So this Thursday, January 27th, Chief Boima and yours truly, along some good friends from Garbon, Ivory Coast, and Madgascar will kick off a new party in the southeastern part of Manhattan Island (a neighborhood commonly referred to as the Lower East Side of Manhattan borough) at Gallery Bar (art gallery by day, and lounge/party space when its dark.) We’ll be joined by very special guest, founder of Akwaaba Music and DJ, BBrave. Facebook RSVP.
Going Africa and Beyond. Though I won’t be popping champagne like my Ghanaian brothers Ruff-N-Smooth (they have all the money and the honeys!) I will be playing their music.
Sunday morning 9am to Noon, from January 2nd up to and including January 23rd, I’ll be playing music on WFMU-FM 91.1 Jersey City and 90.1 Hudson Valley, NY. I’m filling in for Jeff Sarge, who is recovering from a fall and not able to travel in for his Reggae Schoolroom show. Below is a download-able excerpt from a recent show, with me filling in for Jeff. Stream the entire broadcast here.
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Velour – Booty Slammer
Matt Shadetek – Singularity
Memory Tapes – Treeship
Philip Jeck – Ark
Moritz Von Oswald Trio – Restructure 2
Various Production – Runaway
Krystal Klear – Tried For Your Love
Vondelpark – Backflip (In The Sauna)
The Caretaker – The Persistent Repetition Of Phrases
Jay Electronica – Jazzmatazz
Dadawah – Run Come Rally
[youtube width=”525″ height=”393″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27fQcatpWUg[/youtube]
Recent news report on Al Jazeera
It has been quite disheartening watching the post-election crisis in Cote d’Ivoire turn from yet another power struggle among African politicians to very dangerous and explosive situation. I’m watching this from a room in Brooklyn, a couch in Northern Virginia; seeing yet another African country on the brink of civil war after its leader refuses to step down gracefully following an election. Mind you, Ivory Coast is still healing and rebuilding from a recent civil war.
In late November, President Laurent Gbagbo, who has ruled the Ivory Coast for the past ten years, lost to opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara in the presidential elections, elections which Gbagbo has already postponed five times in the last six years, meaning polls taking place in 2010 should have happened in 2005! Gbagbo, backed by the national army and security forces/hired youths – “young patriots”/militias refuses to concede and hand over power to Alassane Ouattara, who is recognized as the clear winner by regional body ECOWAS, the African Union, the United Nations and most countries. Ouattara also has the support of former rebel forces (fighters from the civil war still armed and active!)
At the moment, tensions are high. The situation gets awful, more dire with each news report. With more than 170 people reported killed in the post election violence, thousands are fleeing into neighboring countries – with most people seeking refuge in Liberia and Guinea. ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) initially talked about armed intervention using its military wing ECOMOG (which was instrumental in bringing peace to Liberia and Sierra Leone albeit criticisms of abuse and property theft during the civil wars in those countries) but later open the door for more discussions with Gbagbo. In the Ivorien capital, Abidjan, Gbagbo’s security forces/militias are conducting raids, and killing dozens of Ouattara’s supporters, and also threatening to invade the UN-protected hotel in which Ouattara and his ministers are staying/trying to conduct a state business.
International pressure on Gbagbo is failing and the mediation/action from ECOWAS is providing immediate results. We hope for a peaceful settlement, but some sort of resolution must be reached soon so the situation doesn’t escalate. Something radical has to happen to turn this situation around.
