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Announcing a short-notice edition of the Mudd Up Book Clubb.

We are meeting this Sunday, March 24rd, to discuss Augusto Monterroso’s short story “Mister Taylor.”

Those unfamiliar with the Guatemalan writer who lived most of his life in Mexico City are in for a treat! Monterroso’s agile and darkly comic meditations on “resource extraction,” colonial mentality, distribution chains, citizen-hostile bureaucracy, and the impact of North American appetites on life in Latin America pack as much of a multilayered punch now as they did when “Mister Taylor” was first published, sixty years ago. Nuanced and outrageous.

Here’s the first sentence, from Edith Grossman’s pitch-perfect translation:

“Somewhat less strange, though surely more exemplary,” the other man said, “is the story of Mr. Percy Taylor, a headhunter in the Amazon jungle.”

The original Spanish text is online, the English trans. will be provided in advance (it’s a fast read, takes less than 10 minutes), and we’ll meet at 5pm on Sunday in this special short-notice edition… Interested? Join us. Keep it muddy.

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This week, the 2012 EMP Pop Conference hits New York City. They write:

“What do you get when roughly 300 academics, journalists, and musicians gather to talk about music and the urban jungle?… The participants will explore sounds of the city–the reverberations of people gathered en masse. . .Presenters will pay particular attention to what urban environments have meant for race, gender, and sexuality”

The talks are free and open to the public, but advanced registration is strongly encouraged, and today is your last day to do that… Many, many fascinating talks are scheduled.

I present at 4pm on Friday, in conversation with the brilliant Jayna Brown. I’ll unveil my Sufi Plug Ins project — free music / software / tools based on nonwestern & poetic notions of sound in interaction with alternative interfaces. It’s easiest if you come see them in action. But then there is Julius Eastman! And Berber Auto-Tune! And a brand-new video to debut! And how it all relates to the roundtable’s stated topic of “The Time and Space of Alternative Sonic Blackness,” with professors Daphne Brooks, Tavia Nyong’o, Brown, and more.

[Sufi Plug Ins: Bayati Maqam synth GUI as artist print]

The week/end will conclude with a quick & dirty Mudd Up Book Clubb meeting on Sunday. Short story edition, details soon.

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Originally posted at Mudd Up!

[photo by Alex Walsh for The Fader]

If I start writing (again) about my time in Jamaica it could take up the better part of this morning. So let’s keep it simple: in late December I journeyed to Jamaica to report on the collaboration between iconic roots reggae group The Congos, and L.A.experimentalists Sun Araw and M Geddes Gengras for The Fader. It was an intense time down there in the lion’s den, adjusting my internal clock from NYC-breathless to Rasta time-management systems, entirely immersed in perhaps the strongest musical culture I’ve ever experienced, plus Ashanti Roy’s crazed grandchildren as sunrise alarm clocks, fish tea, George Michael with lasers, a minor yet disturbing horse-trampling, lots of Symbolic Murals, the melodious span and flexibility of patois, and so much more.

[photo by Alex Walsh for The Fader]

The article is now online, accompanied by several photos from Alex Walsh. Writing for The Fader spoils you — it makes me want to travel everywhere with top-notch photographers ready to dig deep and go after the spirit of the thing.

[photo by Alex Walsh for The Fader]

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Brother Lamin Fofana is down in the former Mexican territory of Texas, which means that we here in Brooklyn can play some unusual games in his absence…

This Wednesday, Mudd Up! was a two-hour special. It’s always nice to stretch out on WFMU’s airwaves. Streaming below. Podcastable (iTunes | XML). FM realtime every week. And be sure to check out next week’s special show with guest: Oneohtrix Point Never!

ungroomed tracklist after the jump: (more…)

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Flyer says “Abril” but they mean “Marzo” aka this Friday — when Sonido Martines returns to La Paz, Bolivia, after having gone deep with Mexico City sonideros and thrown down some records in Lima. Me, I’m trying to bend my schedule into submission so I can join El Martines for the next big party waaaay up there, 12,000 ft. above sea level. A fan who was at my first La Paz show writes: “cuando el vino la musica era excelente pero la gente estaba fria. Ahora dos años despues todos y todas estan bailandola.” Story of my life; I’m sure she’s right. So I gotta go back… Until such time, find Sonido:

