SOUNDTRACK: ÌFÉ-Tiny Desk Concert #736 (April 29, 2018).
ÌFÉ is from Puerto Rico. Creator Otura Mun has a fascinating history as to how he wound up creating this band:
Otura Mun started out in the world as Mark Underwood, a Goshen, Ind., native whose parents were Mennonites and who managed to snag a coveted spot on the University of North Texas’ drumline. But that was before a flight mixup landed the percussionist, composer, DJ and producer with a free trip to Puerto Rico. Two years later, he moved permanently to the island, became a Yoruban high priest and began creating electronic music that channeled the African diaspora.
Woah.
So ÌFÉ (pronounced ee-faye) combines traditional Afro-Cuban drumming and chanting with a kind of Jamaican dancehall sound. Midway through the set, Mun explains that he drilled holes into the traditional acoustic drums and has attached electronics to them, essentially making them triggers, but with the traditional acoustic sound as an overtone. It’s pretty amazing.
The group’s debut album, IIII+IIII, (pronounced “Edgy-Og-Beh”) is a fresh electronic take on tradition that’s winning over even the most devout practitioners of the western African-based spiritual ceremonies that form the base of their music. That’s hard to do with ritual music.
Although interestingly, for the first song “House of Love (Ogbe Yekun),” they play acoustically.
For their turn behind the Tiny Desk, Otura Mun and his ensemble unplug their drums for their first tune, an acoustic version of their “House of Love (Ogbe Yekun)”.
This acoustic sound is quite compelling in itself. Yaimir Cabám plays a beautiful acoustic guitar (pretty, simple chords) and sings, I believe wordlessly. Meanwhile, the rest of the band plays various percussion: simple electronic percussion and shaker and various hand drums. Anthony Sierra on congas keeps the rhythm.
After a verse, Otura Mun joins in on vocals (with deep backing vocals from Beho Torrens). It’s a quiet, soothing song with occasional punctuation from the drums. When the melody finally changes after 4 minutes, it sounds like a massive shift even if it’s just a few notes.
“Prayer for Oduduwa (Para Meceditas)” opens with bells and shakers and some interesting electronic splashes before the massive amounts of electronics take over the song. I believe Rafael Maya joins them and was not their for song one.
The sound of the second song here is what startled me when I heard the band’s debut CD last year: the parts normally performed on Afro-Cuban bata drums and chekeres are electronically treated for a traditional prayer for the deity Oduduwa.
They sing in a traditional chanting style including an awesome low chant (from Torrens) that sounds otherworldly.
By the last tune, “Bangah (Pico Y Palo),” the electronics have created a sonic playground that plays perfectly against the battery of Afro-Cuban rhythms. “Bangah,” focuses on a reflection of the Orisha Ogún, the owner of war in the religion, whose main tool is the machete.
Mun says he wanted to play urban music you could improvise and to use percussion as the basis–Cuban rumba combined with Jamaican dancehall. He demonstrates some sounds and then a deep rumbling bass: “we got your nasty subs that you know from that the stuff that’s nasty.”
The song is a shout out to those struggling against the vestiges of colonialism still prevalent in Puerto Rico.
They begin the song with a “breathe in” [inhale] let it out Ahhh!
I love the way the various voices are processed. Torrens sound deeper and Cabám’s voice sounds alien and like it is three voices at once. The various lines are interspersed with interesting vocals sounds: grunts and screams that punctuate the verses.
It’s a very cool set.
[READ: March 19, 2018] The Rat with the Human Face
In 2014, Angelberger’s first book The Qwikpick Adventure Society was reissued as Poop Fountain. He then wrote two more books in this trilogy.
This is the second book (written in 2015) and it opens with this
This is the second of three stacks of papers this guy found in a storage room at the old Qwikpick gas station in Crickenburg. The guy, who asked me not to use his name, called me because one of my old newspaper articles was in the first stack. (You know I was a reporter before I wrote the Origami Yoda books, right?)
