Journalist at RFI (ex-DW, BBC...), writer, (first book on Bristol's music/art; e-book on African art), I also work on films, as a journalism lecturer, and a contributor to the New Arab, Art UK, etc.
Born in Paris, I was based in Prague, Miami, London, Nairobi (covering East Africa), Bangui, and Bristol, UK. I also travelled to Italy, Haiti, Tunisia, Liberia, Senegal, India, Mexico, Iraq... My passions: Africa, music, arts...
This blog is to share my work and cultural discoveries.
For everyone, 2021 has been full of ups and downs, and probably a lot of disappointments, losses, frustrations... It's also been a time full of success and hard work for so many.
I truly believe that what the world needs more than ever is to think collectively and to invest in safe and sane interdependence. For our planet, our healthcare system, in education and of course in media/news production.
I've personally been very lucky to find a very clever, nice and supportive team at the University of the West of England, so that, a special thanks to my manager Anne Harbin, the best I've ever had in almost two decades of work all over the world... #Gratitude.
I've been posting about this for over a week on Twitter:
#UK #StopNABB - The Nationality & Borders Bill could strip people of colour of their British nationality. It has passed its final reading in the House of Commons, and will now go to the House of Lords where it will be debated on 5 January 2022.
Most media have turned a blind eye, focusing on the Party's "parties"...
Here is more, and below some action we can take.
Amnesty UK refugee and migrant rights programme director broke down the clauses in the Borders Bill as follows:
'Under a new draft clause added to the government’s Nationality and Borders Bill, which was proposed by Home Secretary Priti Patel, people in the United Kingdom could be stripped of their citizenship without warning. The bill also aims to rule as inadmissible asylum claims made by undocumented people as well as criminalise them and anyone taking part in refugee rescue missions in the English Channel... Immigration lawyers say the bill breaches international and domestic law.'
The website Media Diversified has been reactivated to post about the issue and been very active this past week. More here:
Under provisions in Clause 9 of this Bill, individuals could be stripped of their British citizenship without warning. We believe this is unacceptable, and inconsistent with international human rights obligations.
Clause 9 of the bill, “Notice of decision to deprive a person of citizenship,” which was updated earlier this month, exempts the Government from having to give notice if it is not “reasonably practicable” to do so, or in the interests of national security, diplomatic relations or is otherwise in the public interest.
We believe these provisions should be removed before this Bill is enacted.
Protests in London: Sunday 19 December, from 1:30pm, Downing Street, London
Oppose the Nationality and Borders Bill - Sunday @ 1pm, Downing Street
If you follow this blog, you might know how much I love her music and art!
M.I.A. shared a new song a month ago, ‘Babylon’, with a very personal music video, featuring footage from her childhood.
The release coincides with the auction of her 2010 mixtape Vicki Leekx as a non-fungible token (NFT). All funds collected from the auction will be directed to couragefound.org.
‘Babylon’ is also available as an NFT; it was written by M.I.A. and produced by her with Troy Baker, and Switch. Back in April, M.I.A. launched an entire NFT art exhibit.
Early November, she also announced on her Instagram account the coming release of her next and 6th album, MATA, in 2022. Her last studio LP, AIM, came out in 2016.
TIMES OF REINVENTIONS: HOW BRISTOL MUSIC SCENE EVOLVED IN THE 1990’S
10th December 2021
As part of our Music Made Us campaign, creatives, music professionals, experts and journalists reflect on how music has been there for us through good times and tumultuous periods that inspire change. Throughout generations, music has sparked, supported and commented on movements, memories and moments in time.
Author Melissa Chemam’s book is an in-depth study of the influences that led to the formation of the Wild Bunch then Massive Attack, looking into Bristol’s past to explore how the city helped shape one of the most successful and innovative musical movements of the last 30 years. The book offers an insight into the band’s music and art, their influences, collaborations and politics, as well as the way they opened the door for other Bristol musicians and artists including Banksy. Here is an excerpt from the seventh chapter, around the release of their second album, Protection, and how their influence changed the British music scene.
Blue Lines came as a perfect illustration of how Bristol runs at a different speed. Many artists from the city describe its slowness as one of the influences on their creativity. Bristol musicians are not concerned with commercial success only, and productivity is not a key value.
