NYC is in for serious bashment tomorrow as Buraka Som Systema, our homegirl Maluca Mala and yours truly lock off Le Poisson Rouge. last of the tix available here
Blog (2008-2018)
Maga Bo On The Go
So Mi GoOd FriEnD Maga Bo’s stay inna New York has come to an end but the dance no done till the Water Taxi babylon give us a run.
Friday, September 4th 2009
TOTH @ Water Taxi Beach Queens
DJ Mariano & Cato (Beleza) + Nappy G on percussion. Special guest from Brazil, DJ Maga Bo!! Mago Bo brought the Cumbia, Reggae, Big beat FIRE last year & we’re happy to have him back once again!! Another DJ on the cutting edge of Music from Brazil, Colombia, Latin America & more!! http://www.myspace.com/magabo
Address: #2 Borden Ave in LIC QUEENS. $10 / 8PM – 2AM. Free Water Taxi’s from East 35th Street to the party & back all night!
Constant Slewin
Next Up….
OUR POWERS COMBINED
We’ve been looking forward to this week for a while. There are a ton great artists in from all over the world and a ton of free events this week you can attend including shows from Calle 13, Curumin, Palenke Soultribe, Bomba Estereo and more. Find a complete guide events hosted by NY Remezcla here.
On Thursday night after the Bomba Estereo show we’re hosting an LAMC after party with a slew of invited guests and unannounced surprise performances. Chief Boima, DJ Orion from Peligrosa All Stars, Nguzunguzu, Uproot Andy and myself plus friends like Chocquibtown and Palenke Soultribe in the building… its the mothafuckin ghettotech symposium you’ve all been waiting for.
Get in early its gonna be a fun one. RSVP to the Facebook event page here
Cumbia Sobre el Rio
This Friday, July 3rd – Quite Possibly the most fun I’ll have playing a show this summer. Every year La Farra NYC hosts the Vallenato on the River boat party and this year they’ve hooked up with Que Bajo?! to make sure the Afro Colombian heat gets represented as well. Here’s a peak at last year’s event.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6ADUN4Xs38[/youtube]
LA’s Very Be Careful is coming in to tear and down the place with cumbia and vallenato vibes while Uproot Andy and myself hold it down with even more Afro-Caribbean basshead vibes. There are a limited amount of tickets left you can buy them here. There will only be 25 tix available at the dock.
Now here’s a treat we’ve been playing since spring
Forthcoming from Ku Bo.
Nuvo Tropical Bashment
All roads lead to Glasslands tonight. You can do your warm up stretches and practice your skank routines to this excerpt from my Mo’glo Radio show last night on 91.5 . The rest of the set list will be available later today on KEXP’s Mo’glo Blog. I’ll link that out of the comments section. More Time.
[display_podcast]
Alien Entertainment ft Black Canvas – Real Bad Man (Stereotyp Rmx)
USA 808 She A Boom!
Major Lazer Hold the Line Efecan (Nguzunguzu Rmx)
Major Lazer Hold the Line (Frikstailers Remix)
Buxxi ft Jack Style Roze
Stereotyp ft Jahdan Blakkamoore   Regiment Dub
Los Rakas Dun Dun Mami Mami
Major Lazer Cashflow ft Jahdan Blakamoore
Dr Israel The Doctor vs The Wizard
El Dandy Corazon Enamorado
Very Be Careful Mr Yozo
nerd is a verb
Saturday, June 20, 9PM – 2AM
Eyebeam: 540 W. 21st St. (btw 10th and 11th Aves.)
Tickets: $15 per night in advance; $20 per night at the door.
For more info and to purchase tickets visit: http://eyebeam.org
NYC’s #1 art party is back!
Eyebeam’s warehouse space comes alive with the audience becoming an integral
part of the performance
MIXER: VERSION takes its inspiration in part from the creative approaches of dub reggae music in which an original music recording is remixed by various producers, creating new versions that still reference the original. Within this creative exchange between producers there exists both a competitive spirit and a sense of shared culture.
