Notting Hill Carnival
(Photo: Romazur)

Carnival arrives in many parts of the world on the same weekend as the February Electropical, so we’re tuned in to the spirit of the season.

Join us for the Carnival edition of Electropical on Saturday, February 18 at the Backstage Lounge.

It’s a masquerade party, so bring a mask of your own (whether it’s from Rio, Recife, Trinidad, Port-au-Prince, Santiago, Venice, or the Party Bazaar), or pick one up at the door at no charge.

We’ll dig deep into our ever-expanding collections of Brazilian beats, Caribbean sounds, African rhythms, Arabian waves, and Balkan bangers to keep you moving.

UPDATE: We’ll be joined by special guest percussionist Navaro Franco. Navaro is a founding member of DivaDrum, an all female rhythm & movement quartet. Her drumming experience includes training in Brazilian Batucada and Japanese Taiko drumming.

So shake off the February blahs, move to the groove on the dance floor, and meet friendly people and great dancers from everywhere!

Cheers, and see you on the 18th!

DJs Michael and Marc

ELECTROPICAL
urban sounds with a tropical edge
Saturday, February 18, 2012

at Backstage Lounge
1585 Johnston St, Granville Island

Cover $12 per person
Doors 8pm
Music around 10pm (when the play next door ends)

On the web: http://www.electropical.ca
On Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/electropical/

L.A.-based Sole is an acclaimed producer, musician, and KCRW DJ with a passion for world fusion and global beats.

Beats Without Borders, which is co-producing the Saturday, February 4  event at the Red Room, notes that Sole is known for “sampling seemingly unrelated world rhythms and sounds from old records, writing original music and juxtaposing it all as a form of mosaic music which magnetizes people on to the dance floor world wide.”

Sole has shared the stage and/or the studio with
Sly Stone, Roy Ayers, Ben Harper, Tony Allen, DJ Krush, Stevie Wonder, War,
The Meters, Chaka Khan, Seu Jorge, The Greyboy Allstars, Antibalas,
Fat Freddy’s Drop, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Joe Bataan, and Quantic.

Check out one of Sole’s DJ mixes below, and don’t miss the show.

We’ll serve up more of our favourite sounds of 2011, as well as some future sounds of 2012.

And we’ll dig deep into our ever-expanding collections of Brazilian beats, Caribbean grooves, African rhythms, Arabian waves, and Balkan bangers to keep you moving.

So shake what mama gave you, enjoy our mix of urban sounds with a tropical edge, and meet friendly people and great dancers from everywhere.

Cheers, all the best for the new year, and see you on the 21st!

DJs Marc and Michael

PS: Thanks so much for all your support in 2011. We couldn’t do it without you!

ELECTROPICAL
urban sounds with a tropical edge
Saturday, January 21, 2012

at Backstage Lounge
1585 Johnston St, Granville Island

Cover: $12 per person
Doors open at 8pm
Music around 10pm (when the play next door ends)

On the web: http://www.electropical.ca
On Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6973277530

Aurelio Martinez’s Laru Beya album appeared on many best-of-2011 lists

Last month, we mentioned that our friends at Highlife World Music had posted their best-of-2011-albums list.

Well, there are plenty more such lists, so we thought we’d round a few of them up. Here we go:

Worldbeat Canada: Rather than rank his best albums of the year top-ten style, Worldbeat Canada’s Cal Koat organized his list by month.

• January – KIRAN AHLUWALIA – Aam Zameen: Common Ground (Kiran Music)

• February – AURELIO – Laru Beya (Next Ambiance)

• March – HADAG NAHASH – 6 (kaboom records)

• April – DENGUE FEVER – Cannibal Courtship (Concord Records)

• May – CORNERSHOP – & The Double ‘O’ Groove of (Rough Trade)

• June – SERGENT GARCIA – Una y Otra Vez (Cumbancha)

• July – KARSH KALE – Cinema (Six Degrees)

• August – THIEVERY CORPORATION – Culture of Fear (ESL Music)

• September – DAZKARIEH – Ruido do Silêncio (Galileo)

• October – TE VAKA – Havili (Warm Earth Records)

• November – VARIOUS – Red Hot + Rio 2 (Red Hot)

• December – CSS – La Liberacion (V2 Records)

KCRW: The influential Santa Monica station’s lists cover a huge range of genres. KCRW DJs who lean toward global sounds include Tom Schnabel, Jeremy Sole, Garth Trinidad, Chuck P, and Anthony Valadez. This best-of page is crammed with samples, so there are hours of great listening here.

Songlines Magazine, National Geographic World Music, Rhapsody, and the Boston Globe also put together their takes on the best of the year.

We’ll post our own best-of lists shortly. Meanwhile, happy listening, and happy new year!

With Christmas behind us, the next big question is, “What am I doing for New Year’s Eve?”

Our friends at City Salsa Vibe have an answer for you. It’s The Empire Affair: New Year’s Eve 2012. Salsa and swing bands, samba and belly dancers, a fire dance show, James Bond girls, and six DJs, including DJ Michael Laycock of ELECTROPICAL.

Four themed party rooms, five live shows, and two dance lessons help make this a don’t-miss event at the Empire Landmark, an elegant downtown hotel.

UPDATE: Today (Dec. 26) is the last day for advance tickets at the discounted rate of $70 + HST. Prices go up tomorrow, and previous editions of The Empire Affair have sold out, so act soon.

Here’s a quick rundown of the entertainment:

• Party to the live sounds of salsa, cumbia, cha cha, reggaeton and bachata with Mazacote.
• Do the swing thing with the Hot Foot Five, a five-piece swing and jazz band.
• Electropical DJ Michael Laycock takes you on a tour of Brazilian beats, Caribbean grooves, African rhythms, Arabian waves, and Balkan bangers.
• Electroswing DJ Rudy and DJ Spry bring you a fresh live mix of sultry vintage sounds and a good dose of downright dirty dance-floor beats.
• DJ Chinito keeps you dancing all night to top 40, soulful house, hip hop, reggaeton, and hits from the 70s and 80s.

Other performances include a samba show, belly dancers, a salsa dance show, James Bond dance girls, a fire show, and stilt walkers.

Early bird tickets are sold out. Advance tickets (available here) cost $70 + HST per person until December 26; further discounts available for multiple-ticket purchases. If any tickets remain at the door, it’s $85 + HST per person.

For more information on the event and tickets, visit the City Salsa Vibe website or the CSV Facebook page.

The concept is quite simple: if you have an office Christmas party that night, please go — it won’t hurt as much as you think.

Then gather your favourite co-workers and bring them down to the Backstage Lounge to bring the party to a new level of fun. DJ Marc Fournier and I will serve up festive beats from all curves of the globe!

If you don’t have another party that night, join ours — we’ll share some of our favourite sounds of 2011.

And as usual, we’ll dig deep into our ever-expanding collections of Brazilian beats, Caribbean grooves, African rhythms, Arabian waves, and Balkan bangers to keep you moving and celebrate the end of the year in style!

Please note that the play next door will run late again this month. And because sound travels from the Backstage Lounge into the theatre, we can’t turn up the music until the performance is over. So we’ll get rolling at 10:45 pm. Next month, it’s back to our usual start time.  

Cheers, best of the season to you, and see you on the 17th!

DJ Michael Laycock

Check it out here.