“Passport” radio broadcast from 12/29/08 – special BEST OF 2008 edition
Passport airs every Monday night on 89.1 FM WNYU

This is really not a top ten, and it doesn’t even cover half of my favorite albums of the year, but it does cover just about every one of my favorite records that got play on Passport this past year. Looking over the blog it’s easy to tell that my tastes are much more varied than what’s presented on the show – I would not, for example drop Kanye or even Mayer Hawthorne (since the station is all about focused programming). And the truth is, after 6 years of hosting and DJ-ing my Monday night program, I feel I’m coming much closer to saying goodbye to the show, especially now that I have a co-host I’ve been working with who’s going to keep it alive after I move on. However, since this year has been a good one on the program- starting off back in January with guest appearances from both Chico Mann and Ticklah– I wanted my BEST OF 2008 to highlight all the freaky, funky, global gems that I get to exercise out of my system each and every Monday. I say exersice, because I’m really not able to play too many of these cuts when I DJ out and about- your average club-goer is still not ready for the psychedelic Cumbias that I fiend. So here’s the playlist from last night’s show- I’ve thrown some honorable mentions at the bottom that didn’t make it into the show due to time restraints…

Artist – “Song Title” – Album Name – (Record Label)

Brownout “Barretta” Homenaje (Freestyle)
Karl Hector and The Malcouns “Toure Samar” Sahara Swing (Now Again)
Gabo Brown & Orchestre Poly-Rythmo “It’s A Vanity” African Scream Contest (Analog Africa)
Curumin “Compacto” JapanPopShow (Adrenaline)
Chicha Libre “Sonido Amazonico” Sonido Amazonico (Barbes)
Sonora Casino “Astronautas A Mercurio” Obsession (Bully)
Bio Ritmo “Bionic Boogaloo” Bionico (Locutor)
Grupo Fantasma “Se Te Mira” Sonidos Gold (Aire Sol)
Bronx River Parkway “Agua Con Sal” San Sebastian 152 (Truth & Soul)
Keziah Jones “Pimpin'” Nigerian Wood (Warner Bros)
Jackson Conti “Sao Paulo Nights” Sujinho (Mochilla)
Chico Mann “Dilo Como Yo” Analogue Drift (Unreleased)

honorable mentions:

V/A – The entire NIGERIA SPECIAL series on Soundway
V/A – Calypsoul
V/A – Bachata Roja
V/A – The Roots Of Chicha
Tito Puente – The Complete 78’s
Joe Bataan – Under The Streetlamps
Seun Kuti – Seun Kuti + Egypt 80
Femi Kuti – Day By Day

The Grateful Dead : Brokedown Palace
taken from the album American Beauty on Warner Bros. (1970)

Charles Wilder : Big Heart (rough draft, don’t hate!)
a song for my bro.

Been a crazy week. I heard the moon is abnormally close to Earth right now, perhaps that’s a part of it. Less than a day after spending my first ever night in jail (story for another day), I heard the shocking news that one of my oldest and best friends (a true brother to me) had died in a car accident.

Adam and I learned how to skateboard together, learned how to get into trouble together, made our first cross-country road trip together when I had just gotten my license… So many of my most memorable experiences were with him. When I was 12 and he was 13, we were in a show together where we shared the part of the Donkey. One of us as the head, the other as the butt (which meant bending down holding onto the other dude’s waist for an ungodly period of time), and we’d switch off positions. This was all in the pursuit of chasing cute girls mind you. And we even got our first girlfriends together- the scheme worked! I remember sharing a couch watching some c-grade horror film and making out with our respective adolescent girls side-by-side, taking cues out of the corners of my eyes so I’d know when to proceed to the next step- GLORIOUS 2ND BASE!

I could go on for way too long about how much of who I am was shaped by him, but since none of you knew him, I won’t. In addition to being a serious lover of hip hop, dude was a Deadhead, as are many good people up here in the New England woods where I’m originally from. This particular Dead song was sung by a long haired hippie on guitar, who was accompanied by another on Djembe, at the beautiful service I attended this morning in his honor. I love you bro and you’ll be with me for all the rest of my days on this Earth.

Makonde : Soseme Makonde & Manzara
taken from the 12″ single on EMI (1977)

Haven’t been bringing out too many rares lately, but not because I’ve had any real trouble stumbling upon them. Even with my wallet as empty as it has been these past couple months, I’ve still managed to pull some pretty crazy finds. I’ve been pushing myself to stay out of record stores as much as possible, but when I pass someone standing on the sidewalk in the cold behind a underappreciated crate- I feel almost an obligation to pull out enough money to get them a cup of soup and a hot coffee (even if it ends up going towards a lil fire water in the end).

That brings us to this latest discovery of Swahili disco funk from ’77. The cover was beat to hell which is probably why other people overlooked it, but the record (brilliant BLUE VINYL with a LEOPARD PRINT LABEL!) was kept in another sleeve and remained in great condition. Dropping the needle on side A was like opening the gate to King Kong’s beastly lair. Deranged warbling mumbles and pounding drums are soon met with a pulsing bass, a simple chant, and then what sounds like a drunken Moog synth doing the running man. This is exactly the type of track that first inspired me to start this blog.

The B side, perhaps equally as incendiary, sounds almost like the Kenyan version of The Commodores “Machine Gun”, but with fatter drum breaks. Turns out Kon & Amir unearthed this monster before me and even featured it on their recent Kings Of Digging CD for the BBE label- makes me feel pretty lucky about turning this one up. They did a nice little edit on their CD which extended the drum breaks, but I figured I’d give you both tracks unedited so you’ll have to practice your Serato juggling skills if you want to keep the break rolling.