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This is a crosspost from my blog at mattshadetek.com

J. BIEBZ – U SMILE 800% SLOWER by Shamantis

Some guy on Soundcloud called Shamantis took Justin Bieber and slowed him down %800. And it sounds great! Apparently taking strange pubescent elvis-ian boy pop divas and slowing them down produces glacially beautiful digital sludge. Who needs drugs?

He was gracious enough to put up a tutorial on how he did it too, which is a nice gesture. Expect to hear a lot more of these.

Now as great as this may be it cannot compete, in my mind with the original slowed down codeinated epics of people like DJ Screw, Michael Watts and the whole Houston screwed and chopped movement. Stuff like this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5z_Iswjiqs[/youtube]

Learn more about DJ Screw in this short YouTube documentary:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0elQjRozdWk[/youtube]

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My daytime employer Dubspot is sponsoring this event at Love with a who’s who of bearded NY dub guys (including your’s truly) at Love. It’s on 9/11, a date easy to remember if not for pleasant reasons. Jahdan will be in the building and we’ll do some songs together and I’ll be throwing some wamp at the Love sound system. It should be a lot of fun.

Lineup:
Dub Gabriel
Matt Shadetek
Liondub
Emch
DJ Kiva

MCs: Jahdan Blakkamoore & Infinity

Where: Love 40 W. 8th St. New York, NY 10012
Sept. 11th, 2010 $5 before 11PM, $10 after
Sponsored by Dubspot, Halcyon, Konkrete Jungle and Brooklynradio.net

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eCoP9oSfrc&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

A friend of mine and fellow Dubspot instructor DJ Shiftee just did this video for Native Instruments. It’s him chopping the fuck out of Dead Prez’s ‘Bigger Than Hiphop’ and a dubstep tune by Caspa called ‘Dub Warz’ (which by the way sounds like a blatant ripoff of Mondie’s ‘Straight Riddim’ grime tune, to me).

The performance is crazy. He’s using Traktor and Maschine from NI to chop and re-trigger the audio using cue-points. He did this to a tune of mine ‘Manhattan Timeslip’ from my album Flowers in the mix he did for the Dubspot Podcast, below, and it absolutely blew my mind. Listen to the original, and then check it out on his mix, it’s near the beginning.  Listen to what he did re-triggering the tones from the intro.  Mad.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__rch9vLPAI[/youtube]

Dubspot Radio Podcast: Ep 3 DJ Shiftee by Dubspot

Finally, he explains it all in this video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eLIeEOWGLE[/youtube]

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I’ve been making music in various underground music scenes for the past ten years now. I’ve enjoyed it a lot. Generally you find great people in underground music scenes, people with a lot of passion and dedication who truly love music. When people are able to strike a balance between their underground aesthetic and being organized, special stuff can happen. But there are many times when people can’t strike that balance. One of the ideas that I’ve run into again and again in this world is the idea of ‘doing it for the scene’. On one level this is a very respectable idea: doing something not out of self interest, but to benefit the larger musical community. The problem I’ve encountered with this is that taken too far this can seriously undermine one’s ability to continue to function.

For example, let’s say hypothetically you are a small record distributor. You do it because you believe in the music, you want to support emerging artists and labels and you don’t care about money. You set up shop, take product on consignment from any unknown player with a willingness to press their material and start doing business. Consignment is when you take product before paying for it, warehouse it and pay when it sells. You continue to operate on this basis but because you have so many unheard of records released by labels with no business model or capability to promote them, sales are slow. Eventually, basic costs start to add up. The rent on your office is due every month. The bill for your shipping provider is rising. Eventually there comes a time when you have backed yourself into a corner. Nothing is selling and while you were hoping for an improvement you passed the point of no return. The shipping company has cut off your access to shipping because your owed bill is so high. Your landlord is initiating eviction proceedings against your office where you warehouse your product.

Finish reading this post at my new blog at mattshadetek.com

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This post is cross-posted from the brand spanking new blog at mattshadetek.com.  In addition to my usual stuff here at Dutty Artz I wanted a place to call my own and talk about some of my less dutty, more clean artz that I am up to. Expect a lot more wordz.

photo by the author in Flatbush, Brooklyn

I assume if you’re reading this blog that you’re someone familiar with my musical output. If not, please get familiar here at my soundcloud page.

Generally speaking I am pretty cagey about my new projects until they’re nearly done. I want to try an experiment this time in going through the process of making an album completely in public. Transparency! Throwing stones in a glass house!

(more…)

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Matt Shadetek mixing in the Dubspot basement, photo by Kiva

While I’m posting about Dubspot radio you all might as well check out the mix that I did on it last week.  It’s me playing 140bpm stuff, a bunch of dubstep, garage and a bunch of stuff off Flowers including a few exclusive unreleased things including tracks from Jahdan Blakkamoore, Indigo Rex who’s one of my former students who’s coming along quite nicely and some other new stuff.  It starts off deep and cool and heats up.  At least the first half will help you stay cool.  The second half might make things worse.