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[Simone Leigh video still – Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts as Stark Trek’s Uhura]

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts’ book, Harlem Is Nowhere, has been nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Which is all kinds of awesome. She will be speaking at the New York Public Library in conversation with artist Simone Leigh *tonight*. (Simone Leigh’s solo show at the Kitchen involves a 10ft- tall video of Sharifa as Star Trek’s Lieutenant Uhura, and Old Money just released a new riddim called Uhura in honor of the first black woman in (representational) space — 2012 makes a lot of sense for an afro-astral revival; and remember – the original Uhura, Nichelle Nichols, is on twitter!)

Tickets for tonight’s conversation aren’t cheap but if you’d like to go, use the Secret Discout Code “FUTURE” when ordering tickets online, that’ll knock the price down quite a bit. I don’t call my monthly newsletter LOW INCOME TOMORROWLAND for nothing.

The Harlem Is Nowhere mixtape that Sharifa & I put together for Domus Magazine still bumps – COP THAT ISH NOW IF YOU HAVENT YET
[audio:http://put.edidomus.it/domus/documenticorrelati/DJ_Rupture-HarlemIsNowhere-FINAL.mp3]
and thanks to always on-point Venus X for pointing out this great PBS clip with Sharifa and Tavis Smiley.

Watch Author Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts on PBS. See more from Tavis Smiley.

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New York City is an embarrassment of riches. World class/Weird class DJs at a free party on Sunday night? Sure. Why not? Nobody has real jobs anyway. Come join us to celebrate the birthday of Stylez Waer. IT’S GOOD BREAD OVER HERE:

CULTURE SYSTEM PRESENTS:
#32

This Sunday, Mar 4th.
10pm – 2am
Tandem, 236 Troutman in Bushwick, in the backroom
FREE

http://culturesystem.org/
FB info

Featuring:

DJ /rupture
(Sub Rosa / Dutty Artz)

Lamin Fofana
(Sticks N Stones / Dutty Artz)

Boody
(Palms Out Sounds)

Dutch
(Alone In Deep Space)

+ + +

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Last week’s radio show with USC professor Josh Kun was a real treat – and it’s now streaming. An hour of real talk on the current state of narcocorridos – Mexican drug ballads – prefaced by two new heaters from Tijuana’s blooming indie scene. Listen close:

WFMU is in the middle of its yearly fundraising marathon! Our independent, advertising-free FM radio station is almost entirely listener supported (which is incredible, in today’s rapidly consolidating and corporatizing mediascape), all on-air DJs are 100% volunteer (aka I don’t get paid), and now’s the time when we asking for your help… For more reasons on what this fundraiser is all about, you can listen back to my show this week with co-host Therese, or simply tune in to WFMU 91.1FM NYC.

Or go straight into altruism mode by donating and telling your peoples what’s what:

As always, thanks for listening. FILE UNDER: Generosity.

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We are living in a material world. Here are two fruits of Beyond Digital, a gorgeous CD and a cassette, available for purchase here.

The debut CD of Imanaren is a lovely thing. We re-released this digitally on Dutty Artz, but here, exclusive and for the first time, is a very limited edition of the original physical CD, produced in Morocco by Hassan Wargui. (These CDs don’t play well with all drives, so purchase comes with a download link to the Dutty Artz digital version; you can burn up a lossless CD if yours doesn’t play well.)

For an introduction to Imanaren, read (the amazing) Nina Power’s review in The Wire or check out this video — a brief interview with Wargui followed by the album’s first track.

I’ve also got a few copies of the Palm Wine – Dreamachine / Beyond Digital mix cassette. This is great project initiated by artist Simone Bertuzzi. One side features his field recordings from northern Morocco including excerpts from the Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival. (For in-depth observations on the Jajouka/Joujouka phenomenon, try my essay for The National, “Past Masters.”) The tape’s flip side contains a b2b selection Maga Bo & I assembled while traveling on trains across Morocco. Our contribution is unmixed (it’s like an old school cassette you may have made for friends way back when…). Simone has a detailed writeup about the entire project here. My side starts off with the magical Luzmilla Carpio, and this is a 2-minute excerpt from Side A, Simone’s Dreamachine field recordings:
Palm Wine “Dreamachine mix” [2 min. excerpt] by Palm Wine

Please note: if you’d live outside of the U.S. and would like to order the Palm Wine cassette, please do it directly from the Palm Wine blog. This order form allows for U.S. purchases of the Imanaren + Palm Wine, and rest-of-world purchases of the Imanaren.

