Rupture has a music video! – spatial city type ting. Look at it, listen to the tune by Baby Kites and Nokea, get lost in the maze, broke down city style. Uproot & Ingredients soon coming. Buy MP3 release now!

&&&

Let’s go to Harlem and meet Charles Hamilton… exciting new talent, producer/emcee, obsessive Sonic fan, wears a lot of pink. This song/beat is a great commercial for Windows and for Charles Hamilton, and his various web addresses. Word to Microsoft, forget Seinfeld and cut the check for Hamilton.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/CharlesHamilton-WindowsMediaPlayer.mp3]
Charles Hamilton – Windows Media Player

The Hamiltonization Process

I’m really hoping this is McCain’s “Macaca” moment. Interviewed and asked how many houses he owned: “I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. “It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.”

Mannnnn. I can tell you exactly how much I’ve got in the bank right now (not enough), and how many houses I own: none. I also don’t have a staff to keep track of these things for me, I just remember. For someone who’s supposed to be running the country and keeping track of a lot more information than that, this is not a good look for the McCain campaign. David Gergen has been quoted again and again as saying “Obama needs a game-changer” due to the fact that he is not further ahead in the polls. This might be it.

Obama’s hitting hard on it now, something I’m happy to see since a lot of Democrats have opted not to fight dirty in these kind of fights in the past and some would argue lost because of it (Kerry’s swift boating anyone?) and I personally want a candidate that is gonna take it to the Republicans with two fists and throw mud, rocks and whatever else is handy in order to WIN. Let’s hope Obama and his surrogate’s stay on message with this one and just keep beating McCain with this right up to November. I don’t really see a lot of outs for the McCain people either, aside from attacking back, which they’re trying, using the same elitist celebrity tactics they’ve been on but I really doubt they can get much traction against this. Oh, and the number did come out, it’s not “More than four” (wtf kind of answer is that?!?!) it’s actually SEVEN, including houses on both coasts and more places in between. If you live in a swing state like Ohio, Florida or Virginia be sure to let as many people as you can know about this one.

For the two videos click through to watch the Obama commercial and remarks.

Also, while I’m talking about the election, which I’ve been following avidly, I’d just like to point out how quickly Obama’s organization has responded to this. McCain slipped up yesterday, I got this ad in an email from the campaign today. Talk about rapid response. McCain can’t rapidly respond to a question about his own financial life. If you want evidence of who will be a better head of the executive branch of our government look at how Obama is executing strategy for his campaign. A short list: A) record number of small, non-special interest donations due to excellent internet fund-raising B) volunteers on the ground in fifty states opening fights in places McCain thought he was safe and bleeding his already poorly organized resources C) the rapid and pointed response to this opportunity. Contrast this to Hillary’s campaign which was top-down, rife with infighting and only stayed afloat due to her own cash injections which she’s now taking a huge loss on and (sorry Clintonites) but you see who is ready to lead on day one.

…to the tropical bass & dutty selections of DA hermanos Rupture & Geko Jones this Saturday, late, BK loft style. i got elsewheres to be earlier so expect me on around 3:30… party goes til we find the sun again.

LYS eflyer

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]

gex

New Rupture Mix – tracklist, release date, info!

yes, we’re excited. this was becoming Rupture’s Detox.

Here’s something you can buy now – @ turntable lab, listen/download an excerpt from mudd up! ask about it, when you see him at upcoming shows.

some presents from the bearded man in the colorful sweater.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/AMilliPintman-GhislainPoirierMash.mp3]

Lil Wayne – A Milli/Various Production – Pintman (Ghislain Poirier Mash)

I didn’t like the original “A Milli” beat, but I like this one… and according to Mr eel, the beat is from Various Diver 12″.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/GhislainPoirierfeatMCZulu-GoBallisticToddlaTandDuckbeatsRemix.mp3]

Ghislain Poirier feat. MC Zulu – Go Ballistic (Toddla T & Duckbeats Remix)

info

Cheerio,

L

from a recent essay by M.A.N (about Coltrane, Lil Wayne, black masculinity, and the post-trauma blues)

