Kim Bach . OrgDedicated to the love of my life, music…
Jeg svingede forbi min totalt yndlings foretning i Taastrup, Pladehjørnet, i dag, og blev mødt af et skilt der annoncerer at butikken afståes :-(, [-(. Ejeren er kørt træt i det, det er desværre ikke længere rentabelt at drive en special forretning som en pladeforretning i Taastrup by.
Jeg er MEGET MEGET ked af det, måtte lige trøste købe et par skiver så da!
Dansk punk år for år…foreløbig til ’83 –
This is a site that tries to collect covers from all Danish punk related album, single and musicasettes releases.
Good job, and who has the coolest covers?
Yesterday was a very special day in Copenhagen. A new bridge crossing the harbour between Kalvebod Brygge and Islands Brygge was opened, and this bridge is exclusively for pedestrians and bikes.
I have no idea how long time it has been since the last bridge crossing the harbour, so close to the city centre, was opened, but it was way too long time ago.
There are way too few bridges across the Copenhagen harbour, so having a new one is great. After the bridge was opened the rapper Per Vers took stage to give, amongst others, his interpretation of Benny Andersen’s “Verdensborger” (World citizen), the title of this post is a quote from the lyrics, it’s difficult to translate, but Dannebrog is the name of the Danish national flag, brog rhymes with “bro” which means bridge, so the literal translation is: “I’m not passionate (buring for) about Dannebrog (the Danish flag) – I’m passionate about building bridges (e.g. bridging gaps). I’m a citizen of the world (verdensborger)”. Oh well! Lost in translation! I hope it made any sense.
Anyway a great performance by Per Vers, who’s scoring a small hit with his song “Black Power”, which is a great track.
I couldn’t have put it any better! We need more mental, racial and physical bridges.
15 minutes to go…5 years since Mohammad Atta shouted Allah Akhbar and slammed into the WTC, focused on Jannah and the waiting virgins, and the Church doesn’t have Wi-Fi.
A selection of today’s headlines:
Who do you believe? Our media? Their media? Your media!
It’s time to take back what’s rightfully ours, our constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression.
Forgive me I have to pray, pray for humanity, the jury is still out, but are we going to make it? Only if we wake up!
WAKE UP!!!
And my keyboard switched to Arabic!
Amen!
SLAM!!!!!!
And because the Church doesn’t have WiFi, I can’t access the Sacred Texts Library, to meditate on Surat 2.112, I’ll have to write it down in my own words:
“He who worships his Lord and is a doer of good shall fear nothing!”
Alahu Akhbar…SLAM!!!!
Hey my cell-phone and Google to the rescue…Surat 2.112 al quran…Yielded this page:
It started out with quotes from Al-Quran most of them hinting a violent side of Islam, with quotes like this:
Surat 9, Al Taouba, “Repentance; The Immunity-Dispensation,” verse 29:
[9.29] Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
This means that Islam must conquer Jews and Christians, and if after being conquered they do not convert to Islam, then they must pay a tribute (head tax). You would either have to convert, or pay an “infidel tax.”
I was quite sceptical, what was the point? But I actually found the correct Surat 2.112 (my all time favorite quote from Al-Quran):
[2.112] Yes! whoever submits himself entirely to Allah and he is the doer of good (to others) he has his reward from his Lord, and there is no fear for him nor shall he grieve. â€Ø¨ÙŽÙ„َىٰ مَنْ أَسْلَمَ وَجْهَهÙÛ¥ Ù„Ùلَّه٠وَهÙÙˆÙŽ Ù…ÙØْسÙÙ†ÙŒÛ ÙÙŽÙ„ÙŽÙ‡ÙÛ¥Ù“ أَجْرÙÙ‡ÙÛ¥ عÙندَ رَبّÙÙ‡ÙÛ¦ وَلَا خَوْÙÙŒ عَلَيْهÙمْ وَلَا Ù‡Ùمْ ÙŠÙŽØْزَنÙونَ ‎
balay’ man ‘Ê”aslama wajhahuw lil:ahi wahuwa muḥsinunm falahuwÊ” ‘Ê”ajruhuw Ê•inda rab:ihiy wala’ xawfun Ê•alayhim wala’ hum yaḥzanuwna (I hope this was correct, I’m not proficient in Arabic).
