Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Interview with Stuart Ellis of Radiodiffusion Internasionaal

Stuart Ellis is the curator of the amazing music blog Radiodiffusion Internasionaal, and also an associate of Sublime Frequencies (he compiled their excellent Bollywood Steel Guitar disc).


Here is the raw stuff of an interview I conducted with him via email for my article in Musicworks Magazine issue #102.


Me:What is your perception of the term World Music? Do you the music represented on your site fall under that banner? Why?

Stuart Ellis: World Music is just a catch all phrase. It’s like the term Jazz. That term includes Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, John Zorn and regrettably Kenny G... And that term is a marketing tool for labels like Putumayo and Rough Guide – now available at Starbucks. Ugh. Does the music on my site fall under that banner? Yeah, I guess. It’s from this world. It’s music. But, the stuff that I post – for the most part – defies description and I try to let the music speak for itself. It does need some context, but to call it World Music is to almost dismiss it.

Me: Are there any quasi-activistic motivations behind your site? (even on a small scale... like as a reaction within the world of music)?

SE: My site just kind of happened. It originally was just for a few friends, and was mostly stuff off of compilations that I had bought from Forced Exposure and Aquarius Records. But it eventually evolved into the mess it is today. I had no idea what I was doing, and still don’t. It’s just an obsession. I’ve always been that guy who gives you a mix tape of weird stuff you’re probably only going to listen to once.


Me: There seems to be a broader trend toward the emergence of labels and blogs which curate a range of popular music or neglected trad/ classical from around the world (your site is included, as well as my blog, and labels like Sublime Frequencies, Yaala Yaala, Buda Musique, and bands like Konono)... Do you feel that this is a mere marketing trend, or do you feel like this is a broader movement? How do you feel this impacts the public's perception of non-anglo-american/ anglo-european music?


SE: I definitely see it as more of a movement. I think that right now, people are just bored of the same old crap that has been spoon fed to them for so long. First it was Rock ‘n’ Roll. Eventually Punk came along, followed by No Wave, Post-Punk, Hardcore, Alternative, Indie Rock... But, it’s all been done, and we’ve heard it all. And what I think is happening, is that people are starting to ask: Well, what else is out there? Take, for instance, the Broken Flowers soundtrack. I think that got more than the actual movie. And what about all the press Vampire Weekend is getting because they are supposedly influenced by Afro Pop?


The impact? I cannot answer that. The cynic in me says that eventually, it will be watered down and get over played and I’ll get sick of it and move on to something else. But even if that does happen, people will be enlightened that there is, and has always been, a lot of great music from places that they didn’t think even existed.

Me: Have you had any criticism with respect copyright/ intellectual property to the material on your site?
SE: The only thing close to a response that I’ve had in that area, would have to be from Karim Abranis of El Abranis. I asked him what he thought about the two songs that were on the Waking Up Scheherazade compilation. He was actually happy that someone was getting to hear “those old songs”. But for copyright stuff? No one has said anything.

...
In a weird way, I see this as almost a “scene” (for lack of a better term). Back in the late 80s and early 90’s, I used to put on punk rock shows, do a fanzine, and work at the college radio station. There was a network of bands and labels, zines and promoters. This has a similar feel (without the sleeping on floors and endless nights at Kinko’s cutting and pasting). There are the big labels that are putting out crap, but then you have Sublime Frequencies and Terp and the bloggers who really do it because they love the music. I think it’s no coincidence that a lot of the people involved are from the old Punk scene...




Be sure to visit both Stuart's original site and the Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe.


(Images sourced from Radiodiffusion Internasionaal)

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