot dogs that I grilled on my stoop with a portable BBQ, and distributed them among the kids of the block.

Ever since that very first block party, I have always found the joyous atmosphere about them addictive. Even this past weekend, I was invited to a block party in Bushwick, Brooklyn by Angel (see picture below), whom I met only a few days ago.

Angel had parked his cars horizontally across the street to block off traffic and installed some “do not cross” police barriers. When I arrived around 1pm, the fiesta had already begun, and the block was alive under the fire of the sun. The aroma of sizzled meat seasoned the humid air, and a few thick and steamy puffs of wind struggled to stir a huge Puerto Rican flag fixed on a street pole. Adults were chattering, dancing and laughing. Boys were riding their bikes and running all over the block, while girls were hula-hooping and jumping in inflatable pools. Angel waved at me while pounding the beat on a tin can – and with a quick sideways glance, immediately indicated where the coolers packed with ice and beers were located. “Toma, grab one, it is the only remedy against the heat,” he said.

Angel’s son, Angelito, had his iPod connected to the sound system and was caught in the middle of an intergenerational friction. While he had selected modern hip-hop tracks, old-timers demanded traditional Salsa Nuyorkina. Facing this growing pressure, Angelito switched to Ruben Blades. “Ok, ok – ay les va,” he said to settle things down. Angelito’s friends were shuffling tiles and exchanging singles a few feet away from the effervescence. An imperturbable chef was flipping dozen of patties while women were busy figuring out the food and refrescos logistics. Most of them had cooked delicious specialties all day the day before, and the foldable tables were filled with aluminum trays of bicultural delicacies. After eating a plateful of pernil and arroz con gandules, I took my camera and snapped a couple of pictures, trying my best to capture this vibrant laid back atmosphere and that marvelous sense of camaraderie.

On my way back home, I made a quick stop at another block party, where teens were shooting hoops and where grown-ups rode their motorized toys. I managed to take a couple of images before the firefighters arrived to turn off the spitting hydrant’s water works. Some angry neighbors might have complained about the low water pressure in the nearby blocks.

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2012

A few months ago, in London I clicked on Laid Back Radio’s Facebook page, and some info about a Festival called KOSMOPOLITE ART TOUR in Belgium popped up… Well, a FREE International Festival that combines Music AND Street Art? I’m in! At that stage, I was just a girl going to a Festival.

01-08-2012, sunny afternoon in Louvain-La-Neuve.

I walked into KOSMOLOCO Exhibition first, and spotted Oli-B‘s work, which I knew via LDBK. I also recognized the radio’s logo re-designed by the FARM PROD (co-organiser of KOSMO), what a bad ass logo!

I walked out to start the tour but the map was pretty rubbish, so I decided to ask. A very busy man running around like a headless chicken kindly offered to walk me to the sound system. That’s Fred; he works at “Chez Zelle” (the youth center handling the administrative part of the Kosmo) and is also an artist. We headed to the Parking Sablon. He was surprised I came from London. I didn’t see why.

The Parking Sablon was a slap in the face. Gigantic breathtaking paintings – colourful, diverse in styles. Johan Baggio and Steve Locatelli were perfecting their shared masterpiece. I sat there quietly, listening to Lovesupreme’s selection of hiphop and enjoying the live painting.

Later, I recognized Julien, founder of LDBK, who offered to be my guide. I was amazed by all the space they had, 8 spots in the centre of the town. The festival is not what I expected; it seems more local but now that I’m here…

Two days later, on the train to LLN, I was thinking about Julien’s words on the first day. KOSMO builds bridges between artists and the public. I came to see them painting live, and it would be insane not to question them about their work. I worried a bit about sounding stupid but I decided to try. My KOSMO ride really began here.

I started talking to Ottograph, from Amsterdam. We talked about all sorts of things. At some point, I told him it was my birthday soon so he gave me the honour to add my year of birth to his wall. He got the number wrong. So next week, I’m turning 24 instead of 29.