Unlike historical figures like Doug E. Fresh and Biz Markie who used their voices to create new sounds, Lil Wayne, like Coltrane is really using his voice to find alternative registers for what has clearly been a life lived in absurdity and pain–even if some of it might have been self inflicted. And perhaps it is as it should be, as Lil Wayne’s urges us to come to terms with the first edge of the Post-Katrina Blues.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/LilWayne-RealRap.mp3]
Lil Wayne – Real Rap

-$-$-$

A Blender magazine cover story offers a glimpse into the world of Wayne –

Like any rock star, Lil Wayne isn’t immune to self-mythologizing. To hear him tell it, he’s a superman: He describes surviving two bullets—one a self-inflicted accident at age 12 and one fired into his bus by an angry groupie—with chuckling élan; he’s an indefatigable hustler: “I’m always in the lab”; and he’s an artist beholden to no one but his own codeine-addled muse: “The word pressure is not in my vocabulary.”

But the man desperately needs a vacation. The first day we meet, he’s running 10 hours behind—handlers try to rouse him from bed throughout the day, but word keeps coming back that “he’s in a coma.” The next day, at his condo, he snaps at T for failing to pack enough cough syrup for the trip to Atlanta. “I thought you said you were doing it,” T protests.

“Me? Why would I say that?” Wayne snarls. “Since when is that my job?”

I have a very dear friend by the name of Abena Koomson who has been a frequent collaborator at several of my events over the past three years. Last night, she invited me to watch the dress rehearsal of the new off-broadway musical based on the life of Fela Kuti that opens later this week. She’ll be playing Fela’s mum, Funmilayo Kuti. The show is being direct by the incomparable Bill T Jones (no relation but obviously the Joneses are waaaay cool.) and the score is set by New York’s reigning kings of Afrobeat ….Antibalas.

Holy shite is this a rockin show! I was a little worried about how they would execute the story line but hands down this was one of the best shows I’ve seen. It feels alot less like a theatrical interpretation and alot more like your actually watching Fela rock a live show with the Africa 70.

Antibalas is an amazing collective and Bill did a great job letting the songs tell the story. Getting to see and hear all these great jams performed live with dancers for some 2 1/2 hours was nothing short of amazing. The show stars Sahr Ngaujah as Fela. Though he’s easily got a good 40 pounds on the original artist he sounds uncannily like Ransome and his body movements are an eerie reminder of the man’s stage presence.

Growing up a junglist/dancehall geek I always had a love for rebel music but it wasn’t until a couple years ago when I moved to Brooklyn that I got hit in the head with Afrobeat music and the story of one of the greatest artists in recording history. The documentary on his life: Music is the Weapon is part of the “So You Wanna Move to Brooklyn” survival guide along with Shirley Chisholm 72′ Unbought and Unbossed.

ATTENDANCE IS A MUST!

I’ve asked special permission to post the following dutty discount so that pricing is not an obstacle barring you from attending. Regular tickets are like 75 ducati and you’re saving loads for having checked this blog. Don’t sleep.

Performance Schedule for FELA! A New Musical

August 5 – September 3
Tuesday 7pm | Wednesday-Friday 8pm | Saturday 2pm & 8pm | Sunday 2pm

September 5 – September 21
Tuesday 7pm | Wednesday-Friday 8pm | Saturday 2pm & 8pm | Sunday 2pm & 7pm

USE CODE SOCIAL1 for discount tix: $26.25

Three ways to buy:
online (http://felaoffbroadway.com/buy-tickets.html);
call (212-307-7171);
or visit the box office at 37 Arts (450 W. 37th Street).

visit www.FELAOffBroadway.com for more info.

In this new musical, directed and choreographed by Tony Award® winner Bill T. Jones with a book by Jim Lewis and arrangements by Aaron Johnson and Antibalas, audiences are welcomed into the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Using his pioneering music (a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies), Fela! explores his controversial life as artist, political activist and revolutionary musician. Featuring many of Fela’s most captivating songs and Bill T. Jones’s imaginative staging, this new show is a provocative hybrid of concert, dance and musical theater.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjxMQqGlB94[/youtube]

hi my name is DJ Rupture and I WILL BE SELLING ALL OF MY RECORDS at the Brooklyn Flea on Sunday Sept 14th. OK, so probably not all of them. Maybe just 300-500 of them… whatever, I don’t buy bad records so the selection will be choice.

