Miss Doctor was one of the biggest hits this year in Ghana. Appietus’ tight production has been booming throughout the entire country since last spring, so six months later it’s a special treat to see the vocals land in the hands of an army of young producers throughout the globe. On this EP we present some of our favorite submissions to the Miss Doctor remix contest. As usual choices were difficult and most likely quite imperfect. But we hope this small sample helps to propel 4X4 into new club stratospheres, and helps to turn new heads onto Ghanaian beats. A quick round up of the lucky few featured here:
Dance Kill Move – Sweden/Colombia: we instantly loved this cumbia/reggaeton/dancehall rework by this young Swedish duo. Funny how it came about: last summer Ricardo – the beatmaker in this duo – spent a few weeks in Colombia, where his family is from, soaking up the cumbia, vallenato, porros, champeta and reggaeton. Then upon his return, stumbled upon the remix contest. Luckily for us, his summertime love affair brought Miss Doctor that much closer to the Colombian coast. Escucha fuerte!
Sabbo – Israel: This is not the first time we dig Sabbo’s remix, and certainly not the last! What can we say, we just love how he turns songs into dancehall/kuduro-tinted club bangers. Sabbo’s sound is well established with all tropical / global bass bloggers and DJs. The cool thing here is, he was already playing the original Miss Doctor in his sets, so when he heard about the contest, he knew he had to remix it!
Paul Marmota – Chile/Mexico: Paul is a native of Santiago de Chile, where he started producing and getting involved with the local music scene. But in a quest to broaden his horizon, he relocated to booming Mexico City, where he has been working alongside artists such as Zombie Discos Squad, Erick Rincón or Waya Waya. His remix is a good example of his heavily percussive sound, which we feel matches well with 4X4’s fast delivery.
artfx! – Germany: another returning favorite, this Berliner is deep-rooted in the German dancehall scene. Over the past 12 years, he has built a name for himself releasing dub plates as part of the Bandulero Sound! collective, Yet his musical horizons are far broader, as demonstrated in his clubby take on Miss Doctor.
Brussels rockers Darcyr and Leblanc of Tupolev Sound Crash just hit us up with this pretty impeccable set of South African house, simply called Mzansi – SA slang for… SA! As the Tupolev cats put it, this mix is not of the deep, mellow, or minimal strain that is perhaps more common. Instead they went for a funky, tribal and dark approach. We like. Get schooled on that side of music in about one hour (beats driving school), full tracklist on soundcloud page. We should also mention that Leblanc was the one dood who came up to BBRAVE after his recent set at Recyclart in Brussels, admitting he actually heard a few kuduro cuts he’d never heard! Good to know Akwaaba can impress even the most musically knowledgeable nerds ;-p
Oh and while we’re at it, peep this mix they did about a year ago, freshly re-uploaded for your downloading pleasure: 100% COUPE DECALE!!!!
The good folks over at French blog Global Bass met up with Akwaaba dood Benjamin Lebrave last October in Paris to catch up with Akwaaba and get some juice about the label – in French, something we have not done enough of!! Thankfully Tim also translated the interview so here it is with English subtitles. For French speakers, be sure to check out the more in-depth full interview in French.
A documentary about Ghana’s popular music scene and the struggle between indigenous identity and mainstream music culture. The documentary is framed by a search for “the spiderweb”– or the thin, vibrating fibers that African musicians once attached to their mbiras and xylophones to, allegedly, create a buzzing sound that would invoke their ancestors. Via the Eavesdrop.earth blog.
In this latest episode, we bring some Akwaaba goodness to India, courtesy of the Matchbox Collective. Get all relevant info for the event right here! As the crew puts in on their Facebook page:
“Matchbox Collective serves electro, new funk, baile funk, kuduro, j-pop & j-hip hop, minimal, dubstep, 2step, gorestep, disco, cumbia, merengue, salsa duro, uk funky,grim, abstract hip hop, rare french grooves, jazzy beats a lot of mash ups and whatever we stumble upon.”
We can’t wait to throw some African goodness on the Delhi crowd!!
