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So after playing New York Tropical and Rubulad back to back, I’m looking forward to another fun weekend, this time with a lot less work.  On Friday night, the ZZK crew from Argentina touches down in Williamsburg for a show at Union Pool. If Billyburg isn’t your hood you can also catch them saturday on the soundsytem at Santos Playhouse in manhattan which should be heavy on the bass end with those subs they have downstairs. If I’m understanding correctly the ZZK at Santos thing is an early show, from 7-11pm so after el guiso en Santos,  we’re heading over to catch the AFRIKA party at Le Poisson Rouge.

FRIDAY

ZZK @ Union Pool  (8:00pm – 11:55pm) 484 Union Ave  (L train to Lorimer)

ZZK Records is a homegrown, artists’ collective launched recently out of Buenos Aires, Argentina. ZZK Records evolved from Zizek Club, the weekly party in Palermo, capital of South American hip, where visiting artists and resident deejays attract consistent crowds of global, street music fans. At Zizek, cumbia gets thrown in a sonic blender with minimal electronica, dancehall, reggaeton and dub mashups, and original beats.
“Zizek’s a cornerstone of the fast-rising cumbia scene, packing in crowds with music that can perhaps be best described as the ultimate mash-up of underground Latin club sounds: reggaetón and dancehall bleeding into ghettotech and hip-hop, with traditional and electronic dance beats swirling around the whole hot, boiling stew.” -SF Weekly

SATURDAY 

ZZK @ Santos Party House (96 Lafayette St 7:00pm – 11:00pm)

Fauna, Douster, and El G take Manhattan!

On Saturday April 4, Zizek Club jets into the Big Apple to headline at Santos Party House. They’ll be bringing their sonic blender of cumbia mixed with a dash of electronica, dancehall, reggaeton, and a ton of original beats. Guaranteed to have a down right fun time dancing your back parts off.

THE AFTER PARTY

DJ Ayo’s Global Low Frequency @ Le Poisson Rouge

158 Bleecker Street 10pm-4am

Celebrating the Urban-Hipster Musical Cultures of Africa abroad. We funk with Afrobeat, Raggasonic hiphop, Coupe Decale, Soukous, Cumbia, Zouk, Salsa & Samba breaks’n house, electro-kwassa & Kwaito.

DJs + live instruments & special guests vocals.
Incl. legendary guest drummer and flutist.

Featuring:

DJ/Live beats programming by EMCH (Subatomic Sound System)

DJ Ayo (ex-Multi Kulti store selector)

Jojo Kuo (ex-drummer Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango)

Sylvain Leroux (African Flutes)

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Last night, at the Noble Society show I ran into a bredren I recorded for some grime dubs with and hosted at a couple shows a few years back. Melodic is one of those deejay/MC’s you have to respect for their hustle. Shortly after I met him I noticed how hard his myspace and performance game were and he’s consistantly come up on the radar at shows around the city. His reggae dips are in the vein of the hip hop-reggae hybrid that Noble Society is laying down.

Shortly after our dubs were recorded I came across a tune he did with Digital Primate, an australian producer I rate for his digi-ragga innovations and low ends. I found a blog post about Digital Primate here that does a better job on a bio and the tune he did with Melodic and Mark Shine here… On the Radio.

This is the video for Melodic’s new single ride one which I would like to submit under Lamin’s recession rap draft picks.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vCEDWXXSrc[/youtube]

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We’ve got a lot to give thanks for this week. The addition of Archer ‘Babytek’ Schell to the DA Fam. The forth coming family reunion this friday in Bed Stuy. and this….

Jahdan’s band Noble Society, winners of the I-tunes Reggae Album of the year are taking time off the grind to celebrate the release of their second full length, Take Charge.

OKAYPLAYER.COM had this to say…

“Noble Society is not your weed head uncle’s reggae band. Fronted by former Boot Camp Click affiliate, Jahdan, this Brooklyn outfit eschews the open, organic grooves of traditional roots music. Their ambitious debut, Take Charge is winter time reggae, world music for the new world order; a juxtaposition of the social and spiritual ruminations of vintage island music, the cold, claustrophobia of modern electronica, and the aggressive percussion of hip hop. When everything clicks, the urgency of the production adds heft to the fiery content that is characteristic of the genre, but often muted by the mellow bounce of the soundscapes. “

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This Friday, the Dutty Artz crew is servin Brooklyn all u can eat bass to ya face from an underground bunker just below the earth’s surface.

