WildSeed Music (NYC, ATL, South Africa)

The moment I finished this mix, I put my headphones on and danced...to the entire thing.

South Africa moves me.

There cannot be a separation between the music, the history and the people.

Layers.

With the support of a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study grant, I paid a visit to South Africa, determined to understand The Afro Digital Migration: House Music in Post Apartheid South Africa. I wanted to explore how house music took root in South Africa and shaped its national identity. The impetus for this research was my belief that electronic music in the African Diaspora is an under-explored cultural product. As a DJ, I was driven by the clean production and seamless mixes I heard; as a dancer, I wanted to witness the intricate body movement inspired by house; and as a scholar, I wanted to figure out how, in the face of state-sanctioned surveillance and harassment, the music flourished.

Special thanks and love to Clive Bean (Soul Candi) and Thokazani Mhlambi (Umtshakadulo) for answering my questions and arranging gigs for me to have a platform to express my Black American house experience and pay respect to the South African sound on the decks.

Love to Paris Hatcher for hitting the streets of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Newcastle, East London and Coffee Bay with me. Transformative and Inspiring.

This mix is dedicated to Winnie Mandela, Busi Mhlongo and Miriam Makeba, three women who looked white supremacy and patriarchy in the eye and danced. Power is always subjective, never absolute. All Freedom Fighters come through the bodies of women.

Every single song selected was created by a South African producer/DJ. I've also featured the remixes of some of my favorite producers from the US (Spinna, Abicah Soul and Rocco).

1. Eish Anganzi-- Master Lucra (Johannesburg)
2. Soul on Fire --Devoted Featuring Kholi (Johannesburg/Cape Town)
3. We Going High-- Dj Shimza and Cuebar (South Africa)
4. Do U Want it? --Cuebar (Johannesburg)
5. Behind My Headphones-- DJ Micks feat-Sphelele (Eltonnick Remix) (Pretoria)
6. We Were Meant to Be ---"DJ Kent featuring Lolo (Abicah Soul Remix) Johannesburg
7. 1000 Zulu Warriors --Culoe de Song (Johannesburg)
8. XILOLOWE (bhana shilolo)-- Black Motion featuring Zulu (Soshanguve/Pretoria)
9. Wasting My Time-- Zakes Bantwini (Durban)
10. Falling Dj Kent --(Black Motion remix) Johannesburg
11. So Far Away --Cuebar and Nathan X (Johannesburg)
12. Never Saw You Coming-- Black Coffee (Dj Spinna remix) (Durban)
13. Drifting Away-- Bantu Soul (South Africa)
14. Sunshine-- Infinite Boys feat Lil Soul (Abicah Remix) (Daveyton)

WildSeed Cultural Group provides "Entertainment with a Thesis"

lynnee denise

The second scholar provides Haiku poetry inspired by Episode 2 "Mighty Real: The Sound of Tomorrow. This is none other than the author, poet, activist, lover, freedom fighter, professor, emcee, freestyler, vocalist, edutainer, tease, father, big brother, publisher, friend, papa bear, curator, scholar, raptivist, public intellectual, spiritualist, house-head: Mr. Tim’m West.

Jimmy B-boy blues
wide-eyed and full like his laugh
surrender to joy

We close our eyes
inheriting the praise dance
of sinner sermons

Sweet serenity
baby powder voudou dust
Eden where we dance

WildSeed Music NYC is proud to present its first ever double mixed cd, High Holy Days: The History and Future of House Music.

Episode 1 “The Children of Baldwin,” explores several periods of classic house where both familiar Chicago hits and underground New York City gay club sleepers tell the stories of their sound. Baldwin tells us that: “The responsibility of a writer is to excavate the experience of the people who produced him/her,” and I believe the same can be said for the Disc Jockey. Through this mix I hope to bring voice to the untold stories and visibility to the nameless people that generated a global musical movement.

Episode 2, “Mighty Real: The Sound of Tomorrow” pulls on current producers who incorporate elements of classic house, but also push beyond the borders of acceptable dance-floor grooves. Sylvester helped shape a soulful, yet formulaic genre of house music that focuses on spiritual-sexually-inspired falsetto vocals and driving, repetitive disco rhythms. This mix is dedicated to his artistry, fearlessness and commitment to authenticity.

Liner notes for High Holy Days feature two of my favorite scholars and house heads:

The first is Thokazani Mhblambi, A South African ill-disciplined musicologist; shifting between diverse creative genres, from classical music to sound art and display. I will interview Thokazani in South Africa to discuss electronic music (Kwaito and House) in the Post Apartheid era. The following excerpt was pulled from his article “Freedom in the Age of Democracy” and best describes the sentiment behind “The Children of Baldwin” mix.

“Music’s fluidity, its ability to exist in-context and in many other contexts simultaneously, can provide a stimulus towards the direction of freedom. But for house music to do this, it needs to be rescued from the context of excess and accumulation and loaded with transformative content of liberation. It needs to be freed from the ghettoes of global cultures of consumerism, which seek to marginalize the contributions of the church, gospel music, African spirituals, gay-club culture all of which have been foundational to its origins.”

