Interview w/ Drum'n'Bass artist Mashed Buddha

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) October 25, 2006 --

Drum 'n' Bass. Hard step. Jungle. Ambient Techno. The house music of many houses. There are many styles of electronica, a/k/a electronic music. They all have one thing in common - they are mostly the musical vision of one or two people who are armed with keyboards, beat machines and other source material like samples of records and even the occasional "live" instrument. With advances in technology a musical artist has autonomy to be the corollary to the singer songwriter: the composer performer. Mashed Buddha, the nom de guerre (the battle name) of John Corda, is one such artist.

On his new CD Subdue Your Mind, he brings to the electronica genre what it is often lacking: form, musicality, variety and substance. In other words, music. Electronica in all its offshoots often sounds like the way the music was created, like machines. Whether they are powered by air through mouthpieces, by fingers on strings or hands pounding with sticks, musical instruments are inert tools ready to be shaped and animated by human beings.

The great musician and composer Frank Zappa once said, "A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians." Not content to find the perfect band, Corda decided to go it alone and create his musical without unsuspecting musicians. While firmly in the mode of high intensity electronic music, he draws on a listening and playing experience that includes jazz, rock, jazz fusion, reggae and funk.

The opening cut "Buddha Digs" is a crash and burn jungle number. Jungle to this writer is mainly old fashioned soul music drumming played by a drum machine and sped up incredibly. This cut uses the jungle beat, but instead of a machine, it is played by Corda by hand, on a keyboard that triggers the drums. The excitement and expressiveness of the human touch gives the music some soul. A dissonant chordal piano riff opens the cut and comes in once or twice more in the song. This sparse and tasteful playing but it creates a sense of forward motion. The various riffs and sounds - chime-like melodies, grinding bass, and maddening percussion - build up & break down, enter & exit and overlap in a way that creates a logical composition. Like the music of Frank Zappa and Edgar Varese, Mashed Buddha uses sounds for musical ends, much like that of a symphony orchestra.

Read the complete article by Mark Kirby, including interview with John Corda: http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=11333

For more information on Mashed Buddha and John Corda or to obtain this CD of thinking people's jungle drum 'n' bass visit his web site http://www.mashedbuddha.com