Filastine | B’talla

As an itinerant annalist of a melange of sounds from around the world, Filastine has little or no equal. From the first moment that he drafted a set of sticks as drummer for Seattle’s Tchkung! in 1990s, through his life as rebel leader of the “tactical mobile rhythmic unit” Infernal Noise Brigade through to the 2006 Filastine debut, ‘Burn It’ – Grey Filastine has forgone convention in favour of confrontation. The collage of sounds, philosophies, ideas and cultures that once again spring to attention in the new full-length ‘Dirty Bomb’ come off as an uncompromising, unfettered alternative soundtrack to Life On Earth.

Grey points out that there were no “canned loops” or “mail-order vocals” – acoustic instruments and vocals were sourced, discussed, recorded and bound to hard drive in collaborative sessions. Sweeping through Bucharest, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Bangladesh, Sydney, Granada and Marrakesh, ‘Dirty Bomb’ uniquely treats these original recordings as the source samples that are then dragged mercilessly through layers of processing, and landing somewhere altogether new and hitherto undiscovered. ‘B’atalla’ features Rabah from French / Algerian hip hop crew MBS, who – on this one track alone – raps in French, English, Berber, Arabic and Spanish.

Filastine – B’talla (feat. Rabah) | mp3

In collaboration with with DJ/Rupture’s Soot records and Post World Industries, ‘Dirty Bomb’ also marks the first release for Australia’s ‘Uber Lingua‘ label – the natural extension of the DJ, VJ, MC and live collective that has been largely responsible for introducing a new vision of contemporary and alternative ‘global’ music into the aural culture of the country. Aus / NZ residents can buy ‘Dirty Bomb’ now from uberlingua.com and can also look forward to a Filastine tour (including appearances at the Sydney Festival), in tandem with Maga Bo, in January.

Previous Filastine, Infernal Noise Brigade and Tchkung! releases available via Post World Industries.

Download another track from ‘Dirty Bomb’, ‘Fitnah’ (featuring Jessika Skeletalia Kenney) at Pitchfork.