I also got to know Juice who was ALWAYS either painting or setting/clearing the sound system that he had brought from Amsterdam. He’s a “paintaholic” and a music addict. Knowing that, you should spot his paintings easily.

Further down, I spoke to Etienne aka EK who took distorted pictures of himself to paint them. Near him, Nelson had started drawing on a column with a thick black filter pen; Nelson is a member of the Farm Prod. Both are long time friends and partners in crime. Nelson offered me to join them all for dinner. But before, I met a soulful Georgian artist called Tamoonz. If you had been there, you would have talked zombies with her. It was pouring with rain but we made our way to Bar du Zoo which I assumed was a fancy name for a canteen. It’s actually a community-run garden / cafeteria. A Couscous that (almost) competed with my mum’s was kindly served by the crew. Tamoonz shared some Georgian sweets with me, I hear some English spoken on one side, Spanish mumbled on the other. KOSMO is as international as London.

Later, some headed back home and carried on until the sun went up. A girl kindly offered to drive me back to Brussels where my night would continue too. I realised that I was a lucky b**ch in Belgium.

04-08-2012 Last Day

The kids were on duty, drinking beer for the warriors, water or coke for the losers. I know a lot of them now. Pest welcomed me and showed me that Jazzi had painted some Fried Chicken on the wall they had been sharing. It’s time for more fun. DJ Black & Lekker had been trying to leave for the last two days but kept “procrastinating”, as Etienne would say. Juice worked out a small sound system to give them company. So Etienne pulled out his funny breaking moves whereas Juice went for the sexy dance… Sticking his bum out and shaking it while painting a massive speaker at the same time. This is how we do it at KOSMO.

Later, I met KETO who could teach me a thing or two with his humility. KETO seeks his inspiration in Africa. He showed me small pieces of his work such as African material on which he drew faces – watch out for those as you might see them in the streets of London soon. Well, KETO has a few tricks up his sleeve. I fell in love with his mind and art. I bought a painting made on slate from him. Later someone would step on it and break it. I’m still not over it.

In the evening, we gathered at Place des Wallons, where they had been also painting a couple of vans. That was not on the brochure! The Closing Party kicked off and everyone was welcome so I scanned the square and it looked like KOSMO had also brought the public together. A small group of City-like people were having a drink, some kids were running around, teenagers were standing on the stairs checking out the scene; the crew were serving food, KOSMO people were hugging and taking thousands of pictures. Later, Fred offered local kids to jump on the van and rap right after MC Cassidy. The smiles on their faces were priceless. Then, a long hour of jungle music killed me. Not my style. But after that my friends, I found the best Belgian dance partner ever, his name was Francois. And together, we shook what our mamas gave us…

The next day, on my way back to the station, I bumped into an artist called Phil, who I had met 2 days before. He was wiping sleep from his eyes and moaning about the festival. I didn’t really want to talk but told him I was sorry he didn’t have a good time. He looked at me, almost shocked, and said: “Are you joking? It was a blast! But it wouldn’t be fun if I didn’t moan!” We laughed and wished each other luck. I jumped on the train and guess what; the national Belgian TV was filming the train as it was departing. What a nice way to end my KOSMO trip.

Thank you all for your hospitality, I came alone but was never lonely. I didn’t mention everyone above, so I want to thank all the artists for talking to me about themselves and their art, I’m less ignorant now.

The rest of you, who were absent… Well, where the hell have you been??

Text by Samira Bhira
Pictures by Gautier Houba except exhibition by Ugo Cab and Juice, BBQ, Lazoo & EK by Julius.
More about the Kosmopolite Art tour: website – facebook

Julius’ note:  Special thanks to Fred, Guitar, the whole Farm Prod team and all the people / institutions / sponsors who made this project possible.

What can I say… This project is way too big for its own good but I’m nevertheless happy to join the Farm Prod team on this crazy adventure: The second edition of the Kosmopolite Art Tour. After Brussels in 2010,  we’re invited to decorate Belgium’s newest city, Louvain-La-Neuve (LLN), between July 30th & August 5th.