At MIXER: VERSION, the competition and collaboration take place between the artists and audience through the artwork. Participants can jam on the “rock stage†with hacked iPods, sing ridiculous computer-generated lyrics in the Fever Karaoke room, or produce their own hot audiovisual mixes on the mobile Sansystem. All of that creative magic gets mixed together by our own crack DJs and VJs, so at any given time you might be providing the entertainment for everyone at the party!
Saturday night DJ sets: DJ N-Ron, with Geko Jones and Uproot Andy |(DUTTY ARTZ | https://duttyartz.com/)
Gettin Bizzy
Large ups going out to Chief Boima for hosting me this weekend in Cali. If you are ever in San Franciso on a weekend Little Baobab is definitely THE spot to hit up for an international crowd of people gettin down to tropical sounds… for you bassheads I even saw a flyer for thursday night weekly dubstep party there.
Lots going on this week in NYC and the variety is fantastic.
TONIGHT TUESDAY JUNE 2 the NY Afrobeat Festival at Knitting Factory kicks off with Blk Jks, Bajah and the Dry Yai crew from Sierra Leonne plus Uproot Andy and your truly on dex for a rare treat of African dopeness. doors at 9pm
- Price
- $14 / $12 advance Buy Tickets »
- Where
- Knitting Factory Tap Bar (74 Leonard St)
212.219.3132
THURSDAY you already know its all about Toy Selectah at Santos Playhouse for Que Bajo?!
BUT SATURDAY I’m playing this album Lee Scratch Perry/Dubblestandart release party with my man Emch from Subatomic Soundsystem.The remix features one Jahdan Blakkamore on the Blackboard Dubstep remix, out now. The party has food, lights, visuals and extra subs. serious party vibes. summertime dubstravaganza / brand new spot with an enclosed courtyard, custom designed sound system, and green architecture / food, video, art, spiked slushies, and giveaways all night long Even if you haven’t heard the tune come thru.
DJ Paul Zasky of Dubblestandart (Vienna, Echo Beach) / all vinyl European exclusive dubplates off new Lee Perry album
Subatomic Sound System (NYC, Modus Vivendi Music) / live all star electro dub band, world’s first dubstep Lee Perry rmxs
Majestic Twinsound (NYC, Ghetto Roots) / traditional Jamaican style sound system crew
DJ Geko Jones (NY Tropical, Dutty Artz, Que Bajo) / king of NYC tropical sounds
VIDEO, FOOD, & ARTS
In the open-air courtyard: Ital food and BBQ
In the gallery bar: Tshirt screen printing & live painting by Ad Hoc Arts / w/ Original limited edition designs by the musicians
In the main room: music and massive video projects by Light & Water Project
free music and goodies for you the people
LOCATION DETAILS
$8 before 10pm w/rsvp, otherwise $10
at
Littlefield
622 Degraw st between 3rd and 4th Aves
sweet brand new art & music space right next to the train:
[2 blocks from Union St. R subway & near Carrol St. G/F]
Think of a cross between a mini-PS1 & Galapagos. Beautiful indoor and enclosed outdoor space with some green eco-design elements like used tires for sound baffling. Feels as much like an art gallery as it does a music/performance venue.
MORE INFO & RSVP
http://www.subatomicsound.com
RSVP to subatomicsound@yahoo.com
press RSVP/music previews/ interviews email subatomicsound@yahoo.com
SHOOT 2 KILL
I’ve been waiting for this tune to come out for about 2 years. Back when we were doing the soundclash series I came across this video and wrote Ryder Shafique for a dubplate version of the tune.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDWCzfNIgFo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
The guys from Alien Entertainment wanted to wait till the release and now we have this stooooopid in the face Stereotyp remix to thank them for. The tune is available at Juno Download and other fine retailers.
Large up to Mr Melody, El Coca and Soumez plus special thanks to Shafique for hosting Jahdan when he touched down in the UK. I hear there are some collabos in the pipe I haven’t heard yet and we’re looking forward to what those will sound like.
