Electro / Hip-Hop compilation featuring a unique collaboration between Berlin’s renowned electro artists Gebrüder Teichmann, Modeselektor, Jahcoozi and Nairobi’s most wanted rappers and bands Ukoo Flani, Nazizi, Mister Abbas, Just a Band & many more
In early 2009, three bands from Berlin’s world-renowned electronic music scene set out on a journey; their destination: Nairobi, Kenya, in East Africa. The idea ‘Berlin meets Nairobi’, brainchild of the Goethe Institute in Nairobi (a German cultural institution) and electronic music duo Gebrüder Teichmann, was as simple as it was complex at the same time: Berlin musicians would come to this vibrant East African metropolis and meet, mix and mingle with artists from the local music scene.
The name of the project became BLNRB-NRBLN, a fusion of the colloquial abbreviations of the two cities involved. From Berlin, there were Modeselektor, the hyperactive breakbeat-duo, ever-curious electronic producers Gebrüder Teichmann and Jahcoozi, the multicultural star trio composed of Dubstep, Grime Rave and hyper-sonic Electronica. From Kenya, rappers like Mister Abbas, Kimya and Lon ?Jon, and the first lady of Kenyan rap, Nazizi, became part of the joint collaboration. The electropop band Just A Band and blind singer/guitarist Michel Ongaru also contributed their flavours. In addition, six members of the Hip-Hop collective Ukoo Flani from the coastal city of Mombasa were a key part of the body of MCs who would turn up every day and night.
Two studios were set up in a townhouse in Nairobi, where everyone in the project worked, performed and lived together. The above-mentioned bands were invited but word spread within Nairobi’s music scene and quickly there was a frenzy of artists coming and going – the now infamous Madhouse was born.
After a first concert in Nairobi in 2009, the Berliners went back to Kenya in the spring of 2010 for a few weeks, and it was during this period that the first recordings of the presented tracks were made. In December 2010, the musicians from Nairobi came to Berlin for a concert to celebrate the collaboration and to launch a BLNRB EP. The show, held during the Worldtronics Festival in Berlin, was a great success.
BLNRB – Welcome to the Madhouse features 18 original recordings – as diverse as the more than 20 artists involved. The international Electro club music scene has become all about the latest styles and sounds created with the newest digital technology, technology which can still hard to find in Africa. BLNRB is about digging deep into the local Berlin and Nairobi music scenes and building a new urban, global club sound together with some amazing talents from the next generation of African musicians.
http://www.outhere.de/madhouse
http://www.facebook.com/BLNRB
