We are kicking off (B)Lack History Month in style:
On Wednesday February 1st, at 7pm, DJ Rupture and Lamin Fofana will host a special 2-hour live radio show from south Williambsburg’s Spectacle Theater, with Chief Boima (new jams on the way!), Old Money, and a our favorite African video shopowner.
Following the live WFMU broadcast — built primarily from African music videos purchased in the cornerstores of NYC — we will screen God’s Own Country by director Femi Agbayewa. GOC presents the story of a young Nigeria lawyer who immigrates to NYC to discover that life in America is not like he hoped… As Boima explains, “It’s firmly in the Nollywood tradition. The story line is a New York story, and I think it’s the perfect context for the non-Nollywood initiated to get introduced to the industry. . . it is also referencing the tradition of the American hood gangster flick like Belly. Almost an amalgamation of the two.”
Palm wine and kola nuts are included with the $5 admission. Space is limited, so come early!
I was quiet for most of 2011 when it comes to releasing original music. To be honest, I was a bit hard on myself. I’m finally getting out of that muck, and feeling ready now. I’m planning to put out several releases this year, on Dutty Artz as well as branching out to other labels.
Please find details for my first release of 2012 below. Titled Dubious Prey, it comes out on limited vinyl January 30th, then a digital release with additional remixes shortly follows. London label Sticks N Stones is releasing it… SNS a small new label owned and operated by my friend Aramac, and distributed by ST Holdings. Artwork, tracklisting, YouTube and SoundCloud previews – all below.
artist: Lamin Fofana
title: Dubious Prey
label: Sticks N Stones Recordings (Distributed by S.T. Holdings, UK)
date: 30th January for vinyl / 27th February for digital
Vinyl
A – Brokedown City
A2 – Dubious Prey
B – Brokedown City (Aramac Remix)
Digital
1. Dubious Prey
2. Brokedown City
3. Brokedown City (Aramac Remix)
4. Brokedown City (Svpreme Fiend Mix)
5. Brokedown City (Mayster & Contakt Rebuild)
6. Brokedown City (La Ola Criminal Remix)
Yesterday, XLR8R premiered the first cut from Dubious Prey, “Brokedown City”
NYC-via-Sierra Leone DJ/producer and Dutty Artz affiliate Lamin Fofana is set to release a new EP, Dubious Prey, the follow-up to his 2010 debut EP, What Elijah Said. The new EP features two originals, including this one, “Brokedown City,” a dark but still active piece of techno with a steady four-on-the-floor. The song’s notably tropical percussion is buffeted by potent synth lines, which bleed in and out of the song, and a barely audible vocal sample that occasionally slips into the mix…
[audio:http://media.xlr8r.com/files/downloads/mp3s/Brokedown%20City.mp3]
Head over there for the DOWNLOAD.
Peace good peoples. I’m new around here, so thanks firstly to Jace for having me. This here is a mix from my group Old Money for the good folks at VANE. Less a compilation of “the new hot shit” and more so genuine touchstones of influence for us. A cpl unreleased jawns on there from us, as well as one from Boima’s forthcoming African In New York. I’m really and truly still amazed that Boima managed to make me like that Usher song. Vanity Jukebox Vol. 13 Pretty Danger Mixed by Old Money by sotrvanenyc Playlist 1. Mad One – House Girls 7 – No War Inside 2. Old Money – [untitled] 3. DJ Mujava – Mugwanti / Sgwejegweje 4. DJ Tira – I Wont Let You Go 5. Old Money – Mothership [unreleased] 6. Nina Simone – See-Line Woman 7. Rebirth Brass Band – Feel Like Funkin’ It Up 8. Outkast – Spottieottiedopalicious (Nacey Remix) 9. Isa GT – Funketa 10. Kes The Band – Wotless 11. Crystal Waters – What I Need (Club Mix) 12. Maluca + The Party Squad – Lola (Ging Danga) 13. Usher – DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love (Chief Boima Remix) 14. Lil Silva feat. Sampha – On Your Own 15. Gelú-Six – In The Building 16. Baobinga & I.D. – Man Down 17. Jhene Aiko – Club Stranger (Nguzunguzu Remix)
S/o the OG “urban” brands in the vid. Mecca USA, Walker Wear and the like. And RIP Freaky Tah. If you’ve been living this long w/o Legal Drug Money you’ve been living foul!
