aug 12th @ bang bang club: MAHJONGG (us) + ben butler and mousepad (uk) + dj donna summer (us) + patterns dj set (d) + kornreiniger (us)

We won Mahjongg! back for a last show after a three-months-tour through europe. and we are very honoured to have this outstanding band with us, for a last unofficial, and spontaneously set up gig - but one that will be phat.

Mahjongg are a four piece from chicago. its members are originally from missouri and hold degrees in maths. the band started to get together in 2004, with several member changes up until today. having lost this year one of its founding members, the band reduced the analog components, and the swapping of instruments, and turns more towards a digital sound, in which the analog drums still play a dominant role alongside the electronic beats. kontpab, released last year on k records, is still the latest album, but live many new songs are going to be performed. Mahjongg's sound is so vast, that it is hard to nail it down to a few terms. read the quotes. they are a live band. because they know what they do.

 

once more BEN BUTLER AND MOUSEPAD will support. having played a few shows with MAHJONGG previously, and been one night in the studio together, he did not want to let the chance go by playing with them again. BEN BUTLER AND MOUSEPAD is the new project by Germlin (his latest album Trasher is out now, available as download) and of one half of GAY AGAINST YOU (their new album Righteous signals, sour dudes will be relased soon on Upset the rhythm and Adaadat records). originally from scotland, he is based in berlin for the moment, and joined live by Gtuk on drums. funkiest nerdcore there is. with lots of new songs, he only performed so far the last time he played with us.



also, using the chance to play at a great night, are Kornreiniger, the project of a man, who normally has to drive Mahjongg. expect crazy electro wave punk trash. it's all hits. and lots of fun.




on the decks: DJ DONNA SUMMER! aka Jason Forrest. stylistically related to the smash-up, cut and paste, sound layered, beat oriented disco funk of Mahjongg or Germlin. there was no other who had fit better. "dance-rave-breakcore". LIVE dj set.



also for short set on the decks: PATTERNS. the german math-afro-experimental band, that live plays very energetic shows with constant swapping of instruments and involvement of the audience, share some of their favourite tunes.




time: 12/08/09, 9pm

venue: bang bang club, neue promenade 10, s-hackescher markt, berlin



note: MAHJONGG will be live at Motor FM on wednesday afternoon, 3pm. 100,6 fm in berlin, or on live stream.



links:


mahjongg on myspace

mahjongg on k records

ben butler and mousepad on myspace

ben butler on poplars and rocks playing field

dj donna summer on myspace

patterns on myspace



quotes about MAHJONGG and from hunter, head behind the band:


"Stylistically, Mahjongg is boundless and indefinable." K records

 "for as indie drummers have been riding hi-hats, Mahjongg have taken up the noble mission of keeping their home city weird." pitchfork

"sounds years ahead of its time" l.a. journal

"The post-post-rockers unite organic and cutting-edge technological elements to create eminently danceable sounds that are unlike anything else." paste magazine

 "The best afrobeat/electronic group you’ve barely heard of" impose magazine

"junkyard afro-new wave. Sub-genre Alert!" pitchfork

"indie-electronic prophets" indie music news

"may be nearing the top of Chicago's 'local band' heap, but if you haven't heard of 'em yet it's probably because their music has made it quite difficult for locals to nail them down in a 'scene.' dusted magazine

"restless—but always danceable—sonic experimentation" metromix

 "body-whipping delirium of tribal proportions" decider

 "Rowdy is certainly a good adjective for Mahjongg, the exquisitely danceable electro-whatever outfit from Chicago who draw as much from Afrobeat as they do vocoder-laden sleaze rock from the 70s." lost at e minor

"electro Afro-funk experimentalists" gapers block "art punks" flavorpill

"art-rock hopped up on synthesizers and Afrobeat" rhapsody

"the afro-funky, electro-shocked post-everything outfit fond of bootshaking beats in odd-numbered time signatures" mog

"Mahjongg are speaking in tongues far more ancient than that, regardless of their recording process. It’s problematic to suggest they simply appropriate Afro-beat, because it’s not so much the cultural that is suffused here as the access of rhythm itself." coke machine glow

"a collision of numerous musical aspersions from the last four decades, where abstract dance rhythms become dissolved in array of Can-like repetition, and free-form jazz rubs shoulders with atmospheric funk and math-driven lo-fi to create an alluring if occasionally confusing concoction of styles." Drowned in Sound