Read the article in its entirety here.
http://www.archivalplatform.org/blog/entry/freedom_in_the/

The second scholar provides Haiku poetry inspired by Episode 2. This is none other than the author, poet, activist, lover, freedom fighter, professor, emcee, freestyler, vocalist, edutainer, tease, father, big brother, publisher, friend, papa bear, curator, scholar, raptivist, public intellectual, spiritualist, house-head: Mr. Tim’m West.

Jimmy B-boy blues
wide-eyed and full like his laugh
surrender to joy

We close our eyes
inheriting the praise dance
of sinner sermons

Sweet serenity
baby powder voudou dust
Eden where we dance

Liner notes for this mix are brought to you by my brother and friend Asadullah Saed Muhammad. His words speak truth to heart. Authenticity meets history for a future of honesty and peace.

I want to love
Love you like Mother
Father
god
Introduced me to her
As soon as I saw you
Touch you like
Black power
Touched me
Pick the cotton out your mind
And make a cloth of you
West africa and detroit
Your smile
Make your day
With your words
Write me a poem for me
And hand you my art
Coloring in chakras
I met you today
You broke my record.
-asadullah saed

Intro: Who Wants to get Free--Paris Hatcher
1. "Chicago Theme" Glenn Underground
2. "We can Change this World" DJ Spinna feat Heavy (Yoruba Soul Mix)
3. "Feel Love" (Nortenshun Vocal Mix) Ultra Nate
4. "Nowhere" (I Can Go) Clara Hill Atjazz mix
5. "Papawenda" Fabio Genito
6. "Wathula Nje" Black Coffee
7. "After the Club" Tommy Bones
8. No Way" Osunlade
9. "Here Comes the Sun" Nina Simone (Francois K mix)
10. Fugama Unamathe (Culoe De Song Serenity Mix)
11. "Real World" (MAW w Vikter Duplait)
12. "Put it On" Atjazz feat Ernesto (Osunlade mix)
13. HIya Kaya Kentphonic (Rocco Deep mix)
14. "I Love the Night" Raw Artistic Soul (Rocco and C Robert Walker)
15. "Broken Vibes" Taylor McFarrin

Drum and Bass is Black Music…

On the 30th anniversary of the 1981 Brixton riots, a historic reaction to the hostility and xenophobic environment that informed the policing of African and Caribbean immigrants, I examined the ruthless desire to keep Britain White. I pulled from Sam Selvon’s 1956 novel “The Lonely Londoners,” which tells the story of the Caribbean community’s communal response to the English brand of white supremacy and their cultural preservation as a means for survival. Additionally, I sought the political, social, and musicological context of a sound that takes root in Sly and Robbie’s Reggae Music—Drum and Bass. Inspired by these histories, I’ve created a musical essay that epitomizes my long-term relationship with Black Britain and the parallel strategies of resistance that Black Americans have employed to attain basic human rights. Shout out to drum and bass pioneers Roni Size, Goldie, LTJ Bukem, Kemistry and Storm, Krust, and all the other sons and daughters of “The Lonely Londoners.”

I'm excited to introduce a new series of liner notes. As a part of the WildSeed Cultural Group Independent Artist in Residency program in Atlanta, Georgia (2011-2012), I will be working with my favorite thinkers, writers, cultural critics and scholars to help contextualize my mixes. The first to launch the series is Esther Armah, a fierce Black British writer, speaker, moderator and leader in the emotional justice movement. Thank you Esther for being willing to participate in this project and for helping to make "Entertainment with a Thesis" a reality.

DJ lynnee denise (feel free to repost and pass on)

Liner Notes by Esther Armah*

We made it. Not bodies. They were battered, bruised, brutalized, buried. The drum beat landed. Intact. Slipped unnoticed between bodies, souls, minds carried from West Africa’s shores via the West Indies. Landed unbent and unbroken in this new land - West London. We were the language left when mother tongue was dragged screaming from its source, we were the unshed tears of the middle passage. Company came. Sought us out. Hands grabbed at us from Empire Wind-rush bodies, carried to this place from Caribbean islands. A new language, new accent from this new nation called England. Black backs bent and shaped by British labor, sweat collected from a generation invited and despised in the same breath. Our mamas and daddies, silent and deadly. That racism DNA pounded and flattened, birthed into frustrated beats and a new generation. Defiance became the breath of those born to these Caribbean bodies mangled seeking refuge from racist rants. This was now Black Britain. Sound changed. Started to gather new notes from new generation. April 1981. Brixton streets, injustice exploded, caught fire, consumed and cleansed. Remnants of those unshed tears from that middle passage put the fire out on the streets, left it burning within Black Britain. Fragments of rage wrapped in that drum, dirt from boots pounding those streets caught between notes. Fragments, pieces, floated, landed. Sound from snatched pieces of leftover 1960s signs that screamed: ‘No Niggers, No Dogs, No Irish’, sound dragged from police officers’ brutal batons before they rained rage on nappy heads, sound from untold injustice - all fashioned into language. Called it bass. The sound from an unwelcome land. The double consciousness in the mirror whose reflection you couldn’t see. Mangled beauty drenched in righteous rage. Drum n bass. 30 years on from Brixton; bodies, boots, batons echo, haunt, haint. Now. Press play.

