Bad Brains have been a constant reference and source of inspiration for everything hardcore coming from the U.S., from bands like Black Flag, Fugazi to Youth Of Today. Also Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against The Machine relentlessly cited the influence of Bad Brains for their work. Originally from DC, the all black hardcore outfit became known for incorporating both fast punk riffs as well as mellow reggae tunes in their shows and albums. The influence of the band continues: Diplo´s recent “Top Ranking” mixtape for Santogold was full of Bad Brains references, notably her cover version of Bad Brain´s “Right Brigade” as the hidden track of the CD.  TV On The Radio probably also wouldnt exist without the pioneering and still breathtaking music of Bad Brains. After seeing a range of T-Shirts by Supreme fronting the Bad Brains logo, I recently dug out their seminal, 1982 “Rock For Light” album (produced by Ric Ocasek from The Cars) and it blew me away again. P.S. In their early days Bad Brains had an incredible dressing style too, check H.R. – with a red flower in his blazer´s buttonhole, as seen in this live video from 1979.

I´m back from Asia. Shock freezed in cold ass Berlin, but glad to be back in the office and kick off the fourth year of Man Recordings which promises to be full of great releases and events. Spring 2009 will see Funk Mundial releases by the ZZK all stars from Buenos Aires: Funk Mundial #8, feat. El Remolón, Chancha Via Circuito, Douster and Frikstailers, the first ever Cumbia-Baile release. Funk Mundial #9 will follow shortly after, prouding us with a contribution by our favourite Ed Banger Feadz from Paris. His release is a collab with 8 year old Rio based MC Wesley  – released as limited edition 7″ vinyl.

Despite various vinyl distributors folding in the 4th quarter of 2008, making us loose money and stock, and the all over world economy looking up to grim months to come, we´ll still keep up to the vinyl format. A look at the photo ensemble which we recently shot of our releases should say it all: MP3 my ass, vinyl is here to stay.

In the second download this week we offer Brazil’s answer to Girl Talk, Joao Brasil and his latest album “Big Forbidden Dance”. Rio’s Joao Brasil is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who had a minor hit with his tune “Baranga”, which basically translates as slag/whore-like.

The title of the album”Big Forbidden Dance”, literally translates as “Baile Proibidão”, though this has nothing to do with the proibidão genre of Baile Funk. It does however, have everything to do with Girl-Talk-like mash ups, in fact it is the exact same thing, lots of small parts of familiar material, stitched together to make a very danceable whole. Differently from Girl Talk, with his tendency to mix hardcore rapping with anthemic college rock to create frat-friendly party pieces, João makes collages out of old and new dance tracks all held together with the batidão of baile funk, so you get Michael jackson rubbing shoulders with Mylo and Justice with a dash of Nirvana!.

There’s an interesting essay here dissecting Girl Talk, which is well worth the (lengthy) read, and while there’s nothing very clever or very meta in João Brasil you will find a lot of stoopid funny party bombs – enjoy!

Download: (includes songs, cover and samples list)

Big Forbidden Dance João Brasil

To give you a taster here is a great remix João did for CSS.

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Happy new year to everbody also from this side of the globe. Sorry for almost two weeks of non-posting. DJ Beware and me are travelling Asia these days. In between DJing (Hong Kong with Kid Fresh was rocking!) we put the blog on hold and enjoyed quality time with our girlfriends or relaxed at the beach. We´ll post a short diary of the Hong Kong and Taipeh sessions soon.

So just a quick post today: Here´s what excited the Man Recordings office in 2008. The list is not complete, just a few albums, tracks and films that kept us alive and inspired in 2008.

LONGPLAY

Portishead “3″
Santogold “Creator”
OST “There Will Be Blood”
V.A. “Funky Nassau – The Compass Point Story”
Quiet Village “Silent Movie”
Sebastian Tellier “Sexuality”

Funkmaster Flex “The 90s Mixtape”
Flying Lotus “L.A.”
Moritz von Oswald + Carl Craig “Recomposed”
Chancha Via Circuito “Album”
V.A. $olal Mixtape
Santogold “Top Ranking Diplo Mixtape”
V.A. “Daniel Haaksman Presents Bossa Do Morro”
The Beatles “White Album Covered 1+2″ (Mojo Magazine)
Jesse Rose “What Do You Do If You Don´t?”
Crookers BBC Essential Mix
Flying Lotus BBC Essential Mix
Erykah Baduh “Amerykah”
Munk “Cloudbuster”
Kanye West “808s + Heartbreaks”
Mr.Oizo “Lambs Anger”
Bigga Bush “13 Faces Of Lightning Head”
Maurice Fulton “Bubbletease Communication 1+2″
V.A. “Astigmatic Presents Frederic Chopin”
The Clipse “Road To Till The Casket Drops” Mixtape