BOOOOM!
Califas get Ready
The Governator should issue a warning: Giant reptile on the loose.
The Coup part Deux
The homies Sub Swara have just released a new EP of remixes from their Coup d’Yah album. The new EP features remixes from Dub War’s Dave Q, Secret Agent Gel, Ill.Gates and more. Dhruva, Sharmaji, Juakali and crew and the crew have been holding it down for NYC bassheads for about 3 years now and have featured friends like Ghislain Poirier, Stereotyp and The Bug. Check them out June 19th at the Highline Ballroom.
We On Da RadioRadioRadio
Taco truck and kitchen radios all over manhattan were thrilled to hear that we’ve invaded the airwaves.
91.5 FM Radio One New York, in conjunction with Seattle Washington’s KEXP have extended a monthly residency to us and we’re happy to oblige. The show is called Mo’Glo (Modern Global) and features several great DJ’s in residency like Emch from Subatomic Soundsystem, Joro Boro, Cheb i Sabbah and a bunch of other crazy dudes.
The air raid doesn’t stop there. La Mega 97.9 FM, hands down NY’s largest latin broadcast station has been banging out Uproot Andy’s street version of ODB remix Brooklyn Cumbia. Shouts out Polito Jr for the spins and shouting us out. He plays late-night on friday and saturday nights from 2-5am for La Mega Afterparty (saturday and sunday morn if you wanna get technical). Rupture had put up a radio rip of his show a while back but the links are dead now. Maybe he’ll be nice do it again soon?
To celebrate the upward mobility, here’s a one hour cumbia/mambo session recorded for Mo’glo by Uproot Andy himself.
[display_podcast]
El Pescador (Uproot Andy RMX) – Toto La Momposina
Cumbia Blanca – Alberto Pedraza
Mus Come A Road – Mr. Vegas
El Tigeraso – Maluca
La Colorada – Pibes Chorros
Ratrishop – Arcade
Los Grafiteros – Los de Akino
El Rey Del Santo Domingo – Magic Juan
El Pajaro Cenzonte (DJ Walter RMX) – Grupo Kual
Walk It Out Mambo – DJ Mingo
Laura – Damas Gratis
Ya Llego – Repiola
Cumbia Sampuesana – Grupo Kual
Pesebre – Sonido del Principe
Full de To – Amarfis
Tengazako – The Very Best
La Resaca – SupermerK2
Pachamama – Chancha Via Circuito ft. Poeta Inka
Cool Baby – Busy Signal
Botellon Riddim – Uproot Andy
GRRRRINNNNDIN
“supernatural, off-beat flows.â€
-Okayplayer.com
Big Wobbly monsters aside, the connecting thread between alot of the music that I like is that the artists are down to earth people who grind hard to get where they are in the game. In the past two years, I can not point to anyone in New York City who has been in GRUSTLIN harder than the beast from Queens, renegade poet gone MC Homeboy Sandman.
I spent my first couple years back in New York hanging out in the spoken word and slam circuit and had already established a residency at LouderMondays @ Bar 13 when this taaall mo’fo in a Mets jacket started comin on the scene. Crazy latino word-playologist just starts popping up at all my haunts. Acentos Bronx Poetry, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Bowery Poetry cafe. All of a sudden, here was this freakishly tall dude invading every open mic in the city, like a hungry pink elephant in the room waiting to devour your attention. Just as quick as he came tho, Homeboy Sandman vamped from the poetry scene in NYC and went MIA.
I don’t know the exact how or why of the metamorphosis that took place but when he came out of whatever bunker he was in Boy Sand came back to lay the smack down at open mics around the city with what he called the Verbal Soul Clap.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqrm5uGSlZI&feature=related[/youtube]
I’ve spent a few studio sessions in the past year exploring future bass vibes and giving him a lil background and what lies beyond the boo- bap. In just a year and a half, I’ve watched this guy who had never written a song in his life find his voice, drop out of an Ivy League school to follow a dream, take NYC by storm and drop 3 full length albums to critical acclaim. He’s been featured in the Source Mag’s Unsigned Hype, XXL, Fader Magazine, Blender and named Best Hip Hop artist 2008 by New York Press.
