Status: Single
City: London
Country: UK
Signup Date: 3/25/2007
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Monday, November 24, 2008
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SECOUSSE IN 'METRO' (LONDON NEWSPAPER) OCT 09  SECOUSSE IN 'THE LONDON PAPER' MARCH 09  SECOUSSE TIMEOUT FEB 09  10 PAGE FEATURE IN SONIC MAG (SWEDEN) FEB 09           SWEDISH PRESS 08     DE:BUG TROPICAL FEATURE 2008  DIE ZEIT MUZIK INTERVEIW 07 here.De:Bug interveiw 2007 
ARTIiCLE AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION: multipara
In Alex J. Holmes' music, Africa and Europe meet
- again. But with an original freshness, conveyed
in such a natural way, that only a musician who
not only has found himself but is also able to
get himself across, will be able to come up with.
In his songs, he often speaks directly to his
audience - a practice that is fed by twenty years
of stage experience and which he brings to an
absolutely literally aesthetic climax in his
contribution to the "Pingipung blows the brass"
compilation. Similarly straightforward is the
title of his new album: "The King Of The New
Electric Hi-Life". Firstly though, about the name
under which he releases it.
Debug: Your first album for Pingipung was still
released under the name "Vanishing Breed", your
new one bears your real name. The High-Life
style, however, you already introduced on the
first one.
AJH: Yes. Of course the label wasn't happy about
the change of name! But "Vanishing Breed" sounded
too depressing for the new album. When I came to
Berlin five years ago, this atmosphere of broken
dreams hung over the city, everyone seemed
unhappy about the fact that the nineties were
over.
Debug: Considering how happy the new album
sounds, this seems to be different now...
AJH: You just find your little corner! When I
came to Berlin - well, if you come from the
mountains, when you're far from home, you look
for the mountains, and so I was looking for the
ghetto... and there you soon find lots of
musicians in Berlin. I grew up in East London's
worker's ghetto, went through various jobs during
the depressive latter eighties and then decided
to go to university after all, which was rather
unusual for the kind of background, "Commercial
Music", a very practically-oriented course of
study. In Hackney, where I was living, High Life
was playing every day, a West African music
style, which i simply soaked up - for me, that's
a style from London. As a guitarist, what I
actually play is Palm Wine, a particular style
from Freetown in Sierra Leone, which ultimately
must be taken as the source of Rock'n'Roll, too.
You pick with thumb and forefinger. What's
crucial though is the special kind of timing,
precise, but also loose, very hard to describe.
Debug: What is "new electric" about your style then?
AJH: The home production! And of course the
"king" is ironic - in "black" styles, everyone's
the king in their own music. I'm sitting there in
my studio flat wearing slippers...
Debug: There are lots of names in the liner notes though. How do you work?
AJH: I write and play all the songs, and I invite
musicians specifically to play particular parts.
Anne Laplantine however contributed two
instrumental basic tracks, and Sculpture, my
former band colleague in "They came from the
stars (I saw them)", polished the production. And
of course my teacher Folo Graff turns up often.
Debug: And what are your plans now? How about a trip to Africa?
AJH: Who knows. In fact, I've never been there.
Maybe I'll also have to go back to London. But
coming up next is touring Germany and Austria,
from October. And at the moment I'm having a lot
of fun playing in a kind of Big Band, "Les Beaux
Gosses de Berlin". And then we'll just see.
NOW IN RAW DEUTSCH!
In der Musik von Alex J. Holmes treffen sich -
wieder einmal - Afrika und Europa. Allerdings mit
einer originellen Frische und gleichzeitigen
Selbstverständlichkeit, für die sich ein Musiker
nicht nur finden, sondern auch vermitteln können
muss. Seine Zuhörer spricht er in seinen Stücken
oft direkt an - eine Praxis, die sich aus zwanzig
Jahren Bühnenerfahrung speist und die er auf
seinem Beitrag für die Compilation "Pingipung
blows the brass" zu einem ganz buchstäblich
ästhetischen Höhepunkt bringt. Dementsprechend
geradeheraus ist auch der Titel seines neuen
Albums: "The King Of The New Electric Hi-Life".
Zunächst aber zunächst zum Namen, unter dem er es
veröffentlicht.
Debug: Dein erstes Album auf Pingipung kam noch
unter dem Namen "Vanishing Breed" heraus, dein
neues trägt deinen richtigen. Den High Life-Stil
stellst du aber schon auf dem ersten vor.
AJH: Ja. Über diesen Namenswechsel war das Label
natürlich nicht glücklich! Aber "Aussterbende
Art" klang für das neue Album zu depressiv. Als
ich vor fünf Jahren nach Berlin kam, lag diese
Stimmung von geplatzten Träumen über der Stadt,
alle schienen unglücklich, dass die Neunziger
vorbei waren.
Debug: So fröhlich, wie das neue Album klingt,
scheint das jetzt anders zu sein...
