Aboriginal trio A Tribe Called Red brings back their dancefloor revolution

A Tribe Called Red makes bad ass bass music that effortlessly and seamlessly combines elements of traditional aboriginal music with hip-hop, techno, dancehall and anything else with an electric pulse that rocks the dancefloor.

Call it Powwow Step, they do (it’s also the title of the first track they made together). It’s an explosively potent mix on the dancefloor, which is not surprising since their crew has some serious skills and credentials—DJ Shub is a two time Canadian DMC champion, and NDN was once a drummer for Montreal punk band Ripcordz (as well as being a singer at powwows in earlier days).

It all started in 2008 when NDN and Bear Witness (who is the crew’s video artist and video maker) started the bimonthly Electric Pow Wow event at the Babylon Club in Ottawa with the intention of creating a night of music that reflected the mixed contemporary culture of young urban aboriginals like themselves. They were creating remixes and mashups of contemporary and traditional music, then DJ Shub (a.k.a. Dan General) joined the crew in 2010, bringing his scratch DJ skills, and A Tribe Called Red was born. The crew’s first self-titled album, released in March, is available for free on its website.

ATCR take deadly aim at cultural stereotypes, with visuals that repurpose mainstream cultural stereotypes (which range from Hollywood movies to the names of football teams) and music that celebrates the traditional powwow as much as it does cutting edge dance music.

But, most importantly, they kill on the dancefloor purely on the merits of how damn good their music is.

A Tribe Called Red
May 26^th | Eastern Bloc (Sight & Sound Festival closing party)
7240, Clark
with BRDN
sightandsoundfestival.ca
atribecalledred.blogspot.ca