Get To know Homeboy Sand.
You might have seen him rocking at any of the 100+ shows he was performed at last year, plus like 5 open mics a week lurching like the ultimate billboard for the Homeboy Sandman name brand. Homie don’t play when it comes to gettin the name out. Custom-made hoodies and t-shirts for days (Boy Betta Know finally has some serious comp!) His guerrilla marketing campaign on the F and the 7 train lines ran for a year straight and the answer was yes RUN-DMC would indeed approve, even if the MTA hates him.
Show me a emerging artist that gets to share a stage with veterens like Rakim and Black Thought or underground icons like Talib Kweli their first or second year out the gate. I remember debating with both Shadetek and Rupture about the off-kilter flows Sandman employees which both said were off time but what my ears where listening to was something different. I heard an MC who was creating his own space in time juxtaposing narratives with didactic rhyme structures. After spending significant time with him via phone and at the studio I have gotten to know him as an MC that stands head and shoulders above his contemporaries in not just crowd rockin but in principle.
Sand takes the title for THE LEAST SALTY DUDE I’ve ever sessioned with.
Geko: I just don’t get it fam. They’re blogging about stuff like Andy Milonakis !!???
Sand: Who’s that
Geko: This whack ass dude looks like Pat from Saturday Night Live that spits wanksta lyrics online and all of a sudden he’s syndicated, chillin at red carpet shows and taking pictures with Paris wannabees. Why would anyone give that scrub shine?
Sand: Nah Gex, I hope the brother’s having a good time out there.
Zero Sodium.
Its been really impressive to hear how he always finds nice things to say about artists that anyone else would just clown. He’s genuine about it. He looks for the good in people and holds himself to high standard. A rare trait for someone in the bizness of bragadocio but it works well for him. Sandman doesn’t have time to talk shit, he’s got places to be and rhymes to write
His flow has always been super unleaded but at one of our sessions I showed him some youtube vids of Kano spittin, Wiley vs Ghetto and other UK MC’s… shortly thereafter I got this one back.
Jump up grime bidness… a ting called Gggrrraa!! pon the Funeral Service Riddim and off the album Actual Factual Pterodactyl
[audio:https://duttyartz.com/mp3/Gggrrraa!!.mp3] Gggrrraa!!.mp3
[audio:https://duttyartz.com/mp3/Gggrrraa!!_ACAPELLA.mp3] Gggrrraa!!_ACAPELLA.mp3
The album comes in hard with Food Glorious Food and also features some great story telling on Mambo Tail Tale and the just unexpected weird shit like Opium for the experimental heads. I’ve included the acapella for your remixing pleasure. (Those nice green mixes you guys sent in via soundcloud were crazy by the way!! Sweaty Ken, SS and Jibberish getting the Large Up on that round)
The Funeral Service Riddim that Gggrraa!! was recorded on was a sound clash burial dub built by my partner 3rd Rayl for my Funkworthy FM project and was used to voice several artists for sound clash dubs just in case one ah yuh jump on waan test. Boy sand got wind of it at a show and got really excited by it. The dub ended up getting included on the LP and now its yours. Some of the nuttiest bars from any emerging MC stateside or anywhere else.
He’s recently sessioned with the Beatnutz, J Period and Stereotyp. There’s a lot more in store. Make sure you cop Sand’s free mixtape THERE IS NO SPOON and swing by his website Homeboysandman.com or visit him at myspace.com/Homeboysandman and say wadup.
After these messages……PURA CREMA DESDE MONTERREY
Tomorrow Night THURSDAY April 30th @ APT
We got a call from Disco Shawn from Bersa Discos/Tormenta Tropical and he’ll be throwing down with us at APT tomorrow longside Uproot Andy, myself and N-Ron Hubbard.