The first show in Mudd Up Radio’s new Wednesday night time slot is now streaming! SOAP BLEACH SOFTENERS. Gentle beginnings. New music from Cauto, Vladislav Delay, Ghanain gospel, Erothug, and, yes, Lana del Rey:
WFMU’s Winter 2012 schedule shuffle means that, starting this week, Lamin Fofana will host a show right before me on Wednesdays! We’ll do our best to give you good apocalypse in 2012. Our ice cream comes in 5 flavors: regular black, mudd, noir noir, soft bop, and dust bowl.
December 7, 2011, Mudd Up! w/ DJ Rupture on WFMU – tracklist:
On Sunday December 11, the Mudd Up Book Clubb returns to Manhattan, to discuss Lauren Beukes’ 2010 novel Zoo City. If you wanted to throw genre signifiers at it, you could say that it’s new African urban fantasy sci-fi noir with a strong musical component. There is even an accompanying soundtrack , released on African Dope records:
As I wrote in my August post on Zoo City, “It’s weird noir, set in contemporary Johannesburg, featuring an ex-junkie protagonist named Zinzi December and her magic sloth. The unconventional pair is caught in a web of intrigue involving murder, 419 email scams, and a missing kwaito/afropop teen star. In short, it sounds like a book specifically engineered for my peer group.” Check out the full post for more thoughts on Zoo City, or join us on December 11th in New York City for realtime talk.
Join us for an intimate night of sound & celebration on Saturday, December 3rd @ Vaudeville Park in Brooklyn (L to Graham). Mint tea, dates, and homemade deliciousness will be served.
We are celebrating the release of Nettle’s new album on Sub Rosa, El Resplandor: The Shining in Dubai. (get it at: iTunesAmazonBoomkateMusic actual record stores, etc)
“Dubai may be a cipher masquerading as a city, but it’s not a complete blank slate unencumbered by theoretical and contextual baggage, and El Resplandor depicts it as you might expect: ancient and dignified ‘Middle Eastern’ airs buffeted by howls of the ghosts in modernity’s machine. This is not to say that the album is merely conventional, however, for El Resplandor contains some of /Rupture’s most vivid and striking music… provocative and as chilling as anything in the real Shining” – Peter Shapiro, The Wire Nov 2011
Sat. December 3rd: Nettle (live), Lamin Fofana (dj). Vaudeville Park, 26 Bushwick Ave. Bklyn. doors at 8:30pm $8. Come early warm bodies shining ghosts.
An album release party and free night of celebration in the heart of the heart of the country!
Click on the huge GIF to see the huge GIF in all its huge GIFNESS.
djs mothershiester and bent invite you to:
The 2nd Happy Hour installment of Africa is Not a Country features a special performance by Nettle. Led by DJ /rupture, this inter-continental project blends electronic beats, North African folksongs and percussion with avant garde noise. We’ll be celebrating the release of group’s new record — El Resplandor: The Shining in Dubai / iTunes / Amazon / Boomkat. “For this album, Nettle imagined a remake of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining set in a luxury hotel in Dubai, U.A.E. El Resplandor: The Shining In Dubai is their soundtrack for that nonexistent film.”
Live DJ sets by bent and mothershiester through the night will feature Rock, Ska, and Punk anthems from Mozambique, South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria. Jazz arrangements from Madagascar and Ghana. Soukous jams and Chaabi gems. Plus a glut of “pirated” Kenyan Pop mp3s that dj bent found while idly cruising the information superhighway.
Friday, December 2
Marrakech Lounge
1817 Columbia Rd. NW
7 to 11 pm
Nettle plays at 9pm!
free!!
enjoy drink specials of $3 beers, $5 wine and rail drinks, and delicious $5 appetizers at this brand new north african spot – Marrakech Lounge.
plus hooka/sheesha for enjoyment on the veranda
Africa is Not a Country is an anti-colonial musical journey, using the dancefloor/barstool to deconstruct the idea of “African music†as we rock out from Jo-burg to Cairo, from Dakar to Nairobi, with a quick lap around the islands.
Since you all loved up that last footwork / juke post I made I figured I’d share a video piece that Wills Glasspiegel who did the audio I posted did, I assume on the same trip to Chicago. Â Some of the material is the same but since it’s about dancing the visual is pretty key: watch those feet work!
Also Wills was nice enough to make the audio in the original post (below) downloadable for those of you who requested it for your filez.
Also Traxman who’s in the piece will be playing in NYC this Friday at an underground party at an undisclosed location in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Â Also Total Freedom from LA! Â Looks like there will be some footwork dancers there too. Â Shout to Azizaman for putting it together, looks dope. Â FB event here w/ info.