This is quite a challenge because the city built in the 70′s by and for the university has a really particular vibe and architecture. I must admit I have a love / hate relationship with LLN since I studied there some 15 years ago. The city changed a lot in the meantime (I hope I did too) and I’m looking forward to see it from a different angle… and be part of a project intented to “improve” it ;)

The main part of the event consists of 50+ artists, a mix of Belgium’s finests and  international guests who will paint 7 walls. As side activities: three exhibitions (including one in Brussels – see below), a few workshops and even a block party are organized… For daily updates and last minutes events, check www.facebook.com/KosmopoliteArtTour

Hope to see you there and wish us good luck because this is pure madness…

J.

Key dates:

July 5th – August 5th: Kosmoloco exhibition (part. I) at Forum des Halles (LLN – RSVP) feat. Dead, Steve Locatelli, El Nino, Hate, Parole, Obêtre, Eyes-B, Reab, Eres, Cäät, Oli-B, Erick Hikups, Ephameron, RN411 Collectif, Blanbec, Solo, Arme, Denis Meyers, Sambre, Dead, Farm Prod, …

July 9th – July 20th: Brussels warm up featuring Steve Locatelli, Sozyone & Parole

July 26th – August 30th: Kosmorigins exhibition at Montana Gallery (Brussels)

July 30th – August 5th: Wall paintings (LLN – see map below) feat. Gilbert (FR) – Lazoo (FR) – Kongo (FR) – Colorz (FR) – Popay (FR) – Isham One (FR) – E.K. (FR) – Pest (FR) – Johan Baggio (FR) – Lady Shove (FR) – Grems (FR) – Ottograph (NL) - Besok (NL-DE) – Juice (NL) – Revolt 77 (NL) – Hanes (CZ)- Obic (CZ) – Binho (BR) – Schok (BR) – Keto (BR) – Sonic (US) – Mad Hatter (US ) Tamoonz (GE) – Kine (DE) – Jazi(SW) – Slep (MX)- New2 (AU ) – Bonga (BR) – Parole (BE) – Obetre (BE) – Eyes-B (BE) – Reab (BE) – Eres (BE) – Caat (BE) – Erick Hikups (BE) - Ephameron (BE) – Resto (BE) – Bue (BE) – Oli-B (BE) – El Nino (BE) – RN411 (BE) – Hate (BE) – Vidaone (BE) – Blanbec (BE) Defo (BE) – Solo (BE) – Aïen (BE) – Arme (BE) – HMI (BE) – Shake (BE) - Mache (BE) – Sambr (FR) – Locatelli (BE) – Denis Meyers (BE) - Veuch (BE) – Dead (BE) – Farm Prod (BE) – Zork (IT) – Corn79 (IT) – …

August 4th: Closing Block Party (LLN)

August 9th – August 30th: Kosmoloco exhibition (part. II) at Forum des Halles (LLN)

The Kosmopolite Art Tour Belgium is a collaboration between Farm Prod, Laid Back, Chez Zelle & Urbana. Design by Stoemp Studio – Video by Sokl Production. More info on www.kosmo-art-tour.com

A few of months ago I asked the Farm Prod team to remix the LDBK logo. My initial idea was to release a new batch of stickers but the boys decided to paint a huge road sign that they displayed in a few exhibitions around the country. Of course we turned their design into stickers but we thought that such a remix deserved more…

Here the new LDBK t-shirt!  Available exclusively on Tjunk
(send me a picture of you wearing one of these tees, I might have a surprise for you)

Nelson & Guifari from Farm Prod at work

T-shirt detail

Get familiar with the Farm Prod collective because you’ll hear a lot about them during the coming weeks as we team up for the organization of the Kosmopolite Art Tour…

I’ve never been to Esperanzah festival but heard a lot of very positive feedbacks about it… This year, they add an urban touch to their concept and also present a refreshed visual identity and communication strategy  (implemented by our friends at Digizik… big up!)

