bubble up
photo by richard roo
parallel movements, anonymous comments, pirate blogographies...
what is to be done??
/////
someone left the following notes in a comment to my reggaeton post. left no name, though, so i don't know how to follow up on this fascinating bit of post-colonial, euro-caribbean roots'n'future. (though a google search turns up a (suspiciously?) similar looking document in dutch.) i see the parellels to reggaeton here--though jungle seems like a closer cousin, at least musically, given the sped-up ragga records and all. (then again, album art like this seems much more in line with reggaeton's thematic predilections.)
i reprint the comments here with the hope that it can dig up a bit more info on yet another node in the network of transatlantic sonic afromodernity. those who are more engaged with the dutch ABCs and dutch colonialism may find the following representation of interest.
Bubbling:
It began in The Hague (Holland) in Club VOLTAGE in 1988 with Dj Moortje, MC Pester and MC Pret. From 1990 became this kind of dancing, together with the music very popular in all the big clubs in Holland. The tabloids and newspapers saw this,so called ,Bubbling as a new sexy style of dancing. Some say it first was an expression of hidden protest, born at the antillian youthculture.
Bubbling act at swing cafe La Vie en Rose during the 100% R&B party.
1.1 .Bubbling in the media and at the clubs. When they talk in the tabloids and newspapers about Bubbling, they mention always the way of dancing. They say that Bubbling is a girldance. No wonder that they call Bubbling dancing also “the art of the asturn” or “ erotic dancing” “soft porn” or “dry sex”. Bubbling means also competition. Almost every weekend there is a contest anywhere in the country, for the best Bubbling dancer, the best Bubbling Dj or the best Bubbling outfit. These contests usually announced weeks in front by flyers and posters, they tell wich Dj’s are perform and wich girlbands are coming and last but not least, how much money you can win. Only the dancing is rather new, because Raggamuffin, the music that comes with Bubbling, is nothing else but to play a 33speed record at 45speed together with digital Reggae-music mixed with Hip Hop. The Bubbling rythem sounds like Tambu, an old Antillian slavedance.
1.2 The musicstyle Raggamuffin is born in 1985 and has its roots from Jamaica. The Bubbling in Holland is rather different then the Bubbling in Jamaica and England, because in Holland the Bubbling is played at a much higher speed then anywhere else. This ‘so called’ Mickey Mouse style is coming from Holland. The founder of this uptempo Bubbling is DJ Moortje from Curacao. Since 1988 the most popular Bubbling Dj in Holland. He played by accident in a club a reggea song at the wrong speed and the crowd went crazy, so a new style was born and became a big success.
1.3 But Bubbling is more than a popular dance and a musicstyle, it is also an expression of protest, like Bubbling entertainers Rodrgo La Cruz and Reynaldo Chirino, alias MC Pester and MC Pret. They give a new meaning to this music style with there lyrics against the system in Holland and Curacao, the Police and Justice, discrimination and other topics. Also in there own comunity the people do not like them because of these lyrics.
1.4 .From 1990 Bubbling is played in all the big clubs in Holland with Dj’s like Dj Memmie, Dj Son and ofcourse Dj Moortje. But it began in The Hague at the Club Voltage in 1988 with Dj Moortje, MC Pester and MC Pret. From that moment this trio began to organize Bubbling partys. The people who came to the Bubbling partys where mostly mature Antillians from near The Hague. These Bubbling Partys were also social events.During these events the people talked about the problems they are faced with. While DJ moortje was playing the Bubbling records, MC Pester and MC Pret were doing there lyrics with the songs like “Balia Sanka” (shake your ASS), a song MC Pester hase made during his period as a streetmusician.
1.5 .In the beginning the Bubbling-partys were not a big success, so the owner of Club Voltage organised Balia-Sanka partys, and gave a price to the best hips and ass swinging girl of the evening.. After that, the partys became a bigger success, and the crowd became much younger.
posted by wayne&wax @ 11:32 AM
11 Comments:
You may not find a better resource on worldmusik than this: http://intranet.grundel.nl/Grassroots/Mijn%20webs/muziekstijlen.htm
The story is not bad, though translated poorly from Dutch sources. Rodrigo Ruben La Cruz a.k.a. MC Pester is also an exciting public visual artist. Here's an artist bio included (in Dutch, I'm sorry, but you can figure it out probably). Unfortunately, violence and gun battles broke down 'bobblin' - as 'bubbling' is pronounced here). For instance, DJ Moortje & MC Pester could not perform in Rotterdam anymore. And you're right about reggaeton: when reggaeton rocked the dancefloors, it felt like a 'bobblin' come back. But it never matched the excitement of early 'bobblin'. Great blog!
bio:
Ruben Rodrigo La Cruz - in 1954 geboren in Willemstad op Curaçao - kwam op 17 jarige leeftijd naar Nederland om zijn horizon te verbreden.
Hij woont in de Schilderswijk in Den Haag en is na zo'n 20 jaar praktijk in de kunstwereld, een all-round artiest geworden.
In 1986 studeerde hij af aan de Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Den Haag, in de richtingen ontwerpen, grafiek, tekenen/schilderen en video/performance, en gaf zeven jaar les op de afdeling Beeldhouwen van de Vrije Academie in Den Haag.
