Adham Shaikh 'Basswalla' Review

Artist: Adham Shaikh

Title: Basswalla

Label: Black Swan 

Sounds

Released: 26^th May

When it comes to global bass Adham is not only a pioneer, but as the title implies he's a basswalla (in other words he's a master of his craft). Although this is his first mostly original material release in the last 5 years he has certainly honed his sound on his re-mixes throughout that period and once again completely satisfied high expectations with the content of this latest release.

The release begins with the title track 'Basswalla' and within 10 seconds of pressing play and for me the blend of eastern flutes and deep bass it's already a winner. The tracks that follow don't disappoint as Adham's 25 years experience of fusing world music with urban electronica blossom into full bloom. Whether it's the low bass, rump shaking Bhangra'esque hip-hop fusion of 'Cultivation' featuring the positive lyrics of Shamik, the haunting gypsy violin, rolling percussion and organ mash-up of the Elders Dance mix of 'Vibe Hunter' or the fusion of flamenco guitar with Armenian dudak (a double reed woodwind instrument not a million miles away from a clarinet) in 'Rumba Dub' it hits the spot.

The album closes with versions of previous tracks. Not wanting to simply re-mix again Adham takes the tracks back to grass roots. In the case of the Deep South mix of 'Crossroads' utilising a performance by Prakesh Sontakke on a mohan veena (a Hawaiian slide guitar modified to include the sympathetic resonance and drones found in Indian music) in it's entirerity and added percussion on the dholak by E Shankar.

It must be hard as an artist to maintain an interest from the fans with each new release. If your style changes some fans may depart and if you stay static others may get bored. For me Adham's at the top of his game and delivers exactly what he labels on the tin. In my opinion his only downfall maybe being saturated in an ever growing market where eventually listeners may begin to look for other styles. 

Reviewed by Woodzee.

Links

adhamshaikh.com

blackswansounds.com

Desert Dwellers - Night Visions Review

Artist: Desert Dwellers

Title: Night Visions

Label: Black Swan Sounds

Released: 29^th October 2013

Night Visions is a selection of re-mixes by the Desert Dwellers. This selection contains familiar and unfamiliar artists to me drawing from the western slant of world/dub/bass fusion and the world music scene.

My attention is really caught by the second track a re-mix of Earthrise Sound Systems ‘Makyen Ghrir Allah’ I must confess I don’t know too much about Earthrise Sound System except they are another Yoga inspired act and label mate of the Desert Dwellers.  Someone I’d marked as must explore deeper a while back after watching this video ...



Anyway, back to the review in question … this track is a wonderful combination of lush ambient sequences and deep speaker shaking low frequency bass and features a lovely North African male vocal.

The next track is a re-mix of Australia’s psy-bass aficionado Kalya Scintilla. The vocal switches to a female this time. While the music is a melting pot of glitchy wobbles, fx sequences and continues to maintain the trend of appeal I have begun to find consistent with the Desert Dwellers. Moving forward to the re-mix of Girish’s ode to the Hindu goddess of art, music and science ‘Saraswati’ and I have to say I love this one. Beginning with gentle acoustics and vocals the sequenced layers are slowly introduced utilising the reverb perfectly. Proper chillout!

Next up is a re-mix of the Kaya Projects ‘Ghasi Ram Blues’ and the track is aptly named, beginning with Seb’s blue’s guitar before a lovely bassline is introduced the term ‘this chugs along nicely’ springs to mind. No need to worry though it’s not one of those re-mixes where someone just adds a fresh beat. There are plenty of well constructed blues filled bridges. This is followed by Adham Shaikh’s ‘Desert Dub’ a great track it’s own right in my humble opinion. This version is perhaps a little more laid back exploring different avenues of where the dub fx are utilised and a nice alternative to boot.

Other artists include Deva Premal, Jai Uttel and finishes with the track that really turned me onto the Desert Dwellers music … The Laya Projects ‘Sunset in Akkarai’ wonderful stuff.

Review by Woodzee

Links

http://www.blackswansounds.com/night-visions-desert-dwellers-selected-remixes.html

http://desertdwellers.org/

>

Adham Shaikh Interview

I first came across Adham Shaikh’s music on the Dakini Records compilation “Tribal Matrix 2” which includes his track “Kundalini Fuel”.  Digging deeper it transpired that he had been releasing music for some considerable time before that release. I’ve followed his uploads on Soundcloud and have been constantly impressed so it’s high time he featured on the Sun Is Shining.

1)     Firstly thank you for taking the time out from your busy schedule to complete this interview. Could you tell us a little about yourself and how you started your musical career?

My name is Adham Shaikh and I am a global bass producer (world fusion) exploring the relationships between sounds of the old world and the new, fusing electronics with traditional instruments from around the world.  Explorations of dance, dub, world, chill-out, down-tempo & funk.  I started playing classical piano from the age of five and studied classical piano and then composition for a few years at university. But the discovery of synthesizers at fourteen really changed my path and began my love affair with all things electronic.

2)     With HMV going into administration after 92 years it certainly high-lights the change in way people are purchasing music. As an artist who combines the traditional sounds of the past with the more modern electronic sounds do you still prefer the analogue synths or are you embracing the new technology to the point of music apps on your mobile?

