A Rinse FM and 100Copies Music production supported by the British Council
Part of Rinse FM’s International Underground series
Egypt’s 100Copies Music and UK-based broadcaster, Rinse FM are proud to bring the Cairo Calling programme back to Egypt. Building on the reciprocal relationship formed at the first workshop in London in January, the UK artists are now visiting Egypt from 22-28 March to join their Egyptian peers and showcase their best collaborative work at a public performance as part of the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF) on Thursday 27 March.
Cairo Calling is a programme supported by the British Council which builds bridges between Cairo's mahraganat and London's electronic music scene to showcase individual talent from Egypt and the UK and share the best collaborative work at public events.
Phase one of this creative exchange took place in London from 15-19 January. Sadat, Diezel, Knka and Figo joined Artwork (Magnetic Man), Kode9 (Hyperdub) and Faze Miyake in the Rinse FM studio for a week of collaboration, a Boiler Room performance streamed live to the world, and interviews on Spyro’s Rinse FM show.
For the second leg, Mahmoud Refat, founder of 100Copies Music, and the Egyptian artists are welcoming Pinch, Mumdance and Faze Miyake to their home ground for a further week of collaboration. The UK acts will also visit Salam City, the spiritual birthplace of mahraganat and experience a real street wedding. The visit takes place during D-CAF (the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival) and will be capped off with all the acts performing at the Shahrazad Club in Alfy Street on Thursday 27 March.
Rinse FM, 100Copies Music and the British Council have been working closely with leading figures from the mahraganat scene in Egypt and the electronic scene in London to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with capacity for creative growth on both sides. Mahraganat artists will gain international exposure, develop the skills to monetise their own industry and in return the UK participants will gain an unprecedented insight into both traditional and contemporary North African and Arabic music blueprints.
UK participants
Kode 9, Artwork, Faze Miyake, Pinch, Mumdance
Egyptian participants
Figo, Sadat, Diesel, Knka, Mahmoud Refat
The first collaboration of its kind on this scale, Cairo Calling will create an on-going series of takeovers and documentaries on Rinse FM, as well as a documentary introducing the shaabi/mahraganat scene to a western audience via Rinse TV. Rinse will release a project album of material produced mahraganat songs produced during the project. The London and Cairo workshops will allow creative and professional development through workshops, collaborations and masterclasses, including but not limited to studio techniques, song collaboration, utilising social media, marketing, managerial skills, event production and label management.
Mahraganat or, as it's otherwise known, electro-shaabi has been fermenting in regions of Egypt. A reinterpreted evolution of traditional Egyptian folk music, produced on laptops by musicians on the outskirts of the capital. Traditional radio outlets have not previously been open to Mahraganat producers but YouTube videos gathered views in the hundreds of thousands before the videos spread and demand grew within the new generation of Egyptian youth culture.
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For more information about the British Council contact
Rose marie Gad, Communication Manager, British Council Egypt
Tel: +(202) 3344 3076
Email: Rose.Gad@Britishcouncil.org.eg
100Copies Music Space
100COPIES is what real Egyptian alternative music is all about.
100COPIES is at the avant-garde of the music movement in Egypt and is working at the heart of Egypt vibrant alternative music scene. 100COPIES is fostering collaboration with young musicians through the active programming offered by its ground-breaking alternative and independent music platform located downtown Cairo.
In 2006, 100COPIES was established as a record label by Mahmoud Refat in order to produce and distribute Egyptian experimental and electronic music. In 2007, the annual 100LIVE festival was launched in Cairo, presenting live musicians and visual artists in different venues and places in Egypt. In 2009 the label launched 100RADIO, an online radio willing to spread the good word on experimental and electronic music, by broadcasting old and new Egyptian productions.
100COPIES is engaged to program international festival, club concerts and radio shows in the US, in Europe and in the Arab world since 2006.
In July 2012, following a year of long-awaited changes in Egypt, 100COPIES opened its studio and live venue. This space is a unique platform welcoming the new Egyptian musical trends, offering them recording facilities, live shows and music workshops.
Our live stage hosted its first show on 27th July 2012 and is tucked away in an office building in Cairo, Talaat Harb street. It provides a fine platform for a wide range of alternative and experimental music - including free improvisation - that exists well outside the mainstream. Operating as a live music space in the evenings – every Friday and Saturday - it offers a relaxed, light and airy café just before the gigs. There's a strong emphasis on the more out-there of underground Egyptian artists, but you can expect to encounter everything from German dubstep dj’s, a young Egyptian Quartet or a talk on new poetry.
100COPIES music space is also a rehearsal and professional recording studio which is open every day.
Rinse FM
Tune into Rinse FM, and you lock into the heartbeat of a community. For over 18 years Rinse has been transmitting uncompromising and innovative music out of its East London heartland. Starting life as a pirate station, established by a group of friends wanting to share the music that inspired them, it has grown into one of London's most important and broad-minded grassroots musical organisations. But it remains anchored by the same ethics that prompted its founding: built by the community, for the community.
Like an aerial on a tower block, Rinse has acted as a focal point for successive musical waves, from jungle to UK garage, dubstep to grime, funky to house and beyond. Through its radio transmissions, club nights, label releases and compilations, it has inspired and nurtured young producers, DJs and MCs to create the music that they want to hear. The results speak for themselves. The genres that Rinse gave a first platform to now form the backbone of mainstream pop. The stars of those sounds, who cut their teeth on Rinse, are now household names.
Having been granted an FM community license in 2010, Rinse FM now forms the central node in a vast musical community. Just as in its pirate days, it thrives on interaction and collaboration, connecting together like-minded listeners, producers, DJs, MCs and clubbers, both in London and around the world. As genres, artists and scenes evolve around it, so Rinse remains locked to the pulse of the underground, nurturing young talent and fostering the next generation.
Rinse reaches a potential audience of 4+ million in London, with a website receiving 70k unique visitors per month.
The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide. We are on the ground in six continents and over 100 countries, bringing international opportunity to life, every day.
In the Arts we work with the best of British and international artistic and creative talent to develop events and collaborations which link thousands of artists, organisations and audiences worldwide. In addition to staging shows and exhibitions, we partner with others on joint arts projects and help develop creative leadership, professional networks and cultural educational programmes worldwide.
The British Council’s radio show, The Selector, hosted by DJ and presenter Goldierocks, presents an overview of all that is exciting and fresh in British music, and is syndicated on FM stations to more than 4 million listeners in 39 countries around the world including Egypt, Libya, Mexico, Israel, Poland, Malawi, Hungary, Bulgaria and China.
For more information, please visit: http://www.britishcouncil.org.eg/en. You can also keep in touch with the British Council through http://twitter.com/britishcouncil and http://blog.britishcouncil.org