Then he reminds the readers that this book is set in 2000–kids didn’t have iPhones or smartphones. They didn’t have phones at all and cameras took forever to charge the flash and they drained the batteries fast.
So the entire Qwikpick Adventure Society: Lyle, Marilla and Dave is back, but this story begins with bad tidings–the Qwikpick Adventure Society was disbanded after this adventure.
The adventure society consists of:
Marila Anderson: haiku superstar current Ms. Pac-Man record holder, saxophone player, babysitter (tall).
Dave H Raskin: artist, reigning penny basketball champion, origami expert, trumpet player.
Lyle Herzog (me): speed typist, future reporter, rightful penny basketball champion if there is any justice (slightly shorter than Dave).
Dave and Marilla have been friends for years (through band). Lyle started eating lunch with them about a year ago. Lyle really likes Marilla.
Their official report is typed (on a typewriter!) with handwritten notes written in. These are things that Lyle thought afterward. If he had a computer he could just edit them in, but he’s just got this stupid typewriter.
As the handwritten notes explain (he didn’t want to put this in the official record, this adventure went horribly wrong and in the end, Marilla was banned from hanging out with Lyle.
Lyle lives in a trailer park and is clearly a bad influence. Ironically, Marilla and her family live in the same trailer park–but feel they don’t belong there. Marilla and Dave did not have to stop speaking for some reason, which was even more unfair to Lyle.
But that’s all prelude to this adventure about a rat with a human face. The kids were hanging out at the Qwikpick (Lyle’s parents both work there and the kids are given more or less free reign). They overheard an electrician describe the rat that he saw at the research station up at Mount Perrin. He described old junk and weird crap floating in bottles. And he swears he saw a rat and it had a human face.
The storyteller’s buddies were only mildly impressed but the kids were hooked. They had to go see it.
There’s an awesome side note about a claw game that was installed in the Qwikpick (it replaced the beloved Ms. Pac-Man). They hated the claw except that one of the things inside was a stuffed doll:
It was a stuffed-doll version of President Andrew Jackson. We knew it was him because he had a tag that said “Andrew Jackson, Seventh President of the United States of America.” “Why on earth does that exits?” asked Dave And why is it i the crane game? said Marilla, I mean who would want it, I mean other than us?”
There’s a second awesome side note about a game that they are playing called Rhyme-jitsu. You have to make up a rhyme about something that just happened and then say Hyah! afterward. If someone spills their lunch and they bring a mop to clean it up you could say mop slop and get a point. Two points for two-syllable rhymes: “stopping mopping” No one has gotten a three syllable one yet, but its worth five points. At the beginning of the story is it is Marilla 86, Dave 74, Lyle 80
Extra rules:
You can pronounce words funny to make the rhyme work: awful waffle
You can’t reuse a rhyme
You can’t do something to make a rhyme: pat a cat
You cant rhyme someone’s name.
That’s all part of the story, but how are they going to get to the facility which is not exactly walking distance. Well, turns out the senior center is having a brunch there for Easter (at the hotel nearby, not at the research facility). The kids decide to pony up $40 (each!) to go on the bus ride (actually Dave foots the bill (he’ll be getting more money at Passover).
They convince their parents that they should go to this Easter lunch. Lyle’s parents were working on Easter so it was okay with them. Marilla doesn’t lie (ever) and her parents are very devout (Jehovah’s Witnesses) so she had to do it by telling the truth more or less. Dave follows every rule to the T so he had to make sure he didn’t lie either.
They got to the hotel and head down to the biological station. They sneak into the building but there is no electricity yet. They walk around the basement room looking at all the cool things (Marilla gets some good photos of creepy things in jars). But then a caretaker comes by and locks them in.
How will they get back in time? How will they get back at all? And what happens that causes the break up of the Qwikpick Adventure Society.
And if the QAS breaks up why is there another book . And what possible silver lining could Lyle find in all of this?
Read and find out and enjoy the cool illustrations from Jen Wang.
I Just Read About That... 
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