My new EP entitled ‘DUTTY HOUSE’ will be out as an early exclusive Dec. 7th on Juno and everywhere Dec. 14th on Dutty Artz. In advance of it I’m giving away this remix I did of Blak Ryno’s ‘Nuh Tek Talk’. The original is on Chimney Records’ Death Row Riddim. Blak Ryno is an exciting new Dancehall artist who came up under of Vybz Kartel’s Portmore Empire / Gaza movement. He uses a lot of interesting eastern sounding melodies in his singing which sets him apart from the new crop of Dancehall artists coming out to my ears. The original was 120bpm which is a little slower than I’ve been playing lately so I decided to speed it up to 128bpm and add some grimey house beats. I didn’t have an acapella so I actually just took the whole tune and EQd out the bass, adding my own drum and bass parts making it more like a mashup than a true remix. I’ve been playing it for a bit and thought it’d be appropriate to share it in advance of my new EP dropping on Dutty Artz. It’s my first time in a while busting out my distorted kicks and badman lyrics vibe in a while, so fans of Brooklyn Anthem may be pleased.
Over the weekend, Jace/Rupture sent me a text to cover/fill-in on Mudd Up with one condition – “gotta play Diplomats “Crunk Muzik” in honor of WikiLeaks.” The organization dedicated to liberating secret documents unleashed a massive cache of confidential cables/exchanges between American diplomats/State Departments and embassies around the globe, plus our very own Diplomats from Harlem, USA performed a reunion concert at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom. Anyway, that’s all we had in mind for this program – sounds leak from my laptop, and I ramble a bit –
Subscribe to the Mudd Up! podcast if you prefer downloadable versions, issued a week after FM broadcast: , Mudd Up!RSS. Also useful: WFMU’s free iPhone app.
Belem Botanica. (St. Google prayer candles coming soon.)
I’m in Belem. One of the last outposts of high-rise condos before Amazonia’s dirt roads, lush vegetation, secret knowledge, cattle ranches and soya farms define the landscape. The river itself is a ruddy, raw-umber brown. I came here for Tecno Brega. The electronic side of Brega, a sprawling genre designation that seems to include everything from melodic love songs to 85 BPM electro bangers. On the phone with DA’s general counsel Pierce last week I said it was music that not even Diplo could sell to midwestern teens- but now that I’ve started to hear a bit more, I’m not so sure. Some of it sits surprisingly well with global bass aesthetics- but the rest is Susan Sontag approved schlock. A popular production technique is to extract the main melody of a major global pop hit, & re-program it with 80’s synth presets and record with Portuguese lyrics heavy on Corazon-thematics. It sounds like shit – except when it’s amazing. Case in point below- this animated gif version is nice too. (Apparently this track is “knock off” Tecno Brega from Bahia.)
My host here is Patricktor4, a dj who reps the Amazonian sound with his Baile Tropical parties all over Brasil. Yesterday morning we went down to the amazing Belem river-front market- think Folton Fish Market meets your favorite Botanica cooked in the Amazon. I ate river oysters, (“THAT IS VERY VERY DANGEROUS BECAUSE IT IS LIVING,” said Patrick, but yo I LOVE OYSTERS) that a mobile vendor was carrying around in a metal tin with no ice- just salt and lime in the 98 F heat. 60 cents! After a well deserved siesta we ate dinner at the mall and bounced to Club Africa! to see the Vetron aparelhagem.
The aparelhagem stacks had custom air-brushed Vetron speaker grills showing you how to Faixo the V (think Rasta/ROCKAFELLA compass/ruler/diamond). The club decor was huge “African” sculptures and fake thatch roofs and trees- essentially an oversized/huge set of grass huts. You bought tickets through a one brick gap in a grey wall. Oh, did I mention the DJ booths were stylized neon and LED laden space crafts of unknown provenance. The DJ’s wore 80’s aerobics outfits and freestyled and did call and response constantly over tracks. Women and men alike were rocking bedazzled jeans and tops. Vetron used to just make popular mp3 mix/folder cds- but started to throw parties a couple of years ago as well. Some of the other big sounds are Super Pop, Ruby Boy and Negro Princesa. Grab some pirated copies of pirate copies of Brega cds HERE. GOOD COPY BAD COPY DOC segment on BREGA HERE
(Sadly I only took video on the flipcam- which I can’t edit, or even really playback on my little acer netbook- but hopefully can final cut somewhere when I arrive in Kingston next thursday- JA people/homies get at me!)