Our tropicaliente beats and bassline party, New York Tropical, is back with resident dj’s Geko Jones, Matt Shadetek and DJ/ Rupture. This time around, live and inside the place we’ll be joined by Brooklyn’s hometown heroines Bunny Rabbit.  This is your last chance to chance to check Bunny out before they head to Eastern Europe to spread their Cult of Miracles gospel in March.

NEW YORK TROPICAL 3: OUT N’ BAD
FEB 20th @ Kodeez
834 Myrtle Ave @ Marcy (G Train to Myrtle-Willoughby)

$3 PBR, $4 Mixed Drinks, $4 Wine
$2 Hotdogs, $3 Hamburgers, $4 Cheeseburgers
!0pm – $10
Reduced $8 dollar before 11pm

This location is RIGHT IN FRONT of the G Train (literally!)
Don’t hate on the G, it’s 25 minutes or less from Union Sq!

Bunny gets the party hoppin…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQXKs6BJQ_M[/youtube]

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Brooklyn’s future-latin sound weekly combining Afro-Colombian and
classic latin heat with Tropical Beats and BASSS….is on the move.

We’re still going strong over at Rose Live in Williamsburg every
tuesday but next week, the rising tidal waves are washing us up on the
Manhattan shore. We’re bringing the tropical sound into the city for
all the uptown massive that has a hard time making it out to Billyburg
on a school night. This is another FREE EVENT. Shouts to DJ Small
Change for having us out.

THURSDAY JAN 22 UPSTAIRS @ APT (no cover) 10pm

419 W 13th St Manhattan

A/C/E/L/1/2/3 to 14th St

Dancefloor Wreckage en Espanol.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Now here are some of our turtle friends doing the milli-vanilli to a Joe Arroyo tune you shoulda caught on Negrophonic.com a while back and remixed the shit out of by now.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUBVGeiUTDM[/youtube]

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Somewhere in between album sessions, dubplates, a UK tour and winning the 2008 Itunes Reggae Album of the year…. Jahdan also found time to get together a video for the choon “Pon Time”. The video features both versions of the tune the first of which was included on the We Are Raiders EP and is available at all fine UK shops and the Dutty Artz Store and  Stereotyp‘s white hot album version forthcoming on Crunchtime records.  I’m rinsing out the later tonight at BPC for a New Years Party if your inna Nu Yark City.

[youtube]http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkz6QBvI-OQ[/youtube]

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHO_mYFURZE&feature=related[/youtube]

Mi amigo Jean Bernabe went down to el Districto Federal en Mexico and did some recon on underground sounds coming outta there. Among the gems he brought back was a CD he found at a flea market/garage sale with 168 unmixed cuts of poorly labeled mp3’s simply titled Lo Mejor del Tribal. The cover has three indigenous face masks from different eras and a crowd at a rave. I have it from on high (via text from Toy Selectah) that this stuff is what los carnales are calling Tribal Gurachero.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct3kFYKzPwQ[/youtube]

As you can hear its tribal house with a cumbia/guarachero twist for the ravers out there in D.F. and surrounding areas.  Its miles away from the latin house we get bombarded with here in New York. Strictly bounce this scene seems to be coming out of San Antiguo and D.F.

” Tribal  Guarachero is the Mexican ghettotech…Very undeveloped yet, but that with a lil bmore and fidget….”

– Toy Selectah

And if you’ve heard Toy play out you know the brother knows what he’s talking about.

The bad news… The vast majority of the tracks on the CD clock in at 80 kpbs so its of no use outside your i-pod unless you want to listen to it as reference for production ideas.

The good news is  I don’t really take no for an answer so I’ve been digging and I found these RAR‘s this morning. Most of it is a lil too euro for my taste but there’s a couple heaters in there if you go through them. If you have any of this stuff throw it up in comments

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QUE BAJO?!

A free latin weekly focusing on afro-colombian and tropical rhythms like cumbia, bullerengue, palo, gaga, champeta, mambo y mas out there latin rhythms than you can play with a ta-te-quieto stick, especially scraped from the bottom of el caldero by resident DJ’s Geko Jones and Uproot Andy

Tuesday Nov 11th El Embajador del Bajo… DJ/Rupture will be by to play and exclusive all latin set inside Rose live.

No Cover. Kitchen open late.

345 Grand St (btw Havemayer/Marcy)
Williamsburg Bruglin
L Train to Lorimer
G to Metropolitan

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Next Friday Sept 26th @ 205 Christy in Madhattan NYC

The good folks over at Myspace Latino and NY Remezcla present

DJ WAVE

TROPICAL BEATS by the D’Marquesina DJ’s, our man of the hour Uproot Andy plus yours truly and a short set from Plastic Caramello at midnite. I’ve been trying to get a night together with Andy for almost a year now so we’re really excited about this and you should be too. He’ll be downstairs 12-4 and I’ll be holding down the street level roughly the same time slot. Cumbia, Dancehall, kuduro, Guacharaca Bass and whatever other jump up mayhem we can get around to.

Tonight you can catch me playing before and after La Cumbiamba Eneye – Afro Colombian vibes y Nueva Cumbia at Rose Live in Billyburg. 345 Grand St between Havemayer and Marcy.  (L or G train to Lorimer)

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So what do you get when you cross 5 genre-bending border-crossing bassbin-blowing globalista sound selectors with a squadren of african dance divas?

FIESTA SOOT.

SATURDAY SEPT 13TH
Bowery Poetry Club NYC
308 Bowery between Houston and Bleeker

Soot Records is celebrating the release of Archipelagoes, the new album from Maga Bo. A special live/DJ set incorporating material from the album and his collection. Come find out why his live sets are so in-demand (Turntable of the Hudson, London’s Fabric, and Berlin’s Transmediale all came knocking on his door this month). Fresh from their successful Europe tour, DJ Rupture & Jahdan Blakkamoore will present their dubbed-out soundsystem set for the first time in the US. Be sure to check Rupture’s new video for his upcoming mix album, Uproot

http://sootrecords.com/img/fiesta_soot_sept_13.jpg

Pirate-turned percussionista Filastine is gonna unveil material from his forthcoming album on Soot, and DJs Geko Jones & Eliel Lucero will round things out with the latest in guaracha y bass, cumbia, and dubstep.

NO TE LO PIERDAS!!!!
We’ve invited the whole cast from the off-broadway musical Fela I asked you to go watch last month to come out and dance with us. Save the date

FIESTA SOOT – Fri Sept. 13th @ Bowery Poetry Club. 308 Bowery, NYC
$5 b4 11pm, $8 after. 10pm-late.

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Domingo Garcia Henriquez

-Tatico-

Despues que Dios hizo el mundo noto’ que se le olvidaba algo, entoces hizo las manos de Tatico

1943-1976

After God made the world, he noticed he forgot something- then he made Tatico’s hands

I’ve been out hunting in Washington Heights a couple times this year searching for tunes and source material in what’s left of the mixtape shops up there – damned internet.

On my first trip, I trekked uptown with Rupture on a Perico Ripiao re-con mission. The dealers will usually let you decide whether you want the original or the cd-r so you can really rack up at some of these spots. That trip was my first time hearing el fuego improvisado that is Tatico Henriquez.

I feel totally robbed that I didn’t hear this guy growing up on the island next door. At first listen, he is an artist that draws from the listener a sense of appreciation for his contribution not only to music but to his culture. I’ll see your cotton candy pop star and raise you one jibaro de campo and a bag of plantain chips.

Here’s the story of the chunky hick that comes down from the back woods with his accordion, lucky to get paid free food and rum, who completely changed the music game in DR and raised the stakes for merengue players from making 100 dollars to play a bar to making 3-5 thousand dollars a night. He also accredited as one of the earliest latin musicians to have crossed over and played in America.

After years of tagging along behind the best accordion players on the island, guys like Matoncito and Nicolora who’s names are only carried on the lips of camperos. He learned their old songs and in later years there was some controversy over the authorship credits of some of his interpretations. Copyright issues aside, should we not merit him for capturing and rescuing this music before it was lost? What he eventually developed was a sound of his own adding the first electric bass and congas to the genre. He would play shows from seven to eight hours long shredding on his two-row diatonic accordion tuned to the key of A instead of C like all other accordions. He did this to match the key he sang in making the interplay of his voice and his instrument sync.

Then there’s the fact he’s often just improvising the lyrics. How many people do you know that can freestyle and play instrument and sound ill at both? To me that’s genius level shit on par with folks like D’Angelo, Meshell Ndegeocello. Add to that a sweet voice, the g-suave charisma plus success element and what you get is jokes from his widow about women leaving their husbands on the dancefloor and go home with this guy.

The sound he unleashed via shows and his two hour weekly show on Radio Naguas spread all over the Dominican Republic. 30 years past his death he remains to this day one of the most requested artists on merengue tipico stations out there. He died in a car crash in 1976 and what they showed of the wreckage was a gnarled Caddy that resembled a plane crash. Tatico was Buddy Holly. Tatico was Kurt Cobain. Another one gone way too soon. He should be celebrated like Tito or Celia as one of the great contributors to latin music.

Large up to the folks over at the Merenyola website for Merengue Tipico events in NYC and for putting up this one hour documentary on youtube.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGKpBzN2bR8&feature=related[/youtube]

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