New Brainfeeder artist Lorn did a cool mix too playing a bunch of whatever they’re calling all that new glitchy hip hop stuff.  Beat scene?  Wonky?  I don’t know, anyway there were some joints followed by an interview I did with him talking production and creative process.  I cringe listening to my voice BUT there were definitely some jewels getting dropped, hit the Dubspot Blog post to stream or download the audio and read the track lists.

On Monday we’re going to have guest Elliot Lipp and Dubspot’s own !bangInclude, the show is every Monday from 8-10PM EST.

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We had a great session down in the Dubspot basement last Monday.  Dubspot’s own DJ Shiftee and Trouble and Bass’s Star Eyes came down and melted our brains.  Shiftee played an hour long set of full blast dubstep, electro whatever all expertly mangle-ated on Traktor and Maschine in real time.  It was exciting.  Star Eyes followed with an ill set of deep and largely un-released funky, garage, dubstep and grime(!) both from herself and a who’s who of the international underground dance music scene.  I always love hearing her play.   Hit the Dubspot blog to stream or download the two sets, sign up for the Dubspot Radio podcast (which is produced and hosted by me and Lamin) and log on with us every Monday on Ustream from 8-10PM EST to heat up your earz if they weren’t already hot enough in this fucked up heat wave we’re having.

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Last Monday we had a great show here in the basement of Dubspot on Dutty Artz radio.  We streamed live on UStream as usual and had a bunch of people logged in while Taliesin, Mosholu Park and myself played some short sets followed by an epic 80 minute throwdown from NguzuNguzu.  Listen through to the end to hear Daniel playing congas over juke beats live.  I was a little drunk by that point but I remember it sounding super duper dope.  You can check our ustream channel to see video of the session.  I’m told that not all files in these posts are being pushed to the podcast stream so I’ll put their set first and you can click to stream or download the rest of ours.

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This Friday I’ll be playing at my current favorite party in NYC, Turrbotax.  I really like what Contakt and the Turrbotax crew have  put together there.  They’re playing a really cool blend of new dance music and it’s always a fun hype atmosphere.  Free beer by Asahi from 11-12 doesn’t hurt either.  I’m especially pleased about this Friday’s Turrbotax Business Edition since I’ll be playing with Mosca of Night Slugs.  Mosca produced the 10 minute post-funky epic ‘Nike’ which really got my ears open last year.  I expect this to be one to remember so please do come out and sweat with us.

Friday, July 2nd, 10pm – 4am
@
The Cove (formerly known as Hugs)
106 N. 6th Street, Williamsburg BKNY (btw Berry & Wythe)

$FREE before 11pm, $5 before 12am, $7 after

With Special Guests:
Mosca (Night Slugs/London/UK)
Matt Shadetek (Dutty Artz)
Norrit (Think 2Wice/Lawrence, KS)

Residents:
Video City
Rem Koolhaus
Mayster
C-Sick
Contakt

FREE Asahi Beer from 11-12pm

Facebook Invite: HERE

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Dutty Artz is very pleased to announce the debut official release from Dominican underground superstar Rita Indiana.  For those unfamiliar with Rita’s vibe download her La Hora De Volver here, courtesy of Remezcla.  Perez Hilton is a fan saying:  “Super caliente!  We are obsessed with it – and HER!!!!!!!”

Her Dutty Artz single features two songs.  One, called ‘No Ta Llevando El Diablo’ (translated as ‘The Devil is Taking Us Away’) is Rita backed by her band Los Misterios.  It’s an angry blast of punk mambo with Rita singing about grannies smoking crack over distorted guitars, guira and 808 boom added by Shadetek and Rupture.  The second track ‘Los Poderes’ is Rita solo over Shadetek and Rupture’s rework of a Bannana Clipz riddim (Bannana Clipz is Dutty Artz own Chief Boima and Bersa Discos Oro 11).  Over a mix of digital and live hand-drumming contributed by Ivory Nunez playing an interpretation of Dominican Palo over Bannana Clipz 4×4 beat Rita sings a haunting tropical voodoo ballad.

The release will be available July 6th in all fine digital retailers including iTunes, Juno, Amazon and Boomkat.  In the meantime, soak your eyes in these:

La Hora De Volver (official video):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWd8K-YniNk[/youtube]

El Blu del Ping Pong (scroll to 4:20):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbLXJz0wxFI[/youtube]

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The second episode of Dutty Artz Radio is up! Me (Matt Shadetek), DJ Rupture, Mosholu Park aka Lamin and Taliesin all got together in the basement of Dubspot to all DJ some short 20 minute sets and do the first episode of our new book club!

The book we talked about is Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.

