Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide show this week was a slight change in tack as he focused on “In new beats we trust”. But hang on, I recognise that voice, it’s MamikO! What’s she doing in Amsterdam?
So MamikO from Other Worlds (London) is now a fully paid up and active member of the ‘Beat Generation’ community in Amsterdam. But she’s lost none of her intergalactic sense of place as she tells me, “I am coming from Jupiter (1 of the Cosmos) and landed on planet earth in the early 80s to spread the message of Peace through Music”.
Obviously touched by the rays from Sun Ra she continues “I’ve been all over the place and played at various clubs, bars & bedrooms. Started off with Belgian FM radio (RAdio Centraal) and then the HepCat Radio show back in 2002. It was a weekly show and very underground show with my best friend and DJ fellow Jolita Pabludo. Every Friday we would add the shows online and to our great surprise, it got downloads from all over the place. Even today people tell me they’ve got HepCat radio shows on their hard drives or ipods”. It’s worth checking www.didureally.com for some archived shows as I’m sure I’ve got a C90/mp3 knocking about and apart from the music, the joy of the shows were, as MamikO says, “As we never took ourselves too seriously” (and you’ll like the artwork).
Since 2004 she’s been involved with Faces Records together with Pablo Valentino. “People these days, very often misinterpret what is actually to be a DJ. At Faces Records, our back catalogue includes classic broken beat to jazz to house and beats with amazing producers L’Aroye or Inverse Cinematics with remixers like Domu or Dave Da Gato (Fluid Ounce) plus future beats by cats, like Sir OJ, Probe DMS, Brownstudy, Ill Dubio, Dorian Concept and many more”.
Getting back to the Peterson show, the idea was to showcase old and the new producers from all over the world. Top choices seemed to concentrate on old hands like DJ Premier, Phat Kat, Dimlite, Dabrye, Madlib, Pete Rock and, of course, J Dilla (RIP).
In Gilles’ introduction he said, “We’re literally searching for the perfect beat” and it was MamikO that started off her selection with the Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force classic, ‘Looking For The Perfect Beat’. She said that this record took her back to MTV in the eighties, “I was too small to break-dance, but I remember well, every time I’d watch the clip, I’d try to copy their moves. Other things were very clich?© I’d say; from my own discovery I’d recommend Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five ‘The Message’, Midnight Star ‘Freak-a-Zoid’, RunDMC ‘Its like That’ (original version), anything by Kraftwerk and all my Dad’s disco collection (vinyl and cassettes)”.
Her next choice was Ill Dubio from Switzerland who she says should get greater recognition, so, “Ill Dubio is one of the Soul Sociedad crew (see links below). He’s been around doing sick beat tapes, Astro Black Radio shows, featured on my HepCat Radio shows back in a day and more recently on BTS (Andrew Meza, as featured in the current Shook magazine) and others. The other Soul Sociedad crew release was the amazing Deep Soul Revisited by Skymark. Only 300 were pressed and it was sent exclusively to Japan for Jazzy Sport distribution. That is a ONE classic record to have!” Also, “there’s a live studio set from 2005 on U Won’t Fool The Children Of The Revolution (No. 68), click HERE)”.
MamikO ended with a track from Ras G “representing LA, Poo-Bah Records, Brainfeeder and the Sun Ra philosophy”. Fan’s may recall he featured on the Love Is The Answer album and the The Sound Of L.A. Volume 2 EP. “Oh yes! RAS G is definitely one to watch and follow. I am a BIG fan. We just share the same taste in so many genres of music and especially JAZZ. If you check his beats, you’ll recognize that Sun Ra is a huuuuge influence. LA finest designer Stephen Serrato, who designs sleeves for Poo- Bah records (also Stones Throw & B+ (Brazil In Time) introduced me to Ras and we stayed in touch online for a while. His releases on Poo-Bah and remixes for Take for example is some real Rawness, just the way I like it! Thanks to Brainfeeder and Flying (Los Angeles) Lotus, I could invite Ras G to play with us and hang out in Amsterdam last month. Believe me, that was gentle hardcore for tha speakers and tha girls! [Note: Ras G & The African Space Program (((Ghetto Sci-Fi))) LP will be out soon on Poo-Bah].
And whilst on the subject of LA, we got talking about Amsterdam (as you do) which you can catch up on at Part 2 of the Interview (click HERE).
Links:
www.samurai.fm/faces
www.myspace.com/one_dot_one
www.myspace.com/facesrecords
www.myspace.com/otherworldsrecords
www.kindred-spirits.nl
www.rushhour.nl
www.myspace.com/illdubio
www.soulsociedad.com
www.btsradio.net
www.myspace.com/btsradio
www.shook.fm
http://www.myspace.com/sserrato
www.myspace.com/jazzysport
Gilles Peterson ::
Mamiko- (Amsterdam)
Afrika Bambaataa - 'Looking For The Perfect Beat' (Tommy Boy)
I'll Dubio - 'Untitled' (Test)
Sir OJ Gullyion – ‘Star Wars’ (Test)
Ras G – ‘Yesterdays Tomorrow’ (Test)
www.myspace.com/rasg
www.jaydeetribute.com
www.amsterdam-dance-event.nl
Friday 23rd May samurai.fm 5th Birthday @ Visions Video Bar – London, 588 Kingsland Road, London, E8 4AH – Lindstrom Live, DJ Cosmo, Allez Allez, Simon Rigg – Phonica, Future Sound of Clapton, Mamiko Motto -9pm – 4am Tickets 8 ADV / 10 Door
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin
CDR www.burntprogress.com