Surat 2.112 is as far from fundamentalism as you can possible get.
Then the text suddenly become much more interesting, and turns into a rather full historical account of the “Birth of Islam”. Very interesting indeed sitting in a Danish Church reading this historical account of the “Birth of Islam” on the 5th anniversary of 911 on a cell-phone using Google, including sentences rendered perfectly in Arabic script. This was not possible to do 5 years ago, there’s still hope for humanity.
BTW the bible quote of the day was from the Letter to the Galatians. Paulus basically says “remember: the ‘books’ aren’t written by men!”…Hmm…I don’t agree – the ‘books’ are inspired, spiritual and ‘eternal’, but they are indeed written by men.
I lit all the candles in the “globe” in the Church and prayed some more for humanity. Too bad that the “bowl” with Bible quotes for contemplation were nowhere to be seen! But I welcome that this tradition has reached Denmark, I saw it in Lund 2 years ago, and actually I prayed for it to be adopted in Denmark. My prayers were heard it seems.
I attended yet another music event as part of the Images of the Middle East festival in Copenhagen. On the 7th of September 2006 I had the pleasure of enjoying two very distinctly different and yet related performances, Saboon and Kamilya Jubran at Kaleidoskop K2 in Copenhagen.
The first was from Lebanese/Egyptian Trip Hop combo, Saboon. Saboon delivers up-tempo music with a lot of mixtures and a beautiful vocalist. This was clearly dance-music, but the crowd, most of them clearly not used to the fact that dance music is meant for…ahem…dancing, so that wasn’t too good of an experience, and the people that danced didn’t really look like they were used to that type of music, but at least I wasn’t alone.
Not a bad performance, not by a long shot.
During the break I once again flashed my PowerBook, this time because the person selling CDs didn’t bring a diskman or anything for the prospective buyers, so I offered her that she could use it. She was quite happy, and I hope that she sold some CDs she wouldn’t have otherwise.
Now it was time for Kamilya Jubran to take the stage, I believe that she was appearing as Wameed, a very different combination of avantgardistic electronica and the traditional lute, and Kamilya Jubran’s expressive voice.
Really complicated music but also very beautiful, it seemed quite improvised. This was music better suited for the theatre adjusted audience, but I still wonder if it’s such a good idea to have a musical performance at a theatre.
But all in all an evening well spend, and it really showed the reach of the musical program for Images of the Middle East, it’s really quite remarkable and impressive. But the differences between the two acts was too big for most I suppose.
Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com | Official can’t ban Madonna mock-crucifixion
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch justice minister has rejected a call by a Christian party to stop Madonna staging a mock-crucifixion in concerts in Amsterdam.
It’s amazing how easy it is to provoke, and it’s not like Madonna needs the extra publicity. Last week her concert in Denmark had an attendance of 85.000.
Some Christians took the bait, not too unlike some Muslims during the prophet Muhammad “Salla Allahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam” cartoon controversy.
I really can’t see any problem with Madonna performing a mock crucifixion – but: she’s a cleverly crafted product, but reinventing herself? Hardly! The return to 70ies Dance was basically lifted from Kylie Minouge, and the use of Swedish producers from Britney Spears.
I’m SO SO tired of these over hyped stars mega-stars, but enough said, I’d gone see Madonna in Horsens if I had tickets…You know me…I’m a complete sell-out!
Surprise: I keep attending Images of the Middle East music events, but after the disappointment yesterday, my hopes were rather low, when I showed up for the gig.
I arrived a little late, and I was greeted by the great news, that the venue was packed, and they had to turn people away – luckily I already had a ticket.
Djamel Laroussi were already well into their set, but it was easy to see that this was music for dance-floors, played by some highly (understatement) accomplished musicians. Djamel Laroussi plays middle-eastern pop-music, but with a twist, mixing it with different flavours from the musical traditions of the world.