Vetron SpaceShip booth
We were there for about two hours- the party hadn’t really started to jump-off and was about half empty when we left. The DJ had already played a popular brega remix of “We No Speak Americano” three times- at just about the same rate as we were finishing our ice buckets of beer. We bounced to a live Brega show in a huge warehouse space with at least tw0 hundred motorcycles outside and 5k people inside. The stage acts were boring but tucked under one of the second levels of the building was a heavy vibes, S&M leather-walled dance cave playing even worse techno but with the most outrageous fog/lazer scenario I have ever seen in such a small space. It was the opposite of a chill out room. I lasted just long enough to shoot some video. Finally I fell asleep next to a set of new Honda motorcycles adorned with smiling, white, fake blond Brazilians.
Vetron mix cds at the market
But we still had to make it to the periphery for a private party Patrick was playing at one of those weird house/complexs that people rent for parties. Blearily I watched a Doors/Johny cash cover band while a bunch of rockers in gothy Halloween costumes danced and stood around a giant set of aquariums. I though about going for a swim, but the pool wasn’t quite warm enough. I fell asleep again, to Kool Keith outlining his policy on bitch contact and pitch altering. Someone drove us home.
Meanwhile the police are doing some serious urban re-structuring in Rio, sending the Navy, Army and Police into a few Favelas with tanks to root out drug dealers. Watching the T.V. coverage (where they keep comparing the action to Troop De Elite) it’s not hard to understand why the Brazilian elite lives behind huge fucking walls and endless security cameras networked with endemic class/racism. Now they are parading some supposed dealers they caught around by the neck while giving an interview. I feel bad for these low level hustlers dying and defending an empire that doesn’t even make them rich. The show, Fantastico, keeps cutting to the same footage of a favela flat screen tv and hot tub as if to prove “THEY MADE ALL THIS MONEY SELLING DRUGS.” It’s complicated, and I’m no expert on the favelas that a third of Rio’s residents call home- but even with my limited language skills it is easy to tell how fucked up the reporting is in this country. Apparently when google maps came out it provided Rio police with superior aerial imagery of the favelas then what they previously had access to. They started printing out pages from google and using them to coordinate attacks. I guess that is neither here nor there- but seriously WTF. Now I’m watching huge projected google maps on the wall at police H.Q. as they discuss tactics with neon-blue bullet proof vest wearing reporters.
Hopefully at some point I’ll write up my recording sessions with Maga Bo in Salvador and my anti-fascist/historical memory libidinal economy wheatpasting projects in Sao Paulo…. but until then Dutty Love from Brazil.
You can stream DJ Ghostdad‘s latest 5-part mix for free, but mp3s of Acid Yazz are gonna cost you… a tweet. Using a “tweet-for-track” script, Ghostdad offers a pretty reasonable exchange: you tweet about the mix, he’ll give you a download link.
The script was written by CASH music, a new non-profit developing software to help musicians free themselves from data-mining megacorps. They don’t mince words on their commitment to free/open source software:
“Sustainability for artists is the goal, and an open source solution gives musicians and coders the power to build solutions together. We can’t rely on Facebook, the RIAA, or even Apple to invent a new model that works with the best interests of artists in mind. Let’s create those models together.”
I like that CASH calls their work “music tech”. Why shouldn’t webapps for musicians be in the same category as MooT BooXLe’s “ghetto” talkbox or the Wii2MIDI hack?
I’m in the near south with family and friends observing yet another fucked up and annoying holiday – this one associated with the genocide of indigenous Americans. While unpacking my bags after the journey, and thinking about stuffing and delicious chocolate and pecan pies, I turned on a new mix from a trio of young, Afrocentric DJs – Crowdkrushers, from the south of Germany – a town called Tübingen. The mix was commissioned by Akwaaba Music to celebrate the netlabel’s second anniversary. It’s been two years already! Although I have lost count of the releases, Akwaaba remains consistent and continues to exposed us to some amazing music. So enjoy this mix, containing a healthy dose of fine Akwaaba Music.
A word from Crowdcrushers – “So this is our exclusive mix for Akwaaba Music. It‘s not so much all new and exclusive bangers but rather our impression of African music and its big influences on other musical territories (with one or two stylistic exceptions in the mix). We also kinda tried to give an idea of what we do in our club sets, not paying too much attention to tempo or style while keeping it funky and a wee bit humorous… Featuring Akwaaba artists Appietus, Ruff‘n‘Smooth, Kedjevara, Onyenze, Killamu, Dred Man-Gi and Arc Djebe. Hope you enjoy!â€
is the name of a gorgeous, long-running group from Zanzibar. Twinned accordions, khanoun, oud, violins, dapper clothes…
Here’s a nice quote on that complicated kultur dance: the tourist stampede
“Their CD-releases have made the name Culture Musical Club known to audiences throughout the world, so much so that rehearsals in their clubhouse have become somewhat of a tourist attraction.