And the day before that, there will be another FIESTA SOOT @ Manhattan’s Bowery Poetry Clubb, lineup TBC.

plus, CUUUUUMMMMMMMBIA

fantastico

from The Fader blog:

“For more than a year now little bits of cumbia detritus have been washing up on our screens from all corners—white labels from SF’s Bersa Discos label, uncredited cumbia crunk border radio-style party blends from somewhere in TX, uncredited youtube clips of dubbed out accordion jams…After awhile we felt the need to get the full story behind these mysterious artifacts, so we enlisted the most well-rounded cumbiologist we know; DJ /Rupture aka writer Jace Clayton, to get on the case.

Having been involved in everything from remixes to chicha and Colombian roots reissues, Jace seemed uniquely positioned to give us an overview of the century old genre, so we took him at his word when he said Buenos Aires was the current hot spot and the ultimate origin point of much of the stuff we’d been hearing and hearing about. One plane ticket later, Jace and photographer Gabriele Stabile had embarked on a documentary mission to BA that resulted in a Summer Music issue feature. And now here it is in web-form; back on our screens, where it all started. After you’re done reading the feature, check out Jace guest columning this week’s Ghetto Palms on cumbia here.”

Slow Burn cumbia article

DJ Rupture – Villera Palms cumbia mix with full tracklist/writeup

Texans are buying more guns, fearing what will happen “if the wrong people get elected.

Any excuse to reuse this image.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/TheKnux-BangBang.mp3]
The Knux – Bang Bang

The Knux (formerly known as The Knuckleheads) had a song about Cappuccino I didn’t like. Their new one is somewhat compatible with the news article above, not to mention the humidity. Bun and Wayne are cold and II Trill is > Trill, Mo– if you’re reading this.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/BunB-DamnImCold.mp3]
Bun B f/ Lil Wayne – Damn I’m Cold

…now is probably as good a time as any to mention that my remix of Fósforo’s Musquito (taken from my album ‘Special Gunpowder’) is included in a new 2 CD compilation alongside Orchestra Baobab, Manu Chao, Toumani Diabaté, Youssou N’Dour, Lucky Dube, and more!!

Beyond the Horizon, as compiled by BBC radio’s Charlie Gillett. Out now in the U.K. on Warner.

bbc-cd

(Fósforo gave the world Cumbia de Obama as well)

I was down in Virginia over the weekend, southwest Virginia, Blacksburg — a seemingly/peculiarly tranquil place, for this weekend at least.  A friend put me on to the new Ry Cooder album I, Flathead:The Songs of Kash Buk and the Klowns. I had heard the song “Can I Smoke In Here?” on the radio several weeks back, so I was curious and wanted to hear the rest of the record.  Apparently, this is the final installment in Ry Cooder’s “California trilogy” which began in 2005 with Chávez Ravine, an album about a Mexican-American community in Los Angeles that was demolished in the 1950s to build a stadium for the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The second album, 2007’s My Name Is Buddy is also a “social-political concept album” which explores farm failures, the plight of laborers, strikes, hobos–and for all this, the stories are told from the perspective of a cat!
I, Flathead is about drag-racing in 1960s southern California. The narratives here are told from the perspective of the unfortunate Kash Buk, a former drag racer turn Country music singer. Buk plays beat-up roadhouses with his band the Klowns.
At this moment, I can only listen to the album in segments, certain songs are just too Country.  I like the bluesy fragments like the one below (and also the chicano and cumbia sounding pieces and some of the easy Western Swing joints)

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/RyCooder-CanISmokeInHere.mp3]
Ry Cooder – Can I Smoke In Here?


Here’s a track from the excellent album by Mike Ladd, Negrophilia – inspired by a great book with the same title.  Ladd sez “If you have not read this book yet read it today! After reading it, bizarre phenomena like Elvis, Eminem, Condoleeza Rice and Modernism make sense..”

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/MikeLadd-SleepPatternsOfBlackExpatriotsCirca1960.mp3]
Mike Ladd – Sleep Patterns Of Black Expatriots Circa 1960

Click here for pictures of Mike Ladd and Ursula Rucker.