“It’s like a town masquerading as a city,” said Robert Del Naja, “and what it’s always been good at is the underground scene, in both art and music. Bands would flourish locally before they reached a national level and because there was never a big media or music industry here, people were doing it for their own gratification. Creativity here never grew in a contrived way, people were just teaching themselves and beating off the competition to become a big fish in a small pond .”
In 1991, under the appearances of calm, a boiling artistic scene was about to burst. While Bristol plunged into this sea of creativity, Massive Attack had to face their own tensions and their first world tour. While their producer Cameron McVey was busy working on other projects, they had to get ready for their first tour dates, in England, in the summer of 1991. They still thought of themselves as a sound system and with turntables. Mushroom and Daddy G launched the tracks from DJ decks on vinyl, joined by 3D, Tricky, Tony Bryan and Horace Andy on vocals.
What it’s always been good at is the underground scene, in both art and music
Massive Attack released their second album, Protection, on 26 September 1994. They finalised the record in the middle of internal tensions. The pressure between the band members was sometimes so high that they could not stand it. Despite the tensions, Protection received critical acclaim. Dazed & Confused wrote that there were “no doubts on that score: Protection is a work of genius”. The album peaked at number 4 in the UK Chart.
Where the Bristol scene evolved
Until then and since the mid 1980s, Britain had associated the Bristol sound with sound systems, but Portishead came to offer a more traditional form of band. Their second single ‘Sour Times’ was a huge success in the US and their third, ‘Glory Box’, reached number 13 in the UK Singles Chart, in early 1995. Then, another album from Bristol came out: Tricky’s first record Maxinquaye, released in February 1995. The name of the record is inspired by the name of Tricky’s mother, as well as much of the lyrics.
After releasing independently a first track named ‘Aftermath’, featuring female vocalist Martina Topley-Bird, in local record stores in September 1993, Tricky got a record deal. Martina had met Tricky around 1992, at 17 years old, while she was still studying at Clifton College. At the time, the rapper was mainly living with Mark Stewart in Bristol. Tricky ran into her, singing, in his street. Born on 7 May 1975 in London, Martina is the daughter of Martin Geoffrey, who passed away before her birth, and Charlotte Topley – who moved to Bristol and remarried to Drayton Bird. Martina always loved music and grew up taking piano and violin lessons, also singing in a children’s choir. Via her extended family, she had been introduced to many artistic and musical influences, from the Beatles to the Specials.
“I remember hearing their song ‘Rudy’ in my estate and the Beatles’ ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ in my nursery or in the place my mum took me to get my ears pierced!” Martina told me in an interview. Her piano teacher introduced her to jazz by from 14 years old, asking her to sing in his little school jazz band.
Getting closer to Tricky, a few years later, Martina and him kick-started their musical collaboration then a love story. “The first track I sang with Tricky was called ‘Shoebox’ and he told me that Neneh Cherry and Cameron McVey liked it and were thinking of using it for Neneh’s album,” Martina added. “About five weeks later, I sang the song ‘Aftermath’, in the same studio in Bristol. One of my best friends had just left Bristol and there was a weird melancholy in the air for me…”
Tricky played the first demo of ‘Aftermath’ to 3D, who immediately loved Martina’s voice, but Massive Attack didn’t pay much more attention to the track at that time. This led Tricky to finally work with Island Records, a parent label of Fourth & Broadway. “I got to work with Chris Blackwell and Island Records,” retells Tricky . “And from the start, they let me do what I wanted, it was never a business.”
Trip-hop era? And so much more
From 1995, the music press increasingly defined the “trip-hop” genre as pioneered by the three major Bristol bands. The phrase was used for the first time in June 1994 by Andy Pemberton, a journalist for Mixmag, while talking about Mo’ Wax Records, very much inspired by Massive Attack. With this term, Pemberton underlined the hip-hop elements in this music and emphasised the references to smoking weed. He also compared Massive Attack’s work to the trippy Pink Floyd.
The tag soon became synonymous with “Bristol sound”
The tag soon became synonymous with “Bristol sound” or “slow tempo”. 1995 seeing Massive, Tricky and Portishead taking centre stage in the UK with three defining albums that quickly influenced other bands, a shift was undeniably taking place in British music.