On the 3rd of August, one of LDBK’s regulars DJ Vadim (check his mixes above) will perform (together with Yarah Bravo & The Heavy) in the abbaye of Floreffe:

Russia’s musical genius Vadim is a innovating DJ, producer and radio host bringing an eclectic mix of dope sounds ranging from hip hop to neo soul, funk, dub and reggae. Yarah Bravo is a flamboyant MC, singer, writer, hip-hop head and poet, with an immaculate flow and intoxicating stage presence.

We have 3x2tickets to attend the Esperanzah festival on the 3rd of August to offer.

Just send us an email to show@laid-back.be (before Monday July 2nd – 10am CET) giving us the name of the DJ who collaborated with Vadim on what is our most popular set on Mixcloud (Tiebreaker:  give us also the number of correct answers that we will receive).

Congratulations to Audrey, Martin & Yvan for winning those duo tickets. See you there!

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 (+ two remixes by Duke Slammer & Dagger DX and a bonus). Check also XLR8R as they offer STRANDALICIOUS on their page.

The digital version of this album is now available on iTunes and Bandcamp

200 copies of the vinyl record with artwork by Oli-B are available via Clone

Cover picture: Strand & Oli-B by Gautier Houba

Green Urban Jazz aka GUZZ is the new concept launched by the founders of Piknik Musik en Café Congé. One day filled with grooves balancing between jazz, hiphop, world music, funky beats and soul … in a beautiful park a few minutes away from Brussels.

Have a look at this crazy line up and you’ll find a lot of LDBK regulars. That’s why I’m really glad to have Laid Back support this project.

Line-up:

15:30-17:00 Macka Fat
17:00-18:00 Alpacas (live)
18:00-19:00 Blast Kid & Teddy Tendertouch
19:00-20:00 74 Miles Away (live)
20:00-21:30 Orsii
21:30-22:30 BRZZVLL (live)
22:30-00:00 Mr Critical

July 28th: Domeinstraat 66 – 3010 Kessel-Lo (Leuven, BE) – map
Free entrance (via parking 4): - RSVP on Facebook

Illustration by Kevin “SeQ” Devroo

On May the 26th, 74 Miles Away played at ELBjazz, a festival organized in Hamburg’s harbor with over 50 concerts at unique venues – in the cargo hold of an old freight ship, at a small theatre in Hamburg’s famous Speicherstadt, or at the huge Blohm+Voss shipyards… Incredible setup for a brilliant weekend.

74 Miles Away are…
Pierre Anckaert: Fender rhodes, Korg leads, Nord Stage - pierreanckaert.com
Louis Van De Leest: Wurlitzer piano, Moog synth - monkeyrobot.eu
Eric Paquet: Controllers, Guitar - monkeyrobot.eu
Stefan Bracaval: Flutes - stefanbracaval.com

Free download: 74 Miles Away – Brusseleiro - 74 Miles Away – Seven Four
Next show at GUZZ (Leuven, BE – July 28th)
Video & pictures by Mathieu Cadet for saladetout

After we took a look at the modern jazz scene of Czechoslovakia in the previous episode of the Focus on European Jazz series, it’s time to delve into the jazz music of its neighbouring country Hungary. This is quite a logical step, as the history of the jazz scenes in Czechoslovakia and Hungary show many parallels.

Being both Eastern European countries, Czechoslovakia and Hungary suffered from extreme left regimes that undoubtedly put their stamp on the history of their country’s jazz music. In Hungary, the harsh communist regime was installed right after the Second World War. This regime was opposed to jazz, as it was perceived as music with a distinctive Western character that represented freedom and other principles that did not fit the Soviet ideology.

In 1956, the Hungarian people stood up against this regime, but the Soviet troops reacted heavily and killed 20.000 people. In that year the Hungarian borders were open for a brief period, during which approximately 250.000 citizens, among them many freethinkers and artists, fled their home country. One of them was guitarist Gabor Szabo, who would later have a successful career in the USA and who recorded many classic jazz albums for the Impulse label.

