Finally some musicians get together to help raise funds for the Genocide In Sudan and it has a lot of EDM artists involved.

Over the nearly last 14 months, I’ve steared clear of making political statements or reviewing anything with political content till two months ago, I was sent an email by a friend of mine that works for a PR firm in Los Angeles and I decided that I would help this venture anyway I can. The following will be a review of a Charity CD done to raise money for the genocide in Sudan. Sudan is a country in real turmoil right now and it is suffering thru a genocide of epic proportions. Some musicians got together and said, let’s put a CD together and all profits will go to help those in Sudan. So I decided that I would help my friend Wendy and I figured it gives me a chance to talk about the good that some musicians are doing.

The CD is the idea of founder of Waxploitation, who decided to get some friends of his together and put a CD that is completely non profit. So he drafted in Thievery Corp., Gorillaz, DJ Spooky, Mark Farina and others and since this is a multi genre effort, he put in System of A Down, Bad Religion, Jill Scott and others. It is not ivibes.nu’s policy to cover CDs with some non EDM content but we made a decision to cover this.

Genocide In Sudan

1.System of a down – Nuguns
2.Thievery Corporation – Truth and Rights feat. Sleepywonder
3.Jurassic 5 – High Fidelity
4.Bad Religion – Live Again (Fall of Man)
5.ONO – Shiranakatta (I Did’nt Know) (Remixed By Craig Armstrong)
6.Gorillaz – Tomorrow Comes Today
7.Kinky – Five Rooms
8.Tweaker – Ruby (Will Oldham)
9.Dangermouse and Murs – Paint By Numbers
10.Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra – ROC
11.Rise Against – State Of The Union
12.X-Excutioners – Don’t Believe The Hype 04
13.Jill Scott – Try
14.Angelique Kidjo – Conja Habanera (Remixed By Jes Colin)
15.The Pretenders – Complex Person (remixed by Novel and Jones)
16.Tortoise – Five Too Many
17.Mark Farina – Movin Left
18.Teargas and Plateglass – A Book of Black Valentines
19.Toots and the Maytals – Take A Trip feat. Bunny Wailer
20.DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid – Dubtometry featuring Lee Scratch Perry (Remixed by Alter Ego)
21.The Nightwatchmen – Let Freedom Ring

The CD is well put together, with some harsh rock of System of a Down, which leads off the disc, then it goes to Thievery Corp’s Truth and Rights, which feels like more of a political statement but it reminds me of the good ol before 2000 Corp, who used to make really forward thinking music. The rap group Jurassic 5 follows up with a real corker in High Fidelity, which reminds me of Global Underground 023 – Lavelle in Barcalona. Now a favorite of my Uncle, called Bad Religion but I don’t get the music but at least they signed on to this project and wanted to help. OMD’s Shiranakatta follows in at track five and it is a Craig Armstrong remix, who makes some great chillout tunes. He turns out a fine effort here, which really adds to the disc. I love you get what you don’t expect with this CD and this rocks.

Now another big name for some, in Gorillaz, for those who remember, it was Dan the Automator and Damon Alburn (of Blur Fame), who struck it big with “Clint Eastwood”. It has one of the nasty basslines that Gorillaz is known for, which always had a fan in me and this is no different. This is more of a social statement that Alburn is trying to get out but I love it. Some Charity CDs just contain throwaway tracks but this is not the case here and this CD is very well done. We go to a very short jazz fusion track done by Kinky, which it contains rock elements but it is a nice short track. Track Eight is a weird Radiohead style track done by Tweaker but it is more Electronic oriented and it is completely spooky and dark.

Danger Mouse & Mura adds possibly the hardest hitting lyrics of the entire CD. It is brutally mean and it is more of a electro song, being rapped over with intelligent lyrics talking about how this world has become. It reminds me more of Roots Manuva or Madvillian (who was featured in Four Tet’s brilliant Late Night Tales). Song Ten takes us into more Gilles Peterson territory, with a more EDM based Jazz fusion but the drums are the best part about this song, it has this funky 70’s feel but the percs really do work well. Song Eleven is a hard rock song, which I’m not going to describe in detail but those who like their rock hard, will enjoy this.

X-ecutioners – Don’t Believe the Hype 04 comes in with song twelve and it is more of GU023 style hip hop with a cutting edge EDM beat. It uses George W. Bush samples but it has some DJ Shadow style in it and that’s why I like it. Jill Scott comes in with a funky number and yes it is the soulful diva and most of you will like this and it breaks the tension of the last few hard songs. Angelique Kidjo’s Conga Habanera (Jez Colin) is a latin house song, that makes use of some filthy percs and the hook is catchy. The Pretenders come in with “Complex Person” (remixed by Novel and Jones), this is a real hard to define track, which contains some heavy as heck bass and some hip hop influence, I’m not a big hip hop fan but this is a charity CD with a great cause, so I’ll let it slide

Tortoise comes in at song sixteen, with a nice chilled song that breaks the tension again. It uses some altered organs and keyboards but it takes the CD down a level. My favorite part of this song is the strumming guitar riff that is added at the back about halfway through the track, which gives it such a laidback feeling. House DJ/Producer Mark Farina now enters the fray and this could be the song of the CD, the bassline is absolutely filthy with a funky underlying element. The vocal here is altered at times and this is meant for the home stereo not the club, which Mr.Farina is more adept to playing these days.

Song 18 is “A Book of Black Valentines” which is very difficult to describe but it is forward thinking. I’m not sure if I could give it a genre, it is certainly dark EDM. Song 19 is almost a reggae song, I’m not a big fan of it but if you liked Bob Marley, you will love this. The 2nd last song here is DJ Spooky doing “Dubtometry”, which is remixed by Alter Ego. It is certainly a nice wacked out song that you would expect from DJ Spooky, it does the most damage by being near the end. The final song is a ballad done by the Nightwatchmen, which sort of ends this compilation with a powerful message.

Conclusion:
Certainly a good compilation with a great variety of tracks. I like all the artists who joined this compilation because they decided to help out a great cause. If you are an EDM elitist then this is not for you but if you are open minded, get this. Remember, all profits go to help the Genocide in Sudan, you can buy it on the waxploitation site, listed at the bottom