So honored to write these liner notes. Drum n bass are the fragments of us blown across waters and oceans, drum n bass was for the journey where it all got too much, where there was no voice, it is the emotionally unspeakable - the soundtrack of diasporic journeys. Love, love, love this Ms Lynnee...

Esther Armah is a Black British award winning international journalist, an author, playwright, radio host, company director and public speaker. She has worked in the US, UK, Africa. She is the founding director of Centric Productions, a multi-media production and creative marketing company based in New York, London and Ghana. In the UK; she has worked in print, radio and television. In print, she has written for 'The Guardian' newspaper, 'New Nation' newspaper, and in 'Pride' magazine. In radio, she has worked right across BBC radio as a documentary maker, an investigative reporter and a radio host. In tv, she has appeared on Sky Television and BBC television.

Journey with me on this "emotional migration" and expand in your freedom. This heartbreakingly sexy mix was inspired by my physical transformation and geographical relocation 2010-2011. "God is Change."

Intro Drop—malena perez
1. Wake With the Day —Koyla Feat Zaki Ibrahim (Boddhi Satva Afri Soul Mix)
2. Eternal Love—Claude Monnet Journey into Dub—Daugi Rodann & Timothee Milton
3. Messages from the Stars— The Rah Band (Atjazz remix)
4. Clap Your Hands—Zakes Bantwini feat Xolani Sithole
5. The Storm-Dan the Black Russian Anderson
6. Love Someone (Atjazz) Feat Robert Owens
7. At Midnight The DiscoCowboys (Steve Bugs always late mix)
8. Sleeper (Sleeper) Jimpster
9. So Astounded DJ Le Roi feat. Lady Bird -(Black Coffee Mix)
10. My World Paso Doble feat. Amera Light (Gemini Boys Mix)
11. Your Kiss—Bucie (Ralf Gum mix)
12. We Baba—Busi Mholongo (Culoe de Song, Black Coffee Mix)
13. Make Love Martin Patino

Intro: Audre Lorde: Dahomey
1. "Love Song # 1" Me'Shell Ndegeocello
2. "Starstruck" Santogold
3. "Over" Portishead
4. "I Was a Lover" T.V. on the Radio
5. "Hidden Place" Bjork
6. "Apple Orange" Alpha
7. "Corcovado" Everything But the Girl

A collage of deep house rhythms and seamless blends! These house musical selections represent the full spectrum of sub genre interests that dj lynnee denise developed with her ear to the New York scene. Pedagogy is the first of a series of summer house mixes from an album called "Givin up Sleep for House."

1. Life Youssou N’Dour
2. Everything in it’s Right Place (Radiohead) Afefe Iku
3. Secret Recipe Fabio Genito
4. Afro Bionics –Djinji Brown
5. Casabancal Soul (Casamena remix)
6. I’ll Never Know (Touch Tuesday mix) Wil Milton featuring Lauren chaplain
7. Blue and Deep Jephte Guillame
8. Russelology—Flowriders
9. Black Man (deep soul) Gianluca Pighi Feat. Robert Owens
10. Momma’s Groove (Jimpster slip disc mix) Osunlade
11. In Da Club (Shake shit up) Mr. V
12. Karen’s Tuna John Crockett
13. Circles Nathan Adams and Zepherin Saint

Intro: Dick Gregory "If Democracy is as good as we tell you it is, then why in the hell are we running around the world trying to ram it down people's throat with a gun?"

1. "That's How I Feel" Sun Ra Lanquidity
2. "Summertime (UFO Remix) Verve Remixed
3. "Unda the Influence (Follow Me)" Cee Lo and All His Perfect Imperfections
4. "Ju Ju's Door" Sons and Daughters of Lite
5. "9 by 9" 4Hero featuring Imani Uzuri

A mellow ride through the vaults of the WildSeed Sound Library. This mix was created in the first Brooklyn apartment that I lived in when I moved to NYC from Atlanta in 2005. It communicates the reflective nature of transition. God is Change.

Deep house set recorded live in London in 2006. An eclectic mix of afro-house, New York underground house and soulful vocal house. Inspired by the antics that gwarn in Brixton, Bristol (St. Pauls) and yes, Handsworth in Birmingham, England. Handsworth was the site of many riots that went down during the Thatcher/Reagan era in the 1980s. Hence the title of the mix. It is also the hometown of Reggae's much revered Steel Pulse. They later recorded an album called Handsworth Revolution. Find that album if you can, it's a gem. In the mean time, gotta have house! Much to enjoy here, another voice in the Diasporic Dialogue.