Since you called...
-Amon does have some traditional music experience, but nothing that he
uses within his current work (word abounds about some fierce harmonica
skills).
-The DJ'ing thing was tricky going early on. He will never play 'live' as
he doesn't see the point in recreating live that which isn't a live
process. If he was ever billed as 'live' it was a promoter being shakey
not us or Amon. We would never make that claim. Having toured and spent
time with Amon over the years I can attest to the fact that his DJ skills
have improved greatly and although he won't be winning the DMC anytime
soon he can certainly rock a party if the people show up ready to groove
to some hard shit. There's no spectacle to watch, you just need to come
ready to get your weird groove on. Everyone has to work the playing in
public bugs out somewhere so it's natural that some shows 2 or 3 years
ago might have been a bit rough.
-He hasn't lived in Brazil for quite some time. Various press has picked
up on the Brazil thing due to the fact that bossa-nova and batucada
percussion figure heavily into his work and then it went from there.
Granted we also play up the angle a bit for the same reasons (although
our press releases do state that he know resides in the dismal seaside
town of Brighton)
All I can say is don't beleive everything you read, and beware that
sometimes people at labels and artists get bored and decide to mis-inform
just for the hell of it (you try writing 30 or 40 'straight' press
releases a year....). But really, did anyone actually beleive it when we
said Clifford Gilberto was related to Astrud Gilberto and Gilberto Gil...
Jeff
quoted 5 lines Hmm, lots of talk about how he uses samples, and a bit of a confession about
>Hmm, lots of talk about how he uses samples, and a bit of a confession about
>how he's "not very musical" or something. I couldn't seem to dig up anything
>about him knowing how to play any traditional instruments -- or him having
>any experience in Jazz performance. Well, no, wait, there're these two which
>appear to be cut-n-pasted from the same press release:quoted 14 lines In fact, I even found a recent confession about how he didn't really know
>In fact, I even found a recent confession about how he didn't really know
>how to DJ, something that was painfully evident to me two years ago when I
>paid $15 to see him "live".
>
>One of the interviews revealed that he hasn't even lived in Brazil since he
>was a teenager. How many of you knew that? I was under the impression that
>he was some wacked out drum and bass kid from the favela. Oh well.
>
>Despite all this, I do love his records, but I just don't get how there's
>all this misinformation surrounding him. Is he an interview-fabricator like
>Aphex? Perhaps the Ninja Tune folks on the list can set the record straight?
>
>- Cf
>