Electronic gypsy music. Electro-acoustic culture-mash-up. I just made that one up. Perhaps the reason Beats Antique is difficult to pinpoint to a traditional genre is that not many bands are formed for the sole purpose of making belly-dancing music. The group continued to make music and perform, with Jakes using her lifelong dance skills while Satori and Cappel laid the beats in the back.
A stage show that demands more music; music that needs costumes, ships and masks, and shadow dances; an audience that comes for art, and takes away stories to feed their imagination.
When Beats Antique first drew breath, there was no pressure to become anything. From that creative freedom, a family formed, and in a good family, each member wears many hats. Throughout , Beats Antique performed this pro-gay marriage shadow play at every show in the U. Beats Antique also has a reputation for making tour stops in countries that most bands would avoid. And it was pretty amazing. Not only does the band combine music from cultures that might be warring or in conflict, but, by taking foreign styles and packaging them into familiar sounds for Western ears, the bandmembers say they may be helping people to become less racist and xenophobic.
Given that the band is heavily inspired by Middle Eastern and Arabic sounds, especially Hindu, Sufi, and Islamic music, this is an especially timely goal. But both Beats Antique and Copeland, the producer who originally helped the band hone its sound, are quick to defend their art and describe themselves as innovators, not imperialists. Because what else are you going to do? Stick yourself in a box? When Beats Antique last played the Fox in the winter of , they wanted to go out with a bang and had hoped to shut down the street outside so that they could throw a big party afterward.
During their performance, Occupy Oakland protesters staged a march down Telegraph Avenue, and by the time the show let out, there was not only a huge bonfire burning in the middle of the street, but an entire sound system blasting tunes for an impromptu dance party. More than an hour into the show, after a seemingly laborious dance routine from Jakes — who balanced a golden water jug atop her head while striking advanced yoga poses, like Bird of Paradise — the trio disappears backstage for a brief respite.
Satori suggested a fusion of electronic experimental music and traditional belly dance tunes. Copeland gave him the green light and Beats Antique decamped to a recording studio to produce their first album, Tribal Derivations.
Tommy Cappel was born in Fairfax, VA, in Both his parents were music teachers, so he grew up surrounded by music. His brother played drums to heavy metal records.
Cappel was driven by the beat and eventually took over his brother's drum kit. By age six he was playing in a rock band with his friends, and in high school he picked up piano, percussion, marimba, and timpani. He added his father's jazz records to the collection of prog rock LPs he borrowed from his brother to expand his musical vocabulary.
When he discovered the funky New Orleans rhythms of the Meters , he knew he was going to be a musician for the rest of his life. In the '90s, Cappel attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, aiming for a degree in studio drumming. He studied New Orleans jazz, bebop, modern jazz, and world music. One of his teachers was transcribing African and Arab drumming patterns to drum kit and Cappel lent a hand and learned much about non-jazz rhythm patterns. He started digging into hip-hop, Balkan music, Arab music, and Latin rhythms.
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