I am not involved with this but am showing it a bit of promo love because I remember what it was like trying to bring Grime artists to NYC when no one knew what it was but I just loved this new crazy music and wanted to share. Â It ain’t easy! If you like this kind of stuff vote with your dancing feet.
Imanaren is beautiful mystical music from the south of Morocco. Jace found them during our Beyond Digital residency project last summer in Casablanca- and after becoming close friends with the band leader Hassan, we decided to re-release their self titled, DIY full length. We traveled to Hassan’s hometown of Issafen via a grueling 12 hour drive into a sublime desert of martian rock formations and dusty oases. Nearly half way through our stay, Hassan’s father finally asked us why exactly we had come. Hassan isn’t allowed to play music in the house, so we recorded with his local friends and fellow musicians in a natural amphitheater carved out by a waterfall in a dry gorge. We will be selling an extremely limited number of the original Moroccan CD pressings that Hassan had distributed on a small scale through Morocco- other then that, stream it all on Hassan’s youtube channel – or cop it amazon, boomkat, or any other fine digital shop. Watch the video we shot in Issafen for “Flowering Of The Wise” and Hassan’s first collabo with Nettle below.
Wills Glassspiegel sent me this after I ran into him on the street and remarked how much I enjoyed the radio broadcast he worked on for Afropop about the black American roots of house and techno here.
I’ll let him speak:
“Thought you and Dutty Artz might be interested in this interview tape I recorded in Chicago with Traxman, RP Boo, DJ Earl and Boylan. I think everyone has been trying to describe “footwork” and no one quite gets to it like these guys. In publishing this tape (which i did with their permsision), I was reminded of Lomax’s old oral history interviews with blues musicians. So important for musicians to tell their own stories.”
Yup, I agree. I always prefer to listen to music talk about their own work and scenes as opposed to various usually distant journalistic interpreters. Listen, learn and enjoy.
Commandeering the kitchen at Subsuelo/Gnawledge HQ in LA (thanks G-Notes!) ( foto x Farah Sosa)
8 tomatoes
1 Roasted Red Bell Pepper
1 Roasted Green Bell Pepper
15 Kalamato Olives
1 Tsp Italian Herb Tomato Paste
3-4 Sprigs Thyme
3 Garlic Cloves
2 Olive Oil Drizzles
6 Tilapia
Cilantro
Lime
I invited some friends to eat in exchange for a bread-breaking data swap. I’m definitely not on a culinary level with my dude DJ Rajah over at SoulCocina but this is really what meetings should be like. Exchanging in currencies that don’t depend as directly on the dollar really has an intrinsic value in making people connect. It leads to better less guarded conversation and reminds us that if we work together, there’s always more to eat on the table. Here’s my TOP 5Â Things I won in the West Coast Data Swap
First up, G-Notes, the guitarist and beatsmith behind the hybrid flamenco act Granada Doaba and all around Gnawledge famalam hit me with a few remixes and edits
[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/g3kojones/Dame Lo Gnotes Remix.mp3]
and this touch up of Gotye’s anti-love jam caught me off guard…
[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/g3kojones/Somebody That I Used To Know Gnotes Remix.mp3]
Now my homie, Santero in the Bay Area has been holding me down for a few years now. I was happy to crash at his this time around and spend some time getting to know what he’s been up to. I learned he has been working with our homie Boogat up in Montreal.. Notice how the cover art is Boogat with the fam all around at a BBQ or somn… home cooking how we do !
(Incidentally, since that convo I’ve been rocking Dos Cervesas (prod by Poirier) off the PURA VIDA EP like its my job)
Santero also just put out a brand new mixtape a couple days ago for Los Rakas’ homegirl FAVI called Flor de Azahar (orange blossom – really the best smelling flower in the world for my money)
Santero also put me on to this Goapelle/Los Rakas Remix I had admittedly been sleeping on. It was featured on Fader and Rcrd Lbl months ago. Be sure to check them out on November 19th with me and Dre Skull at SOBs
I started teaching at Dubspot in August, thanks to Matt Shadetek. Before I began teaching I was a teacher assistant for DJ Kiva for about a month, and it was during this period that Kiva gave our class a sneak peek of his project 1000 Sunrises, which he finally put out last week. It always awesome to hear a project during its earlier stages, and then hearing it completed. Definitely worth checking out.