In Bristol many soundsytems had emerged in the meantime such as Roots Spot Crew, Kama Dread, Addis, Henry & Louis, Armagideon. From 1990, Jack Lundie & Andy Scholes started publishing their own production under the name of Henry & Louis and launched the Two Kings label. Their first release was the EP How Can A Man, mixed at Smith & Mighty’s studio, on Ashley Road, in St Pauls, with vocals by Andy Scholes, heavily influenced by reggae.
But Tricky absolutely hated the term and looked at how to distance himself as much as possible from Bristol, while Geoff Barrow was dreaming of sounding different, working with Tim Saul, rapper Mau and their band Earthling on their first album, Radar. Grant Marshall stated as often as could be that he felt his band were ahead of these changes. He and Andrew Vowles both resented the followers and the whole idea of a common genre.
“We used to hate that terminology so bad,” Daddy G later explained. “You know, as far we were concerned, Massive Attack music was unique, so to put it in a box was to pigeonhole it and to say, ‘Right, we know where you guys are coming from.’ And we didn’t know where we were coming from half the time, you know what I mean? It was a resistance, but then slowly but surely you come and realize that people need some direction, and some pointers as to where to go for this music. We made this slow, ambient music that was meant for the head, not for the feet, you know, to dance to. There was nothing like it. There was nothing slow or intelligent .”
In its list of the ‘100 Best Albums Of All Times’, Rolling Stone magazine wrote in 2011: “The Nineties were the all-time high-water mark of silly genre names, and trip-hop may be the silliest of all. But Massive Attack really did invent a whole new style, manipulating hip-hop’s boom and reggae’s throb into their own slow-motion funk noir, inspiring Bristol, England, neighbours such as Tricky and Portishead to explore cinematic dance grooves heavy on the atmospherics. Their influence has spread to all corners of pop and rock, not to mention upscale shoe stores and cafes everywhere.” Protection is listed at the 51st position in these rankings, Dummy at the 47th and Maxinquaye at the 70th.
For DJ Magazine, there was no doubt Protection largely stood out: “Back in 1991, there were two albums that mattered loads to loads of people; reflecting and magnifying the uniquely British hybrid of international cultures that exist in and around the club scene. Blue Lines, of course, and Primal Scream’s Screamadelica. Fast forward to 1994 and so far there’s only one album that matters in so much as it breaks rigid genre moulds. Primal Scream are off on a sad trip of their own and Protection is out in front. Crossing boundaries with ease .”
But the Bristol scene also embodied at this time a vibrant group, an ‘out of the box’ creativity
But the Bristol scene also embodied at this time a vibrant group, an ‘out of the box’ creativity, away from the mainstream lines of so-called ‘Britpop’. And a few bands felt even more grateful for that sense of independence. “I’d attended the Brits in 1995, too, and wrote later in Bedsit Disco Queen about how proud I was to be sitting with Massive Attack,” Tracey Thorn later explained.
“Protection was up for a couple of awards, and though it was the height of the Britpop Oasis v Blur battle, I felt that ours was the table to be on, with Massive and Tricky and Björk. The rock kids seemed to be trapped in a dreary rehash of the past, still repetitively harking back to the yawn-inducing Sixties, while we were with a group of people who were looking forwards .”
Raising the point of putting the bands in different categories, Tracey added: “By 1996, the two strands of the music scene were in direct competition. Our song ‘Missing’ was up for Best Single and ‘Protection’ the single for Best Video.
Massive Attack won Best British Dance Act, while Batman Forever, featuring Massive and me singing a Smokey Robinson cover, won Best Soundtrack. But Oasis won Best Album and Video and Group, beating Blur and Pulp and Radiohead in those categories, and when Massive went up to collect their award, 3D made a sardonic comment, saying, ‘It’s quite ironic, ’cos none of us can dance.’ It was a joke but he wasn’t laughing, and I think he was making a point. He might have said, especially given the most recent album that they’d made: ‘Why are we in a different category from Blur and Radiohead? Why is Protection a ‘dance’ album? What is ‘dance’ code for?’ It was a classic piece of Othering. The implication of the awards, and of Blair’s speech, was that the white boys with guitars were the Norm, and deviations from that were the Other, and certainly not the main story.”
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This excerpt is from 'Massive Attack – Out of the Comfort Zone' - THE STORY OF A SOUND, A CITY AND A GROUP OF REVOLUTIONARY ARTISTS - By Melissa Chemam (2019). Buy your copy here.
