Transglobal Underground-Live

Latest in a line of posts featuring dodgy quality live sets,next up is the wonderful Transglobal Underground.TGU are a weird amalgamation of Dub,African and Oriental styles.They usually get pidgeonholed as ‘World Fusion’ or some such,ive heard ‘Ethno-Techno’ mentioned in the same breath too.
I have no firm idea where this recording is from,probably Glastonbury,it’s probably after 1994 as ‘International Times’ is in the set and thats the title track from the album they released that year.Again,this has been recorded onto cassette from Radio 1,transferred and cleaned up with Goldwave.Listenable,not perfect.
TGU are one of those bands that occupy a niche that is almost their own,they only act to come anywhere near them is probably Banco De Gaia
If this cracking live set tickles your fancy,then the first two albums are well worth your cash
Dream Of 100 Nations
International Times

Daft Punk-Alive-1997

You are looking at the cover of one of the best,and most important House/Techno live albums ever.
Doesn’t look like much does it?….
Never judge a book by it’s cover,or Lethal Weapon by Danny Glover for that matter.For on this disc is one of the most fervent and exciting performances that will ever grace your speakers.

Alive 1997,not to be confused with Alive 2007, is an excerpt from a Daft Punk live show from the Daftendirektour ,as performed at Birmingham’s Que Club,November 8th,1997.It has interpretations of various Daft Punk tunes including,Rollin’ and Scratchin’,Da Funk and Daftendirekt.The disc’s only fault is that it is indeed an excerpt.Clocking in at a tad over 45 minutes,it clearly fades out when there was still more of the show to be had,but hey,what a 45 minutes!
Unlike some electronic acts who opt for a more dj approach to playing live,Daft Punk lugged much of their studio out on the road.This meant they had far more control over the show and could more easily tailor the performance to the mood of the night..“Everything was synched up — the drum machines, the bass lines. The sequencer was just sending out the tempos and controlling the beats and bars. On top of this structure we built all these layers of samples and various parts that we could bring in whenever we wanted to”-Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk.

It’s a cracking set,sparkling all the way through with energy and passion,the two members of Daft Punk work together like one person,slicing loops in and out of the mix,adding effects ,whiplashing the eq and panning sounds.It really comes across that they themselves are having a whale of a time.Their grasp of the dynamics of their music is impressive,they tease the crowd with snippets of familiar tracks,then fade them out again,building tension before releasing it by bringing that snippet back in full,This is another live recording much like Banco De Gaia’s Live At Glastonbury where the impressively vocal crowd play an enormous part in bringing the whole thing to life.

This kind of raised the bar when it was released,people listened to it and realised what a properly live techno show could be like.I can’t think of many others that could play at this level,Orbital,The Chemical Brothers and the aforementioned Banco De Gaia and thats maybe about it
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Banco De Gaia-Live At Glastonbury

Banco De Gaia AKA,Toby Marks began his musical career in the seventies,he learned to play guitar very early and by the age of 14 was in a heavy metal band.After a move to Portugal,he found himself playing cover songs for tourists.In the late eighties,he became interested in House/dance music which was in a very embryonic stage,bought himself a sampler and started on what would become a quite remarkable musical journey.
Unlike almost all his contempories,his take on electronic dance music was deeply layered and textured,Often featuring tribal rhythms with strong Arabic vocals and/or Middle Eastern samples,with a deep,driving bass.Reputedly the decision to do this was inspired,in part by hearing the Eric B and Rakim song ‘Paid In Full’,which features the vocals of the sadly deceased Ofra Haza.
The Banco De Gaia sound is a bit like Orbital,but not so clinical,a bit like The Orb,but dancier,the closest in vibe is probably Transglobal Underground,he’s usually classified as Ambient Dub or sometimes Tribal House,but neither really does him justice.
After releasing three cassette only albums,Banco De Gaia began a long association with the Megadog crew,playing live at many of their events alongside other doggy acts like Eat Static,Astralasia and The Drum Club.After the release of two well received albums for Planet Dog records,he released the seminal album,’Live At Glastonbury’ in 1996.
The Live at Glastonbury album was recorded at The Avalon Stage,on june 24th 1995,apparently without Marks knowing it at the time.Its a mixture of tracks from his two previous releases,’Last Train To Lhasa’ and some older tracks from ‘Maya’.A lot of credit to how good this album is,must go to the very vocal and well up for it crowd,who are clearly getting as much from the performance as Marks is getting from their enjoyment.
Everything kicks off with some Tibetan chanting,the crowd get teased with snippets of percussion and samples weaving in and out for a good few minutes,building up a palpable tension,which explodes into a frenzy of cheering as ‘Last Train To Lhasa’ finally kicks in.All aboard,tickets please!If you are familiar with Banco De Gaia’s music,what follows is like a succession of old friends dropping by,only they have changed a little since you saw them last,they have new things to say.
‘Mafich Arabi’ is jaw dropping ,then follows a remarkably untouched ‘Amber’,a breakbeat has been discovered lurking within the lofty ‘White Paint‘,new vocals in ‘Kinkajou’ drop in and out.The crowd by this point are loving it,the long chanting build to ‘Kuos’ provokes them into another frenzy of shouts and cheers,then they get treated to a superb version of ‘887′,despite being the only track on the album that has been edited due to copyright reasons,although truth be told,it’s barely noticable.The set ends to rapturous applause and for an encore,a mad Redwood mix style version of ‘Heliopolis’ then the crowds whistle as the regal opening bars of ‘Data Inadequate’ roll out,when the beat drops its like a big wave of good-time party vibes.The whole album sparkles with a ferocious energy that is evocative of the energy of the early Acid House records,i suspect that much of this as said before is down to the crowd,theres a note on the sleeve that reads,”we have tried to capture the spirit of the occasion rather than achieve technical perfection” well and truly captured i would say.
In fact,The Guardian reported “there was one act — and above all, perhaps, one single moment — which somehow epitomises the reason why one feels Glastonbury could last another quarter-century yet… The packed crowd in and beyond ‘A’ marquee on the Avalon Field burst suddenly into a semi-devotional chant at a climatic moment during the set of the weekend: that by Banco de Gaia“
Go and buy it it’s an excellent intro to the music of Banco De Gaia.Or listen to some of his material here.