I found it a bit too mainstream, and I doubt any of that their records will find their way to my music collection, but I’d love to see them live again, and I had a big smile on my lip when the gig ended.
But this event was a double header, and we were in for a special treat.
Maâllem Mokhtar Gania & Gnawa Sufi group is traditional music, with deep religious meaning, mixing the traditions of old Africa, with the Arab world, for a truly unique and true type of music, but also dancing.
The tradition is at least thousand years old, but most likely as old as humanity itself, but it’s still fresh. The dancers are more like break-dancers, and the only instruments used were the traditional percussion, drums and this strange Bo Diddley looking bass and, last but not least, the chanting voices.
There was immediately strong response from the audience, some being of North African descend, for instance shouting religious sentences being answered by the members of the group.
I got swept away, and ended dancing in a kind of trance, it was very much like attending a rave, as one of the organisers also pointed out.
The Islamic world is living in an age of awakening, where conservatism is on the march, and the mystic traditions of Islam is under pressure, and there are real fears that this old tradition could be lost.
Long live this important human heritage. It doesn’t get truer than this, music and the love of life in it’s purest, cleanest form. It was difficult to adjust to the rainy and “1st of the month drunk” Copenhagen, after this deep and profound experience.
Tonight there will be a traditional leela-ritual performed. It starts at 9pm, once again at Kulturhus Islands Brygge, and runs for a full 12 hours. I’ll try to get in, even though I can’t be there on time, since I’m attending the Babazula concert@Vega tonight.
Non c’est n’etait pas soufit.
KØBENHAVNS INTERNATIONALE TEATER 2006: Images of the Middle East: Desert Lounge
I went to the Desert Lounge event yesterday. It was part of the Images of the Middle East festival.
Unfortunately it was not very interesting, and I left after half an hour.
The problem was that I wasn’t in the mood for dancing, the music was too loud – albeit good – the crowd was…hmm…mostly absent!, and the room too sterile. What no Sisha? Come on?
Later I met two women that I recognised from the “Lounge”. They had stayed a little longer, and they said that the music had gotten worse, and the crowd still…absent…So they also left early.
I got to talk to them, because they were quite close becoming victims of a “donuting nutcase” near Langebro.
Well I told them that they should go check out Clotaire K. One of the women, who also had attended the Natacha Atlas concert, had considered attending the gig Wednesday, “but you know”, she said, “Stengade 30 – I might run into my 20 year old son”. LOL.
Once again go check out Clotaire K, you can still catch them here during “Images”:
Well, tonight I’m checking this event out: DJAMEL LAROUSSI + MAÂLLEM MOKHTAR GANIA@Kulturhus Islands Brygge, hopefully that’ll be a better experience, even though it’s a the same venue as the disappointing Desert Lounge.
I’m having some success in terms of business, right now, but Thursday I got carried away and went into serious nerd mode, after visiting a potential client that had a sweet Mac set-up, an entire professional sound studio.
I connected my PowerBook to the network, and minutes later I was streaming my newly purchased Clotaire K album over iTunes to the studio monitors.
It’s so great to meet other dedicated Mac users, it’s more like a brotherhood.
I really want to go out and get my self a MIDI keyboard now.
The interesting thing was that I was lugging my Mac mini with me, wanting to suggest that my customer get one to use as a file server, I had no idea that they already had two Macs.
This customer is ripe for switching. The Macs are used in the music studios, but all the other pcs they have are Windows based, a classical example of the popular belief that Macs are only good for creative work. My strategy will be to start switching them away from using Outlook.
After showing the studio guy Chicken of the VNC and the VNC support build into Mac OS X Tiger, he went out and activated it on their other Mac and lo and behold it showed up in Bonjour.
Activating the VNC server in Mac OS X is really, really simple:
Systempreferences/Sharing/Apple Remote Desktop. Choose “Accesscontorl” and “Allow VNC clients to control the screen”. Remember to protect the VNC server with a password, and to activate the users that should be allowed to use VNC.
