I’ve been relaxing these past few days. My time was vaguely starting to resemble that freelancer’s rarity: a vacation. Whatever it was, it’s over. TOUR TIME! Several European dates and some special events in Morocco. But first – Last night was a fun radio show (if I don’t play the entirety of Reich’s “Come Out” bookended by juke trax, who will?)
Today’s party in a Copenhagen park marks the start of the Denmark leg of the tour, where I’ll be playing dates with Mutamassik and giving a free “master class” with Mad Professor.
I’m not sure if they’re referring to the son of Tarzan, town in Nepal, or the language from Papua New Guinea, but we’re proud to announce DA013 the Korak EP from Contakt & Mayster. The duo are behind TURRBOTAX®, Brooklyn’s own XLR8R sponsored “un-pretentious yet forward thinking and adventurous” club night at The Cove, now turning two years old.
On “Korak” tropical percussion, 808 cowbells and an assortment of clicks and pops whir and collide around a throbbing, syncopated bass line. DA’s own Matt Shadetek provides a NYC 3Ball rework with nuff bass to rattle windows and rib cages. The b-side “Opar” is a study in tension and release with a more classic 4×4 house beat while Contakt & Mayster create a soundscape with reversed cymbals and filtered percussion. Doc Daneeka comes through with a UK Funky remix.
Last week I dove in, writing about noir & auto-tune in new sloth-positive South African fiction (author approved), then taking a look at the UK riots via Frederick Douglass and some dubwise reggae, an article which reverberated and sparked a nice Motherboard writeup. Next came many airports. After folding into economy seats (always a screaming baby nearby), the discomfort heightened not mitigated by a string of $15 fruit cups in the Frankfurt or Zurich or Zaghreb airport, I found myself on the breathtakingly beautiful Croatian coast. You land at a town called Split. Then drive 30 minutes further out, to the party on the grounds of a former Yugoslavia military installation! Really cool vibes there. Repurposing. Life is strange. Snails on the walls.
This month you’ve got plenty of opportunities to catch up with Jace: A dance party in a boat on the Seine, a special concert in North Africa’s only arthouse cinema, an outdoor getdown in Copenhagen w/ the OG lady DJ known as Mutamassik, a free class on DJ/production with Mad Professor, an audio installation that takes real-time financial data about genetically modified soy from Latin America and the Brabant region’s pig farming and translates it into sound, a dance party on the beautiful Croatian coast, and more…
DJ RUPTURE – SUMMER NEVER ENDS
tour dates
Aug 10 – Mudd Up Book Clubb. Madrid, Spain
Aug 12 – Terraneo Festival . Å ibenik, Croatia
Aug 16 – Nørrebroparken in Copenhagen, Denmark. w/ Mutamassik
Aug 17 – free Master Class w/ Rupture + Mad Professor! Culture Box, CPH
Aug 19 – Ã…rhus, Denmark. w/ Mutamassik.
Aug 20 – STØJ. Hillerød, Denmark.
Aug 24 – Paradiso . Amsterdam, NL. w/ The Ex
Aug 26 – Le Petit Bain . Paris, France. w/ Axel Krygier
Sept 9 – Cinematheque du Tanger. Tangier, Morocco. w/ Nettle & Imanaren
Sept 12-18 – The Soya Waltz (interactive audio installation) Incubate Festival . Tilburg, Holland
While we’re posting videos and big’n people up, big up Pepepiano on the audio and Proxy Dreams on the visual. From forthcoming cassette release, snatch the mp3 here.
I get a lot of emails – “what does the Dutty Artz headquarters look like?” “What type of furniture and seating arrangement do y’all use?” “Are the walls plaster, wood paneling, some sort of tiling, or Italian wallpaper?” “It is true that your in-house legal counsel is an 83-year old Moroccan man, suspicious and animated, who owns no cellphone?”
Needless to say I don’t have time to respond to these emails, but my friend Simone just faxed me this JPG of a photograph which may help answer some of your questions. As always, we here at Dutty Artz Limited Liability Corporation (Dutty Artz L.L.C., est. 2007/8) thank you for your patronage.
A couple years ago our friend Filastine was in town and I remember not being able to join him on some crazy boat ride on a trash barge that had been re-purposed as an art installation. There was talk of some armada of these vessels. Like minded people are bringing you a really fun event tomorrow.
Last weekend the naval gangs of New York assembled to Battle for Mau Mau Island (See photos here). Come see the fallen soldiers, harvested booty, and glorious victors at a new two-story space in Bed-Stuy.Mau Mau gangs, gladiator raft jousting, cocktail catacombs, clothing optional watergun fight, underground casino & film screenings of eerily beautiful movies set on the water, slide show and videos of the battle, and an awards presentation for the victors. Wet & wild all night long.