It’s needless to say that this political and sociological context caused a disadvantage for the Hungarian jazz scene and that it withheld the Hungarian jazzmen from making the same progress as American or West European jazz musicians. To give you an idea: 1956 was the year when Sonny Rollins recorded Saxophone Colossus, Miles Davis recorded Round About Midnight and Horace Silver recorded Six Pieces of Silver, all three landmark jazz albums. At that time, musicians in Paris and Stockholm were already recording jazz of the highest quality, which can easily be compared with the music that their American idols were producing at the same moment.

THE 1960s: A TIME FOR JAZZ

It wasn’t until the 1960s that the political climate became more favourable for the Hungarian jazz scene. Little by little jazz clubs and festivals started to pop up in the cities, some articles about jazz appeared in magazines and newspapers, and the state owned label Qualiton (later Hungaroton) started to release a yearly anthology of Modern Hungarian jazz music.

But in the sixties too, the government kept an eye on the jazz scene, even using secret agents to keep track of certain musicians who were considered ‘dangerous’. Even though the organizing of jazz festivals by state officials may seem like a step forward, it was actually a dodgy way of trying to control the jazz scene: if the government organised the jazz festivals, they were able to determine which musicians would perform and, more importantly, which musicians would not.*

But yet, these festivals, clubs and recording dates offered the Hungarian jazz scene, with artists like János Gonda, Aladár Pege, Rudolf Tomsits and Csaba Dese? to name just a few, some opportunities. In the decade to come, they created a thoughtful avant-garde jazz sound with a distinctive Hungarian character. Not by reproducing American jazz, but by delving into the musical history of their own country, and using elements of classical music and folk music (just like the Czechoslovakian musicians, for example, did too) in their compositions and improvisations.

Unfortunately, not much jazz music from Hungary was recorded at the time. The state owned label Qualiton/Hungaroton put its focus on classical, folk and later pop music. Luckily there is the aforementioned Modern Jazz Anthology series, which showcases the finest jazz orchestras of the moment. These Modern Jazz Anthologies (a series of ten volumes) form the basis for the accompanying mix and remain the last witnesses of the modern jazz scene in Hungary.

János Körössy and his Ensemble – Happy Little Sunbeam

János Körössy (aka Ianci Körössi, his name is spelled in many different ways, dependant on where his records were printed) was born in Rumania, but recorded this album in Hungary in 1964. A masterpiece of European modern jazz, this album consists of both jazz standards as well as original compositions. There is no other personnel credited on this album, except for János Gonda, who appears as the musical manager.

Qualiton Jazz Ensemble – Night And Day

That same János Gonda was the pianist and leader of the Qualiton Jazz Ensemble, an orchestra consisting of mostly young musicians. They had the honour of recording the first volume of the Modern Jazz Anthology series. As I wrote earlier, many Hungarian jazz artists were hugely influenced by classical music, and the Qualiton Jazz Ensemble is a fine example. The orchestra consisted of former academy and conservatory students and one of them plays the oboe, an instrumental rather uncommon in jazz. To quote the liner notes: “This band seeks to find the ways leading from jazz to classical music, and they strive for establishing a specifically individual style of chamber music character. At the same time they have also taken into their repertoire (…) numbers which represent other up to date trends in jazz music.” One of those songs is their rendition of the Cole Porter tune ‘Night And Day’, a jazz dance track that still sounds very fresh today.

Studio 11 – Theme Of Achmed Djamal

Studio 11 was the house orchestra of the Hungarian Radio. This beautiful modal jazz song is an interpretation of a theme by the American pianist Ahmad Jamal (hence the title) by Studio 11 pianist Sándor Dobsa.

Csaba Dese? – A Tale

One of the more famous jazzmen of Hungary, Csaba Deseo is remarkable because he plays an instrument that is uncommon in jazz: the violin. In the late sixties, Dese? joined the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he would continue to play until 1999. He always kept on playing jazz though, and improvises on his violin like other musicians improvise on a saxophone or a trumpet. This song was taken from the last ‘Modern Jazz Anthology’ album and is called ‘A Tale’, but Horace Silver fans might recognize ‘Song For My Father’ in it.