The whole "industry" has changed and certainly the way we were making music in early 90's with multiple synths, drum machines, sequencers, outboard fx and big mixers has evolved to compact possibilities in just a laptop with software. I have stayed with the tech and find myself especially on film projects working entirely in the computer with software samplers, software instruments, virtual fx and virtual mixing.   Even when I play live I have two ipads running synths and touch osc with laptop … amazing.  

I love analog synths though and still have a few of my favs from over the years a Jupiter 6, prophet 5, mks 80 and ms 20. Nothing sounds as pronounced and thick, I often record these into the computer as audio tracks.  But for song writing, speed of recall and accuracy of tuning (I work on lots of projects in different tunings) the soft synths and computer are often more than enough.

3) You have also released music with the sitar player Uwe Neumann as the DreamTree Project. Could you tell us more about this and will there be more releases in the future?

The DreamTree Project is a musical magic carpet ride featuring the classical sitar stylings of Uwe Neumann. I met him a number of years ago after his performance at the Montreal jazz festival. I approached him to see if he was interested in bringing the raga toward the dub music form.  To explore a light classical raga form with dance beats and big bass, aimed at bringing the raga to the electronic festival and a new audience. Who perhaps appreciate bass, as well as good vibrations? We are working on another album, but it's taking some time as we both also have busy solo careers to answer too.

We had a number of great performances last year and have developed some new material and hope this year to get more of it down on tape!

4)     You also produce scores for film and television how would you compare this to the music you release yourself?

Indeed, for the past ten years or so I have been exploring and developing music for film, both scoring to picture and licensing. A lot of the music that I write for film is a lot more ambient, and varied in style, for example one of my most recent projects for National Geographic where I was scoring lots of animal movement using tribal rhythm and drumming, with sound design layers and guitar layers (both midi and local guitarists).  You can hear examples of my film music on a recent release "Resonance" that is about to get re-released on ambient down-tempo label White Swann in the U.S. in the next few months.

5)      You’ve played numerous festivals all over the world. Do you have a particular favourite and where can fans see you this year?
 

It’s difficult to choose a favourite as they all have such unique experiences. Some notable festivals are Water Women festival in Ecuador.  Such an amazing location with a profound indigenous presence, amazing ceremonies and music (It’s the most profound festival that I’ve been too). While Luminate festival over in New Zealand combines lush countryside, super friendly people and good vibrations. Basscoast and Shambhala festival’s on the West coast of Canada and the Beloved festival in Oregon (sacred world music/electronic festival) has an amazing vibe with amazing music. Still up there in ranking the Samothraki dance festival in Greece in the early noughties with a volcano, warm ocean , 5.1 surround chill out , amazing artists, amazing food and little hotels.  Keep an eye on my web-site for current and forthcoming live performances.

6)     You released a re-mix album last year of 2010’s Universal Frequencies is their any new material in the pipeline?
 

I’ve got a few things going on this year. White Swann as previously mentioned are re-releasing Resonance (along with bonus tracks) as well as a best of compilation in a chilled yoga style due out in the fall.

                                                                       

There’s also volume 2 of Refractions featuring the Kaya Project, Desert Dwellers, Spoonbill and Drumspyder due for April the 20^th. A solo album/ep on Wonderwheel for this year which features some of my more Latin influenced tunes and a solo ep through SonicTurtle this fall consisting of new bass heavy music from my new side-project  Basswhallah.  These are heavy ethno bass tunes, far heavier and harder than the tunes I release as "Adham Shaikh.”

Links

http://www.sonicturtle.com

https://soundcloud.com/adhamshaikh

Eccodek - Remixtasy Review

Artist: Eccodek

Release: Remixtasy

Label: Big Mind

Release Date: Sept 2011

Canadian artist Andrew McPherson’s Eccodek project has only recently come to my attention. Like many of the artists we feature this project combines the artists work with input from a variety of singers and musicians from around the globe.

Remixtasy as the title suggests is an album that features 11 re-mixed tracks from previous releases. Having not heard the original pieces I can only share my listening experience of this particular release and although, I’m familiar with many of the artists assigned with these re-mixes such as Transglobal Underground, Adham Shaikh, EarthRise SoundSystem & Dubmatix the tracks that stand out to me are actually re-mixed by the unfamiliar artists.

The album begins with Jeff Stott’s soothing re-mix of “Behind The Mask” where the music and vocals are not dissimilar to the sound of his Lumin project which fuses traditional Eastern folk and modern electronica along with the exquisite vocals of Irina Mikhailova. A firm favourite of mine is Four80Easts re-mix of “In This Drum A Secret”. It’s one of those down-tempo tracks that lift’s you off your backside and on to the dance floor. It seems to combine Ibizan chill & acidic psy-dub with African vocals and I was mildly surprised to discover they are a Canadian Nu-Jazz duo. While I’m also quite partial to Andrew’s own Stepper’s dub mix of Bizuru Dub which sits somewhere between dub-tech and dub reggae, again featuring African vocals.

To summarise this release combines traditional Asian and African music with modern dubby or funky electronica. Personally, I found the album a pleasure to listen to at home. While the Four80East re-mix is top notch, one I would like to hear out and will be playing for some time to come.

Reviewed by Woodzee