Salvador vs London Bass Culture Clash

Bass Culture Clash - Bahia/London May 2013

BRITISH UNDERGROUND AND THE BAHIA STATE SECRETARIAT FOR CULTURE PRESENT:
BASS CULTURE CLASH: SALVADOR VS LONDON
FEATURING -
THE UK’S BIGGEST BASHMENT RAVING SCANDAL: THE HEATWAVE
DANCEHALL QUEEN LADY CHANN
FAR ROOTS VOYAGER NATTY
AND FROM BRAZIL -
SALVADOR’S FAVOURITE HIP-HOP CREW OQUADRO
GLOBAL GHETTOTECH BAHIA BEATMAKERS OS NELSONS

BRAZIL:
Fri 10 May Tenda Cultural, Ilheus, Bahia
Sat 11 May Bass Culture Clash Festival, Pelourinho, Salvador, Bahia

UK:
Thu 16 May 19:00-23:00 Roundhouse, London
Fri 17 May 12:30-16:00 Komedia, The Great Escape, Brighton
Sat 18 May 19:00-21:00 Muévete, Notting Hill Arts Club, London (OQuadro + Os Nelsons)
Full listings infos below.

Bass Culture Clash: Salvador vs London is a unique live music show pitching some of the hottest acts from the London bass scene against their counterparts from Salvador, Brazil’s bass capital in the state of Bahia. The bands will hit the UK following ground-breaking Bass Culture Clash performances together in Bahia, with festival shows in Salvador’s iconic Pelourinho neighbourhood.

London’s formidable dancehall soundsystem The Heatwave will be bringing their “bashment raving scandal” featuring the UK’s number one dancehall queen - MC Lady Chann. Natty will be twisting roots and recruiting hearts with his deep spirit melodies. OQuadro step up with old-school hip hop, Salvador style. And Os Nelsons unleash the connect between Bahia beats and global ghettotech. With influences ranging from Vybz Kartel, Marley and Devlin to Jackson do Pandeiro, Racionais MCs and Buraka Som Sistema, watch out, this battle is wide open.

Bass music is a crucial cultural force shaping the sounds of London and Salvador – two of the world’s most dynamic music cities.

Salvador is the oldest city in Brazil and capital of Bahia, the state with the strongest African cultural presence in the country. Today, as ever, cultural collisions are manifest in new urban mash-ups of ancient roots, local pop and global sounds - hip hop with ijexá, digital pagode, Bahian dub –Bahia’s music scene is a rich and diverse mix of the ancient, syncretic and futuristic. Having long been a national heartland for dub and reggae music, right now Salvador is Brazil’s bass capital.

Bass culture is in London’s DNA. Over 6 decades reggae has given the city new visions of culture and identity, it filtered into punk, rock and pop and became an emblematic London soundtrack. Today reggae music’s ability to evolve and influence other genres is stronger than ever and London is home to the next generation of bass culture sounds, with new forms like Dubstep, Grime and Bass music all dominating the dancefloor and pushing new boundaries.

And if you’re still wondering what Bass Culture means, here’s what the artists say:

The Heatwave: “To us it's Jamaican soundsystem culture, born out of the days when Jamaican DJs imported American R&B records back in the 50s and customised amps and speakers to play them the loudest. So many things we take for granted in music today come from that - heavy bass is just one of them. MCing and rapping, remixes, dubplates, soundclashes, raving, rewinds, all of that owes a massive debt to Jamaica and reggae/dancehall culture.”

Os Nelsons: “Bass Culture was born in Jamaica and it’s a movement that’s growing all over the world through electronic music. Bass culture was part of our life before we ever heard it called by that name. In Bahia we can enjoy everything that is bass culture through samba reggae, pagode, candomblé - the whole language of drums. Today that’s the big goal for Os Nelsons. We align ourselves with the language of bass, transforming those drums into digital code and putting them into a dialogue with ghetto music from all over the world.”

This is a chance to hear where the next generation is taking the worldwide legacy of dub and reggae. And time to take deep culture to battle it out on the dancefloor!

Salvador vs London - and the winner is...? Lady Chann has the last word: “ooh! The winner will be the one who puts it down implicitly! ;0) xx”

Come join us and find out.

