Past Programs
Electronic - 2008
Spam Allstars
27/11/2008
Spam Allstars, one of Miami’s hardest-working bands, mix up improvisational electronic elements and turntables with latin, funk, hip hop and dub to create a groove-based dance music that’s all its own.
They were formed in 1993 by Andrew Yeomans (DJ Le Spam), born in Canada of a British father and a Venezuelan mother who grew up in London, Tampa, Bogotá and Miami. He’s assembled a band of horns, percussionists, sax, flute, guitar and even violin to play a sort of electronic descarga with obvious appeal to festival audiences and dancers. Introducing Spam Allstars, a compilation of tracks from their three CDs, is their first international release.
La Cherga
20/11/2008
Tito's experiment of a united, peaceful and prosperous Balkans under the one name of Yugoslavia may have failed eventually in its intended form, but the group La Cherga have certainly realised his aims in a small way, even if they had to form in Austria to do it. The band fuses a variety of Balkan styles with dub and elctronica to form an exciting, if sometimes challenging whole.
The band is led by Kosovar expat singer Irina Karamarkovic and Croatian electronics wizard Nevenko Bucan. They're joined by two Macedonian brass masters and a pair of Bosnians on guitar and bass. The CD notes for Fake no More describe the band as representing a pan-Balkan consciousness ... ripe, bright and tasty as stuffed peppers - with a shot of rakija!
