Funk and the Favelas: Talking Baile Funk with DJ Daniel Haaksman
DJ Daniel Haaksman hasn’t looked back on baile funk since his first trip to Brazil in 2004. Grimy, loud and frenetic, it’s a sound that speaks directly from the favelas of Brazil about the plight of the working poor. He talked to us in Berlin about this cheeky Latin American genre’s circuitous story. Baile funk...
Aussie Hip Hop – The Next Generation with The Tongue
Australia is a country which isn’t usually associated with hip hop, but with the growing popularity of a diverse range of artists out there, ‘Aussie Hip Hop’ is on its way to becoming one of the most popular genres on the Australian scene. With the help of independent record labels – set up by the...
Big Hass and Re-Volt Radio: Bringing Hip Hop to Saudia Arabia
Big Hass is a radio DJ from Saudi Arabia with a love for hip hop so big that he defied the his country’s norms by broadcasting his beats. iCrates was lucky enough to spend time exchanging ideas and thoughts with Hass Dennaoui on how and why hip hop is his chosen soundtrack. Over dinner, I...
Interview: Jean-Jacques Perrey – The Elephant Never Forgets
Well-known as one of the earliest pioneers of electronic music, Jean-Jacques Perrey has always believed in space as a perfect companion for his work. The friendly and inspiring 82-year-old Frenchman also invented a technique which imagines music in the most spatial way: he dreamed of cutting and glueing analogue tapes, which developed into present-day tape...
The History of the Synthesizer featuring Roger O’Donnell
When Joe Meek recorded the 1962 hit, “Telstar” with his band The Tornados, he used the distorted tape recording of a toilet flushing in his house to recreate what he believed to be the sound of outer space, which was then used in the intro of the song. The rest of the song was played...
Interview: Idris Ackamoor of “The Pyramids”
When a young Idris Ackamoor was given the opportunity to travel to Europe with a saxophone and a tape recorder, there was only one thing he was going to do: form a jazz band. Contemporaries of Sun Ra and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, The Pyramids created a unique avant-garde sound which looked back to...
Interview: Martin Gretschmann aka Console
Martin Gretschmann spreads his talent widely. An integral member of groundbreaking German bands The Notwist and 13&God, he also pursues several electronic projects, most notably under the monikers of Console and Acid Pauli. Softly spoken, Martin welcomed iCrates into his new studio in Berlin, where he has recently become a permanent resident for the first...
Interview: Beppe Loda and the Birth of Afro-funky
DJ Beppe Loda is one of Italy’s pioneer DJs of the 1970s. His fusion of sounds from German space electronics to African percussion tracks have earned him a reputation that led to the foundation of a scene and even a genre; Afro-funky. Between the mid 80s and early 90s Beppe travelled around northern Italy, Switzerland,...
Red Robin: The Vinyl Harem
Famous Bar 25-DJ Red Robin talks to iCrates about DJing, his special mixing technique and why vinyl records are like women...
Sun Ra: Space is the Place w/ Marshall Allen
Sun Ra was born Herman P. Blount on May 22, 1914, in Birmingham, Alabama, but this is something he categorically denied, even in his later years. To that end, on May 30th 1993 he did not die but returned to his home planet Saturn. A Jazz pianist, band-leader and philosopher Sun Ra was a law...
The Official Digger: Diamond D from Diggin In The Crates Crew
Certified digger checked: Diamond D from Diggin In The Crates Crew (D.I.T.C.) is one of the HipHop legends that earned a master in sampling via contributions to the classic Fugees album „The Score“ and House of Pains „Same As It Ever Was“. Being famous for his skills in production and MCing, Diamond D is also...
Introducing… Lord Mouse: The Ambassador Of Calypso
To get the rarest calypso records in the world, you don’t only have to dig some forgotten crates in some backyard in Trinidad, you’ve even got to go diving in the sea! And this is not the only reason calypso vinyl is hard to find. It’s a hard job for Lord Mouse, a dedicated collector...