APT is located at 419 W 13th St between 9th and Washington. NO COVER
_________________________________________________________________________
Now about 3 weeks back I got an email from Toy Selectah and he asked me to throw up his MEXMORE LP but I got distracted in getting ready for my vacation.
If you didn’t catch it on some of the other blogs by now then its my fault you haven’t heard this yet, and I take responsibility for not having given you the opportunity to look cooler just by telling your friends about it. Now when you tell them, you can also collect bonus points for telling them how they too can get their pura crema on right here inna NYC June 4th!!
Barrio Certified/ Parcelero Approved
Tierra Santa
Glad to finally get to sit down and write this post. Since I got back from my trip, it feels like we’ve been busier than ever. Sometimes a couple gigs a night, sometimes going off till 7am. Dutty Artz crew is in full force right now. And that force is global.
Altitude 2,640 M
04º 38′ N, 74º 05′ W
Major Exports: Flowers, Petroleum, dope music.
This is it. The cradle of afro-latin music. I check in to the hotel around 12:30am on a friday night/saturday morning but I learn that the bar scene in Bogota has been much regulated in the past couple years and the clubs now close around 2am. We decide to stay in for the night. Its raining and after the night I had on thursday at Que Bajo?! I could use the sleep. Lots planned for the rest of the week.
On Saturday morning, we drive just a couple blocks and the first thing I notice is the graffiti. Bogota is covered in colors. You find the intricately woven name tags but also styles that infuse indigenous art and that’s what really stands out.
We visit la Plaza Bolivar, get our bandeja paisa on and drive around the city a bit before getting dropped off at La Familia Ayara, my musical liaisons for the trip.
I meet Diana, an up and coming PR agent under an overpass and walk over to the LFA headquarters. She introduces me to Choco and Lil Chris. These kids are organized! Their office is my dream work space. They started off as Colombia’s first hip-hop clothing line but they’ve flourished over the past 11 years into a much larger non-profit enterprise working closely with UNICEF to use hip-hop as a platform for teaching workshops to di disadvantaged youts dem in afro-colombian villages throughout the country. I am standing in epicenter of Colombia’s urban music scene.
We enter the storefront where you can buy top quality mixtapes, original albums by local hip-hop, reggae and fusion acts plus hoodies, shirts, jeans, magazines, and of course, spray paint. It’s after hours and the store is closed but they show us around the space. Past the register there is a partitioned off computer bank with four work stations. This is where the forums for workshops are created.
Upstairs, another computer bank is where the administrative literature and emailing for funding goes down and the general business is managed.
There is another office for the Program Director who I meet only briefly as he is meeting about a trip to the Pacific coast this week to do some workshops and volunteer work . I’m impressed but this is still only half of the center. Next door to the store/HQ, the rec center where they host workshops for kids and are training an army of hip-hop soldiers to fight the revolution.
Familia Ayara luuuh da keedz! Monday through Friday they operate an after school program teaching kids break dancing, graffiti and forums on community issues ranging from teen pregnancy, drug abuse, and issues concerning race. I notice a collection of tasteful murals on huge murals stacked along the wall. Kazar explains were part of a city-wide gallery display highlighting their work in business throughout Bogota. These murals will be at a gallery in Toronto in May/June and could not be photographed.
Up one spiral staircase you find, Ayara Studios, where Choq Quib Town, Midras Queen and several other local acts have come to lay down the future of Colombia’s musical exports. Having recorded the whole of Buzzrock Warrior in a far less elaborate workspace I am happy to see the family is opening doors for like-minded artists that are trying to release music of substance. As a record label, LFA’s releases parallels their work in the community. They release conscientious urban music that fuses Colombia’s rich musical heritage and addresses issues relating to race and the community.
