Latest craze in London town. I hate the sound of the genre 'funky' house but this track has got mine and others attention.

I found this interview over on Pitchfork .I was introduced to the work of Steve Reich in art school by one of my tutors, Sean Taylor, who once gave a lecture on sound and contemporary classical music. Recently, music has begun to inform my practice directly. My documentary short concerning the Rialto Twirlers primarily focuses on rhythm, movement and colour. I have been thinking about the soundtrack for quite a while now and how it will compliment the visual - perhaps by using a continual sound and shifting the rhythm by their hypnotic movements.



Steve Reich:Part One


Steve Reich:Part Two

Labelled as 'global ghetto tech' Ghislain Poirier djs at Kaboogie, Traffic, this Friday. I included his remix of Brooklyn Anthem - Team Shadetek - on my Missognus Mix. The Montreal-based producer's blend of ragga, hip-hop and grime beats are quite infectious - if this gig is as good as Buraka Som Sistema (Crawdaddy, Oct Bank Holiday Weekend 2007) then I better wear my trainers.

My absence on this blog has been due to a number of elements - some meets, contemplative moods, a 16mm film course, live music and social behavior. This was a necessity as there are only so many clips one can watch on You Tube for inspiration.

Jamie Lidell will be performing his new album Jim at The Academy, Dublin, this Saturday. Lidell is known for layering tracks made with his voice into a microphone, performing the percussion and melody as a sequenced one man band. Over these pre-recorded voices, he sings soul-inspired songs. Taking things further than Multiply, Lidell appears to have found the balance between the spontaneous creativity of his raw ideas and how to carefully craft a popular work of art. The result is quite a polished record, one which makes Lidell, marketable. Below, a recent interview with Pitchfork where he discusses why he is making pop, new single Little Bit of Feel Good (2008) and the sultry Daddy's Car (2000) which is a finer example of how raw his creativity can be.

Inspired by a long conversation about misogyny in hip-hop with the artist Declan Clarke, I decided to make this mix. It combines what is fresh in hip-hop and other genres such as funky/niche and baltimore club. Boys and girls discuss widely differing topics, from beating with a branch the girl that slept with your boyfriend, through to immigration difficulties, but many of the songs contain what could be construed as misogynous lyrics (even if they are delivered by women).

The Guardian has an influx of letters regarding Jay-Z headlining at Glastonbury - one journalist is delighted to have the chance to sing along to Jay-Z hits in the rain, and believes the criticism of Jay Z's headline slot reflects an underlying racism from the critics of the festival line up, whilst a reader suggests that the journalist must have no problems with misogyny as the song contains the pithy couplet: "If you having girl problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one". Im not a fan of Jay-Z but I am a fan of Dr. Dre's Chronic 2001 which does contain misogynous lyrics. What is that saying about me? Am I a bad woman?

MissOgnUs Mega Mix (mixed by A.M.)

Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Black Dominoes Remix)
Rye Rye - Shake It To The Ground (Air Jahed Remix)
Spank Rock - Loose (DJ Ayres Remix)
Afrikan Boy - Lidl
Spank Rock - Bootay
Wiley - Wearing My Rolex
Dizee Rascal - Pussyole (DJ Beware Remix)
M.I.A. - Big Branch
Fannypack - Theme from Fannypack
Pase Rock - Lindsey Lohan's Revenge
Ciara featuring M.I.A. - My Goodies (Richard X Remix)
The Gossip - Yr Mangled Heart (Tiga's Congobreak)
Team Shadetek - Brooklyn Anthem (Ghislain Porier Remix)
Ghostface Killah - Charlie Brown (DJ Mehdi Remix feat. Mapei)

In the past few weeks I have noticed a revival of the Funkadelic/Parliament vision of the futuristic. The DFA remix of M.I.A.'s Paper Planes, while more reminiscent of an updated clash than p-funk, has laser beam shooting effects instead of the gun shots that you hear in the original. I watched a random episode of The Mighty Boosh and the character Old Gregg had a Funkadelic funk. Old Gregg's story of how he got this funk was portrayed by an animation akin to the illustrations that are seen on the album covers of funkadelic records. The video below is Snoop Dogg having a great old funkadelic time. Hardcore fans think he is selling out by using a vocoder but I think it's genius.

Snoop Dogg 'Sexual Eruption/Sexual Seduction' (2007/2008)


Funkadelic 'I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody's Got A Thing' 1970

Roxy Cottontail is Blonde Ambition endorsing Hilary Clinton. 

This is old news but something I quite like - M.I.A. has the same shoes as The Rialto Twirlers' wear to perform. I am going to twirling/majorettte practice in a few hours just to chat with Denise the co-ordinator and show her my sketch animation to see what she thinks. After the disastrous baton twirling competition a couple of weeks ago they are now back on form and using Pom Poms for the next competition in June. I am at the stage where I realise this is going to be a very long project. I am also beginning to think I need to narrow down what I want to achieve - and focus on making a documentary. This is going to be quite a challenge - as I am one person but when needs be I am positive I can get help. With all the footage I am sure I can make experimental shorts at my leisure. This shoot with M.I.A. was shot in Kehinde Wiley's studio. His paintings are based on photographs of urban black men who Wiley sees on the street. Dressed in street clothes, they are asked to assume poses from the paintings of Renaissance masters, such as Titian and Tiepolo the result being a fusion of hip-hop and art history. This juxtaposition, classical vs. contemporary has been seen before, most noticeably Tom Hunter's photography work 'Living in Hell and other Stories' where staged photographs are derived from Renaissance paintings whilst being influenced by stories from the Hackney Gazette. However, I got a funny feeling that Wiley is doing something different.