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[youtube width=”525″ height=”393″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMjuzMcDeYI&feature=player_embedded#![/youtube]
Streets of Abijan – CIAfrica’s Greendog “Afristepdub“
I’ve never been to Ivory Coast (not completely true, because my mother went to Abidjan several times when she was pregnant with me) and I don’t speak or understand french (well, I resisted learning another Euporean language through my high school and college years.) I mentioned these things because I want to say I don’t completely understand CIAfrica’s lyrics and the topics raised in their songs. If you don’t know, CIAfrica is a militant, pan-Africanist rap/reggae/bass music collective based in Abidjan. The collective came of age during the turbulent years of the Gbagbo administration, marked by civil and military unrest. According to the song descriptions/summaries of the tracks on their album on Dutty Artz, CIAfrica makes defiant music, speaks out against fraudulent, hoggish leaders who are determined to stay in power no matter how much blood is spilled, against corruption and brutalization. They are making music in this currently political chaos, and are hustling and trying to visit Europe and North America in 2011. Listen to the track “Negro Politicien” –
To cure post-holiday blues, smoke Christmas trees or listen to the new album from Hype Williams, Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite, And Start Getting Reel on repeat – or just do both to further enhance that collapsing feeling as you watch people (including hard working class people) waste money and resources. Like a bouquet of xmas flowers on fire, the album is an absolute mess; a slow-burning, swirling, hallucinatory fantasy, a wicked affair involving Ms. Helen Folasade Adu.
Matt Shadetek returns to “minimalist grime principles” this week with the killer Dutty House EP! Check out the addictive “Wonton Garden” riddim (which refused to die and here in its official/proper release) + the recent refix of Blak Ryno’s “Nuh Tek Talk” on Eddie Stats’ essential weekly roundup of heaters Ghetto Palms.
Here is a mono radio rip from a live DJ mix on WFMU a couple of weeks back. It’s jam packed with unreleased, exclusive killer Shadetek tracks! The tracklist is a little rough, but the unreleased joints – opening track “NIC U” and “Pterodactyl” are gleaming freshness not to be slept on! Look out for his Dutty House EP coming out Tuesday!
TRACKLIST
Matt Shadetek – NIC U
Matt Shadetek – This Is Love
Matt Shadetek – Pterodactyl
Contakt – Not Forgotten
??? Dubbel Dutch Remix
Matt Shadetek & Lamin Fofana – Sunshine City
Black Ryno – Nuh Take Talk (Matt Shadetek Remix)
Matt Shadetek – Delta
Kingdom – Bust Broke
Mayster & Contakt – Korak
??? Secret Agent Gel Rimix
Maxwell D – Going Away
SBTRKT & Sampha – Evening Glow
Matt Shadetek & DJ /rupture – Sunset B35
Chief Boima – Techno Rumba (DJ /rupture & Matt Shadetek Remix)
My regular 9 to 5 – Dubspot put together an interesting mini-doc featuring dub pioneer Scientist, who recently dropped an album on Pinch’s Tectonic imprint, talking about the origin and meaning of Jamaican dub and the role dub engineer in sound system culture and 1970s/80s Jamaican recording industry. The video also featured our very own DJ /rupture, composer/electronic musician Badawi, Deadly Dragon Sound System’s Ticklah, and music supervisor Barry Cole. If you’re interested in the topic, and why it’s way much more than an “happy accident” I highly recommend Michael Veal’s Dub: Soundscapes & Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae. Check out wayne&wax’s analysis and review of the book + pertinent excerpt below, a little more context –
All the talk of circuits, knobs, and switches can distract one from the fundamental reality that what these musicians were doing was synthesizing a new popular art form, creating a space where people could come together joyously despite the harshness that surrounded them. They created a music as roughly textured as the physical reality of the place, but with the power to transport their listeners to dancefloor nirvana as well as far reaches of the cultural and political imagination: Africa, outer space, inner space, nature, and political/economic liberation. Nevertheless, this book will focus on those knobs and the people who operated them, in order to develop an understanding of the role of sound technology, sound technicians, and sound aesthetics within the larger cultural and political realities of Jamaica in the 1970s. (13-14)
Greetings from the darkside, Londoner Toby Ridler’s Becoming Real project recently unleashed a vicious EP entitled Spectre, outright insane beats with vocals from one vocals/raps from one of grime’s most amazing/underrated MCs Trim. There is also a wicked juke refix of the lead track by DJ Rashad.
New mix by Canadian DJ/producer Adam Rawdman containing a bunch of recent favorites from Dubbel Dutch and Mr Fox to Nguzunguzu and Jamie Woon, as remixed by Ramadanman, and a heap of refixes from Rawdman himself.
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.
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€
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’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.
Mudd Up! 