Studio 11 – Bled 66

This deep and dark cinematic jazz piece was written by the trumpeter of Studio 11, Rudolf Tomsits. He played in different formations, including his own group, whom he appears with on many of the Modern Jazz anthologies.

Garay Ensemble – The Lake Has Dried Out

Pianist Attila Garay shows us how to transform a Hungarian Folk Song into a cool hard bop piano tune with Afro-Cuban rhythms.

Gyula Kovács Quartet – Keleti csemege (Eastern Delicacy)

Here’s a great example of how Hungarian musicians looked beyond the rules and standards of jazz music and widened their horizon by digging into eastern music. This song was written by Gyula Kovács, who plays drums with his hands on this fantastic deep track.

Csaba Dese? – Under the Csitári Mountains

Another track by Csaba Dese? that I wanted to share is ‘A csitári hegyek alatt’ or ‘Under the Csitári Mountains’, as it is another beautiful example of the fusion of Hungarian folk and jazz. ‘Under the Csitári Mountains’ is a well-known Hungarian folk song, that’s interpreted here in a jazz manner.

Bergendy Ensemble – Blue Light

We end this mix with a fusion track by saxophone player István Bergendy, from the last Modern Jazz Anthology compilation from 1970. Bergendy would later gain notoriety with his work as a progressive rock musician, but this track here is a true jazz funk gem.

* See HAVADI, G. An Individual Subculture Reflected in Domestic Spies’ Reports. Hungarian jazz in the Socialist Period. In PICKHAN G. and RITTER, R. (eds.). Jazz Behind the Iron Curtain. (Peter Lang).`

Cover picture: Janos Gonda (piano), Sandor Vajba (bass), Gyula Kovacs (drums) and Richard Kruza (vibraphone) from dobiskola.uw.hu

I underestimated the emotional impact of a 10th anniversary… but thankfully, I’m surrounded by great people who put me in a birthday mood.

On Saturday the 12th of May, LDBK’s partner from Divergence FM (Montpellier), Simon, called me to record a special anniversary radio show live on the phone…

Nothing was planned, Simon just gave me 10 minutes to select a couple of tracks… This show brought back so many good memories that I had tears in my eyes at the end of it.

A couple of days before, Stefano and Elsje from TV Brussel paid me a visit while I was chilling with Guifari (Farm Prod) at the Brussels Art Factory… before catching up with Kwak while we were at the FM Brussel studio for a special Back to Niceness show.

Needless to say that the party was mad nice (check the pictures). Thanks again to Kwak, the Strictly Niceness team, and all those who dropped by to celebrate with us.

Cover picture: Mark de Clive-Lowe by Michael de Plaen.

Fat City Records (FCR) was founded in 1993 and has been at the forefront of hip-hop, funk, soul, jazz, soul and all things in between ever since.

From its humble beginnings in Manchester’s Affleck’s Palace in February, 1993, it quickly became one of the leading boutique record shops – its name synonymous with style and great taste the world over.

However, after 16 years in Manchester, in which time it had launched its own label and club night, the physical store was faced with closure. Down in London, Jazzman Records owner Gerald Short rightly felt a shop with such an important heritage on the UK music scene should not be allowed to die. He took it over, brought it down south and decided to run the majority of the business online.

I came on board in the autumn of 2010 and, having had a digital and record label background, I quickly came to the view that the online shop needed updating in terms of design and functionality. And so I embarked on an almost two-year journey to, I hoped, bring FCR into the 21st century. And what a journey it has been!

I initially started plotting the plan of its magnificent return with the very talented designer and user experience expert Greg Smith (BC for those in the know), in the shop’s home town of Manchester. We worked really hard in our spare time to come up with different ways and ideas to make it easier and better for our customers to discover, interact and shop on our website. There were some stops and starts, but we finally started the rebuild in the summer of 2011.

Now, almost a year later, I can proudly say that we have done literally everything within our means and power to bring you the best possible FCR experience. Here is a preview of the new site built and designed by Vibrant Drive.