Saturday, July 30, 9:30- late80 Vernon Ave, between Marcy & Tompkins
(G train to Myrtle/Willoughby 1 block away; or J,M,Z to Myrtle)
Ice cold beer and watermelon vodka open bar 9:30-10:30
$5 for gangs in matching costumes, Mau Mau vets, or before 11pm, $10 otherwise; 21+
All proceeds go directly to the Swimming Cities India project. www.weareswimmingcities.org
I’m very excited to present this video. It’s a short Behind The Scenes look at our Beyond Digital: Morocco art project. You can also check out my series of Fader posts, and the BD website itself, but this video is by far the best summary and explanation of what we were up to in June, and in so doing it provides glimpses of what’s to come: an incredible photo series by John Francis Peters; poignant video essays by Maggie Schmitt and Juan Alcon Duran; my free Max4Live audio tools suite, Sufi Plug-Ins; Maghrebi percussion sample pack & music by Maga Bo; and more… We’ll also be doing an event in Tangier on September 9th, more info next week.
Auto-tune lovers take note: the video previews a snippet from the best auto-tune interview ever, when we spoke with Moroccan pop star Adil El Miloudi in his home.
Adil El Miloudi: “Autotune gives you a ‘me’ that is better.”
Let’s party!  Next Sweat Lodge we’ve got some old and new friends joining us.  2Melo, who is part of Atropolis Cumba Mela crew has been heating up Brooklyn’s warehouses, boats and other strange places for the past few years and I’ve had a blast every time that I’ve played with him.  It was actually through a couple of gigs around Brooklyn with Cumba Mela that I got to know Atropolis and his music which lead to his release on DA.  Lamin Fofana needs no re-introduction to readers of these pages and will be re-joining us after a hiatus. I understand he’s been working on a new set including some of his own new productions so I’m very excited to hear that.  Finally Uproot Andy who was a resident at Sweat Lodge’s big sister New York Tropical and is fresh off his recent tour of Europe and Summer Stage appearance will be returning to rock with us, so it’s a family reunion of sorts.  I’ll be there too, of course but taking the early warm up this time to make room for our guests.
TIM, nice flag sponsorship, but your cellphone coverage is still awful in Rocinha
A week ago as I walked besides the still-not-entirely-closed off sewer stream in Rocinha, the favela where I’ve been living in Rio de Janeiro, a truck approached. Bamboo stalks and palm fronds filled the bed of the truck. Several young boys and pre-teens with their faces streaked with black paint jumped off the truck as it slowed to a halt. They tumbled on the ground or ran wildly, crying out. I asked my friend what was happening. He answered simply, “Festa caipira,” “country party.”
That weekend and the next this area of Rocinha, Valão, would throw its Festa Junina, a party which no one seems to be able to explain very well to me. In the rural Northeast of Brazil, this celebration trumps Carnival in popularity. Although called Festas Juninas, June Parties, the parties don’t start happening until June 24th and only happen in a big way in July. São João and São Antonio, whose saints’ days come in late June, are the main saints involved. “Junina” supposedly–I’ve never heard this, only read it–derives from Joãoina, from São João. Children eat candied apples, dress up like country bumpkins, brides and grooms, or aristocrats and dance in quadrilhas to forro and other Brazilian folk music. Pyrotechnic explosions have replaced the “traditional” bonfires which people dance around. During the day, dogs bark and I try not to jump (like a gringa) after every boom of firecrackers.
In many communities in Rio, Festas Juninas have died out. But in Rocinha, home of many Northeastern migrants, each neighborhood seems to throw its own outdoor “June” party Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Last Friday I spent almost eight hours at two different festas juninas in Rocinha. At the second one, boys and girls—whose costumes were specially sponsored and more sparkly than most—danced quadrilhas from about 2 to nearly 4am. Rural roots were reenacted and the past re-sounded in a multiply-displaced, secretly pagan celebration of the summer solstice in the middle of (still tropical) winter.
John Roberts (not John Storm Roberts) remixing George Fitzgerald kicked off last night’s radio show. I hope that those are stage names and not their real names (the way my friend named Vincent is really named Alex), but either way the music is magic. The hour was lively (how had I not heard the Fuckbuttons Fever Ray remix before? Imagine if every Aaliyah track had a beat-a-pella version? How much more Brooklyn R&B will we get this year?) as was the comments section. You can stream it now:
tracklist:
George Fitzgerald Silhouette – John Roberts remix Silhouette Ep Aus Music Caribou Found Out Swim Merge
Aaliyah If Your Girl Only Know (Beat A Pella) If Your Girl Only Knew Atlantic
Downliners Sekt All I Can Hear Now Meet the Decline Disboot NEXT WEEK’S SPECIAL GUESTS!! http://www.negrophonic.com/2011/downliners-sekt-to-speak/
Fever Ray If I Had A Heart (Fuckbuttons remix) If I Had A Heart Mute “F(CC) Buttons”
Wiley Intro Creating A Buzz free mixtape hosted by DJ Whoo Kid. pretty sure this is it: http://www.zshare.net/download/923025814a312f94/
Wiley To Be Continued Creating A Buzz
Spoek Mathambo Mshini Wam (Canblaster remix) Mshini Wam / Gwababa (Don’t Be Scared) BBE
John Roberts Interlude (Telephone) Glass Eights Dial
Shabazz Palaces Toooonniiiiggggght Sub Pop free download somewhere, live version of album cut
Clipse Hello New World Hell Hath No Fury Star Trak
Yobi Painful War ft. Maino BROOKLYN ARE AND BEE
Hamdouia Mnin Ana O Mnin Nta
Dahi Katma Dahi Katma more lovely music with fragmentary metadata. all, the great data-melt! postGoogle
