bigup Afropop Worldwide for commissioning this piece.
Most definitely not for the faint of heart, made with Berlin’s Berghain Club in mind, this one needs the best sound system you have access to (preferably a Function One), as well as very loud volumes.
https://soundcloud.com/afropop-worldwide/dj-zhao-mutant-1
“Percussion music is a contemporary transition from melody driven music (of the European tradition) to the all-sound music of the future.” – John Cage
...in Techno African rhythm traditions survive and thrive, in mutant form, re-imagined and reconstructed based on earlier re-imagination and reconstructions. The brightest minds in modern electronic music have all made use of specifically African musical ideas and rhythm sensibilities, and IMHO, the best Techno is polyrhythmic, a reduced and streamlined version of African percussion. The music of the genre’s most important innovators often includes off-kilter syncopation, beats falling not squarely on the grid, as well as different interlocking rhythms playing at the same tempo, such as 3/4 with 4/4. Often subtle in its interaction with the dominant duple beat, these percussive elements and dynamics are expressive of complex rhythmic sensibilities which are, if indirectly, unmistakably related to African traditions. Today it is no different, many of the brightest minds are making the deepest, hardest, most forward thinking and uncompromising underground Techno with, consciously or unconsciously, African rhythm ideas in mind. Synthesizers play the part of Djembes, bleeps and blurps are drum accents: the African-ness of these beat patterns may be more obvious to me and others who spend a lot of time with African music, but I think will also become apparent to anyone who has an open mind and really listen.
CONTINUE READING here.
Last edited:
