Scalper guesting on LA Mitchell ‘s set for WOMAD this coming week end 13th & 14th March 2010.

Catch LA Mitchell on Sat 13th on the Gables stage at 5pm and Sun 14th on the Dell stage at 9.30pm.

www.womad.co.nz

Tune in to George Fm over this weekend Friday 5th March to Sunday 7th March 2010, and have a chance to win a copy of the new Scalper album “Flesh & Bones”.

Gonna be a few lucky ones. Peace.

www.georgefm.co.nz

11:06 pm The Music Mix
Nick Atkinson presents a contemporary music magazine, with interviews and music.

“The Music Mix goes bush to talk to rapper, producer and chicken farmer Nadeem Shafi, alias Scalper… We find Scalper in a state of inspiration; waxing on unity and the magnificent unlikelihood of existence. A Londoner of Pakistani stock, Nadeem calls on a diverse and street-savvy collection of influences. A deeply urban man making records in his converted rural laundry.”

themix@radionz.co.nz

Thanks to DJ Substance for having me on his show and the support of the new album. Catch him every Wed night 10pm till 12am on “Urbanology” on www.Georgefm.co.nz

Peace to Haz and the Homebrew Crew.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/album-reviews/3317003/CD-review-Flesh-Bones-Scalper

If you like the spooky intensity of Massive Attack and the paranoid ramblings of Tricky then you’ll like this: Meet Nadeem Shafi, a London-born New Zealand resident creating his own brand of brutally dark hip-hop under the name Scalper.

He’s been around for a while now and it’s taken time for Shafi, a former member of British act Fun-da-mental, to release his debut solo album, but it’s well worth the wait.

Thanks to the unsettling, Portishead-style trip-hop beats and frequent use of Middle Eastern strings, Flesh & Bones bristles with tension, and album opener Black Glory - with its warped samples and thudding production - sets up the album’s ominous atmosphere perfectly.

Shafi obviously has a chip on his shoulder and it’s his gruff vocals about “death knocking on that door” that shine in the bouncy ThreePointOneFour and makes Obsessive Idols darker than a funeral procession. Superior  instrumental Numbers sounds positively chirpy after the thrillingly moody Abacus.

The overbearing bleakness can get a little monotonous but if you’re looking for something to soundtrack a thunderstorm at 2am, Flesh & Bones is perfect.

By Chris Schulz.

Big Thanks to Nick D and Dean @ George Breakfast for the cool interview and support of Scalper. Peace.

Catch Nick D every weekday morning on www.georgefm.co.nz

Add the group “Scalper” and keep updated on Facebook. Peace.

Live interview with Nick D @ George Fm breakfast show. Tomorrow between 9.15am and 9.30am.

www.georgefm.co.nz

Scalper is Nadeem Shafi who was previously a vocalist in the exciting London mutli-culti hip-hop (and beyond) outfit Fun-Da-Mental.

These days he lives in New Zealand but little of the rather more benign South Pacific atmosphere intrudes on this dark, brooding and menacing mood-piece where his up-close and urgently delivered vocals speak of a spiritual fog, the horrors of war, bloodshed, fallen demons, fires of hell, betrayal …

This in places comes off like the Book of Revelations pulled through newsreels of Middle East conflict and the nightmares that would ensue.

While this would not be to everyone’s taste it is, because of the consistency of tone and vision, quite gripping and Scalper’s lyrics drag you in — and down. But it also has an oddly cathartic effect and it is not so much menacing as conjuring up of a disconcerting state of mind.

The political and spiritual subtexts throughout are evident, and it will be interesting to hear what he comes up with if he chooses to reflect on his new homeland with the voice of “an outsider”. My guess is it will be challenging … and important.

By Graham Reid

Added: 8 Feb 10

http://www.elsewhere.co.nz/music/2868/scalper-flesh-and-bones-border/

Thanks to MZA and RDU Christchurch for the interview and support of my music. Catch MZA on Monday Drive on www.rdu.org.nz