I also showed him our macwiki development site, and he was quite impressed, I even updated the site with some information, for instance he pointed me to the Danish communities for sound professionals Lydmaskinen and logicforum.dk, and the free iCal hosting service iCalX.
But so far I’ve gotten two paying customers that use Macs this year, not bad.
Unfortunately being in “Mac nerd mode” like that can have some serious side-effects on me, check the categories for this post for hints…
You can get carried away by the love for the platform, and it actually resulted in “some fallout” later that night. Luckily I took a “chill-pill” (too late maybe – I’m so sorry that I might have hurt someone in the process – but I feel that I’m in control of my life, unlike last year).
Images of the Middle East: Home
Since attending the Natacha Atlas concert last week, I sort of got addicted to the Images of the Middle East festival, and they keep sending mails about interesting events, so I “went all in”, and bought tickets to 5 further events, and the music program is extremely wide and interesting.
On the 30th of August 2006, my mothers 70th birthday BTW CONGRATULATIONS, two different hip-hop acts, with more than an inspiration from the Middle East, visited Stengade 30 in Copenhagen.
First up was DAM, a hip hop act of Palestinian desend, well the DJ was Jewish DJew as the joked.
I guess I shouldn’t say this, it’s a serious stereotype, but I came to think of labelling DAM as an Arab version of the Beastie Boys, because they have 3 MC/1 DJ lineup.
Unfortunately the set was a bit too political, and they didn’t really manage to fire up under the audience, that clearly weren’t used to hip-hop, unfortunately very few from the Copenhagen hip-hop community attended, I guess “Images” hasn’t been noticed by them, which is a shame.
I wasn’t too impressed by the DJ. I mean he was sort of OK, but since the crowd seemed to be such hip-hop ignorants, I guess they didn’t notice the version of the “Busta Rhymes” track “Touch It” or the reference to Jay-Z’s “Big pimpin'”. But generally the DJ was a bit bland, he needs to work on his scratching skills, since the wheels of steel is an instrument.
DAM delivered a short set with no extras, but all in all a little disappointing, mostly due to the slow crowd, because the rappers were great, and really, really fast, makes you want to learn Arabic. But they did manage to get the crowd shouting “Salaam Aleikum” several times! And yes Arabs have culture, but we all knew that, no need to preach to this crowd of non-prejudiced people.
After quite a while Clotaire K was ready to go on the stage.
And what a start, the DJ played a great trancelike intro, that build up to the entrance of a REAL band.
The line up was Drums, Bass, DJ, MC/Dancer and MC. Immediately it was clear that we were in for a special treat.
Clotaire K is the name of the MC, and he’s of Lebanese decent, based in Montpellier France.
The music is a great mix of hip-hop, rock, funk and some traditional Arabic music. It turned out that K is is an accomplished musician playing the lute, after joking that “it was broken” – in reference to the strange appearance of the lute with “the bend” – and that he just borrowed it. As a guy standing next to me shouted “DET ER FOR SVEDIGT DET DER”.
It’s difficult to pick highlights from the concert, but the duel between the lute and the DJ was great, or the time when the MCs took their duel to the floor, “ouvre les yeux! Follow the choreography!”.
I must admit that French hip-hop sometimes looks and sounds like “le futur de hip-hop”, as I said to the DJ when I bought their CD, “il faut des musiciens vrai” they’re doing hip-hop a great favour.
The joint was jumping. Stengade 30 is a great venue. Thank you for really keeping it real, “merci lec mecs, c’etait une spectacle extraordinairé”.
You can still catch Clotaire K and DAM at the “Images” festival. If you really like music, and not only hip-hop, and Clotaire K is as good an introduction to the genre, as you’ll find on the planet. Go hear them and get entertained.
Odense Studenterhuset* 31. aug. Kl. 21:00
Stockholm Re:Orient 1. sep. Kl. 22:00
Roskilde Gimle* 2. sep. Kl. 21:00
Helsingør Toldkammeret 3. sep. Kl. 21:00