This, however, does not interfere with the first and foremost aim of their social gathering – namely to enjoy music and ‘to be moved’ by it, as the original meaning of the word “taarab” implies.â€
Subscribe to the Mudd Up! podcast if you prefer downloadable versions, issued a week after FM broadcast: , Mudd Up!RSS. Also useful: WFMU’s free iPhone app. Got a LOT of positive feedback from the show with Das Racist a few weeks back. A very lively hour, that one.
tracklist
Culture Musical ClubKidumbaki pt. 1 Shime!
Bass Clef vs Kasai AllstarsThe Incident at Mbuji-Mayi Tradi-Mods vs. Rockers: Alternative Takes on Congotronics (V/A)
SkeatDumelang Radioclit presents: The Sound of Club Secousse
Chllngr vs De TropixPeople Dem Shouting EXCLUSIVE YEP
AfrocubismJarabi Afrocubismlyrics excerpt: Everybody chooses their own love Everybody chooses their own love I have chosen my own love Love is like electricity Love is like a disease….
Ranil y Su Conjunto TropicalAndalucia Ranil’s Jungle Party
Kanye WestGorgeous ft. Kid Cudi & Raekwon My Beatiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Whenever I land in a new city, I go into town with three intentions.
*Find out if there is a really old and amazing music from the region.
*Find out what the locals are listening to at the pubs and clubs so I have an idea what my set should be like.
*Find something really new listen to.
Language barriers usually don’t usually impede this. You might go in with an idea of what you’re looking for but the skilled know not to expect anything. Just find something amazing.
Walk the streets with eyes and ears peeled. Somewhere some 14 year old kid that cut class today, came home early and is blasting a local mixtape so loud the whole neighborhood can hear it. On the metro, someone is rockin out their mp3 player so loud you can hear their headphones above the racket of the moving train. A restaurant owner from a foreign country is simultaneously playing the most amazing CD of music from his country to make his establishment feel like home. Music is everywhere and when its good, its usually loud.
I was walking around Oberkampf in Paris with Marie Maurin from Jacasseries Radio an area where a lot of the college kids go to get wasted for cheap and we ended up checking out a bar called International. We were just walking over to see what was playing because there’s always some live act going on in there but what we found heard from outside was amazing. I’m talkin Konono no. 1 on acid.
The street outside was mobbed with with smokers. Gotta love that you can walk out the bar with your beer there. We pushed through the crowd to get closer to the music. I spent the next couple minutes trying to figure out if what was on the projection screen of the crowd downstairs was really happening or if it was a tape. There was a bearded man in a faded santa suit throwing popcorn at the crowd dancing downstairs. When I realized it was real time I told my friend I needed to push through and check out the basement.
Congopunq as a duo are a fairly odd pair of dudes to behold. Dr Kong is a towering 6’2 dude jumping up and down and pulling all manor of tricks out his suitcase. He is happy to make you crepes on stage or bang a kettle with a broomstick or stare at one person menacingly for the duration of a song. His performance interacts with the crowd and makes the show more participatory something I’ve been looking for in new acts to book.
Percussionist Cyril Atef performs in a custom made jock strap and sits behind the oddest drum kit I’ve ever seen assembled. A djimbe for a kick drum, a random collection of random shakers and percussive instruments gathered from around the globe all microphoned through a sample station to loop and stack beats. There is a roland or korg synth which also ran through the loop station and probably a couple pots and pans. He’ll stack a few loops to the beat add a synth line then proceed to rock out the amplified thumb piano for 15 minute jam sessions of improvised dancefloor mayhem.
This is them performing live in Haiti. Watch how the crowd goes from chanting for the local dancer Chi Chi Man to going totally mental for Congopunq’s jump up carnival vibes.
Cyril, is the long-time percussionist for Mathieu Chedid (french megastar with the oddest haircut in the biz) and he’s also founded another project called Bumcello. He has been living in France for some 20 years now. I sat down with him to talk about the new project at his apartment and from what I can tell he’s completely insane in the healthiest sense of the word. Here’s the video for their single from the Candy Goodness album released on Crammed Discs. This guy should be rocking at tropical parties around the globe right now and no one seems to know about him. Promoters and Booking Agents… get on your P’s and Qs and BBM’s and twitter… I’ll be playing with him tonight at the same bar I met him at International 5/7 Rue Moret. Planning on bringing him to NYC soon so please hit me up if you wanna host them at your parties.
