SKIP-IJ
Skip-ij concept was written originally by Saifullah Zaman, recorded and mixed in Bengal studios (living room), East London, England. U.K. Engineered by Luke Gifford. |
Skip-ij :: Digital Release
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The new album Skip-ij happened from many different elements happening around the same time…
Having to move out of my house, an environment where all my albums had been constructed but engineered somewhere else with the exception of Tana Tani written with Paban Das Baul, which was entirely written and recorded and mixed in my living room. I wanted to write and experimental dance album that was different from what I had written for Visual Audio.
I had been listening and experiencing certain club events globally and it seemed to be in the realms of what had existed for so long, it did not encourage me to want to dance as it felt like the same break beat or Drum and Bass 4/4 elements and did not sound as classic tunes from 15 to 10 years earlier. I just wanted to dance to music that was going to tap into my veins. I was feeling dark as the previous album never had the opportunity to be played live and nor did it have the chance really to be seen or heard on a worldwide level, as previous albums managed to do.
I kept on working initially on a rhythm which had many different melodic snares, I remember seeing the Greek National football team arriving home after winning the European Cup and the commentator saying that they did not really deserve to win. For some reason, at this point I started to switch timing and rhythm feel around by trying other ways, and by accident I guess Skip-ij rhythm had surfaced. I tried to get MC’s to try it out and most had initially said it was going to be difficult as the rhythm was difficult to swing with. I remember on a track called London to Dhaka, my brother, Deeder (ADF) from Rebel Uprising, had initially just swung so naturally with the rhythm as he was messing around, but that got me thinking, that the initial approach to one of the skip-ij tracks is the best way, rather than getting used to it and changing the natural feel, so we recorded most of the vocals on the first take to keep it natural.
I just carried on writing more music but did not want to reproduce the same feel, so the argument could be that the whole album would sound the same, but used certain elements that had been developed that makes the album skip-ij. In the previous two albums, I started writing the bass by playing live rhythms but on skip-ij, I wanted to create another way. I worked on a number of bass sounds just sculpturing for six months. Each note can sweep up or down like a real player but on an individual note. I created a drum kit mainly focussing on a drummer playing five different tuned snares. I began to hear other rhythms from using the combination of the snares, so a lot of the tunes on the album started with the melodic snares.
Skip-ij began to feel strange because it did not sound like rhythms out there but had relationship with African, Brazilian and Indian feel of feel. In many ways Skip-ij was shaping itself by the events that were occurring naturally. I had been meeting people across the world, from Rosina ‘Lal” Kazi from Toronto and began writing lyrics to complete the feel of the tracks, working with Nexmanz, Poet Me, Johanna Marin, it began to take shape. Musicians all confirmed that the music was different from what they had experienced, made me feel confident to push ahead to finish the album. Skip-ij is an album full of songs that have a dance sensibility. Hopefully will see how far it really moves.
See you all soon on the other side.
Sam Zaman
State of Bengal
17th April 2006
Performances
Vocals on Skip-ij:
- Rosina Kazi: Hold it in our heart, Mr. president, Get down like this
- Nexmanz: Skip-ij, Get down like this, Chan na na na
- Renu Hossain: Play that way, Cha na na na
- Deeder Zaman: London to Dhaka
- Nolan Weeks: Breathe in
- Suzana Ansar: Sukno patar
- Johanna Marin: Trip to the moon
- Susmita Bannerjee: Dushto méyra (recorded on an ipaq pda on a bus journey in china 2001 – travelling from Chongching to the first Buddhist city in china)
- Marque ‘inna*most’ Gilmore: Mr. president
- Dinesh Pundit: Future people(Tsunami)
- Saifullah Zaman: Cha na na na
- Coco Varma: Sukno patar
Instrumentation on Skip-ij
- Saifullah Zaman: All drum programming and programmed percussion, sculptured bass on all tracks except live bass on play that way, harmonium and sculptured synths on all tracks, guitar on sukno patar, bongos on sukno patar.
- Renu Hossain: various percussion, guitar, vocal percussion on Play that way, Cha na na na
- Ram Nagi: additional programming on play that way, guitars on, hold it in my heart, Mr. President, Trip to the moon, Future people, synth: skip-ij, Future people
- Suzana Ansar: Harmonium , mad drums on Sukno patar.
- Zak: guitars on Hold it in my heart, get down like this.
- Kevin Davy: Trumpet & Coronet on Hold it in my heart, Mr. President.
- Victoria Wilson: Saxophone on Hold it in my heart
