Debo Band on Electric Cowbell Records

Up today is another collaborative split from The Debo Band and Kiddid making things his own on the remix B-Side. Just saw that Debo has a double album coming out on Subpop in about a month, crazy departure for that label but good to hear these guys spreading out to new audiences and across two discs...it all started here with Electric Cowbell spreading the Debo... one single at a time.

The A-Side, "Gedawo" was recorded live in Ethiopia 2010. I love this heavy distorted sounding bass groove, super dirty, like something from Mothers Milk, without even knowing it that was an early introduction to funk. It wasn't a stretch from there to the source of Funkadelic or Parliment. It's the full use of an entire orchestra in something like this that's infectious, the feel of everyone invited to the session getting involved weather they wanted to or not follows through the the very listening to something like this. This instrumentation in a self propelling groove...this energy just taking over. Bursts of choreographed backup vocals and against Bruck Tesfaye's quivering... almost falsetto vocal. A classical element opposite this heavily wah'd guitar, a super funk combination of structured free form improvised jazz with these undeniable grooves. An intense horn section...the complete meltdown sound totally in control.

The B-Side, A remix of the track from Kiddid emphasizes the dub reggae elements, the classic counter rhythm in between the beat. He's got a heavy synth or electronic groove under heavy echo'd vocal from the first side. The almost falsetto vocal sounding extra alien when doubled and bounced around like this over the more minimal instrumentation. This bassline fuzzing out in the lower end, isolated horns make a more subtle entrance on this side, being all about that humming, floor shaking bass. An organ electronic taking the place of that guitar strum.
Nice dropout...A minor interlude of birds chirping and sample for the big drop back in, teasing out an entirely new instrumnetal section from the horns, just a slight glitch edge towards the end. It's swinging way away from the organic origins, and a halting handclap beat that I don't even remember from the other side. Chopping up new sections that isn't going so far into removing it from the source, and still ending up with something entirely new.

Sold Out from Electric Cowbell (I was slow getting to this) so check out these ditro's: Crosstalk (Chicago, IL), Carrot Top (Chicago, IL)Fat Beats (Brooklyn, NY), Revolver (San Francisco, CA), Ernie B’s (El Dorado Hills, CA).

Debo Band returns to the Electric Cowbell roster with another hit out of the park! “Gedawo” is an Ethio-funk classic by the great singer Ayalew Mesfin who recorded several hits in the 1970s. Recorded live in Ethiopia, this version features the background vocals, clapping, and traditional drumming of the group Fendika, Debo’s vibrant collaborators from Addis Ababa. A perfect vehicle for charismatic Debo-frontman Bruck Tesfaye, Gedawo is a rousing dance anthem performed by a contemporary 15-piece funk powerhouse. In stark contrast, Kiddid’s B-side “Gedubwo Mix” swaps drum kit and sousaphone for drum machine and square-wave, flipping the tune on its head into digi-dub territory. A chugging Tubby-esque take on the raucous original. Comes in medium weight 7″ brown paper sleeve with full-color vintage postage stamp sticker of the group on the sleeve.

Debo Band and Kiddid on Electric Cowbell Records

Another genre and mind expanding single from Electric Cowbell, who are truly documenting pretty much whatever they feel worthwhile. Like Feeding Tube Records, or Harding Street Assembly Lab, these are goldmines of underground music that would never make it to vinyl, let alone any form of release whatsoever.

I have mixed feelings about Henry Rollins, or I thought I did, but his piece in the LA Weekly, 'Hungry for New Music', about turning 50 and staying open minded to new music couldn't have been more appropriate for sitting down with this single. Really that's the same kind of spirit I wanted to approach this blog with from day 1.
There's too much great music out there without even looking for it, and this format is inherently usually connected to the very bands creating it...forget about the collectible aspect, the vinyl arguments, and the tangibility of the artifact for a second...it's always been about that search for new music, and being open to stuff exactly like this. The most far reaching challenging sounds have always come from 7 inches, and always will.

This single from Electric Cowbell is no exception. Every single release of theirs is a jumping off point to a completely new area of music I would have otherwise never have come across but knowing it's being expertly curated by Jim Thomson I know these are all going to be worth looking into.

The A-Side 'Adderech Arada' from Debo band was recorded live in Ethiopia, 2009. The first thing I'm into is this tuba sounding bassline. Then the heavily distinct vibrato vocals, firmly planting this in that middle eastern part of the world. A chorus of background ladies repeat his melodies back at him in what could easily be a bouncy theme song on a bollywood soundtrack. The snake charming clarinet or oboe and brass sound There's even a snake charmer oboe/clarinet section with big kettle drums...it's an impressive entire orchestra coming together where each section has it's own unique foreign timings and phrasings. I'll use this as another great jumping off point to dive into that foreign crate next time especially if I see Ethiopia credited on the label.

The B-Side remix by Keddid takes the timeless sound of the Boston based band and jams it definitively into the 21st century. It starts with a thin version of the A-Side played through an old AM radio until the beat takes over and the whole thing comes into focus. Kiddid approaches the vocals off the original composition as sound fragments to be scratched and repeated over the breakbeat while the low tuba sound bassline of the original has been replaced by electronics.
This contemporary interpretation would be what parts of modern Ethiopia or India could sound like in clubs there. They're going for that idea when you combine those genres and musicians that wouldn't know about or work with each other and that;'s what Electric Cowbell is doing...exposing an audience to things they definitely wouldn't come across usually any other way.

Electric Cowbell still has copies of this one, but I've noticed they are out of stock on a few titles, so don't wait around.

"Adderech Arada" is a beloved traditional Ethiopian song about a woman who, after breaking out of her lawful marriage, falls into sin by traveling to Arada, or Addis Ababa's red-light district. and falling into sin. Recorded live in Ethiopia in May 2009, Debo Band's version of Adderech Arada is inspired by the Haile Selassie I Theater Orchestra's recording arranged and conducted by Nerses Nalbandian. And on the flipside, Kiddid's haunting remix deconstructs Debo Band's performance with elements of dub, ambient electronica, and experimental hip-hop.