I’m very happy that we have moved away from a chart-based site and introduced a way for customers to tailor their own experience by being filtering the entire shop by both genre and format.

I’m delighted that it’s been built with mobile phones and tablets in mind, so the custom-built audio player is in HTML5 and, if things go as planned, we might even be able to do an FCR app in the future.

Also, since music is my greatest passion in life, one of my big hopes has been that the new site will enable us to work more closely with independent labels and artists, and through those collaborations offer exclusive content on our blog and exclusive releases.

There is of course still a lot of work to be done. We are currently going through our big warehouse full of records and finding loads of old gems that have never been on the site before. So expect a lot of rare warehouse discoveries to be added to the site over the summer!

With the re-launch of the new website, we are hoping to build upon and continue FCR’s legacy of being the go-to destination for all forms of black and urban music throughout history.

The new website will be officially launched on Friday 1st June, 2012, and we will be celebrating this great occasion with a launch party the same day at Floripa by Old Street Tube station in London.

The line-up is wicked, including guest DJs Jazzman Gerald, Chris Read (Music of Substance), Hint (Tru Thoughts), Laid Back’s very own DJ TomE (who will be making it over all the way from Croatia), and myself (Orsii).

So come and help us celebrate this great occasion! It will be the beginning of the Jubilee weekend which means a bank holiday and plenty of time to recover! You can RSVP on our Facebook event page, find us on Twitter! And if you’re not in London, don’t worry! We will be streaming the entire event live via our Mixlr page.

Amede Soundsmith emits a compelling piece to his unfinished puzzle. With each lyric, note and chord he manages to create a distinctive portrait. Drawing outlines with his unorthodox approach, sending us on a voyage, venturing from London to an ever-expanding pool of inspiration.  L.James managed to catch up with him to discuss the new project “Flashing Lights”…

L.James: What is the difference between your last EP “Flat17” and “Flashing Lights”?

Amede: Well. Flat 17 is a building and Flashing Lights are very sparkly. Only kidding. They both have their similarities in terms of how both track lists are structured, with them having a mix of instrumental pieces and full songs, I am a beat junkie at the end of the day. The most significant differences would probably be the concepts, Flat17 didn’t really have one. It was created in my first year of university and I was just hearing tonnes of fresh music in London at the time and I just wanted to be part of that explosion of art. Flashing Lights on the other hand, took a little bit more time to put together as I wanted to build a body of work which would be a better reflection of my personal zeitgeist as I’ve matured a lot over that past three years.

L.James: What imagery do the songs create/ where are you looking to take your audience when they hear your sounds.

Amede: I tend to ask my others this question but If I were to summaries an answer for you, I would say that I like to create pieces of music which creates the illusion of standing on top of a mountain peak or a tall skyscraper with my ribcage opened up as I inhale fresh air directly into my chest. Weird right? Other things would be blurred nostalgic memories at fun fairs, spinning on the roundabout as a kid, long train journeys and interactions with people from my yesteryears. I tend not to forget things like that.

L.James: Where has the title emerged from and does this affect the sounds you have created?

Amede: The title FLASHINGlights is a metaphor for success. I’ve just turned 22 with a bright future ahead of me so I am constantly thinking about my career, the family that I aspire to have as well as where I plan to raise them. Flashing Lights was created with the idea of having the listener empathise with a person who is battling with dividing time between their lover and what they love doing. You can think of flashing lights as a milestone or a warning sign and the songs could be about a lover or those things he or she are battling with.

The project brewed itself in a very organic manner. I was listening to a few beats I created in a playlist in my iTunes and a few of them just worked really well together, from then on it was a game of adding, removing, carving and shaping. The songs where recorded a while back, about six months after FLAT17 but I felt that they would work really well with this concept of flashing lights. Everything happens for a reason.

You’ll find Amede on Tumblr – Soundcloud – Twitter – Facebook

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.

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

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.

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)

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

“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)

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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!

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

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

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.