Welcome to Muzik Line

Musik Line is a journal / blog dedicated to sound system culture and to African, Caribbean and other music. I hope to update it irregularly with a selection of articles, interviews, mixes, reviews and other interesting sonic and literary fragments.

Current features are:

Gwoka Nation: Jocelyn Gabali and the Music of Guadeloupe

- Struggle, commercialization and why gwoka isn't a tradition


FADE 2 presents RIDDIM SHACK

- Bring your airhorns and whistles for this global carnival tour


Mixes Part 1: Dub

- 70s roots, digi, UK steppas, dubstep and beyond


Ras Kush: Sound of Brooklyn

- Black Redemption and the New York sound system scene


Ten years of reggae and dub

- 2k0-2k9


Tambou means drums

- a short mix from the Antilles and Africa


Wall of Sound

- Berlin Wall sound map


African Dancehall and Hip Hop Minimix

- bump and grind


RAW dub style

- the Berlin dub scene and the RAW.tempel


Sofrito and the Antilles

- a musical voyage round the French Caribbean


1315 Broadway, 1988

- a first encounter with The Music Institute and Detroit techno


Empty Barrels Make The Most Noise

- soundboy killing with Stone Love


Gnawa: Music and the Black Diaspora in Morocco

- notes on the gnawa confraternity in Morocco, their history and identity, from the sixteenth century to the present day


Play the Music Stand Tall Man!

- dancehall session from the Stand Tall sound system in Paris, 1993


Tarantism

- the Italian cult of the tarantula, and its relation to music, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries


Shaka in Africa

- Jah Shaka's history lesson about the repatriation movement, from 1989


Hip Hop in Nouakchott

- a snapshot of the hip hop scene in Mauritania in 2005


Rih: Folk and Blues from Morocco

- mix, with notes, of spiritual and popular music from 1970s Morocco


What is Musik Line?

- music and business with Prince Nico Mbarga and Rocafil Jazz



Stay tuned for future installments. Please feel free to leave your comments, or get in touch via musikline at googlemail com.

Enjoy!