Twee keer werd hij Nederlands kampioen amateur boxen. Maar hij is ook muzikant/tekstdichter en heeft 2 CD's als MC Pester met de rap groep De Dweilers op zijn naam staan. Als performance kunstenaar is hij zowel solo als met zijn groep de Stressbreakers in de straten van Den Haag en door heel Nederland te zien geweest. Als acteur vertolkt hij momenteel de hoofdrol in 'Rapido' - Shakespeare goes hiphop', van Helmert Woudenberg en Felix de Rooy.
"Sinds 1986 gebruik ik mijzelf en mijn leven als onderwerp van mijn performances en reageer ik daarmee op mijn positie tussen twee culturen. Mijn werk gaat over contrasten. Om niet te hoeven wachten op musea en galeries van het reguliere kunstcircuit heb ik de straat als podium genomen. In mijn performances sublimeer ik mijn gevoel van verontwaardiging over het onrecht tussen zwart en wit, probeer een discussie uit te lokken over dit onderwerp en roep tevens op tot verzoening. Op dit moment maak ik een serie werken onder de titel: Afwijzingskunst."
Sinds enkele jaren is Ruben la Cruz op eigen initiatief naar Curaçao geweest om workshops vrij schilderen te geven aan kansarme jongeren. De resultaten waren in maart 1999 te zien in het Museo Curaçao in Willemstad.
"Zelf miste ik creatieve begeleiding in mijn jeugd, en bij mijn terugkomst 23 jaar later in 1995, zag ik dat er niet veel veranderd was in die situatie van armoede aan creativiteit. Ik ben vastbesloten mijn belofte aan de kansarme jongeren waar te maken, en wil onderzoeken of criminaliteit met creativiteit bestreden kan worden."
do you now where to get bubbling
samples for fruityloops?
what do you mean by "bubbling samples"?
ragga vox? special drums? whitney houston acapellas?
The special drums
i have to admit that i was hoping you could articulate more clearly what kind of "special" drums you have in mind.
to my ears, the drum sounds employed in a bunch of these bubbling tracks are fairly standard techno drums, many of which are included as pre-sets with various sequencer-programs (FL, reason, etc.). of course, another way to ensure that you have the right drums would be to sample some of these bubbling anthems, especially the sections where the drums are left "naked," or some of the hardcore/trance and "tropical" tracks that they seem to sample.
in terms of non-drum sounds, i hear a lot of rave-ish synths (e.g., that "hoover" sound or the "mentasm" stab). again, many of these are included as presets with various music-making programs.
sorry that i don't have any specific sounds to offer.
yeah, i'm aware of that. (the title was a pun of sorts.) a big riddim, at that.
i'm curious: do contemporary dancehall riddims, especially the "bubblier" among them, routinely crossover to the bubbling scene?
hey brian,
thanks for leaving the links, as always. i'm happy to see this post serve as an information repository of sorts.
just curious, though: would you say that most bubbling artists/audiences recognize that the music is, as you suggest, at bottom an afro-caribbean music?
-w&w
ok. fair enough. i confess i don't know enough about contemporary dutch society to know how significant such public engagements with its colonial past (or post-colonial present) are.
so, to elicit some elaboration, i wonder how the embrace of afro-antillean music works in terms of dutch cultural politics? is it pushing against an assumed homogeneity? or is it simply reaffirming a sense of contemporary multiculturalism?
big questions, i know. but i'm rather curious.
http://www.soundflow.nl/mixtape2.htm
Hi Wayne,
This is MC Pester writing. I am very honored that you are intersted in Dutch Bubbeling music. And because you are giving lectures about the subject I uderstand you want to know more about it. Today I spotted a lot of pictures of you and DJ Moortje at his facebook site together with some other people at a bubbeling party/meeting at Aruba. I see you also spoke on the subject over there. Unfortunately I don't know you, we never met and we dont know each other. Me and DJ Moortje and DJ Memme and MC Pret all guys from the Dutch Antilles in Holland, have invented this Bubbeling. I was the performer 'singer' songwriter of many texts, but the most appaeling to the public was 'Baila Sanka' Shake /move your ass, I was Master of ceremony. An other wellknown song is; 'If you want to get problems with your family, marry me'. At that point the Bubbeling started to become a bigger audiance. WE did turn up the classic rubbadub beats up to the faster level of the Dutch Carribean tambu music. To speed up the dance and to heaten up the party. I inspired Moortje to do it and he went on from there. Me and him together invented Bubbeling mUsic. Now I see you have met Moortje together with a whole dutch crew and representative of a new genartion, DJ Chuckie whom I also inspired ( dirty dutch )and you did not meet me. It makes me feel bad that they did not invite me to come over and join to tell everybody the complete bubbeling story. Moortje can only tell you his side of the history. Moortje was DJ I can give him that credits, but he did not make any text. I made the texts with the hidden political messages. And I dare to say that without me ( and Moortje ) there was no bubbeling. Hopefully you are open to here my side of the story, then contact me please, and look at my facebook page MC Pester de Bubbeling Master. Hopefully we can meet in the future, so I have the chance to talk to you about this. Best Regads Ruben La Cruz / MC Pester.
Post a Comment
<< Home