AJH: Man findet halt seine Nische! Als ich nach
Berlin kam - naja, wer aus den Bergen kommt,
sucht in der Fremde die Berge, und so hab ich das
Ghetto gesucht... und da findet man in Berlin mit
der Zeit reichlich Anschluss an Musiker. Ich bin
ja im Ostlondoner Arbeiterghetto aufgewachsen,
hab mich Ende der depressiven Achtziger einige
Jahre durch Jobs gehangelt und dann doch noch,
ganz unstandesgemäß, studiert, "Commercial
Music", sehr praxisorientiert. In Hackney, wo ich
wohnte, war den ganzen Tag High Life zu hören,
ein Musikstil aus Westafrika, den ich einfach
aufgesogen hab, ich bin quasi damit aufgewachsen,
für mich ist das ein Stil aus London. Als
Gitarrist spiele ich genaugenommen Palm Wine,
einen speziellen Stil, der aus Freetown in Sierra
Leone stammt, auf den man auch Rock'n'Roll
zurückführen muss. Man zupft mit Daumen und
Zeigefinger. Entscheidend ist aber vor allem das
spezielle Timing, präzise, aber auch locker, ganz
schwer zu beschreiben.
Debug: Was ist an deiner Musik nun "New Electric"?
AJH: Die Heimproduktion! Und der "King" ist
natürlich ironisch - in "schwarzen" Stilen ist ja
jeder der King seiner Musik - und ich sitze da
mit meinen Pantoffeln in der Wohnung!
Debug: In den Credits liest man allerdings viele Namen. Wie arbeitest du?
AJH: Ich schreibe und spiele durchaus alle
Stücke, und lade mir dann gezielt Musiker ein,
bestimmte Einzelparts zu spielen. Von Anne
Laplantine kommen allerdings zwei instrumentale
Basic Tracks, und Sculpture, mein ehemaliger
Bandkollege bei "They came from the stars (I saw
them)", hat die Produktion poliert. Und mein
Lehrer Folo Graff taucht natürlich immer wieder
auf.
Debug: Und wie geht's weiter? Mal nach Afrika?
AJH: Wer weiß! Ich war ja noch nie dort.
Vielleicht muss ich auch wieder nach London
zurück. Aber zunächst toure ich durch Deutschland
und Österreich, ab Oktober. Und zur Zeit hab ich
vor allem Spaß am Spiel in einer Art Big Band,
"Les Beaux Gosses de Berlin". Und dann einfach
mal sehen.
Ex Berliner highlight 2007
Spex top 50 albums of 2007
Spex interview 2007
A.J. HOLMES The King Of The New Electric Hi-Life (Pingipung 12): Alexander John Holmes is a real whizz-kid, as co-founder of They came from the stars I saw them, with the rumba band Les Beaux Gosses de Berlin, as Vanishing Breed or DJ Eskimo Tears and as a songwriter in Berlin-Kreuzberg with pop star appeal, short-circuiting his adopted home town Berlin with the sound of Accra and Lagos, with the jingling guitars typical for Hi-Life of S.E. Rogie, E.T. Mensah and Emile Ogoo. Intro: The Story of the New Electric Hi-Life' weaves a net from the Westcoast of Africa to the Eastend of London , from Cuba over Paris and Johannesburg, connecting English and German cities, even Würzburg with its International Afro Roots Festival. Holmes got to know Hi-Life through Folo Graff, an emigrant to London from Freetown, the capitol of civil-war-maltreated Sierra Leone.. For translating the euphoriant sound he could rely again on Dan Hayhurst aka Sculpture, plus Anne Laplantine and another half a dozen friends as singers, woodwind, zither and conga players. The sound mainly created, not to say faked, with computer, programming and mixing is all the way transparent to carry primarily Holmes' sophistication and his storytelling as a songwriter, that under its electro-poppy, often euphorigenic surface juggles with paradoxes. ‚Home', ‚For Export Only' and ‚Still nothing to declare...' sing about emigration, homelessness, exploitation. Most of Afro Pop is ambiguous like this, we only don't or won't understand the lyrics. This way one misses, while gazing at the Maloya Folk of maverick Griot Grrrl Nathalie Natiembé 2007 on the 19. edition of Würzburg's Africa Festival, about what she sings in her La Réunion-creole. This way one underestimates the radicalism of the electric griot of Conakry's Ba Cissoko, taking their amplified coras howling like rock guitars for inducing headbanging only. The London-zimbabwian Chimurenga Lady Netsayi on the other hand presents herself very demonstrative as a sister of Nina Simone, Meshell Ndegeocello, Mariza, who seriously and comprehensibly makes civil war, migration, dirty laundry, love & money subjects of discussion, and not even feels responsible for a danceable groove when she sings in Shona. Holmes vice versa takes care not to fall into the exploitation trap. His Afro Pop, that sounds like „a Europeans idea of African music, something like Van Dyke Parks 'Discover America' but with Highlife instead Calypso", comes in inverted commas you can dance with quite well. But the world-musical paradise somewhere over the rainbow he evokes does not try to conceal that it is a poster or a fantasy by Rousseau. Desire is paradisal, conditions are not. [ba 55 rbd]..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />........ ....
11:15 AM
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