‘The Construction of the Tower of Babel’, by Hendrick III van Cleve, 16th Century, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo. Click for bigger version, it’s a nice painting. Taken from Giornale Nuovo.

Hi everybody, I’ve been away off in real life (What a fucked up place to spend extended periods of time) but just wanted to stick my neck in and say a few words, and probably piss off a bunch of my friends. The goal of writing these polemical attack posts is to sort of kick the tires on our musical activities and cultural practices and to make sure that everyone is really thinking hard about why and how they’re doing what they’re doing. If you feel this as an attack on you or your music, I’d love to hear your response here in public so we can all learn something.

Gex recently posted up the Stereotyp affiliated Kubu mixtape which has some cool beats on it, below, I like the bass on the second track especially. Then Ty responded by saying “looks like Stereotyp… oh great, another Teutonic ‘barefoot baile’ advocate, what the world needs is more white european & american dudes “keeping it real” & getting sexy by going native.” And I LOLed and started writing a comment but decided to turn it into a post as it got longer and longer. Full disclosure: I am probably one of these sexy white guys that Ty is aiming at, not sure if my involvement in ukg and dancehall qualifies me but anywayyyy.

Here’s my point, more or less: I think it’s lame to use vocals in your music that are in a language you don’t really understand. That said, this is not a direct shot at Stereotyp, maybe he speaks Portuguese or whatever language the people are speaking on his mix, I actually don’t know. In vocal music, especially rap, the vibe and energy of a tune is SO MUCH about the lyrical content that putting vocals on tunes that you, or perhaps more importantly a major chunk of your audience don’t understand is just weird to me. I feel that you are using these people and their words as an idea, or a reference or a signifier in a way that’s totally disconnected from their artistic intentions.

If you, the producer can’t understand all the layers of what they’re saying and the audience can’t either then the words are just rhythmic or melodic noise, a kind of cultural texture. I feel like when it’s melodic singing then it makes a bit more sense because at least the people who don’t understand have some purely formal things to grab hold of, and melody is a kind of unconscious language of emotion and therefore there is some kind of non-verbal communication possible. But rap? Rap is words and rhythm, it’s word music.

As someone who listens to quite a lot of word music I’d argue that in the success of any given artist in any of these scenes (rap, dancehall, grime etc) the words they use, the things they say, their message, their attitude, their swagger, and their lyrical content is much more important than the formal qualities of flow or rhythm. In grime and dancehall the thing that will trigger a rewind is an artist saying something, something specific that has tremendous resonance with the audience. How they say it is important and necessary but WHAT they say is what gets them a forward. Especially in dancehall where a lot of it comes down to clashing and beefing the thing that will win a contest is some particularly clever well-timed and somehow true insult. The flow and pattern is necessary but secondary, it’s a vehicle for the message. So when the message is behind a language barrier the order is reversed – flow is in front and the message is behind, or gone.

A lot of fans will say, “Oh I don’t understand, I don’t care what they’re saying I’m just dancing along” but I actually think in taking that position you’re sort of marginalizing these people and their opportunity for artistic expression. It reduces them to being ‘the sexy and exotic other’ that we don’t understand, and don’t care to understand because we think “oh they’re probably just saying ‘dance, party, fuck’ or something like that, and that’s what we’re doing”. But what about when they’re not saying that? What about when Buju Banton is singing about shooting gays in the head over that nice easy party beat? And you’re dancing along obliviously, and because you and everyone else who doesn’t pay attention dances along then the DJ says “see look, that song always works, I’m gonna return to it” and that message gets repeated and repeated into the world. Whether you like to dance to ‘Boom Bye Bye’ or not (nastiness aside, it’s a good song) in this young new global underground dance whatever scene we’re in I think that we really need to make sure that if we’re gonna engage in a style that we’re doing it on all levels, not just formal (wow this beat pattern is great, I’m gonna put my euro synth bass on it and call it ‘global-fusion’) but on the levels of slang, culture, meaning, people, relationships, beef and history. And some may say: “But it’s too much work to learn all these languages, and I’m on the other side of the world and blee blah bleh” well then I’d say either make some friends who can teach you or maybe you should focus in on something that you can understand and try to develop some depth in it. Basically, not being a tourist is hard work but I think, worth it.