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