We spent the afternoon chewing the proverbial fat with Joss Yerbury of Soundway Records and their newest recruit, the emerging Angolan/Portuguese beatsmith and purveyor of unique electro-tropical crossover, Batida.
The roots of Batida
Batida is Pedro Coquenão, a producer, musician and DJ. Born in Angola, raised in Lisbon, Portugal, Pedro started out as a radio DJ on indie stations in 1995. In 2006 – 2007 he started running a radio broadcast he called Batida, DJ-ing under the moniker Mpula. The word Pula in Angolan means White and the M, in the native languages, signifies tradition. He feels the name sums him up; he may be white, but he is honoring the traditions of local culture – a stance he feels is appreciated in Angola. “You assume your own position,” explains Pedro. “Before anyone has a chance to seek out your soft spots.”
The word Batida literally means beat, but it’s also the name given to the pirate music compilations that circulate in the Angolan capital Luanda. He used this radio show as a platform to play his favourite music; records from his home country and other African countries that usually didn’t get any airplay; a showcase for new, upcoming artists. Now he is producing his own music, a blend of the traditional – using samples from Angolan Semba – and modern beats and production styles, described by Pedro as: “A clash of my memories with my present.”
By all accounts, the evolution from DJ to producer was a natural one. Pedro would use Ableton Live for his radio broadcasts, re-editing old tunes to make them dancefloor friendly, and eventually those re-edits bloomed into wholly original tracks. ‘Bazuka’ was the first track to emerge, in 2007.
In fact he chose to use the same name for this musical project as the radio show because it had the same function. Batida, for Pedro, is about expression, about showcasing artists, about social commentary. He cares deeply about the political and social situation around him so these ideologies naturally seep out through the music. It is also the name of his debut album.
Needless to say his background is also rich with music. His father was a jazz and prog rock bass player and he says that growing up as a child, his home was filled with the sounds of jazz and other fusion music. The real influences for Pedro’s music came from his father’s collection and then his own love of punk and hip hop. The blending of these different styles is what ultimately lent Batida its distinctive sound.
Interestingly, a specific influence for him as a young man was The Clash. “I love the way they blended styles,” says Pedro.”They were both danceable and political, having intelligent lyrics but with cool reggae bass lines and slick dub production, as well as being a popular band.” Also a big influence for him was Herbie Hancock’s electro release Rockit. His father – a Hancock fan – had bought the single but apparently it was too far from Hancock’s usual work for him so he gave the record to Pedro who was blown away by it.
As well as producing, Pedro plays marimba “badly,” and an array of percussive instruments, synthesizers and a little bass. In fact, one of his plans is that his father play bass on one of his albums, which he describes as complex and deeply funky.
Constantly seeking out new percussion to give a rich underpinning to his grooves, marimba, kissange and dikanza are key instruments in his music. Also prominent is the sound of the Moog, which he first experienced when recording at his accomplice Beat Laden’s studio. “He just pulled out this old moog,” Pedro says. “I had never seen one before, but I sat down and started messing around with it and I fell in love.”
Despite the exuberant nature of the music he plays, Pedro is a quiet, unassuming man. His shows are packed full of percussionists, singers and dancers, with visual art projected onto screens.”It’s all just to keep the audience from looking at me” he adds, modestly. Sadly, Pedro can’t really play his music in Angola because of the social commentary in some of the songs. “Bazuka” contains a sample mentioning the name of the current Angolan president and although the President’s name is not mentioned in a derogatory way neither is it totally positive. This would be enough for it not to be welcomed in his home country. Still, his self-imposed musical exile was not intentional. Pedro grew up with his family all talking about how beautiful Africa and especially Angola was and so he travelled back the first chance he got and fell in love. Now he enjoys visiting Angola whenever he gets the chance.
Pedro has a very indie approach to music, putting his music out via friends and fellow DJs. The next step for him, he says, is the one he is taking right now. He is happy with the way things are opening with the release of his debut Batida and the tours, and is happy to focus on the present moment. If he ventures into other musical realms, Pedro says, the project will carry a different name.
