Wednesday linktastica (mostly music)

This morning, nothing to do with Israel and Gaza.

Transpontine informs us of a Deptford archive project, inviting you the local resident to contribute, and reminds me a of some happy Deptford memories: the Use Your Loaf squatted social centre which closed in 2004. At the other end ofoma the High Street, the Deptford Dame pays homage to SE8's fish shops.

At Transpontine's other place, History is Made at Night, he celebrates London's urban radio scene.

Which brings us to the question of racial profiling and grime music. Personally, I don't see grime as being higher risk than other urban music genres, or black youth as higher risk than other ethnicity youth, and thus am against the "Form 696" profiling that appears to be going on. I say that on the basis of some experience of young people and the music scene in inner South London, rather than any kind of quantitative break-down of trouble at venues (although it is interesting that, as far as I know, the Metropolitan Police have not presented any such breakdown to justify their actions. It is true that there is a strand of grime that aestheticises urban violence - but equally there is a strand decrying it. More typically, like the early pre-commercial days of hip hop, the music is more often story-telling about urban reality rather than either glorifying or criticising crime. It is also a defining feature of grime that it is a very trans-ethnic scene, not an exclusively black thing.

Moving on to a very different genre of music, I've featured some of the wave of Balkan-, klezmer- and Gypsy-influenced music on this blog in the past. Murúch reviews (and posts mp3s from) Luminescent Orchestrii, another example of the genre s/he calls the "demented circus" genre.

If you haven't been keeping up with Locust Avenue's journey through the twentieth century, 1911, including the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Bartok, and young Mao and music from Bahia, is great.

I've been meaning to put together a music post to celebrate Obama's inauguration but just haven't managed. Instead, then, go to Locust Avenue, Star Maker Machine, Cover Lay Down and Keep The Coffee (1,2).

Finally, a beautiful poem by Simin Bebhahani at The Poor Mouth.

Comments

Whenever I try to access "The poor mouth" my computer goes into a frightening tantrum.
jams o donnell said…
THat a shame Contentious Centrist. It may be that I havwe a lot of images.

Thanks for the plug Bob. I love her poetry. Next month will be a Forough Farrokhzad fest, Valetine's Day being the anniversary of her death
bob said…
Reposted here: http://brockley.blogspot.com/2009/01/for-noga-and-i-hope-this-is-ok-with.html
Hope that's OK Jams

Popular Posts