This week Art Radio reflects on Africa. We are creating the space to reflect on what Africa means today? using a compilation of work by some of our favourite African musicians.
Art Radio is a platform for sharing music and sound art. Listen and be inspired to create.
This is the first “album project” by dj afifa. It is a compilation of 5 nu-music tracks which
are presented as “short stories”. The title of the compilation is
inspired by a conversation with a “construction worker” about his
birthday. “Pandemic News” and “Watching people die” are the stories of the last two
years as told by dj afifa. “Enter the Time Machine” is a work in progress sketch a soundscape about the history of Jamaica. “Where is the mouth of the Rio Cobre?” is a sound sample which sends you on a search for an answer to the question in the title.
Listen to a Leap Year and other stories here
On March 10,2021 a joint police-military team embarked on an intelligence-driven and targeted operation with the aim of apprehending members of the Bedward Gardens-based ‘Berry Gang’.
5 men were killed. Colin Mignoes (24yrs old), Jehlani Palmer (22 yrs old), Oniel Dixon,(24 yrs old) Tafari Dell,(22 yrs old) and Akeem McClean (20yrs old).
On the night of the operation, the Jamaica Gleaner received a call from Akeem Thomas. Akeem told the Gleaner that he feared for his life because everyone was calling him to say “the police is looking for him to kill him”. He asked to Gleaner to come to Bedward Gardens so he could come out and surrender
to the police.
This audio documentary by dj afifa features a CVM TV news clip from Akeem McClean’s partner explaining what she saw happen to him, the recording of Akeem Thomas’s conversation with the Gleaner and a Television Jamaica News report where the police explained what happened.
The documentary features music from Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari (Run OneMile) and Augustus Pablo ( Up a Warieka Hill).
Bedward Gardens was founded by African Spiritual Leader Alexander Bedward. It is located in August Town, St.Andrew Jamaica.
These excerpts are produced from a sound recording experiment at the 9th Annual Dis Poem Wordz and Agro festival.
My first recording of the Dis Poem Wordz and Agro festival was in 2017, I was hired to be the selecta at the event. Outdoor music events such as these in Jamaica provide a rich sonic experience. Capturing the dynamics of an event in audio can be an interesting challenge for sound artist. These excerpts are the result of my experiments at the festival.
Typically audio recordings of live events are made by capturing a direct audio signal, this is how I got my recording of the event in 2017. I was connected to the mixing board 36.and got a direct audio signal. The disadvantage of recording like this is that it misses ambiance. At the 2019 edition of Dis Poem I tried to collect some of the ambiance of the event by recording from the audience using a digital mp3 recorder (a Panasonic RR-US511 I used for recording interviews). The recording came out much different than I had expected. Previously I had recorded another poetry event using my Huawei NS L53 and the audio was much clearer.
The audience sat in pavilion style seating facing the stage that was on an open field with the sea behind it. There was a hugh tree hanging over the pavilion. I got to the event at about 2:30pm and started recording immediately. I recorded at least one performance for each poet. I changed location twice during my recording.
I attempted to edit the recordings in Audacity to improve the clarity of the audio, this was not successful.
Factors which affected the clarity of the recording. The first factor was the recording device (Panasonic RR-US511) which records in mono, performances that included music where more muffled than performances with no accompanying music. Recordings which were done earlier in the evening when there was a smaller audience were clearer. Recordings where I was sitting directly at the back of the pavilion as opposed to closer to the stage or to the far left were much clearer.
Because of the recording device used and the recording condition it is best to listen to the Excerpts using headphones; the audio will be clearer.
"I will be doing more mixtapes like this. Dub poetry is an art form that has influenced my life significantly.I am actively looking for new dub poets all over the world, i enjoying compiling interesting work and interesting ideas in the "dub style"- dj afifaPhysical copies of the mixtape can be purchased at the Sounds of Life store at the So((u))l hq, or Di Institute for Social Leadership.