BASS CULTURE CLASH: SALVADOR VS LONDON

Fri 10 May 20:00
Tenda Cultural, Ilhéus BAHIA

Sat 11 May 20:00
Praça Pedro Arcanjo, Pelourinho, Salvador BAHIA

Thu 16 May 19:00-23:00
ROUNDHOUSE, STUDIO THEATRE, LONDON £6
Roundhouse Chalk Farm Road London NW1 8EH http://www.roundhouse.org.uk

Fri 17 May 12:30-16:00
THE GREAT ESCAPE, BRIGHTON
Komedia 44-47 Gardner Street Brighton BN1 1UN http://mamacolive.com/thegreatescape/

Sat 18 May 19:00-21:00
MUÉVETE, NOTTING HILL ARTS CLUB, LONDON Free before 8pm / £6 after 8pm
(OQuadro and Os Nelsons)
Notting Hill Arts Club 21 Notting Hill Gate London W11 3JQ http://www.movimientos.org.uk/

www.basscultureclash.com

Artist infos, photos, audio here: http://britishunderground.net/basscultureclash/media/

Press contact jody@freeassociates.org 07818 453 650


About the bands:

THE HEATWAVE, LONDON
http://www.theheatwave.co.uk
http://soundcloud.com/theheatwave
Formidable dancehall-force, The Heatwave soundsystem have been providing London's bashment soundtrack for the past 9 years. Their regular bashment night Hot Wuk has become a stand-out club fixture across the UK (currently running in six cities) and they are strong festival favourites (Outlook, Lovebox, Bestival, Secret Garden Party...) The Heatwave sound ties together music from Jamaica and the UK. Their powerful, energetic and exciting compilations and mixes aim to show how dancehall can be found at the root of jungle, garage, grime, dubstep and funky music.

LADY CHANN, LONDON
https://www.facebook.com/ladychannofficial
Chanelle Williams, aka Lady Chann, is the UK’s number one dancehall queen. Her sound is her own personal mash-up fusing dancehall with melodies, bass and electronics. This sought-after MC has worked with top producers including Toddla T, Zomboy and Sticky. Her latest mixtape DUN DEM SEASON THE TRILOGY was a mad success mixed by The Heatwave and right now she is writing and recording her debut album.

NATTY, LONDON
http://Nattymusic.com
http://youtube.com/vibesandpressure
http://soundcloud.com/nattymusic
A graduate of Bass Culture at SXSW 2012, Londoner Natty, describes his music in a tongue-in-cheek manner as “Damian Marley meets Neil Young.” With a background in hip-hop production, and a talent for acoustic sounds, his original song-writing led to his signing with Atlantic Records. The much-praised debut album “Man Like I” (2009) was followed by a US tour alongside Ziggy Marley. Natty’s EPs Change (2011) and Out of Fire (2012) proved super popular with his mass of fans and he’s busy working on his second album while also running his monthly night Vibes and Pressure.

OQUADRO, BAHIA
http://eusouoquadro.wordpress.com/ (click "o disco" for album download)
http://soundcloud.com/oquadro
Tipped as one of the hottest acts in Brazil right now, OQuadro deliver fired-up hip hop with their own unique Bahian kick. That’s high-velocity conscious rap, candomblé drums and dub, ijexá and afrobeat flavours – explosive! Hailing from Ilhéus, south of Salvador, after 10 years together they’ve launched their debut album, produced by Buguinha Dub no less. OQuadro are set to put Bahia’s new hip hop manifesto on the worldwide map.

OS NELSONS, BAHIA
http://soundcloud.com/os-nelsons
Injecting digital beats into Bahia’s powerhouse percussive traditions, Os Nelsonsmake the connect between Salvador and global ghettotech. They see themselves as part of the ‘hi-fi diaspora’, the Afrofuturismo generation, making a new coda for MPB and dubbing it Música Periférica Brasileira – music from the disenfranchised periphery. Based in Bahia’s desert zone - the sertão - Os Nelsons flip the flow with their dancehall/soukous/kuduro mashup – original sertão stylee. Their debut album Digital is out 2013.

article posted by:Jody Gillett, Gillett, Jody

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