Tamizdat Dispatch #8 / Aug-Sept 2001 [18.08.2001] post-rock/avant garde/electronic/indie-pop/ethnic/jazz/punk Dispatch is a newsletter about independent music from Eastern and Central Europe. For more info, please write us: info@tamizdat.org I. Music news: News, Tour Dates and Festivals II. Field report: Bridging downtempo, electro, and jazz in Poland: Robotobibok and AGD III. New cds! on our rapidly growing Tamizdat RPM Catalogue IV. Featured website this month: WWW.5D.SK, leads the way in Slovakia V. Tamizdat distributors: a growing team of great distributors we work with I. MUSIC NEWS: Concert Previews: TAMIZDAT SHOWCASE AT CMJ MUSIC MARATHON Thursday, Sept 13, Club Warsaw, Brooklyn, NY, USA Featuring excellent independent music from Poland: Happy Pills, Robotobibok, Something Like Elvis, Program, and special guests the infamous NY/Ukrainian art-punks, Gogol Bordello. Tamizdat and Polish label, Antena Krzyku, cooperate to make this tour happen, and we've added these dates near you! 9/12 Lilies, Boston, MA 9/13 Warsaw, Brooklyn, NY 9/13 CMJ Day Stage (CMJ Registration at the NY Hilton) 9/15 Terrace Club, Princeton, NJ 9/18 Velvet Lounge, Washington, DC. For more info and to hear the sounds on Tamizdat, www.tamizdat.org! THE RUSSIAN PERCUSSION US/CANADA TOUR Feat. DJ Vadim, Kila Kela, Mr.Thing, Demolition Man * In New York, with special guest Sarah Jones and the infamously banned "Your Revolution"! Tamizdat teams up with hip-hop heroes Ninja Tune and Jazz Fudge to present the East Coast and Canadian tour of DJ Vadim's deckalicious dazzling cutting edge hip-hop extravaganza. Featuring master turntablists DJ Vadim and ex-Scratch Pervert Mr. Thing, cool styling MC Demolition Man and mind-blowing beat-box, Kila Kela, Russian Percussion has performed in over 14 countries and now brings their revolution to American shores. 9/12 Knitting Factory NY 9/13 Lee's Palace, Toronto, ON 9/14 Sona, Montreal, PQ 9/15 Bard College, Annadale-on-Hudson, NY 9/16 Black Cat, DC 9/19 Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA For more info, write to: heather@tamizdat.org JAROCIN FESTIVAL 2001 CANCELLED To the dismay of Polish musicians and fans, Poland's oldest and biggest multigenre music festival was cancelled only weeks before activities were set to go. Lacking funds and flagging ticket sales were the said cause of the untimely cancellation. VILNIUS JAZZ FESTIVAL 2001 Sept 20-23 in Vilnius, Lithuania [www.vilniusjazz.lt] 9/20 Vilnius City Hall: V.Labutis-E.Kanevicius (Lithuania) two Vlinius jazz greats, bass and sax 9/21 Drama Theatre: Kurt Elling Quartet (USA) award-winning jazz vocalist with group 9/22 Drama Theatre: Mynta (Sweden/India) mixing Indian tablas with Latin and Swedish folk 9/23 Drama Theatre: program tba... FREE FLIGHT 4: Experimental-electronic Festival Aug 24-25, 9 pm - 6 am, Club Friday, St Petersburg, Russia [news from DJ Swop] The 4th annual Free Flight festival takes place this weekend, featuring the absolute best in Russian experimental independent electronic music. Free Flight is so far the only festival in Russia dedicated to new electronic sounds, featuring artists not only from Russia but also from Germany, Finland, Riga, and Moscow. Necessity instigates creativity in the Russian electronic underground, where artists don't get hung up by not being able to afford that nifty new hi-fi Akai. Instead they draw on such as distorted found sounds and poignant dynamics to achieve great effects. Free Flight honestly presents some of the best music in Russia these days, according to us here at Tamizdat. Concerts include the famed New Composers, Messer Chups, Deadushki, Fizzarum, and the DJ Swop OrchEstra. EUROTRIALOG FESTIVAL Aug 25, 1pm-4am, Michulov, Czech Republic [www.eurotrialog.cz] Headlined by The Ex Orchestra, this festival