I apologize for the short notice (once again!) but I will be taking over WFMU tonight – broadcasting at 91.1 fm in New York City and at 90.1 fm in the Hudson Valley from 6 – 9pm – filling in for Rob Weisberg. Matt Shadetek will join me, and will deliver a live DJ set! TUNE INNN!
I got about 45 minutes warning that Los Gaitero de San Jacinto were performing in Paris the other night. The band has been active since AT LEAST 1940 so there’s only so many chances we’re gonna get to see them. I was hanging with percussionist Cyril Atef when I got the text. We had been discussing the african origins of colombian music and instumentation while going through choons for almost an hour. Him tagging along was merely a variation on a meme. I still have to download the video and flicks of the show from my camera but lemme go ahead and do a separate post to tell you about the opening act we walked in on, a cumbia-fusion meets visual trio from Bogota called retroVISOR
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/11532341[/vimeo]
On rhythm section you have Camilo Giraldo Angel & Luis Alfonso Cruz laying down some free range samplodelic tripiness but it was the work of the VJ and concept director for the bands videos, Carmen Gil Vrolijk aka Carmen Electrik that really got me interested in their performance. Criminally brilliant with a side of smokin hot she’s chopping some well fruity slices of video mango that illustrate the flavor of these songs amazingly
she has degree in plastics
In the above tune, Chicha! she collaborated with a EstefanÃa Barreto & Juan Camilo Quiñones to create an 8 bit video that deals with native inhabitants being pushed out of their lands by big industry, a problem Colombia still faces today particularly with the damage being done from unearthing gold which releases mercury, cyanide and arsenic into the soil and water table. I’m waiting for my copy of their retroVISOR VJ Sessions DVD while doing my homework on what else she’s up to and trying to convince her to come out and session with me when I play in Bogota again
Headin’ north this weekend… Toronto on Friday, Buffalo on Saturday.
The Toronto event forms part of the Music Gallery’s “Transforming The Network” series. We begin with a panel discussion on World Music 2.0 at 7pm. Details. A few hours after that the music kicks off.
Then on Saturday, I’ll be DJing a party in Buffalo with Brainfeeder artist Alex B @ Soundlab. I’ve never been to Buffalo! Come on through and say what’s up.
Pechiche = showing love + human exchange + comradery + laughter + sharing in a moment with friends + giving each other what you want with celebratory disregard + going hard at the party. It’s an energy my set has been reflecting lately and its very much a latin vibes ting. I’m happy to announce my first gigs in London this weekend longside Cal Jader/ DJ Arias/ and celebrating the release of Axel Krygier‘s album Pesebre with the man himself.
Ten years ago today, a man who redefined the grind passed away. You can read more about him and his influence in Jace’s article for Frieze magazine (mentioned here last week), as well as in a couple of other pieces that are mentioned in the comments section. I’m just gonna add the following love song for the occasion.
[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/1-03%20Reason%204%20Rhyme%20(Eightball%20&%20MJG.mp3] Eightball & MJG – Reason for Rhyme (screwed by DJ Screw)
I’m on a bus right now heading to Boston! Monday night Beat Research party with residents/kind hosts wayne&wax and DJ Flack, guests John Barera and me! Yep, this is my Boston debut! Do come out and say hi!
Enormous Room
567 Mass Ave
Central Square
Cambridge
9pm-1am
FREE!
In some DUTTY BIZNESS, XLR8R unleashed a track by Matthew Shadetek + Lamina Fofana. Matt works fast! He has three tracks on our recently released New York Tropical compilation. The man is a production wizard.
On tonight’s radio show: brand new material from Paddy Johnson/Art Fag City’s battle DJ inspired LP (one side features sound from Manhattan art projects, the other, Brooklyn), BananaClipz exclusives, a few vintage Khaled jams, and – as always – more more more.
[DJ Rupture in Knoxville Tennessee, presumably photographed by Cooper Neill]
Wanna hear what some of the jams from New York Tropical sound like in an active setting?
Here’s a radio rip of quick mix I did for the BBC which aired on Tom Ravenscroft’s show a few weeks back. 20 minutes of Rut-pure. The weird bit in the middle (when the beat vanishes and we’re left with Moroccan violin + a bruised synthesizer) is an outtake from my upcoming Nettle album, El Resplandor: The Shining In Dubai… more on THAT in a bit. But first, THIS:
Mudd Up! 
