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]

My new solo instrumental album Flowers is out!  YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

It took me a while to get this out, longer than I’d like considering it’s on my own label but now it’s out and it feels GOOD!  I love completing projects.  But it’s not done!  Now I have to actually sell some copies!  If you or your grandma or your friends on the internet would like to support the Dutty Artz movement and contribute to the cause of me buying diapers, catfood and continuing my lavish lifestyle for me and my young family that would be great!  There are many places to buy it.  Here is a list:

BUY MATT SHADETEK – FLOWERS:

Boomkat:
This is probably a good option if you want FLAC or any of those non-mp3 formats.
iTunes (USA):
If you buy here please write me a lavish review and give me five stars!  I deserve it!  If you’re browsing the store from your phone or whatever I am featured in front of the Electronic category in the USA store.
Juno:

FREE DOWNLOADS:
AND if you missed them you can get some free downloads including two songs from the album and a podcast DJ mix I did for XLR8R:

Download ‘Funny Cats’ from The FADER

Download ‘iHop’ from XLR8R

Download the podcast mix from XLR8R

Stream ‘Funny Cats’ from Soundcloud:

Funny Cats by mattshadetek

We’re speeding up the content production/consumption cycle in the instant update world… and no one does snarky music world twitter better then Disco Shawn (who was also dropping gems on Muddup a couple weeks ago LISTEN HERE) h/t to him for this video which defies commentary beyond the fact that sometimes its cool to live in America where something like Sensation (source of some of the clips below) could NEVER happen.

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

Unrelated Submerged Second Life Picture- but watch for an amazing video coming soon from Sara Taigher

Solar Life Raft- the mix that keeps on giving- has finally made its way to your local record stores. /rupture and Shadetek working together is a serious Voltron force. It’s safe to say that I have listened to SLR over a hundred times since it was recorded- and I’m still finding reasons to go back. Opening with Time-Blind’s abstract tone poetry and closing with a gorgeous re-work from /rupture and Shadetek of Telepathe, it’s easy to miss all the ground the mix has covered.

Tracklists are the weird anathema of the DJ Mix- always reminding us as producers and consumers that for some reason the sounds cant just stand alone. A tracklist can mark a DJ’s access to dub-plates and exclusives or their prodigal digging- but always the tracklist serves as a sort of roadmap for listeners that want to go beyond the mix and gain some traction in it. Often I’ll look to a track list before deciding whether or not to listen to a given mix. Or I will return to the tracklist after hearing something amazing that I want to be up on.

SLR stands alone without the tracklist- and the hype that goes along with it- people read the tracklist and think, “Wow, this sure is eclectic”- but it’s not grab bag by any means- its laser precision etched in bass. It is hard to believe after listening to SLR that you’ve just digested sounds as seemingly diverse as Cardopusher, Paavoharju, and Luc Ferrari. One you get used to these sorts of mixes- where genre-orthodoxy and rigid notions of sonic-geographies are left behind- it gets pretty fucking hard to go back to an hour of any BPM mixed seamlessly at the start of 8, 16 and 32 bar phrases and movements.

/rupture and Shadetek can really cook in the lab. I’ve always rated Matt for his back-from-the-crossroads skills in Logic. I mean- from what I know- he was the first stateside producer to actually be doing production for grime dudes in London. /rupture on the other hand has always been off in a zone that seemed far more experimental- where quantization was frowned upon and standard timing or track development was laughed out the door. Through the last few years they seem to have tempered each others workflows and styles in all the right ways- and SLR should be an announcement that these two can make tracks with the very best of them. The album is almost a third original production and its the home grown tracks that really provided the convincing narrative that holds the mix together.

Effusive praise can ring hallow coming from ones own crew- but I’m not just trying to ramp up sales- Solar Life Raft is remarkable. Do whatever your ethical radar tells you in regard to consuming music and somehow, someway, find yourself a copy. If that happens to be amazon, boomkat, itunes, or beatport….just think of it as investing in more music.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/leaky/MattShadetek-Strength_In_Numbers-SOLAR-LIFE-RAFT.mp3]
Matt Shadetek – Strength In Numbers

[audio:http://secretgooglecheatcodes.com/GGD-Bebey-DJ_Rupture+MattShadetek_RMX.mp3]
Gang Gang Dance – Bebey (DJ /rupture and Matt Shadetek Remix)

Washington_Phillips

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/WashingtonPhillips-DenominationBluesPart1.mp3]

Washington Phillips – Denomination Blues Part 1

In the late 1920s, gospel music performer Washington Phillips recorded 16 songs. The songs featured Phillips’ voice and an home-made instrument, — some argued not a Dolceola, but a common fretless zither (possibly both of the Phonoharps in the photo above.)  The instrument(s) add an ethereal effect to Phillips’ voice (on first listen, I thought I was hearing the voice of a woman, a trace of Nina Simone.) Earlier this year, Dust-to-Digital, a record company based in Atlanta, Georgia released Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music (1924 – 1940) and Photography (1890 – 1950) – a 96-page hardbound book containing amazing historic images and an incredible 25-track CD of songs and sermons. It’s available everywhere.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If6i59NUfkk[/youtube]