The Mad Beat Of The Drums

Got it down to 88 photos now and have all the baby ones converted and perhaps put up tonight.  We will see.

In the mean time here is some Brazilian carnivale music I heard on the interweb that might be the most awesome thing I have ever heard.  It is all drums and all awesome.  Seriously, this is the bees knees.

BatukAxé (Marcus Santos' Bateria) by gregzinho

Here is a description of the music from the most Brazilian person I know:

Axe is a type of music from the North East of Brasil where you visited i believe.  More specifically Salvador, Bahia.  It is the principal music played in "their" carnaval which is celebrated in a much different way that the Carnaval from Rio and Sao Paulo.  Their carnaval consistes of trio eletricos (electric trains) which are big trucks with stages mounted on top where Axe bands play music all night and the people - millions - follow the cars in a drunk, dancing, singing, fucking stupor for 5 days straight.  its crazy-ness and the wildest carnaval party in brazil which is saying alot.  Most tourists only go to the Rio Carnaval and think that is the greatest party on earth.  It doesn't compare to the Bahia one.  The Rio one is all show and performance and big costumes.  The bahia one is about music and partying hard - the crowd is also much younger. 

Late at night in an industrial district:

Big Up Ghostly International

http://www.adultswim.com/williams/music/ghostlyswim/index.html

This is a label started by a couple of friends and they have made the big time.  That's right a collaboration with the adult swim characters and their own release on adult swim. 

This is similar to the Chocolate Swim album put out with Chocolate Industries and Adult Swim which was awesome.  Hopefully this one will be as good.

Drum Pattern Awareness

You should check out this DJ Spooky mix that he did for the Biennial in Venice.  It is some of the normal Spooky type stuff mixed with his favorite music originating in Africa.

One of the cool things is that he does not limit himself to music but adds a lot of speeches and found sound / collage stuff.  I know I make it sound exciting but the speeches are by some of the best in history (Malcolm X & Nelson Mandela).  The music is ridiculous.  Ginger Baker for those from an earlier generation (Cream), Fela for everyone, Abdullah Ibrahim for the avant garde in us all, Akon for the kids and my personal favorite Konono No. 1.

http://www.djspooky.com/articles/venice_2007.php