I chopped the audio into separate parts for your mp3 player pleasure.  We streamed it on UStream although somehow the video got lost. The full chat transcript is after the jump though so you can read back if you want.  We’ll be doing this weekly on Thursday nights at 7PM NYC time (EST) at http://www.ustream.tv/duttyartznyc

This coming Monday we’ll have a special edition after Dubspot Radio which is at 8 (and I also run) with special guests NGUZU NGUZU! YAAAAA!  We’re very excited

[display_podcast]

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Raz Mesinai at Dubspot Radio
Raz Mesinai at Dubspot Radio

Me and Lamin are both working at Dubspot now and we are doing a new radio show out of the Dubspot basement!  It’s being streamed and podcasted.  Subscribe at the original post!

Our first guests on the Dubspot Radio Podcast are two New York heavyweights: Dave Q and Badawi.  Dave Q has played a pivotal role in bringing Dubstep to NYC through his respected Dub War parties and his forward looking DJ sets.  Badawi aka Raz Mesinai is a long time participant in many mutant strains of dub music in NY and internationally and has now teamed up with Dave Q to start The Index, their new label project.  Among his many activities Raz is also an instructor here at Dubspot teaching students to produce in Ableton Live.  The broadcast contains a mix by Dave Q playing from Serato followed by a short set from Raz on Ableton and at the end an interview with host Matt Shadetek.

Check out the mix and interview on Dubspot’s soundcloud:

Dubspot Radio Podcast: Ep. 1 Dave Q & Badawi by Dubspot

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Yaaaaaaa!!  Can you tell I’m excited about our new Dutty Artz UStream and Podcast radio show?  I am, very.

We’re doing it Thursday nights regularly at 7PM from the basement of Dubspot.  But we’re also gonna be doing it irregularly whenever we feel like it!  So the currently planned broadcasts are gonna be tomorrow Thursday 6/24/10 at 7PM AND next Monday the 28th at 10PM with special guests NGUZU NGUZU!  YAAAAA!  I am excited.  A lot of cool people are gonna be in NYC this coming week and I want to get as many of em as we can to come and wile out with us in the basement and do radio.

The first episode is up in two chunks, first me Matt Shadetek and then Lamin aka Mosholu Park:

DUTTY ARTZ RADIO EP. 1:

[display_podcast]

You’ll get these in the course of the regular Dutty Artz Podcast if you’re already subscribed.  Also if you want to go back and check out the video that goes with us (watch me dance, dj and sing along to Busy Signal!) you can go check out our UStream channel.  This is where it will be going down tomorrow: http://www.ustream.tv/duttyartznyc.

Also equally exciting is that we’ll be inaugurating the first session of the DUTTY ARTZ BOOK CLUB tomorrow at the beginning of the broadcast.  We will be talking about Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.  We over here read a lot of books and talk about them a lot so in an effort towards increased transparency and over the top nerdiness we will be sitting on UStream talking about science fiction tomorrow.  Log eeeeeeeeeeen!  It’s gonna be fun (if talking about books is your idea of fun, otherwise after about 15-20 minutes we’re gonna start firing musical bullets).

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Dutty Artz own mr_blakkamoore is ramping up for the release of his new album Babylon Nightmare coming soon on Lustre Kings and brings us this excellent podcast mixtape for a teaser: Global Warning (click here to download). Me and Liondub, who I produced ‘The General’ with contributed a remix of Jahdan’s ‘Songs of Love’ the first single for the new album.  There’s a bunch of great stuff on here including some exclusives from Digital Ancient aka Andrew Moon Bain and a feature from Baja of Dry Eye Crew and Delie from Noble Society.  Check out the post over at Largeup.com for a little bio of Jahdan and enjoy the mix.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG_MZJeWy9Y[/youtube]

New hotness from New York homies Cubic Zirconia feat. our boy in South Afrika Mr. Ghost Bones himself Spoek Mathambo.  I’ve known lead singer Tiombe Lockhart for a while now ever since me and Zack released a track of hers on Shadetek Records (back when that was still a going concern) and always loved her singing.

Now she’s teamed up with Nick Hook and the rest of the Cubic Zirconia fam to form this band project and they are killing it a lot.  I got to play with them and hang with them at SXSW this year and they put on a killer show.  Sort of house music with a band (for lack of a better term) really fun live and Tiombe is a super charismatic front-woman.

The video is on some ill Orson Welles one-shot auteur film making shit directed by Khalil Joseph and looks like a million bucks although knowing that Cubic are on a similar DIY go-for-self vibe as we are and releasing on their label I’m guessing it didn’t cost that.  Download this minimix from their new Black and Blue EP and vote with your dollars to support good independent music on Tuesday June 15th when it drops.

Their release party is this Tuesday June 15th at Damon Dash Gallery (?!) with an art opening to boot.  Flier:

This, their previous video ‘Josephine’ is crazy too.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VKxzO-tRY8[/youtube]