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■ D-I-G-I-T-A-L-L-Y U-N-I-T-E-D
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Pops Mohammed - How Far Have We Come? │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│──┐
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│──┘
│ ││
│ Artist........ Pops Mohammed ││
│ Title......... How Far Have We Come? ││
│ Label......... M.E.L.T.2000 ││
│ Cat. Nr....... BW088 ││
│ Year.......... 1999 ││
│ Genre......... Ethnic Ambient ││
│ Street Date... 28-09-1999 ││
│ Release Date.. 16-05-2003 ││
│ Size.......... 75,0 MB ││
│ Tracks........ 01 ││
│ Length........ 54:37 min ││
│ Ripper........ MiNDSCAPE ││
│ Source........ CDDA ││
│ Grabber....... EAC ││
│ Encoder....... LAME 3.92 ││
│ Quality....... 192KBps / 44,1Khz / Joint-Stereo ││
│ ││
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│──────-·
││
┌─────────────────────────────────┐ ││
│ R E L E A S E C O M M E N T S │┐ ││
└─────────────────────────────────┘└─────────────────────────────│──┐
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│───┘
│ ││
│ SUMMER HAS FINALLY ARRIVED TO NORTHERN HEMISPHERE! YIPPEE! ││
│ Take this beatiful album with you, and go outside in the ││
│ sunshine, summer is too short to be spent in front of a ││
│ computer! Enjoy this mellow but still uplifting Ethnic ││
│ Ambient from Pops Mohammed! ││
│ ││
│ ││
│ "Pops Mohamed is a musician with his ears firmly in two ││
│ musical landscapes - the ancient, traditional music of South ││
│ Africa, and the global cutting-edge beats of the digital ││
│ present and future. "If one loses his or her culture," he ││
│ says, "it means you're losing your identity and self respect ││
│ as a human being. It also means there is a hole in your ││
│ soul." And Pops is on a quest to fill that hole by bringing ││
│ past, present and future together in a fusion that draws on ││
│ the richness and power of history, and thrusts it into the ││
│ digital age. History interpreted for new and growing ││
│ audiences, historical musical tradition and culture kept ││
│ alive through musical hybridisation. ││
│ ││
│ Since he first learned to play his trademarks, the finger ││
│ piano or mbira and the 21 string kora in the 1980s, Pops has ││
│ been exploring traditional South African and African ││
│ instrumentation and music, building and collecting ││
│ instruments and reconnecting with their historical and ││
│ cultural relevance. And now more than ever, he is focusing ││
│ on bringing that connection to a contemporary audience. ││
│ ││
│ Pops' latest projects are about documenting traditional and ││
│ tribal sounds, preserving them in a way that makes them ││
│ accessible and entirely relevant to contemporary ears. His ││
│ most powerful album to date is his 1997 release How Far Have ││
│ We Come, which brings the culture of the ignored and often ││
│ forgotten Khoisan into domestic CD players, and is an ││
│ excellent example of his musical ethic. Pops spent time in ││
│ the Kalahari desert with the Khoisan, learning their ││
│ instruments and singing techniques, and recording these ││
│ sounds. And these elements of Khoisan culture are preserved ││
│ on the CD and infused with contemporary South African jazz, ││
│ programmed beats and modern vocal arrangements. It is a ││
│ powerfully moving album that vividly evokes the rich and ││
│ emotive musical expression of the Khoisan. An album that ││
│ captures the sadness of a people whose culture is ││
│ disappearing under the imperialistic thumb of globalisation. ││
│ But one of positive optimism as it captures Khoisan pride ││
│ and optimism in their rituals celebrating birth and life. An ││
│ album that makes the connections between cultures, showing ││
│ their relevance to each other, their part in each other, and ││
│ at the same time, their distinctness from each other. ││
│ ││
│ Back in the cities he has mobilised musicians around ││
│ traditional ancient sounds and instruments, bringing ││
│ together jazz musos, traditional choirs and musical healers, ││
│ and taking these sounds closer to the mainstream. The ││
│ Outernational Meltdown series on the B&W label (now ││
│ MELT2000) was a mammoth project that saw sangomas, choirs ││
│ and traditional singers find modern treatment for their ││
│ traditional sounds in high-tech studios. ││
│ ││
│ The irony though is that there's more interest in Pops' work ││
│ in Europe and Scandinavia than back at home. He teaches ││
│ traditional instruments and sounds at a school in Finland a ││
│ few times a year, where "people are fascinated by the ││
│ instruments. There's a lot of interest over there right now ││
│ in bringing together the ancient and the modern. Like ││
│ there's this harp player who's been transposing a medieval ││
│ harp composition for the modern harp. It's a completely ││
│ different system of sounds and it's going to be tied in with ││
│ an ancient vocal arrangement too. ││
│ ││
│ "There's a real interest in Europe in exploring roots. And ││
│ people there, especially in places like Finland, are far ││
│ more in touch with their roots than South Africans. They're ││
│ interested in the way that traditional music affects ││
│ society. And they hear tracks in the clubs, like the stuff ││
│ I've been doing with the London Sound Collective, and they ││
│ hear these unusual sounds and ask the DJ about the track, ││
│ and they go to libraries and research it. ││
│ ││
│ "I did this gig at the Jazz House in Copenhagen once, and ││
│ this guy arrives at the door wanting to talk to me, to show ││
│ me something, but he doesn't have money for a ticket. The ││
│ club people thought he was drunk and mad, but I saw him, and ││
│ he had made a mouth bow, and wanted to play Jimba Jimba for ││
│ me, a mouth bow track off How Far Have We Come. He had heard ││
│ one of my remix tracks featuring mouth bow in a club, and ││
│ had bought books and my CD, found out about the instrument ││
│ and made one." ││
│ ││
│ It's on the dancefloor in collaboration with cutting-edge ││
│ beat gurus that Pops is most effective in his quest to bring ││
│ traditional and contemporary together and take the ││
│ traditional to young and modern listeners. He has ││
│ collaborated with the hip and the happening of the modern ││
│ dance scene, the London Sound Collective, Juno Reactor, Greg ││
│ Hunter of the Orb and a score of others, to make drum 'n ││
│ bass and techno tracks that bring the ancient - the mouth ││
│ bow, the mbira, the ocarina and the kora - into stark and ││
│ stunning modern relief on the dancefloor, giving young ││
│ people a fresh and compelling new take on their cultural and ││
│ historical legacy." --By Iain Harris @ ││
│ http://www.afribeat.com/cont_pops.html ││
│ ││
│ ││
│ ││
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│──────-·
││
┌─────────────────────┐ ││
│ T R A C K L i S T │┐ ││
└─────────────────────┘└─────────────────────────────────────────│──┐
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│───┘
│ ││
│ [01] Khoisan [03:57] ││
│ [02] The Spirit [06:05] ││
│ [03] Exodus [05:56] ││
│ [04] Jimba, Jimba [04:47] ││
│ [05] Mbira Shuffle [04:58] ││
│ [06] Quandodo (God Help Us) [04:21] ││
│ [07] Namibia [06:36] ││
│ [08] Kalamazoo [04:23] ││
│ [09] N'Abe [00:47] ││
│ [10] Never Again [06:14] ││
│ [11] How Far Have We Come? [06:29] ││
│ ││
│ Total Playtime : [54:37] ││
│ ││
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│─────-·
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
UPDATED : 22/04/2003