Jimmy Davis-A Prayer(Yared Sound Edit)

Smoketown Social Club

Carmen Rivero-Cartagenera(Yared Sound Mix)

Carmen Rivero, one of the madrinas or 'godmothers' of Mexican Cumbia first began to bring the tropical rhythms of cumbia to mexico when she returned from living in Columbia in the 1960's. She was instrumental in developing the Mexican tropical sound with heavy reliance on Afro-latino rhythms, driven by the use of the timbales. More about the early development of Cumbia Mexicana can be found here.  Below is my mix of her track "Cartagenera.

Los Beats Traficantes

It's always interesting to me how some forms of of information, knowledge, and culture are criminalized in our society. If certain books for example, are a mobilizing people to critically examine history, or inspiring people to further develop and solidify their own agency and identity, they are banned. The sharing and experiencing of music, if it happens in a manner or context that is outside the bounds of the $ transaction it is deemed illegal.
 However, in response to measures meant to control and monetize people's access to and interaction with culture, there always exist counter strategies. Caravans filled with banned literature driving halfway across the country to replace books crucial to our people's history; books that were confiscated from public schools in Arizona. Or the informal sharing of music, person to person, through hard drives and usb sticks. People always use the tools and strategies available to us to restore the free access to culture that has been taken, and that we feel so strongly, belongs to us.
At an event in Louisville Ky, that was held in solidarity with those effected by the ban of Chicano/Ethnic studies in Arizona, prohibited books were read, and music that expresses meaningful aspects of the struggle against imposed ignorance, rigid border divisions, and cultural homogeneity was danced to. The tracks in this mix were shared/passed/trafficked to me at this event. Just as they were shared with me in an act of affinity and solidarity with this struggle, I share them back to anyone who will listen. For more info on the struggle in Arizona visit librotraficante.com Palante mi gente!

Los Beats Traficantes by Yared Sound on Mixcloud

Jai!/Jah!

British Colonialism brought many Sub-continental Indians to work the sugar/banana plantations of Jamaica. There existed in the working and poor classes, many small pockets of Hindus among Afro-Christian communities. It was in these communities that Rastafarian theology grew, out of class concerns for social/economic justice and a liberation theology that complemented their radical approach to living a faith. Therefore, embedded in Rastafari culture and theology are many traces of Hindi traditions. From the many tangible trappings of religious culture: the shared ascetic traditions of of the body such as carrying dreadlocks, employing dietary restrictions and natural pharmacology, as well as the similarities in ritual. The Nyabinghi ritual in particular, perhaps one of the most important in the Rasta tradition, shares striking similarities with many Hindu ecstatic ritual. Drum, dance, chant.
A connection has also been drawn that the ecstatic shouts of "Jah! Rastafari!" that Rastas vocalize during the Nyabinghi, were influenced by the common practice in Hindi ritual of shouting "Jai!" followed by a certain deity name to mean "praise" of that deity.
Forward on into the commonalities existing today between Hindi and Rastafari culture, we can see likeness in the way that religious song has been so easily translated into popular song. And when looking at the developments of both the dub/dancehall and the bollywood/bhangra genres, one can see the translation of a local musical spirituality into what have become globalized urban movements in themselves.
This track explores a bit of that shared sonic space.

Charlie Chaplin's Great Dictator

The speech given by Charlie Chaplin at the end of his film "The Great Dictator", was sharply relevant when released in 1940, and its relevance has only grown with time. The mechanisms and currents of oppression that Chaplin satirized have only continued to expand, become more regularized, and saturate our world. The mechanisms of hegemony; the rallies, the propaganda notices, the systems of prohibited/permitted forms of life and action. What used to be clearly marked with flags, banners, symbols, and uniforms; have today, softened their faces, shed their uniforms(mostly) and obscured a direct view of their actions with more and more products and services for us to buy, lifestyles to subscribe to, and endless loops of political/media doublespeak to keep the level of general confusion high.

I made this track during the expansion of the the Occupy movements in various U.S. cities. The Chaplin speech had been used, re-edited and disseminated widely throughout the Occupy community and those of previous movements such as the 15May(!Toma la calle!) here in Spain.

Yared Sound-Restore Freedom

I believe that one of the vital roles of music in our lives, is to tell stories. That being said..I hope this track evokes some type of story for you. I wish I could tell you that the title, "Restore Freedom" referred to the structure of the song being antithetical to the cookie cutter structure of most music tracks nowadays. Or that the general progression of of the track: Kora and Banjo transitioning into darker orchestration and then back to Kora and Banjo was a commentary on the hopeful progression of human music. From the roots; the soulful place of music in our past communities, through the more confined, controlled, and at times alienating classical approach, and then hopefully back to music as a an extension of human community. I wish I could say that, but It was titled as such because I originally had used a vocal sample from a Star Wars Vinyl in which the narrator speaks of a small band of rebels attempting to "Restore Freedom" to the galaxy...so there you have it.

Yared Sound-Restore Freedom by yaredsound