DJ Felina’s Turntable

June 25th, 2011 in Archive by The Kitchen Sisters0 Comments

Lately we’ve been asking what girls are on your turntable?

This week we interviewed San Francisco’s Mirissa Neff, also known as DJ Felina, and asked her to curate her favorite tracks featuring girls for us (scroll through the Youtube Playlist below).

By night Mirissa Neff is known for her eclectic mix of Brazilian batucadas, gypsy electronica, and other beats she picks up on her travels around the globe. By day she is a photographer, art director for San Francisco’s largest alternative newsweekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and recently she also travels the globe as a reporter for PBS’s Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders, a new series that explores the world through music.

Here are a sample of sounds we’ve selected from her list.

(scroll left or right through the YouTube player or continue down below to hear the individual tracks)

1. Under Your Hat: DJ Vadim featuring Kathrin DeBoer

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DJ Vadim Under Your Hat Feat Kathrin Deboer & Governor Tiggy by mediaplayerone 26,426 views

“DJ Vadim collaborates with lots of different women but his tracks with Kathrin DeBoer are always sublime. Her voice complements his dub-stylee sound perfectly.”

2. My Jamaican Guy: Grace Jones

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Grace Jones – My Jamaican Guy by DiscoLoverMiami 524,293 views

An oldie but goodie with one of the best hooks ever created. Somehow this track never sounds dated.

3. Feelin’ Good (Joe Claussel Remix): Nina Simone

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Nina Simone, “Feelin’ Good” (Remix) by cosmos34 174,563 views

A beautiful downtempo remix featuring the incomparable vocals of Ms. Simone.

4. Private Eyes: The Bird and the Bee

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Private Eyes – The Bird and The Bee by UndacovaSooperSpy 102,021 views

This is from an album of Hall and Oates covers reinterpreted by Inara George (the bird) and Greg Kurstin (the bee). George’s vocals put a fresh feminine spin on these beloved 80s pop tunes.

5. Love Like That: BK One featuring Aby Wolf

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BK-One – Love Like That feat. Aby Wolf by SwipeDS 3,483 views

This minimalistic track features soaring, layered vocals by Aby Wolf. It was surprising to come across because the other songs from the album are heavier hitting hip-hop songs laced with Brazilian tropicalia.

6. De Donde Vengo Yo: ChocQuibTown

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CHOCQUIBTOWN-DE DONDE VENGO YO by ChocQuibTown 1,060,639 views

A hot hip-hop/reggaeton track from Colombia’s ChocQuibTown that always gets the dance floor moving. Goyo, the lady emcee, has amazing flow and the group aims to bring awareness to the plight of Afro-Colombians.

7. Bubuia: Ceu featuring Negresko Sis

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Céu – Bubuia by sixdegreesrecords 131,499 views

Ceu has made a name for herself by juxtaposing the cosmopolitan downtown Sao Paulo sound with ethereal vocals. This track features harmonies by lady acapella group Negresko Sis.

8. Right Here: DJ Afro featuring Kate Atherto

DJ Afro (aka Jose Luis Pardo) put out his first solo album this year after spending 20 years as the mastermind behind the sound of Venezuelan dance band Los Amigos Invisibles. After working with one male vocalist for all those years in LAI he was able to spread his wings and work with various female singers. I loved the result on this track.

9. Sister in the Radio; Dengue Fever

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Dengue Fever – Sister In The Radio (Fantasy, 2011) by DocteurSphereNan 791 views

This is a spooky and haunting track from Cambodian psychedelic rock revivalists Dengue Fever (see below). A good one for closing out the night.

10. Cosmic Love: Florence and the Machine

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Florence + The Machine – Cosmic Love by FlorenceMachineVEVO 6,668,300 views

Florence Welch was one of the most popular artists to gain prominence in the past year so I know this isn’t the most original selection. But her vocal fearlessness in this track harkens back to Annie Lennox, which is always a good thing.

Intrigued by her choices we interviewed Mirissa Neff about her influences, tastes as well as her current projects.

KS: You have Caribbean and Ukrainian roots, not to mention that you grew up in New York City in the Seventies. I am curious what were your musical influences?

DJ FELINA: My mom is from Barbados and my dad’s heritage is Eastern European. They met in NYC’s hip 1960s downtown scene. As a kid I remember hearing Nina Simone and Carly Simon on our living room turntable, as well as dancing to the sounds of disco divas like Donna Summer.

KS: What music got you into DJ-ing? Which female performers did you admire?

DJ FELINA:When I started DJ-ing in San Francisco I was obsessed with Brazilian music. There are so many facets to the sounds of Brazil, and as a result there are countless amazing ladies representing those different facets. A handful of the women whose music really affected me were tropicalia star Gal Costa, psychedelic rocker Rita Lee, samba diva Elza Soares, and forro singer Elba Ramalho. To choose one track would be near impossible but an album that resonated for a long time was the O Grande Encontro album by Vinicius de Moraes featuring Maria Creuza. It’s on the melancholy side so I usually played those tracks at the end of the night.

KS: There are not that many women DJ’s out there, who was your inspiration as you started your DJ career?
DJ FELINA: When I joined WAMH (Amherst’s radio station) as a freshman I was fortunate that the station’s DJ staff was chock full of strong-minded women who were passionate about music radio. They inspired me to take broadcasting seriously, and to trust that I had something unique to offer as a DJ.

KS: Do you actually (unconsciously or not) choose female performers when creating your sets?
DJ FELINA: I do seek out female performances when I’m crafting my sets, to contrast the timbre and quality of female voices with male-dominated tracks. The effect varies widely depending on the song and I feel like any attempt at defining that effect will sound cliched, but let’s just say that male and female voices evoke vastly different responses from audiences.

KS: As a current reporter for the PBS series “Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders” are there any international female artists we should be keeping our eyes on?

DJ FELINA: Sound Tracks has been such a wonderful project to work on. Our team (headed up by executive producer Steve Talbot and public radio’s Marco Werman) is always on the lookout for innovative stories related to music from all over the world.

Almost all of the segments I’ve worked on for Sound Tracks and our online companion series for PBS.org “Quick Hits” have featured women… from Mariza, the queen diva of Portuguese fado, to the rock and roll of Scotland’s KT Tunstall. Most recently I interviewed the LA-based Cambodian psychedelic rock band Dengue Fever. The band’s lead singer Chhom Nimol told a deeply moving story about the inspiration behind their beautiful song “Sister in the Radio”. Without giving too much away the story touches on how her family was affected by the Khmer Rouge regime and how a chance moment listening to the radio brought a glimmer of hope.

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