To beat the insanely cold weather of these early days of December, I've been focusing on cinema and theatre.
Here in Bristol has started a 9-days-long event: The Bristol Palestinian Film Festival, in partnership with Watershed, the Cube Microplex cinema and other venues.
The opening evening was actually the occasion to see a play, 'The Shroud Maker', written by Ahmed Mahmoud, who was in Bristol for two days and kindly participated to two wonderfully insightful Q&As.
The play was a powerful performance by one woman, based on a wonderful script, managing to retell the story of Palestine from the Nakba in 1948 to our days through the lens of a Palestinian resident of Gaza, born before the departure of the British from their Near East protectorate...
Today, I've enjoyed the screening of the incredibly endearing 'Gaza Mon Amour' focusing on everyday life, people going through the mundane in this war zone, and beauty such as hope and love. A lesson in resilience really.
The festival offers many more events in our city until Sunday 12 December, have a look at this amazing programme!
'Meeting The Man' - James Baldwin filmed in Paris (1970)
Directed by Terence Dixon United Kingdom, France, 1970
A documentary portrait of James Baldwin, one of the towering figures of 20th-century American literature, Black culture and political thought, filmed in Paris. The iconic writer is captured in many symbolic locations in the city, where he was living at the time, including the Place de la Bastille.
Mubi wrote: "Tense, combative, discursive: A meeting with James Baldwin doesn’t quite go according to plan for a group of presumptuous white filmmakers in this rarely seen, Paris-set short film. An illuminating snapshot of Baldwin’s intellectual worldview that bristles with friction and ideas."
I was at the band's homecoming show on The Downs in Bristol, and I remember crossing paths with Giles Duley Photographer in the mud, under pouring rain...
I smiled at him. I wanted to go to him and say how much I admire his work but decided not to interrupt his day at the festival...
Here he is telling his story about that day on BBC Radio 4, on a 'Soul Music' episode about 'Unfinished Sympathy'. With a few other lovely people from different places in the world... and myself.
Personal stories inspired by Massive Attack's breakthrough single. Featuring the vocals of Shara Nelson, the track together with its iconic video would help catapult this band from Bristol onto the global stage. Stories include the photographer Giles Duley whose work was displayed during the song at the band's 2016 homecoming show in Bristol. Mountaineer Dmitry Golovchenko who named an attempt on the Nepalese mountain of Jannu after the track, and solicitor Marti Burgess who saw early sets from The Wild Bunch, the collective from which Massive Attack emerged, and for whom 'Unfinished Sympathy' helped crystallise her identity. Music Producer Ski Oakenfull deconstructs the track, peeling back the layers of beats, bells and samples. Belgian singer Liz Aku recorded a version of the track during lockdown, bringing back memories of her first love. Melissa Chemam, author of 'Massive Attack Out Of The Comfort Zone' explains the origins of Massive Attack, how 'Unfinished Sympathy' was written and why, when the track was released in 1991, the band had to drop the word 'Attack' from their name. A radio producer and DJ who spent New Year's Eve in a detox centre in London was asked to pick the tune to be played at midnight, and she chose 'Unfinished Sympathy'.
Pardon my absence, I have much more work outside of writing now that I'm teaching 4 days a week this year...
Meanwhile, here is a new prospect: the first column as part of a new monthly series for The Markaz Review, in which I'll explore icons of Arab music and how they influence music production around the world.
Electronic music is trending in the Arab world and Iran, but is Riyadh the best place to showcase it?
Ready to host the electronic dance music (EDM) festival SOUNDSTORM from December 16th to the 19th, the Saudi capital sounds triumphant. The event promises to feature a world-leading line-up with more than 150 superstar headliners and international dance acts, alongside regional and local talents. But if many DJs and producers are delighted to fly to Riyadh, others have questions about important social and political issues.
The big names include the über-famous Armin Van Buuren, David Guetta, Nina Kraviz, but also the Dutch-Moroccan DJ R3hab. Born in 1983, he was ranked at number 12 on the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs in 2018. He said of the event: “What I like about this festival is that it’s very different — it’s a complete fusion, some Arab artists and a lot of international DJs and it all works really well. I think that’s very special and I’ve never seen that before.” The inaugural event took place in 2019, sponsored by the Middle Eastern lifestyle and entertainment brand MDLBEAST, and this second edition marks a return after a pandemic-related hiatus.