is strategically situated in location near the Austrian border, and in so doing aims to celebrate the interchange of music across borders, featuring an amazing line-up of local and international musicians. Eurotrialog is headlined by a rare performance of The Ex Orchestra from Holland. Other featured performers include Uz Jsme Doma (CZ), Kiss Erzsi Music (HU), Metamorphosis (AT/CZ), Something Like Elvis (PL), a rare performance by Dunaj (CZ). Festival Reviews: MUD LUSCIOUS POHODA July 20-22, Trencin, Slovakia [www.pohodapohoda.sk] With over 15000 totally soaked fans dancing (or managing) through 10 cm of thick mud, Pohoda this year lost no steam and even gained points for endurance. Mucky yet entertaining concerts by the likes of Hypnotix (CZ), Kid Paris (AT), Anima Sound System (HU), and Mad Professor (UK) were sandwiched among hundreds of DJs and regional bands and performers. Sum Svistu's (CZ), madcap Elvis-meets-John-Spencer vaudevillian antics and HERE's calm indie-electro beauty stole our votes. Pohoda's program featured a little of everything good on the continent, and would've drawn thousands more had the rains quit. I'm sad that up-and-coming stars Nylon Union couldn't play due to thunderstorms, but hopefully next year the sun will be on Pohoda's side. FULL MOON OVER SZIGET 2001 Aug 1-8, Budapest, Hungary [www.pepsisziget.com] The infamous Hungarian Pepsi Sziget festival this year attracted nearly 500,000 fans, and featured such foreign bands such as Placebo, Morcheeba, Run DMC, Noir Desire, and Ritchie Hawtin as well as hundreds of regional talent in electronic, world, hard-rock, avant-garde, and even Krishna-core. Concert picks included long concerts by "gypsy" musicians in a picturesque canvas tent stage, as well as the stylized full-stage jazz roaming of Hungary's Yonderboi, and a captivating set by Morcheeba. Thousands camped throughout the festival park on the Sziget Island, and the weather held perfectly with the moon casting a warm glow over events. Despite some embarrasing squabling amongst local politicians about the rights of gays and lesbians to perform, the event went swimmingly. Hopefully the future will see Sziget printing programs in English or German as well as Hungarian... this would help lots! II. FIELD REPORT: Downtempo jazz-electro in Poland: Robotobibok and AGD Just because you don't live in Chicago doesn't mean you can't groove with sax and samplers. Poland's post-jazz scene is going strong, sauntering through the territories cut by Poland's first wave Yass (formerly hard-core musicians who then defined Polish post-jazz) for a more refined downtempo hybrid of psychedelic post-rock and schooled jazz. Purveyors of this sweet and patient new sound fall into two camps: the jazzier and jocular, with bands like Robotobibok leading the former and splinter group AGD doing the latter. Robotobibok bridges Bitches Brew, Bill Laswell, breakbeat drumming and the whole of the Polish jazz tradition. Combining the motor of 'robot' with the Polish word "obibok" (loosely translated as droning or loafing) their name says all that the music conveys. Robotobibok's direction follows avantjazz legends Maestro Trytony, whose leader Tomasz Gwincinski produced their debut "Jogging," a landmark of this newly grooving downtempo scene. AGD is the slowed-down sister of Robotobibok, sharing two band members. Manipulating delicately laid grooves, punctuated with cadencial chords and upstart bleeps and subtle electronic effects, AGD reference greats like as Meredith Monk and Christian Wolff in their decidedly listenable downtempo. Spikes of musical humor which AGD sets carefully in vocal samples lain over rising drones, translate in any language and should be listened to close up for their detail. To hear these and more sounds like them