Courtesy of Knitting Factory Records

You can hear the sonic ripples of Fela Kuti’s legacy anywhere in the world. But to appreciate the explosive power of the man as a musician, a bandleader, and a booming voice for social justice, the tale becomes a Nigerian story, an African story. Rikki Stein was Fela’s manager and close friend, a veteran of management and event production, and the author of Fela’s obituary, but equally able to articulate the future promise of the music. Just getting that music heard could be a challenge, requiring everything from face-offs with police to DIY PA systems. read more »

Busta Rhymes (in hat) and John Carraro (at the turntable).

It is no small privilege to have been invited to share with you the story of New York’s legendary record conventions that were held at Manhattan’s Roosevelt Hotel located at E. 45th Street. It may be by sheer coincidence or destiny itself, but this seems to be the appropriate time for ruminations and memories to be resurrected. read more »

Reprinted from Issue 37.

When DJs become musicians, two outcomes are possible: (1) their record sounds like a best effort to recreate fetishized musical styles and production techniques, or (2) they channel their musical influences into a unique blend that transcends their crates. The ten-person-strong Phenomenal Handclap Band, helmed by two underground New York DJs, Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand, generates a sound that is greater than the sum of their record collections. read more »

In an age in which robotic vocals have become cliche, the most important thing to know about the talk box is that it’s not a vocoder. read more »

CasinoKat

World War II may have given us the atom bomb, but it also contributed what Ray Charles would call “an atom bomb on the musical landscape.” read more »

Photo by B+

Originally published in Wax Poetics, Issue 8 (Spring 2004), this article provides an intimate glimpse into this dynamic duo’s working relationship. Although Madlib and MF DOOM have both been the subject of their own individual Wax Poetics features (Issues 29 and 31, respectively), this interview, conducted by Stones Throw GM Eothen Alapatt, gets in good with these two often-ellusive luminaries. read more »

Since 2003, the eight-piece funk band Brownout has been rocking b-boy jams and packing live-music venues with fast-paced funk covers. read more »

As above, so below, wrote magician-philosopher Hermes Trismegistus. It’s the key to all the universe’s mysteries: the macrocosmos is the same as the microcosmos. The Mackrosoft is the same as its microgram doses. A single bar of music from the brothers is as important as their entire catalog; a single beat represents their entire philosophy. See Cheebacabra’s shape-shifting synthesizer masterstroke, Exile in the Woods, and think Marc Moulin’s angular geometry. This is music as fractals played on a Mandelbrot drum set. Menacing, spiraling, salvia-chewing self-transforming machine elves go to work in the studio, and Cheeba plays Tristan Tzara and picks up the pieces. Also see the Mackrosoft’s jazz-funk organic opus, Antonio’s Giraffe, and think Bob James as primordial Ptah. Like a mad Strindberg indulging in alchemy, atomic arranger Aja West flips Sandoz Lab samples into Fibonacci sequences. He codes Headhunters drummer Mike Clark and triggers the cosmic 808 (RIP R. A. Wilson). Finally, see the adepts’ synth-funk ode to their childhood felines, Flash and Snowball, and think Herbie Hancock Gully-jaunting from synth to sensi. Together, Aja and Cheeba create a blood-brother ritual of dynamic interconnectedness, always macking their slew of keys — Minimoog Voyager, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, Roland Juno-60, Korg PolySix, ARP Solina String Ensemble, Yamaha CS-40m, Moog Opus-3, the Cat by Octave, Roland JX-3P, MTI Auto-Orchestra, Ensoniq ASR-10, and the PAiA FatMan. read more »