If EDM has for long been associated only with Western names, the past two decades have seen wonderful electro artists emerge from all over the Middle East. The Head of Talent Booking of the festival, Talal Albahiti, said in September, “We’re happy with the first announcement of the SOUNDSTORM ‘21 line up. We will soon announce a second phase that includes a wide variety of musical genres that will take attendees on a journey they won’t forget. We are ready to welcome all music enthusiasts to become part of this immersive 4‑day experience.”
For the occasion, one of the most favored names in Saudi Arabia’s underground scene, Mohanned Nassar (aka Vinyl Mode) presented his latest release in October, “Eshg Alsamar” on MDLBEAST Records. To him, it’s “an indicator that it’s time for the rest of the world to hear what sounds are spilling out of the Arabian kingdom.” Vinyl Mode has been offering deep house and techno to local dance floor enthusiasts for over a decade now.
You’d think that SOUNDSTORM would be the epitome of success of the Middle East when it comes to electronic music — a scene that went airborne from Beirut to Marrakesh in the past decade…
Since the rise of incredibly successful Arab DJs, like Tunisian-Palestinian-French soundcutters from Checkpoint 303, Beirut artists Thoom and Jessika Khazrik, Tunis-born/Paris-based techno star Deena Abdelwahed, Palestinian DJ Sama Abdulhadi, rising producer from Morocco Manar Fegrouch aka Glitter, Nouf Sufyani aka Cosmicat — Saudi Arabia’s first female professional electronic music artist, and many others, Middle Eastern music has become a hit, but hasn’t had its own major festival in its region yet. SOUNDSTORM hopes to be the one.
In December 2019, Cosmicat for instance participated in the MDL Beast Festival targeted at EDM lovers, performing alongside headliners like David Guetta and Steve Aoki — and without wearing an abaya, veil or headscarf. She was later invited by Boiler Room to DJ in Tunis.
Ramadan Alharatani, the CEO of MDLBEAST, has said about his related conference on EDM XP: “[This] is a first for the region and will serve as the foundation for a thriving music industry across the Middle East. Providing a platform to authenticate and further build the music industry in the [Arab world], local and international guests will be embraced by the wealth of possibility offered by this exciting new market over the three days. Through XP, we aim to join the global conversation…”
However, though the first MDL festival in Riyadh in 2019 was a success in many ways, it was concerning in others. Dozens of influencers invited out to promote the festival dealt with some backlash for supporting a government that — among other things — murdered journalist Jamal Kashoggi in 2018, and committed human rights crimes against women and the LGBTQ community. 24 individuals were also arrested in relation to sexual harassment incidents during the festival.
From the rise of new young stars from Beirut and North Africa, it would seem like a great idea to help a festival come about in Tunis, Marrakesh or the Lebanese capital, to acknowledge their creativity in the nightlife economy and EDM, but also to support places that went on to difficult times. Saudi Arabia may have the financial means to host major festivals, but is the place a fair representation of the authentic roots of Arab EDM, and beyond, the Arab music that informed it for decade?
Lebanon has long been a pioneering city for Arabic music, since disco created some roots in the Levant. Electronic music and clubbing have been a part of Beiruti culture since the 1990s. Thoom (real name: Zeynab Ghandour) said in January 2020 to RedBull’s cultural website that the changing political landscape in Beirut was “sparking interest in new electronic sounds, spurred on amid the backdrop of the protests which have been ongoing in the city since October 2019, in frustration with the country’s stalling economy.” Then of course, the pandemic put the cultural scene on hold, and the terrible Beirut Port explosion ripped through the city last summer. But the music scene is still active and only waits to grow further.
Whether Riyadh gets positive or negative support this year, Arab electronic music isn’t going anywhere; it sounds on the contrary stronger than ever and can only soon find its center. I intend to discuss the impact of this festival on Arab and Middle Eastern musicians, producers and DJs, and to keep this conversation going.
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Melissa Chemam is the author of a book on Bristol’s music scene, Massive Attack – Out of the Comfort Zone. In the following iterations of this column, every month, she will explore more in depth some incredible trajectories of the icons of Arab music, including the electronic scene of the greater Middle East, and how they influenced music production around the world.
