340ml | |
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Origin | Maputo, Mozambique Now based in Johannesburg, South Africa |
Genres | Experimental tropical pop, dub, alternative |
Years active | 2000–present |
Labels | Sheer Sound 340ml Music Arame Farpado |
Members | Paulo Jorge Chibanga (drums) Rui Soeiro (bass) Tiago Correia-Paulo (guitar) Pedro Pinto (vocals and melodica) |
340ml (pronounced: three forty mil) is an African musical group who originate from Mozambique, Maputo, but are now based in Johannesburg, South Africa. They have therefore jokingly been described by some as being "Jozambican". The band incorporates many different elements into their music including dub, jazz, ska, Afro-jazz and reggae. [1] [2] [3] Their music has also been described by Jean Barker (a music critic on "Channel24.co.za".) as "sounding better than a cold beer opening on a hot day." [4]
The four band members arrived in Johannesburg in the mid-1990s in order to pursue academic careers. Paulo Jorge Chibanga had intentions on becoming an architect, Rui Soeiro studied a Bachelor of Commerce, Pedro Pinto's career choices lay in Industrial Psychology and Tiago Correia-Paulo pursued a career in Economics. Paulo branched out into a different area of design, with his Dubstars clothing label which is reportedly becoming very popular within Johannesburg. Rui started working on releasing music compilations called Dubvaults through the band's label 340ml Music. Pedro ventured into jewelry design and other crafts. Tiago worked as a designer and illustrator for many years and now is more involved in film and video directing and producing.
Despite all these academic qualifications, the band has always focused on producing music, firstly in Maputo and then when Rui and Paulo joined a band which was led by their art teacher at St. Martin's School in Southern Johannesburg. The name of the band was Panic Orange. In the late 1990s Panic Orange earned a semi-final spot in the annual Emerging Sounds competition, but the then rock band had begun to turn towards the genre of Ska, and dropped its name, as well as its rock-playing member in the middle of the contest.
I think it became a bit of a battle... and when we hooked up with Tiago and Pedro it just worked. We were dying in the rock mode because we always wanted to do other things – different things.
— Paulo Jorge Chibanga
All four band members had known each other while growing up in Maputo. Tiago and Pedro had played together in a Rage Against the Machine-inspired rap metal cover band as teenagers during the 1990s.
340ml, after many false starts, derived its final name from a measurement on a beverage can when it formalised in 2000. Their debut album, Moving, was co-produced by the Jazzworx production team and incorporated parts of, amongst others, dub, reggae, jazz, Brazilian music and rock.
Just call it (the genre) Southern African contemporary, and it's bound to get 340ml noticed nationally, if not globally.
— Paulo Jorge Chibanga
Four years after releasing their debut album, Moving, 340ml released a second album entitled Sorry for the Delay. The name of their second album is a result of the many delays the band experienced while producing it, mainly due to the fact that they had been victims of Johannesburg crime four times, twice having their cars filled with equipment stolen, and twice having their studios broken into and stripped down. [5]
Reggae is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first popular song to use the word reggae, effectively naming the genre and introducing it to a global audience. Reggae is rooted out from traditional Jamaican Kumina, Pukkumina, Revival Zion, Nyabinghi, and burru drumming. Jamaican reggae music evolved out of the earlier genres mento, ska and rocksteady. Reggae usually relates news, social gossip, and political commentary. It is instantly recognizable from the counterpoint between the bass and drum downbeat and the offbeat rhythm section. The immediate origins of reggae were in ska and rocksteady; from the latter, reggae took over the use of the bass as a percussion instrument.
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The music of Jamaica includes Jamaican folk music and many popular genres, such as mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, reggae fusion and related styles.
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Byron Lee and the Dragonaires are a Jamaican ska, calypso and soca band. The band played a crucial pioneering role in bringing Caribbean music to the world. Byron Lee died on 4 November 2008, after suffering from cancer for a sustained period.
Ska jazz is a music genre derived by fusing the melodic content of jazz with the rhythmic and harmonic content of early Jamaican Music introduced by the "Fathers of Ska" in the late 1950s. The ska-jazz movement began during the 1990s in New York and London, where pioneering avant-garde jazz and reggae musicians pushed the boundaries of reggae music. They were combining traditions with modern tendencies, using the reggae beat along with high improvisation and jazz harmonies, primarily by horns and percussion.
The Skatalites are a ska band from Jamaica. They played initially between 1963 and 1965, and recorded many of their best known songs in the period, including "Guns of Navarone." They also played on records by Prince Buster and backed many other Jamaican artists who recorded during that period, including Bob Marley & The Wailers, on their first single "Simmer Down." They reformed in 1983 and have played together ever since.
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