BBC Radio 4’s The Art Of The Loop, presented by Matthew Herbert, essential listening for all you Sampleface readers. Firstly, you’ll have to be really quick on this one because it is coming off BBC iPlayer tomorrow. I was really surprised when my Dad of all people found this, so thank him! In his own words, “I’m not even into your scene and don’t know…
The latest edition of Leftover Links is all about Jamaica, with articles featuring Lee “Scratch” Perry, Count Ossie and the beginnings of rock steady. We continue our Jamaica Month with a range of articles involving the island’s music and culture and how it has affected the world around it. You may be surprised to not see any articles specifically about Bob Marley. That’s purely because…
Our Saturday Matinée feature presentation is PressPausePlay, a documentary asking whether our digital culture is producing better art or whether raw natural talent is getting phased out. The internet is a powerful thing. It has opened doors to places that didn’t even exist a few years ago in everything from shopping to playing music. But is the digital age taking away from raw more “acoustic”…
Producer and cinematographer Sonali Aggarwal asks the question “What Ever Happened to Hip Hop?” in his 2009 documentary and it is this week’s Saturday Matinée feature presentation. Dead Prez claimed commercialisation was bigger than it, Erykah said it was bigger than religion and the government and Nas called on its death. But in 2009, cinematographer Sonali Aggarwal posed the question “What Ever Happened to Hip…
Filmmaker Brett Gaylor and mashup extraordinaire Girl Talk journey through the world of copyright in RiP! A Remix Manifesto. There have been far too many sample-based lawsuits in the news over the past year or so, mostly from musicians who can afford to clear the music they use. For artists like Girl Talk (real name Gregg Michael Gillis), sampling and “mashups” are how he made…
Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution is our Saturday Matinée feature presentation. Germans are known for their efficiency (amongst other things) and when it comes to music, they have pioneered in a number of genres including industrial music, krautrock and electronic music. The name that often comes into people’s heads when discussing Germany’s influence on music is of course Kraftwerk and their documentary Kraftwerk and the…
Photographer and former bartender Sheldon Nadelman shot hundreds of photos during his ten-year stint at New York’s seedy Terminal Bar. This is his son’s documentary about his father’s experience and the customers who visited. A lot of our Saturday Matinée features have a 70s blaxploitation slant and this week’s example slots right in. Between 1972 and 1982, Sheldon Nadelman was a bartender at Terminal Bar…
Before punk even existed, three brothers from Detroit formed a band in their spare bedroom, moving from R&B to rock. A Band Called Death tells their story. Making a transition from R&B to rock music during Motown’s disco era might seem like a risky move now but that didn’t stop Death (then known as Rock Fire Funk Express) after attending an Alice Cooper concert in…
Relive moments from the Civil Rights America and the Black Power Movement through the eyes of Swedish journalists in The Black Power Mixtape. On recommendation from one of the Sampleface team, I purchased The Black Power Mixtape. The documentary depicts Civil Rights America and the rise of the Black Power Movement between 1967 and 1975. What made the footage original was the people behind the…
To mark the 40th anniversary of the famous 1520 Sedgwick Avenue house party back in 1973, BBC documentary “Beat This: A Hip-Hop History” is the focus of our Throwback Thursday feature this week. First off, we have to wish hip-hop music a happy 40th birthday! Although hip-hop culture and its music had been growing before that party in 1973, it is known by most to be…