Make sure you use the dropdown form to select which item(s) you want and whether your location is US or rest-of-world. Shukran.


prices include shipping




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First off, friends at El Proyecto Sonidero have just released a free book on Mexican ‘sonidero’ sound system culture. Go get it!

*

This Wednesday at 8pm on WFMU, USC professor Josh Kun will join me on Mudd Up!, to discuss the current wave of hyperviolent Mexican drug ballads (largely produced in L.A., it turns out) and to examine the question ‘why aren’t other songs being sung?’ Kun is a rare academic who manages to do inspirational work both in & out of the academy — such as TED-talking with Ozomatli, curating the Grammy Museum’s current exhibition Trouble in Paradise: Music and Los Angeles 1945-1975, and doing smart, passionate writing about Tijuana & the complex membrane that is the US-Mexico border. His knowledge of Mexican music goes deep… So tune in! Wednesday night, 8-9pm WFMU 91.1FM, streaming at wfmu.org.

If you are unfamiliar with contemporary Mexican corridos in light of the drug war, Kun’s recent essay on what he’s termed ‘necrocorridos,’ is a good place to start. As is this video from Movimiento Alterado, where catchy and lush horn production sparkles alongside bejeweled bulletproof vests as the ‘Sanguinarios del M1’ sing from the assassin’s bloody viewpoint and proudly name the narcos they work for.

And check out the first few minutes of the Kun-Ozomatli “Edge of Urban Identity” TED talk jam! Josh on the mic, talking about the new gospel of the monkey (“One of the 20 figures on the ancient ritual Mexican calendar, the monkey sported an ear-ring and wore a crew cut. He was a shapeshifter, a transformer, a changeling…”) It’s great:

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Spank Rock, Hypnotic Brass, Hudson Mohawk, Novalima, Aidonia, Jahdan Blakkamoore, Popcaan, STS, Scuba, Brenmar, new Shabazz, Astral Social Club, and more – leading up to the voice I can’t get out of my head, Horace Andy. In other words: we went in deep during last night’s Mudd Up! radio.
And we’ll get even deeper next week with guest Josh Kun – more on that in a minute. Until then:

tracklist after the jump
(more…)

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Originally posted on Mudd Up

This Wednesday, with the all-volunteer help of Spectacle Theater’s Akiva, Cassie D, and Zoe S, and WFMU’s Mike A, Bill B, and Dave E, we were able to continue our strange and occasionally bumpy journey down the path of live radio built from video clips & staged before an audience.

It’s an uncanny performance mode, talking to a roomful of bodies seated before Spectacle’s screen but knowing that many many more are listening at home, and attempting to create a path that works for both. Feels ‘experimental’ in the word’s basic sense: something for which the process and its possible outcomes aren’t yet established.

For the first of these radio-Spectacle nights, I screened Khaled & Cheb Mami rai comedy 100% Arabica, then in December it was Nass El Ghiwane documentary Transes.

And this Wednesday, on the first day of Black Mystery Month, I teamed up with Lamin Fofana, Chief Boima, and Old Money to host AFRO-SPECTACLE, two hours of live radio constructed entirely from DVDs & VCDs purchased in African-run stores in New York City, followed by a screening of Nollywood-NYC film God’s Own Country.

You can stream the broadcast portion of the evening here. Kola nuts, beer, and a crowd of friends are recommended to help recreate the in-room experience at Spectacle:

Are here are two selections from the evening: a jam Lamin & I have been into forever, a perfect song basically, based on an international collaboration between Sékouba Bambino & Kandia Kouyaté.(Lamin’s Brooklyn-purchased video version had much higher quality that this youtubery, alas.)

And my contribution to AFRO-SPECTACLE, a Don Cornelius homage in the form of David Bowie performing ‘Fame’ on Soul Train.