DJ Kiva will be dropping this freshness November 10th at Le Poisson Roug with Africa Hitech, and he will be rocking Webster Hall with Matt Shadetek November 12th.
The following material was pulled from the Dubspot blog, which Lamin wrote:
Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist producer and musician DJ KIVA returns with a superb new solo album 1000 Sunrises out October 18 on his  Adios Babylon imprint via Destroy All Concepts.
Navigating beauty and pain with deep, mesmeric, off-centered beats, soulful, dub-wise electronic impressions, twirling synthlines, and reinforced sub-bass, 1000 Sunrises is a perfectly balanced album. The six tracks presented here are meticulously and lovingly put together, and they move with an unhurried, reassuring pace. From the opening “Feel It,†with its extra-bouncy thump and unrelenting, catchy synthline to the meditative “Tayyib,” which maintains a solemn and contemplative mood with eerie voices but holds a propulsive groove, and the staggeringly beautiful, mind-expanding title track “1000 Sunrises,†DJ Kiva remains remarkably self-reliant and uncompromising in aesthetic throughout the entire album. Album closer “City Of The Dawn†is the uplifting, post-future, and soulful electronic music you can only get from an experienced and self-assured electronic music producer, whose style and range go far beyond arbitrary and trendy sub-genres. Electronics, melody, dub, and soul come together – same as it never was.
The Performa Biennial has descended upon New York, and I’m pleased to announce that I’m writing a new radio play which will debut on Saturday, Nov. 12.
After Performa approached me about the radioplay I went off on long lines of investigation which crescendoed around the incredible, and, yes, tragic life of gay black NYC composer, Julius Eastman.
As Mary Leach writes about trying to gather his scattered work:
“Thus began an almost quixotic seven-year search for the music of Julius Eastman who died in 1990 and whose final years were a life spiraled out of control to the point where he was living in Tompkins Square Park. He’d been evicted from his apartment in the East Village—the sheriff having dumped his possessions onto the street. Julius made no effort to recover any of his music. . . One of the problems of writing about Julius is that it is difficult to state anything with certainty.”
How The Julius Eastman Memorial Dinner fits into all this will (trust me) be a surprise. This I can say: it takes a village to stage a radio play before a live audience, so for The Julius Eastman Memorial Dinner, I’ve brought aboard several pianists and voice-actors, among them Emily Manzo and Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts. Radio was central to my musical upbringing and remains something I’m committed to, so the opportunity to create new work expressly for the medium is fantastic.
In 2005 New World Records released a 3-CD set of Eastman’s music, which was generally associated with downtown minimalism. You can download the liner notes [PDF]. Below is a recording of “Evil Nigger” (1979) here played on four pianos with Eastman himself. One Two Three Four!
Some people are good enough that all they have to do is speak, or threaten speech to get me to show up. Other people I need to be assured will perform. But Kowdo Eshun is in the former category. His music writing is full of neologisms and the sort of insightful criticism as prose poetry that makes first time reading (especially as a liberal arts student) something like finding the solar anus in a econ textbook. Music writing is supposed to be about selling music- or something- but Eshun, whose out of print More Brilliant Then the Sun is indeed sublime, writes with phrases like “synthetic architecture of moving parts that turns itself slowly , throwing off rotary forces of bewilderment and solace…” and i guess maybe in the end I did buy.zip that Hype Williams EP- but somehow I would have been satisfied just to have read the review.
Location:
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, 66 Fifth Avenue
6PM
don’t be fooled by the latest BS from “washington†– it’s wild, musical, rebellious times in DC! after an amazing weekend with the phenomenal RIPLEY (who i connected with via the great 2011 facebook-moombahton-boobie debate), including a great party, another incredible dj geekout, and the future of music coalition policy summit, the fun continues tonight as MARACUYEAH! hosts PERNETT, live and direct from colombia! made possible by collab with DA fam!
the future holds even more. saturday is BACKDOOR once again, when the ANTHOLOGY OF BOOTY hoists our flag of revolutionary raunch and compels the people to scrub da ground. we’re fortunate enough to have a lost daughter return this weekend with KIRAN GANDHI bringing live percussionism into the mix.
next thursday myself and MOTHERSHIESTER try something new with an anti-colonial journey via music, dancing, and libations – AFRICA IS NOT A COUNTRY (not to be confused with the rad blog of a similar name) is our latest effort to deconstruct the elision of cairo, accra, dar es salaam, and durban.
and stay tuned for more excitement as other plans continue to evolve.