SHORTPLAY

Snoop Dogg “Sensual Seduction”
AC/DC “Thunder – Crookers Remix”
Edu K feat Marina “(Edu K) Me Bota Pra Dançar”
Estelle ft. Kanye West “American Boy”
South Rakkas Crew “Mad Again – 8 Boy BIt Rmx”
Fake Blood “Mars”
Lil Wayne “A Mili”
Buraka Som Sistema feat. M.I.A. “Sound Of Kuduro”
Buraka Som Sistema “Kalemba”
Erykah Badu “The Healer”
Madera Limpia “Loco – Daniel Haaksman Remix”
Duke Dumont “Hoy”
TC “Where´s My Money? – Caspa Remix”
Digitaldubs feat. Duda “O Comedia Vacilou”
Freestyle “Don´t Stop Atabaque (DJ Dinho + Fú Remix)

DJ Edgar “Montagem Smoke On The Water”

DJ Beware + MC Gringo “Tamborzão Con Scratchy”
Funk Mundial #6
Sergio Mendes “Day Tripper – DJ Fú+DJ Dinho Remix”
Byano DJ “Montagem Piroca No Cha”
Larry Tee “I Love U – Bart B More Secured Dub”
Italoboyz feat. John Coltrane “Bahia”
Peter Fox “Haus Am See”
Kid Cudi “Day + Night – Crookers Remix”
Zombie Disco Squad “Esperanto”
DJ Mujava “Township Funk”
Chavy Boys Of London “Friday Night”
Crookers “Mad Kidz Ep”
Dédé Mandrake feat. MC Maiquinho “Hey Hey”
Dennis DJ feat. MC Dandara “A Buchecha É Minha”
DJ Znobia – All tracks
A-Trak “Say Whoa – Sinden Remix”
Jesse Rose feat. Deize “Toca Pra Mim”
Edu K feat. Marina “Edu K Me Bota Pra Dançar”
Daniel Haaksman “Whos Afraid Of Rio?” EP
Busy Signal “Tic Toc”
Oliver $ feat. Deize “Tá Com Medo De Mim?”
Boyz Noize “Oh – A Trak Remix”
Walter Murphy “A Fifth Of Beethoven (Soulwax Rx)”
DJ Amazing Clay “Supa Jones 2008″
Jazmine Sullivan “Need You – Seiji Rmx”
Buraka Som Sistema “Yah – C+S Mix”
DJ Blaqstarr “Shake It – Santogold + Switch Remix”
Alphabeat “Fantastic 6 – Radioclit Remix”
Herve “Cheap Thriller – Armand Van Helden Remix”
T.I. feat. Lil Wayne, Jay Z, Kanye West “Swagger Like Us”
Beastie Boys “Intergalactic – Cumbia Remix”
Ku Bo EPs 2+3
MC Gringo “Fucky Fucky”
Young MC “No Hat – Debonair Samir Remix”
Yo Mayesty “Fuck That Shit”
Count+Sinden “Stinging Nettle”
Lützenkirchen “Drei Tage Wach”
etc. etc.

FILMS, SERIES

Klaus Kinski – Jesus Christus Redeemer
Before The Devil Knows You´Re Dead
There Will Be Blood
Cocaine Cowboys

No Country For Old Men

Burn After Reading
The Wire Seasons 1-5
Entourage Seasons 1-4
The Office Seasons 1-3
The Dark Knight

Waltz for Bashir

Zodiac
Bastards Of The Part

Happy new year Man people. As a new year’s gift to you all I present the KL Jay Mixtape “Rotação 33″. KL Jay is the DJ for brazil’s biggest hip hop group Racionais MCs, who come from the favelas in the suburbs of São Paulo and whose songs potray quite harrowing scenes from the periferia and are chock full of ctiticism of the social situation in Brazil (all in Portuguese of course). They are into quite epic structures with songs typically stretching for 7-8 minutes and musically they are influenced by gangster rap but also RZA’s productions for WU-Tang Clan with heavily string laden backgrounds. One of the downsides of their popularity is that virtually every rap group that came out of São Paulo after them wanted to sound like them. And this is where the mixtape comes in as it mixes the old school of Braziilian Rap, De Leve, Costa a Costa, with the new school, Maloka S/A, Livia Cruz E as Camaradas, to show where Brazilian hip hop, rap, whatever is today.

My personal experiance of KL Jay was when I put on party with some friends a few years ago and KL Jay djed for us (racionais MCs had played in town the previous night). His Djing was pure old school funk, with him playing old funk, disco and soul tracks ( to a mainly bohemian white crowd) which must have been what they played in the 70s and 80s bailes in the periferias. he even slowed things down for couples to slow dance and was constantly chatting on the microphone between tracks – unbelievably he included “Grease is the word” by Frankie Valli in the set, and it sounded great!

Download Mix.

Pic and link courtesy of the ever-fantastic Trabalho Sujo.

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