In many ways, his connection with Soundway Records seems like a kind of Divine Providence. ”Soundway was probably the most widely played record label on my radio show,” Pedro says. He loved what this label was doing with their re-issues of cool old African and South American records, so when Miles Cleret approached him to offer him a recording deal as Soundway’s first new artist playing modern sounds, Pedro jumped at the chance.
A brief history of Soundway Records with Joss Yerbury
This year marks the tenth anniversary of Soundway Records. Miles Cleret started out as a DJ and rare vinyl collector. His love of jazz and world music came from his father who was an avid record collector with broad tastes.
Ten years ago he visited Ghana for a few months and during his last few days he met up with a local DJ. He spent two whole days pawing through his record collection, shocked at the quality and quantity of unknown artists in that collection – unknown at least to the Western world. He made a decision: To help get that music out there to the world at large.
However, on returning to England and knocking on a few doors, he could not find a label interested in promoting such music. The obvious solution was to create his own.
Miles went back to Ghana and spent the next few months hunting down dusty 45s and LPs, then seeking out the artists to get permission to reissue their songs. This is how Soundway’s first compilation, Ghana Soundz, was born.
From here Miles moved onto Nigeria, which seemed the obvious next step as both countries where ex-British colonies and there were many ties musically; a lot of dovetailing influences between artists from both countries.
Seven or eight compilations later and Miles decided to venture to a new continent. He enlisted the help of two Latin music aficionados: Beto, a vinyl collector from San Francisco and Will Holland of Quantic. Together they set out as musical archeologists to Columbia and Panama. The releases they uncovered here were just as successful as the African releases.
In 2010, Miles travelled to Thailand – sticking to the Tropical belt – and discovered a whole new sound. He decided he wanted to compile an album of rare Thai music which he would call The Sound of Siam.
He met up with a British music journalist who lived in Bangkok, Chris Menist. Menist ran a night called Paradise Bangkok with a native Thai called Maftsai. The two of them took Miles on a trip around Bangkok’s record stores that lasted for days, digging around in old boxes full of rare vinyl.
There was one record store where he spent a whole day sifting through boxes of records and when he had finally made his choices and had a stack before him that he wanted to buy, the record store owner refused to sell. The next day, when Miles returned to the shop, all of the records he had chosen where on the shelves again labeled with exorbitant prices.
This was one particularly curious response to Miles’ interest in this old music. However, most of the artists in Africa and South America have been quite baffled by his sudden interest in songs of theirs that many had forgotten about.
These reissues and compilations have brought a few of the featured artists welcome attention and in some cases have acted as kindling to refuel their careers. Ghanaian guitarist and composer Ebo Taylor, for instance, has recently been sampled on Usher’s latest album, Raymond vs Raymond. Ebo has also recently begun recording and touring internationally, with a new album Appia Kwa Bridge out on Strut Records.
Soundway, Batida and the next chapter
Recently Miles made a conscious choice expand Sounday’s roster and take on some new artists. It was important to him that these artists be current in their production styles, while at the same time clearly influenced by the more traditional sounds that he loved.
The first artist he approached was, of course, Pedro Coquenão. Although Miles was concerned at how Soundway fans would take this shift into new realms, the fans lapped up Batida’s music.
Since then Soundway have released a new album by Will Holland called Los Meticos del Ritmo. This is an album of classically recorded original compositions alongside dancefloor friendly Cumbia covers of artists such as Michael Jackson and Queen. Holland has also juste released another of his pet projects with Soundway, Ondatrópica with Mario ‘Frente Cumbiero’ Galeano Toro. You can read our review here.
Another new band, KonKoma, are set for a release on Soundway later this year, but despite the focus on new music, Miles insists he will continue to honor artists from the past by releasing compilations. His next compilation projects, he says, are Nigeria and Kenya.
Soundway’s evolution has been driven by Miles’ insatiable hunger for rare vinyl to widen the palette of his DJ sets. By shining a light on these more obscure artists as well as maintaining his connection to its dancefloor roots, the label is fast building a reputation for quality, encompassing a diversity of styles including afro-beat, funk, highlife, calypso, cumbia, latin-jazz and disco.
By all accounts, a label to watch out for.
Read our review of Batida’s debut album Batida HERE.
Photos by Mette Muhli.
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