BIRDY NAM NAM – "BIRDY NAM NAM"
Birdy Nam Nam is a group of French DJs: Little Mike, DJ Pone, DJ Need and Crazy B. And while those names have been around in the French underground for ages, on the posters for the biggest soirées or behind illustrious rap groups (particularly DJ Pone, who officiated in the shadow of Triptik and now accompanies Svinkels, or Crazy B, formerly hidden behind Alliance Ethnik), they also shine on the podiums of the international deejaying championships. So during the 1990's, the Americans DJ Q-Bert, Craze or A-Trak, used to appearing in the rankings, had to compromise with the young guard of French deejaying, led by such crews as Scratch Aktion Hiro, who won the world title in the year 2000. That is the gigantic mutant crew that gave rise to Birdy Nam Nam, a group of 4 scratcher brothers trained for the 2002 World Championship, which they won right in stride.

But afterwards? After the competitions, the titles, after the honors and the podium tops? Fortified by solo or team awards, a product of the most frantic kind of "turntablism", these unconquered characters do not stop halfway through. And even if they don't have to prove anything else in competition, having left the circuit in 2002, they continue walking up and down over the grooves of thousands of records. In the spirit of the American turntable experts (D-Styles, Excess, ...), raping obscure jazz records, appropriating the sole music of the 1970's and a few good breakbeats, they select just the right loop, the right rhythm, the perfect texture, which they expertly assemble. Like a six-minute free style number as a mandatory part of the World Championships, they are now giving birth to an initial album with no identifiable format. No compulsory figures here, and no time limitation. The symphony becomes the raw material, and Birdy Nam Nam's fingers develop a sound that is its alone.

Birdy Nam Nam is the fruit of a logical development, the one that led Q-Bert from the World Championships to the Wave Twister album, the one that leads all instrumentalists from technique to music. That is the interest of their work. In going beyond technique, the abandonment of the hyper-technical scratch sections, which they can also handle. Instead of this, these turntables devils concoct some disturbing recipes, some stable, controlled and coherent compositions.

Alternately gloomy or funky, shot through with electronic acids and methodical cuts, the Birdy Nam Nam sound doesn't give a dam about plucking a guitar or belting a cord on a Rhodes. It's able to decapitate the trumpets and slash the pianos, and its records contain the entire history of music. Pushing back the limits of that raw material, these merciless crate-diggers deliver temperate music, a jewel of vinyl composition that owes as much to DJ Shadow as to Sun Ra, as much to the electronic experts of the 1990's as to the 1980's rap producers. Those four no longer play records, they play music.

Even if listening to the album doesn't tell much about the composition techniques, the DVD part enlightens us about the work of the DJ filmed in situ, in the studio or on the stage. Live versions of the album titles or recent unpublished numbers perfectly adapted to the stage, these visual complements give us a close-up of the secret weapons of the 4 sound producers. Increased by comments about the members' careers and interviews, this DVD offers a necessary and detailed look into the universe of this extraordinary crew.


+ more info: www.birdynamnam.com

TRACKLISTING ///


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order CD/DVD album + DVD/DVD live + tee shirt "KULTE" 34,90€

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US Press ///

• Orlandoweekly : review
"French turntablists Birdy Nam Nam are done scalping other DJs for the world title; they've been there, and they're over it. For their crafty album, the four DMC World Team Champions traded competition rehearsals for studio time, building mini-symphonies from their integral stacks of vinyl..."
• Knowledge:
‘Far from achieving a technically excellent but dull turntablist album then, Nam Nam delight in the sonic universe around them and present a series of imaginative, entertaining and above all, highly listenable sonic vignettes’
• Irish Star:
‘The four-strong French crew have delivered a masterpiece, comprising original tracks created almost entirely by using sets of decks as their main instruments (...) DVD contains stunning live performances, studio footage and additional remixes’
• Chaser:
‘True vinyl composers, BNN have crafted perhaps the most musically satisfying turntablist album ever (...) Vive le Birdy Nam Nam’
• New York Times : review
" Four D.J.'s do the work of, well, one in Birdy Nam Nam. This French group equates each turntable with an instrument: bass, drums, keyboards and miscellaneous melody lines. The teamwork adds up to midtempo club fare that ambles from droll or pensive acid-jazz to choppy hip-hop tracks, the kind of thing usually assembled by a lone D.J.-programmer. The four-part arrangements must have something to do with the creative power of camaraderie or the vagaries of French labor law."
• The Stranger :
‘Birdy Nam Nam are forcing people to reassess the French hiphop scene with their intricately layered compositions and phenomenal decksterity. Winners of the 2002 DMC World Team competition, the foursome stitch together tracks that are redolent of Ninja Tune's peak era on their self-titled CD/DVD. BNN's sampladelic steez involves a fondness for striking jazz, blaxploitation-flick funk, and soul instrumentation and library music's psychotropic tones. The disc proves they've smoothly transitioned from Technics showmen to studio savants.’,
David Segal, March 16-22, 2006
• East Bay Express :
‘France now has its very own Invisibl Skratch Piklz thanks to the four-DJ crew Birdy Nam Nam, whose eponymous debut is a Wave Twister-esque symphonic mash of solely turntable-taken samples’,
March 15-21, 2006
• AM New York :
‘This four-man DJ team takes their work very seriously, but the result is pure electronic joy’.
• Philadelphia Weekly :
‘If the notion of a DJ quartet seems a little cerebral, you needn't worry-Birdy Nam Nam approach their decks with a playfulness befitting their name, as witnessed on the in-concert video for "Kind of Laid Back." Plus they're French, oozing Air-esque dreaminess even while flipping cross-faders with quick-wristed finesse. A DMC World Team Championship long under their belts, the fellas this month introduced their full-length 1st Album to the States following two teaser singles. Their current tour includes the Ultra Festival at Miami's Winter Music Conference along with big-name venues like New York City's Knitting Factory and upcoming shows at Chicago's Empty Bottle’


 

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