on Tamizdat RPM: Robotobibok: http://www.tamizdat.org/rpm/clips/podroz.ra AGD: http://www.tamizdat.org/rpm/clips/lotnisko.ra And catch Robotobibok at CMJ and on tour with the Polish New Music Tour this Sept! III. NEW CDS IN TAMIZDAT's ONLINE SHOP C,"Dep" on Minority Records (CZ) Minority Records continues their winning streak with C, a swath of driving, punctuated, mathy drone rock. Lots of Wire via Band of Susans here, with a chuffy levity to keep it up. Point, "Aquila Bert" on Minority Records (CZ) Recorded and produced by Kip Beelman (Juno, Unwound, Built to Spill), Point's sound is driving in a very DC kind of way, with super playing and razor-sharp songwriting. This is one of the most inspiring releases yet from the Czech post-punk underground. Peach Pit, "Suspicious Cargo" on Earwing (HR) Peach Pit's debut is patient, minimalist rock explosion, excellently produced to sound jagged and live, brittle and hollow and perfect. If you can imagine Alger Hiss produced by Van Hecke (Violent Femmes debut), it might sound something like this. Rambo Amadeus "Zbrana Dela" on Vinyl Manija/Nika (SL) Rambo Amadeus is a little hard to explain to the uninitiated. Sort of like the Balkan Beasty Boys, he is an institution beloved by kids and revered by critics for his acute politics and heavy hiphop. Zbrana Dela is a two volume compendium of his "Collected Works", which offers an apt intro to his pop-culture cannibalism. Dainius Pulauskas Sextet, "Autumn Suite" from Litus Agency (LT) It takes an attentive ear to follow what this Vilnius ensemble is up to, and to notice what makes them great, but once you tune into their subtle manipulations of jazz traditions and cliches, you discover a group of rare innovation and sensitivity. Burunduk Quartet, "Stuffed Horse" on Exotica (RU) With noire jazzy grooves that would be right at home on a Coldcut mix, Burunduk Quartet draws out tastefully shifting patterns, vacillating between trip-hop, dub, and cool jazz. Unbelievable electronica, don't file under "classical"! F.R.U.I.T.S., "Jakuzi Exotica" on Exotica (RU) Moscow's F.R.U.I.T.S. steers their dry electronic noises in the services of campy, euro lounge pop. The album is subtitled "Easy Techno Cocktail Music", and despite their proclivity for bare synth sounds, they pull this off with considerable panache. Sabot, "Once Upon a Mind" on Cesta (CZ) Sabot's newest release intricately packed in a mini pop-up book, benefits from top-notch DIY production to boasts Sabot's signature rumbling, grooving, driving energy. If you've never heard them, imagine No Means No without the frills (i.e., guitar and vocals!) and you have an idea of where this powerhouse duo is coming from. IV. TAMIZDAT'S FEATURED SITE THIS MONTH: WWW.5D.SK In a small economically challenged country like Slovakia, you might think the tech industry has a long way to go. Perhaps, but this doesn't keep young people from creating amazing new forums for communication and information. Years of slow development and gradual work have led to the fruition of Slovakia's coolest independent online music source, 5D. Created and maintained by a community of smart and dedicated culture fans, 5D features international cultural events and happenings, read there about upcoming concerts, films, or recordings. 5D covers not only music: you can also choose Eco or SciTech magazines, all open-minded sources of fresh (and good) info about what's really going on in Slovakia and beyond. Nice design and great content, 5D are a model to follow, check them out! V. TAMIZDAT DISTRIBUTORS AND SALES PARTNERS: Argentina: Mr Floyd Benelux: Lowlands France: Orkhestra Taiwan: Avant Garden Switzerland: RecRec UK: Shellshock USA: Revolver, Southern, Other Music Online: InSound, Clamazon
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