Bogota has an overwhelmingly white demographic. One doesn’t feel the racial tension at first because there just arent that many people of color in sight. The Afro-communities of Colombia are mostly relegated to the coast which has a lot to do with why the music is so good out there. I asked almost every cabbie, music store clerk and local that I had an exchange with where I could find cumbia or afro-colombian music in bogota and the overall consensus was that Bogota just isn’t feeling either. There is no radio station dedicated to cumbia. Kids listen to pop. They listen to Rock and Reggaeton. They listen to salsa and vallenato… but all that old time music, cumbia, bullerengue…. its all dead in Bogota. Ayara’s die-hard quest to keep those traditions alive by infusing them with modern technologies and working out there in rural Colombia to both volunteer and document and shine a light on the racial divide in Colombia.
After touring the facility we go to dinner with Choco, Diana and Chris who are all rapid-fire in answering my questions about the underground in Colombia. I hear about Voodoo Souljahs, Profetas and Midras Queen who works at the clothing store and is about to release her album, which was currently being mastered. (I got an early copy and standout choon is a latin dancehall number called Irreverente). I hear about several hip-hop and dub influenced acts but I’m trying to get in deeper. They offer up Mojarra Electrica y Bomba Estereo. Great stuff but rated PG in my book. I’m looking for a big wobbly monster that lives in a cave.
Throughout dinner I keep hearing the name Reeechard, the sound engineer that masters most of the labels music, helps them record and produces some great music. Their regard for him sits somewhere between generous man and patron saint. Richard Blair, better known as Sidestepper has lived in Colombia over a decade and I am witnessing the impact he has had on a generation of young Colombian musicians.
It wasn’t enough to make new Colombian music which resonated with these kids. It’s the fact that he works directly with them on their projects and contributes his time, skills and craft. The interview I had hoped to sit down with him for was conducted via email because I done up my phone creds and called a little late and missed my window. He was up early and had studio time reserved for 1pm. Man a Badman in my book. ( catch that interview here next week. )
Of all the local musicians I learn about the most chatted up and promising act on roads from Bogota is ChoqQuibTown. Choco tells me that historically, the Atlantic coast has always received a lot more attention for its musical contributions and what is innovative about CQT’s sound is that they are infusing the often overlooked Pacific Coast sounds like currulao and bunde and instruments, like the marimba with hip hop and dancehall synthetics . Some of you may have caught them rocking SXSW a few weeks ago and left there with a crush on MC/songstress Goyo. Their brand new album “Oro” drops this month. Their tune San Antonio is sittin pretty at 140 and ripe for the wobbly remix.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkTFHAED-rE&feature=related[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reB4YLs-49U[/youtube]
My hope, as I’m sure yours would be too was to find something beneath all the layers of boom-bap I knew I’d have to sift through. I’m asking Lil Chris and Choco where the Bogota bassheads at? I learn that Bogota isn’t really the hot spot for new music in Colombia. It has had a thriving Dub/Jungle scene for years but if you want the club banging hotness you need to go to the coast….. and beyond.
Lil Chris played me some crazy shit from Dj Buxxi off the ipod. There are two islands off the coast of Colombia, San Andres y Providencia and out there you can find a scene fusing dancehall, zouk and hip hop. Nearly all the MC’s I heard from out there toggle between spanish ragga, caribbean patois and creole. This tune was one of the many gems I picked up from my trip.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wADtq6zrNbo[/youtube]
DJ Buxxi seems to be at the forefront of this sound producing for nearly all the big MC’s on the island which sits between Jamaica, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia. If our up on Los Rakas you’d be into most of the stuff he’s collaborated on. He comes down and records in Bogota about once a month to record with La Familia Ayara and is making a name for himself and his San Andres cohorts SA Finest, Hety y Zambo (zambo = sambo).
“its like the San Andres Ricky Blaze” – Uproot Andy
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpmZoq4aK00[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkZmc85aSwQ[/youtube]
The rain came down aguacero style over the course of our dinner conversation. We called it a night jumped in a mini-cooper sized cab and head back to the telly. I spent the next couple days checking out landmarks and spending time with Pop Dukes and Mrs Jones.
The museum of gold makes you want to believe in El Dorado.
