A Lapkat mix ... a stuttering love letter to my Pacific friends. [mixcloud http://www.mixcloud.com/LAPKAT/lapkat-no-brakes-mix/ width=660 height=360 /]

It's been quiet in here for the past month, life keeping me away from computer. Before I get into some more spoken word and Dialectic features, completing the current set of Lapkat mixes with this one from back in February.

Performed live at the Dialectic residency at Melbourne's Horse Bazaar alongside DJ 555. February was an eventful month, with New Zealand friends shattered by the Christchurch earthquake, and across the world, the Arab world shaking off its dictators. So much turbulence. So, hold on tight, and release the brakes...

Teresia Teaiwa's poem "Fiji I love you" inspired me in beginning this mix, her line "Fiji I love you, full speed, no brakes ..." fills me with a certain kind of energy. Teresia is a I-Kiribati / American poet and educator, born in Honolulu, raised in Fiji. A beautiful, powerful poet. That poem, which frames this mix, is from the 2008 album "I Can See Fiji", a collaboration with NZ sound artist Hinemoana Baker, percussion by Des Mallon. It's a beautiful album, one of my favourite spoken word albums of the past decade. Hinemoana takes Teresia into some interesting spaces, as she explained at the time in her blog:

Teresia told me she wanted to use the project to break out of the literal - to take herself and her work into new, perhaps more abstract territory.  So we resolved to try and create a kind of theatre for the ear - making decisions about what the audience would 'see' first, and what would be slowly revealed... 

 

The result is an amazingly spacious audio experience. Each poem opens up an inner vision .. a street in monsoon, a packed bus, an unquiet night. And Teresia's beautiful voice is full of emotion and resonance. So starting from that, this mix has a similar focus on creating visual pictures. For example, combining a loop of the intro to an MC Solaar track (feet running down a street) with heavily effected sounds of a children's football team, and the sonorous vocals of Gu_Rún Grænndóttir's 'Ode À L'Intron' ... definitely all of this moodiness is set by the feel of Teresia's poem to Fiji and the madness of love.

Voices in this mix speaking in english, french and brasilian portuguese - Camilla Passatuto is a beautiful recent find, a poetic songbird. And the deep bass poet from Portugal, Kalaf Angelo, produced here by Maga Bo. Enduring as one of my all time favourite spoken word tracks.

Another track that inspired me at the time is A.K.Rockefeller's 'Passport' A.K. Rockefeller is an artist, musician, activist from PNG. His website (click above) is well worth a prolonged visit. AK is one of the people who keeps firing my awareness of the tragic brutal occupation of West Papua by the Indonesian government and the Freeport mine (and, by association, the Australian government).

The child's voice in 'Passport' is Charlie Chaplin's son from Chaplin's film "A King in New York". Here's the video for the track:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll99FcuwlxU&w=560&h=315]

 

The mix takes in more ambient territory than other recent sets, with Colleen and Shigeto's stuttering emotional electro, as well as Tujiko Noriko & Aoki Takamasa. Opera Aka Silenzio is an Italian producer who deserves his own feature ... so more on him, soon!

The full tracklisting >>

‘Athena And The Breadfruit’ Teresia Teaiwa, Hinemoana Baker, featuring Des Mallon‘ A Fuga...’ Kalaf+Type ‘Introduction Back In Time’ Tape Five ‘Theme’ Up, Bustle & Out ‘Fly2’ Tujiko Noriko & Aoki Takamasa ‘Out Of Breath’ Teresia Teaiwa, Hinemoana Baker, Featuring Des Mallon ‘La Vie D'Artiste’ Impermetic ‘L'Auberge Du Bouleau Blanc’ Mc Solaar ‘Ode À L'Intron’ Gu_Rún Grænndóttir ‘111 Good Friend’ Opera Aka Silenzio #2 ‘Passport’ A.K. Rockefeller ‘Aos Filhos Da Demagogia’ Camila Passatuto ‘LondonTo Dhaka’ State OfBengal ‘2nd Class Sleeper’ Filastine ‘Will Be Leaving Through Gate 4’ Maga Bo ‘Scratchy Aperture – Dub’ Up, Bustle & Out ‘Poema Sem Sal’ Kalaf and Maga Bo ‘General Fathead’ A.K. Rockefeller ‘Alcazar (Feat. Dima FromKiev)’ Tape Five ‘I Was Deep In A Dream And I Didn't Know It’ Colleen ‘Aos Filhos Da Demagogia’ Camila Passatuto ‘Lucille’ A Palavra Eletrica ‘Te Quiero Mucho’ Instituto Mexicano Del Sonido ‘Algo Além’ Camila Passatuto ‘Popcorn Delights (An Unusual Waltz)’ Up, Bustle & Out ‘There Is Always Hope (Mux Mool Remix)’ Shigeto ‘Streets’ Teresia Teaiwa ‘Street Lamps’ Maduro & Notecrusher