Cempaka Culture and Tourism: Awesome Tapes From Africa Head to Jakarta

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Awesome Tapes From Africa Head to Jakarta

Jakarta Globe, Marcel Thee, Feb 23, 2015

Popular DJ and music blogger Brian Shimkovitz will perform a set from his
Awesome Tapes From Africa blog in Jakarta on March 13. (Photo courtesy of
Valerie Paulsgrove)

First going online in 2006, Brian Shimkovitz’s Awesome Tapes From Africa blog has grown from a personal online journal of collected African music to one of the most respected music-centric blogs around.

It only makes sense then, that the popular blogger would visit Jakarta to perform a set in front of the city’s ever-growing horde of culturally hyper-aware megapolitans.

This will happen on March 13, with opening acts London-via-Berlin Perera Elsewhere and Batavia’s own Ffonz (who is a part of the W Music collective). The venue where this will be happening has yet to be confirmed, but those interested in attending should check out the Facebook page of the organizer, Ashram Project, for updates.

Brian has spent the last few years, aside from running his blog-turned-label, DJ-ing across the world. His set often includes a good mix of folkloric pop, left-field dance-floor tracks and a variety of hip-hop music he’s discovered on foot in African marketplaces. His sets tend to run for a while, ranging between two and three hours and he often uses a rather retro-ish twin tape deck and other analog equipment.

In an editorial written for Britain’s The Wire, Brian wrote of how Awesome Tapes From Africa first came into being.

“I started Awesome Tapes From Africa as a way to make artefacts [sic] available from the cassette-based music economy I have encountered around Africa. Something that began quite innocently as a means of filling the wide gaps in international music distribution — nearly every musician and producer I’ve met in West Africa wants to find a way to get their music beyond their borders — has become a spark in the often fiery debates surrounding suspected post-colonial tendencies of the Western music industry vis-a-vis the developing world.”

Awesome Tapes From Africa’s popularity gave Brian plenty of chances to develop his blog into something more, which he did. In 2011, the blog was developed into a now critically acclaimed vinyl-focused label. It began re-releasing older records by under-appreciated — at least by the international music scene — African artists such as Bola, Dur-Dur Band, Hailu Mergia and Penny Penny.

According to its official bio, the label “plays an essential role in furthering Brian’s mission to build an international audience for African music through touring and re-issues.”

Through his vast African cassette archive, Brian fills his blog and DJ sets with less-traversed genres such as highlife, fuji, benga, tsonga disco, soukous, hip-hop, rhumba and ethio-soul.

Opener Perera Elsewhere is the pseudonym of singer-songwriter-producer Sasha Perera who also DJs under the name Mother Perera.

Jakarta’s own Ffonz will DJ a mix of his signature classic hip-hop, old Soul, and vintage beats.

For more information check out Facebook.com/AshramProject