"a dance-driven smorgasbord of enthusiasm. Sounding like a drum circle run by arty hipsters, it is slightly retro and self-consciously futuristic at the same time." venus zine

"Much like the game itself, Mahjongg is a puzzle. Indecipherable lyrics, confusing artwork and jumbled Web sites only begin to describe the mystery" columbia daily tribune

"The band's music makes them seem like they're African transplants in Manchester during the new wave boom of 1979" university wire

"So habe ich neulich ein umwerfendes Konzert der Chicagoer Post-Afro-Punk-Rock-Band Mahjongg in einem kleinen Club in Berlin gesehen. Ich war einer von 30 glücklichen Menschen, denen diese Band an jenem Abend Hoffnung gemacht hat. Das war gefühlte Utopie. Während ihres Konzerts gab es keine Fragen mehr. Keinen Diskurs. Alles schien möglich." jungle world

"art punks" flavorpill

"MAHJONGG glauben gemeinsam daran, dass das menschliche Wissen unser aller Kapital ist, und dass Musik als universelle Sprache einsetzbar ist." cargo

"my personal two influences, and I can't speak for everyone else, at least texturally and with beats, are German music and Afro-pop" hunter in splendid magazine

"Don’t get turned off; this isn’t your run-of-the-mill hipster dance music. Instead, it’s far more complex and layered than most “dance punk” bands could ever hope to be." feminist review

"Mahjongg is not a fusion melting pot, more an overlapping of different shifting plates. Beyond latter-day postpunk, those plates are, most importantly, a kind of junkyard techno of bold, raw electronic sounds (think Brainiac on meds) and the intense polyrhythmic movements of Afro-beat." city paper

"Whereas Vampire Weekend threads bright, uptempo, guitar lines through breezy pop songs, Mahjongg requires a more concerted listen: songs add and shed layers at their own languid pace, repeating rhythms to trance-like effect. The organic spirit of African music is fed through a synthesizer, reborn on a drum machine." rhapsody

"We are a rock band.  We are American.  The world is ending.  We make the kind of music we like to listen to—none of it is very conscious. To be honest, Mahjongg is more informed by Native American rhythm than African music.  We like the timbre of African music, but structurally we believe we borrow more from the first Americans.  It is in the ground here, and it's more like working on a time-coded puzzle. Cambodian and traditional Indonesian music has this quality as well. We combine anything and everything that puts a smile on our face." hunter

""irritainment" still works as far as an accurate description of who Mahjongg is and what they do. They aren't so much annoying or obnoxious as they are provocative. For a dance band, they don't let the hooks come easy; they provoke, they poke, they jab, they surround and taunt. Their music creates an itch within the listener, one that spreads and infects and causes one's limbs to shake and writhe. It's nervous dancing, but it's dancing all the same." treble zine

"Ownership is theft; to steal musically from another culture is to do a service to humanity" hunter

"Fuse African beats with plenty of funk, throw in some Latin spice, and wrap it all around an electro-pop spark and you have the accelerated sounds of Mahjongg." in music we trust

"Music is like food. It's always better to combine cultures than detract. It's the only intercontinental weapon musicians have." hunter

"ein fabelhaftes körper- und knochenerschütterndes Konzert" berliner zeitung

"But despite their unique approach and artsy tendencies, Mahjongg is a band capable of widespread appeal." weekly volcano

"Mahjongg is a band that surprisingly hasn't been acknowledged by most in the dance-punk craze even though their music fits within that categorization. However, something about them stands out. indie rock blog

"elements of new wave, African rhythms, revolutionary politics, and disco-punk" slant magazine

"the information war has started." hunter

"Dort laufen jetzt häufiger Stücke von Mahjongg, einer Band aus Chicago mit einem experimentellen und minimalistisch auf elektronische sowie perkussive Elemente zurückgreifenden Sound." kölner stadtanzeiger über die deutsche band patterns

"not disco music that will make you happy in a way but sad in another because when you finish listening to it you will realise you have become an addict to mahjongg, and, hey, addictions aren’t that much fun, or maybe actually they are" 20jazzfunkgreats

"few outfits out there manage to reach the sheer heights of tribal percussive intensity of 20JFG faves Mahjongg" 20jazzfunkgreats

"MAHJONGG is fuck'n ILL!! These dudes from Chicago KILL it! Their live show is tribal, it's sweaty, it's wild, it's pretty insane." I heart comix

"rhythm is about time. and time is something we are all obsessed with as people. why shouldn't that come out in our music." hunter