Forest for the Trees
May 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Kylee Swenson
There aren't many cases in which the saying “slow and steady wins the race” is true. But that's the way it goes for Carlos “Soul” Slinger. He isn't a blaring green light on the music industry radar because he doesn't fit the description of self-absorbed celebrity or high-strung, slick-haired — actually, he doesn't bother with hair — A&R mogul. Yet despite his no-frills, no-stress attitude, DJ Soul Slinger has made a distinctive mark during the past 10 years.
Slinger grew up in Brazil and relocated to New York for a taste of the '70s disco era. He then left to check out London during the advent of acid house and drum 'n' bass. In the '90s, Slinger settled back in New York and founded Liquid Sky, a record label, clothing company and store. In his free time, he produced and remixed artists including Afrika Bambaataa, Bill Laswell, William Burroughs, Ziggy Marley, Deee-Lite, DJ Spooky and Bebel Gilberto. In 1997, he released his debut, Don't Believe (Liquid Sky), a smorgasbord of samples that revealed Slinger's interest in evolution and extraterrestrial life. Several solid mix CDs followed, but his latest project, Ecosystem — The Brazilian Joint (Unity Productions, 2003), is easily the most potent: bouncy dance music with purpose.
MUSIC'S MORAL IMPACT
If you think that Remix can't get enough of Brazil lately (see “Simmering Sounds, Nu Grooves,” April 2003), you wouldn't be all wrong. What's fascinating about Brazilian music is that despite the country's history of political turmoil, poverty and violence, much of its music has a distinctly upbeat and happy feel. In the midst of today's stateside economic and political unrest, it's good to remember what a good antidepressant music can be.
In some cases, music can actually help repair real-world problems. This is the case with Soul Slinger's Ecosystem: The album was put together to promote the third annual Ecosystem festival benefiting the preservation of the Amazon Rainforest. Slinger, in conjunction with Greenpeace, has taken a tragedy — the continued depletion of the Amazonian ecosystem — and turned it into an enormous, uplifting party. (Each festival has exceeded 45,000 people.)
This year, the festival runs from August 14 to 17 in the rainforest capital, Manaus, and features electronic and hip-hop DJs and groups from all over the globe. Past performers included Japan's DJ Krush and Ken Ishii; the United States' DJ QBert, DJ Spooky and Afrika Bambaataa; the UK's Aphrodite; and many Brazilian artists. So far this year, Wu-Tang Clan and The Orb have been invited to play.
Ecosystem, the album, features all ages of talent from São Paulo. Slinger A&R'd the artists, DJ'd and produced tracks and created the album's continuous mix. He worked with several other producers (Drumagick, Ramilson Maia, BiD, Woogie and Ezra) in São Paulo's Soul City studios to construct the music, and guests on the album range from 13-year-old singer Janaina Lima (“Chuva”) to Sergio Bártolo, the bass player for longtime Brazilian star Jorge Ben. But the purpose of the album isn't to showcase the artists so much as to emphasize the concept, which is about more than saving trees. “This CD is really to cause awareness of a major problem, which is environmental,” reveals Slinger, who makes each and every point slowly and surely. “But you can't talk about ecology without talking about human rights and understanding how everything is connected. So we try to tell the kids that you can't save the environment if you don't respect your fellow being. If you don't respect yourself and you're killing everybody, it doesn't matter to save the water or the green issue.”
THE STYLE COUNCIL
For Ecosystem, Slinger was interested in representing music from all regions of Brazil. “There's no way that a Brazilian person cannot be subjected and influenced by all kinds of Brazilian sounds, from samba to bossa nova, to what we call forró [pronounced forhoe].”
Slinger took part in producing several of the tracks on Evolution, including his rhythm-heavy “Juriti.” “This track is typical of the northeast of the country, forró,” Slinger says. “I believe that forró came from raga music: African mixed with Indian influence. Brazilian peasants and fishermen used to get together and clap their hands along with a drummer and MC. They would clap their hands; everybody would sing along; one drum would make the steady raga beat; and the MC, whom we call cordel, would compel everybody to sing with his freestyle. So ‘Juriti’ is represented by this North feeling — really raw with a really simple, hard beat.”
An instrumental track, “Malandragem,” produced by a young Brazilian duo named Drumagick, represents yet another subgenre. “We call it samba rock,” Slinger says. “That was a movement in the '70s in Brazil. One of the biggest singers at that time was Jorge Ben, who created the samba-rock movement. This sound sounds more real Rio de Janeiro. It's very typical of what happened in Brazilian funk in the '70s. This particular movement in the '70s was pretty important because we were living in a dictatorship time, which was dominated by the military and censorship. [Jorge Ben was once stopped by police midsong because they said his backup dancers were dancing too suggestively.] So music became much more important than ever, because it was the only way for people to really express themselves. In '69, there was a coup, and the government was overthrown by the military, actually supported by the CIA. At that time, we stayed with military power through the whole '70s until '84. In '84, we had the first free elections in Brazil after this period of military power. So this ‘Malandragem’ is what I felt was a typical samba-rock song and will represent that time in Brazil. It's very funky and happy music.”
MANY PATHS OF CREATION
The songs of Evolution came together in a variety of ways. Some are covers, some original recordings based on samples, some remixes, some original live recordings and some fusions thereof. For “Juriti,” Slinger used Digidesign's SampleCell software to construct some of the rhythms. “We sampled a traditional Brazilian beat from a record and combined that with synthesized beats,” he says. “And then with filters and plug-ins, we added the additional elements to make it more electronic, like a techno or drum 'n' bass track.”