The Salt Cathedral which is still an active salt mine was an impressive human feat. They’ve gutted x amount of metric tons of salt out of a mountain for centuries and have left 14 cathedrals in the excavated caverns adorned with insane sculptures and collosal crosses.
We railed up to cloud level and took a couple shots of something akin to mamajuana from the Dominican Republic to ease the effects of gravity. The view from here is amazing. Bogota refuses to be condensed into the lens of a panoramic camara.
I get off my cloud and realized I haven’t acquired anywhere near enough music so Tuesday becomes my day for diggin. The pirate industry here is thorough. I enter San Victorino’s bootleg emporium. Roughly 40 booths all slangin MP3 CD’s and DVD’s. Next door a similar market full of just cellphone venders.
There is a strange but orderly fashion to how the shopping districts are arranged. Four blocks straight of nothing but optical stores along Carrera 13 at Calle 7. Further down el expresso to meet DJ Blanko, I notice a few blocks of lechonera’s, Bogota’s roast pork district. There’s no time for food tho. I just missed a book release party about female MC’s in colombia because I’m hungry for more music.
I met DJ Blanko at his brand new shop which had just opened 23 days earlier. He tells me he’s one of the few tornamesistas (turntablists) in Bogota. Not alot of kids can afford turntables but alot of them want to learn so he hosts workshops there for kids and teaches junior deejays the ways of the samurai wiki-wki. He lets me look through the shop and I pick up a couple titles. He tells me he doesn’t want my money. I trade him a couple mixtapes. Blanko and his turntablist friends have been to almost every major city flea market and knook and crannie and are great diggers. For you hardcore vinyl heads write him in advance and he keeps a list of stuff he digs for out of towners.
I scour malls, and shopping districts for deep afro-colombian jams. I find Etelvina Martinez, Maria la Carmen, Peregoyo and Gualajo. AMAZINGGG stuff. If your into the Afro-colombian sound of the pacific coast be sure to go down for the Petronio Alvarez Festival.
At the hotel, I listen to the new digs and seriously contemplate extending my trip to go to the coast.
Email from Jean:
u have a gig on the last day u r in bogota in case u wanna play on the 15th
call them if u want
My week could not get any better. With the exception of La Cumbiamba Eneye, an ensemble that plays traditional folkloric music from Colombia that I often DJ with, I run the only afro-colombian remix party in New York city longside my partners Uproot Andy and Jean Bernabe. Now I get my chance to play our stuff in Bogota. I suss out Club Penthouse and its a new and happening spot in town. Wednesday night everyone said the place to be was Quiebra Canto but that was also the night of my gig. La vida es asi.
I got there early and found that I’d be using CDJ’s for the evening via serato. Not my fave but it ain’t gon’ make a difference once I’m on. I notice the kids at the club are wearing the same bright yellow jeans and teal t-shirts one would see in Williamsburg and I decide I can pretty much play and wear whatever I want.
When I come back to the club, the resident DJ is playing warmers. Orishas, Amparanoia, some latin dancehall cuts. He picks up the decibles for MIA’s Bamboo Banga and Crookers version of Day n’ Night. I’m feeling in my element and plotting my set when some next guy jumps on dex and yanks the steering wheel hard right and slams us into 90’s drum and bass for 20 minutes. I go downstairs to the salsa floor to get my head right. (I can still name the first three tunes dude played so any hardcore junglists tryna say Geko Jones is h8tin on D&B hold your heads, or come clash Dutty Artz and see how you make out)…
The promoter tells me there is a band that is going on before me which is perfect cuz I have to get my box in. I think if they played 8 songs four of them where Madonna covers. I’m not too into the kitsch thing but the crowd is eating this up. The sound guy tells me this is their last song. I come in with a dub plate… from the stage the promoter is waving like an air traffic controller. FALSE ALARM. I wheel and the band does one more …..
Bogota loves the cheeze factor but I gotta give it to the band they kept the crowd moving.
Finally….. its game time.
Hard and heavy tropical bass and digital cumbia hits Bogota.
Brrrrrrapppppss