Baile’s DJ culture is inspired by hip-hop, and the form itself is where punk and hip-hop meet. The creative explosion was inescapable. Of the thousands and thousands of baile tracks being spun out of Brazil, only a few have made it onto wax, hip-hop’s format of choice. “I dig the fact that Daniel’s one of the first folks to release the baile-funk stuff on vinyl,” says DJ C. “And that he gets all sorts of great folks to do remixes of the stuff.” Haaksman’s Man Recordings has released a number of 12-inch singles, with remixes from Diplo, London’s Solid Groove, and Bonde do Role themselves.
Edu K: “Daniel Haaksman — along with Diplo of course — is very much responsible for this worldwide baile funk craze. I think anthropology is very important in music: it was like that with ’60s British Invasion bringing blues back to America and the same with acid house and punk rock and the recent post-punk craze.”
Haaksman can see in baile echoes of punk’s roots, the beginning of dancehall, and particularly hip-hop. “I was really bored by all the bling-bling shit in hip-hop, but then I heard funk and there it was again. I said, ‘I have to go to Rio to check it out myself.’ ” Fortunately for us, we don’t have to go to Rio, just Central Square.
EDU K | Enormous Room, 567 Mass Ave, Cambridge | October 9 | 617.491.5599
On the Web
Edu K: http://www.edu-k.net/
Mr. Phipson's podcast: http://www.mrphipson.de/
The Guardian UK on baile funk: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,13887,1569728,00.html