The album's most bouncy and uplifting track, “Madelena,” produced by Ramilson Maia and sung by Debora Reis, is actually a drum 'n' bass remake of a 1970 song by Grammy Award — winner Ivan Lins. “Ivan Lins is a major player in the bossa-nova scene,” Slinger says. For the remake, session musicians and Reis re-created the track over a programmed drum 'n' bass beat.
“There are many different ways that these tracks were produced,” Slinger explains. “A track that is really performed full-on with a full band is ‘Na Noite Se Resolve,’ which means, ‘Through the night, we fix everything.’ It's all fully performed live, including the DJ, which was me. That was the most sophisticated track that we did for the whole CD. We had some parts with the click on it. And then there was one drum and a bass line. And then BiD put the main theme, an acoustic guitar, on the track. And then we started adding more layers with some heavy Brazilian musicians. Almost at the end of the process, when I had most of the stuff together, I played my part, and we put the scratches together with the layers and relocated the vocal scratches — from an American '70s funk record — throughout the song.”
SOME LIKE IT COOL
For those of you who have EQ, compression and effects cheat sheets taped to your studio walls, it's important to know that the final factor in judging whether a track sounds good is your ears, not those technical numbers. “What we do is really tentative and chanced,” Slinger admits. “We check some stuff, some parameters that we use, and if we like it, it's cool. If we don't like it, we can add more reverb or whatever, but it's really by ear. We'll go, ‘Oh, no, this won't work. This is too dry here. But now, okay, now the bass is really good. Brazilians are very [motivated] by instinct and by improvisation. We keep listening and listening and tweaking and tweaking. But we don't follow rules or patterns. That's the best way to see life, actually.”
But having said that, Slinger does have one rule of thumb for producing. “Record everything dry with no effects at all,” he says. “You want it to sound as pure and natural as you can achieve. You can add any kind of effect later on, so you want stuff as basic and simple — without compression, nothing. That's my conclusion after all these years in big studios and small studios. I think that you should record as much dry as you can, and then in postproduction, you can start adding layers of reverbs. Then, you don't have to be afraid to try anything, because you have your basic recording saved. You can always go back.”
With the original sound preserved, Slinger often takes risks, as with the bass sound on “Na Noite Se Resolve.” “There's a big reverb on the bass, and it works because the bass is recorded so natural and pure that it supports and holds the effect,” Slinger asserts. “Sometimes, the effect is bigger than the song, and in this case, the sound is bigger than the effect. It's so natural and pure that you place the effect, and the sound affects the effect.”
Adding to his production ease, Slinger found that fusing drum 'n' bass and samba together was no trouble. “There are some tracks that are already in the tempo of drum 'n' bass when I get them,” he says. “They are between 80 to 90 bpm, so you could double it up and make it drum 'n' bass. It's so easy. You don't even have to time-stretch, at least not very much. You just double up the tempo and put the drums on the back.”
Slinger's easygoing personality serves him well and makes it easy for him to adapt to new situations. “We evolve like everybody,” he says. “Before, we had a lot of gear. Today, we have a computer. It's the 21st century, and everything is getting faster, and there are more possibilities. Cavemen had bones to beat sounds, which is different than what was available in the Middle Ages, which is different than what was available early in the last century. Of course, it sounds different than when it was all analog gear, and it's supposed to. I'm not very purist on that matter. What matters is that the listeners appreciate the frequencies that turn them on and change their perception. I believe in the evolution of times, and I accept the way it is.”
SLINGER'S STUDIOS
Mindswerve: New York
Computer: Apple Mac Dual 1 GHz w/1.5 GB RAM, 80GB FireWire drives (3)
Software: Antares Kantos; Digidesign Pro Tools; MOTU Digital Performer; Native Instruments Reaktor, Absynth; Propellerhead ReBirth, Reason; “lots of plug-ins”
Sampler: Akai S3000XL, full memory w/extensive sample library
Keyboards/synth modules: Clavia Nord Micro Modular; Korg Prophecy; Roland MC-202, SH-101 (w/MIDI-to-CV converter)
Drum modules: Alesis D4, Yamaha RM50
Effects processors: Aphex Aural Exciter; Boss Super Phaser; Line 6 Filter Pro, Mod Pro, Pod Pro; Mutron Phasor II
Mics: “A few different mics, but my favorite is an AKG 414.”
Amps: A few guitar and bass amps (but mostly plug-ins)
Soulcity: São Paulo, Brazil
Computers: Apple Mac G4/450 MHz, iBook G3 w/100 GB on external hard drives
Console: Tascam DM-24 32-channel, 96kHz digital/analog board.
Software: Digidesign Pro Tools 24 5.1, 888/24 interfaces (2); various plug-ins
Recorders: Panasonic SV-3700 DAT, Tascam DA-88, Teac A-3340S 4-channel 1¼4-inch
Samplers: Akai S3000XL, Digidesign SampleCell
Monitors: Mackie HR824s, Yamaha NS-10s w/subwoofer
Preamps/EQs: models by API, Demeter, Neve, TLA
Compressors: dbx 160A; models by API, Manley, TubeTech
Effects: dbx 120 XP Subharmonics Synthesizer, DeltaLab Effectron II, Mutronics Mutator, Roland Space Echo, Yamaha SPX-90
Mics: Electro-Voice RE-20; Neumann U 87; Rode Classic Tube; Shure SM57, SM58
Keyboards/pianos/modules: Casiotone 701; Clavia Nord Lead 2; E-mu Classic Keys; Fender Rhodes; Korg Poly-800; Roland Jupiter 6, MC-303 Groovebox, Super JV-1080
Other instruments: '67 Ludwig drums, basses, guitars, percussion, scaleta
DJ gear: Technics SL-1200MK2 turntables, Gem Sound mixer
CD burners: Glyph, Sony
Miscellaneous: Opcode Studio 4 MIDI interface, SSD Sync SMPTE Slave Driver
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