by on

octa push

I got put up on Octa Push by the hospitable folks of Bristol’s finest BassMusic/Karnival crew Ruffnek Diskotek. After a massive fry up we were listening to some tunes and Octa Push stood out as some serious heat… A few internet mediated communications later- and we have a brief and incredibly straight forward interview direct for DA from the Iberian peninsula.

Who is Octa Push?
We’re two brothers, Dizzycutter and Mushug and we both have been making beats for a while but only started making them together in the beginning of 2008. Started a bit like a joke when our friends at Conspira (one of the first crews pushing bass music in Portugal) booked us for a show. We had to find a name and make loads of beats, it went well and then we decided to take it a bit more seriously. Since then things been moving really fast and we’ve been lucky to play in wicked places!
We did official remixes for people like Buraka Som Sistema, Débruit, Mochipet, Monkey Steak and more..
Our sound has it’s main influences UK garage, bashment, techno, afrobeat and loads of diferent things..

What sort of gear are you working on?
We produce with Cubase SX, lots of VST’s and Midi Controllers.
Thinking on getting some Hardware.
For Live Act we use Ableton Live + 2 Mac’s and 2 MPD24

What are your plans for this upcoming year?
We’re going to release an original 12′ with 3 tracks. 1 with MC Zulu (ninja tune) + 1 with Portuguese/Cape Verde MC Toni Clean.
It will come out on Iberian Records.
Other releases for Steakhouse and a couple of remixes for Civil Music and Enchufada..
We’re thinking of making an album aswell.

Whose pushing the Iberian Sound ?
Iberian sound is blowing up with people like Mr Gasparov, Relocate, Cardopusher, Das Nevez, Buraka Som Sistema, A.m.o.r., DJ Manaia, Batida and more…

Who else are you feeling?
In a bass heavy music tip Bristol is always on the map, producers like Joker, Monkey Steak, Gemmy, Guido, Slugabed are great!
Also guys like Starkey, Dorian Concept, Bullion, L-Vis1990, Debruit, Brackles, Untold are making amazing music at the moment..
Bands like Puscifer, Animal Collective.. blabla we hate listing!

Here’s a tune for  your crates- adroit vocal slicing with lumbering low end beast dragging everything forward with sideways time precision.
[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/Getyoshitout_OCTA_PUSH_Rmx.mp3]

by on

duttyartz_featureimg_giant

BROOKLYN ANTHEMS

Dutty Artz Represents the World Town

Story Julianne Shepherd
Photography Jason Nocito

Encyclopedic, scholarly and wielding deep faith in riddim and vibes—the alchemy of the Brooklyn-based Dutty Artz crew is completely mystical and slightly awe-inspiring. Its main proprietors, the power trio of DJ/producers Jace Clayton aka DJ/Rupture, Matt Schell aka Matt Shadetek, and Roberto Fernandez aka Geko Jones, are dudes preeminently known for soliciting and disseminating the globe’s bangingest dancehall, dubstep, and cumbia beats. They have explored metropolises, townships and favelas to seek out music in its indigenous state and found likeminded friends in Brazil’s Maga Bo, Montreal’s Ghislain Poirier, and Cape Town’s African Dope Records crew, and when they can’t get to the most outward of dance music’s niches themselves, they have a gang of colleagues to carry the load. When a friend recently traveled to Distrito Federal in Mexico City, Jones begged him to bring back whatever wild music he could find. Thus, when you Google “tribal guarachero,” duttyartz.com is the only non-Spanish blog that results. They are archaeologists scouring the globe’s nooks and crannies with the curiosity of scientists, not conquistadors. They are so passionate about the beat, and generous with their knowledge of it, you almost don’t know where to begin the discussion.

Click HERE to read the rest of Julianne Shepherd’s intelligent and sincere article from The FADER #61.

by on

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/clip:3645970[/vimeo]

Steele just sent this over to me, and I’m pleased to share it with you all.  When he heard Jahdan’s new single “The General”, from JD’s forthcoming Buzzrock Warrior album, it seemed tailor made for him, Tony “General” Steele as he’s called and so he asked to jump on a remix.  JD and Steele go way back to the days of Smif N Wessun’s “Sound Bwoy Bureill” and JD has been involved with the Boot Camp Clique for years.  To have Steele spitting on my beat is a special honor for me having been such a fan of Smif N Wessun back in the day, listening to classics like “Wreckonize” and “Sound Bwoy Bureill” on The Box, back when NYC had a real, user controlled video channel and all anyone would request was hardcore hiphop.

Watch for The General Remix feat. General Steele coming soon.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhUAy1QlPvY[/youtube]

by on

 
Large Hangars and Fuel Storage/Tonopah Test Range, NV/Distance ~18 miles/10:44 am by Trevor Paglen

Mark Danner is one of the good journalists. His work navigates nearly impenetrable messes of deceit and deception like the 2000 Florida vote recount, the nefarious path to the American war in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. Military intervention in Reagen era El Salvador… the list goes on- but I think when you have Susan Sontag call you “one of our best, most ambitious narrative journalists” you’ve pretty much fulfilled your journalistic duty to the world.

One of my biggest fears during the election was that once/if Obama was elected there would be a psychic closure on the Bush years. In a more utilitarian sense, I am afraid that people are so excited about entering a “new era” that they  forget that there is a lot of unfinished business from the last 8 years that needs to be sorted out. Danner’s latest piece, “US Torture: Voices From the Black Sites,” which appeared in the new issue of the New York Review of Books on Monday, is doing some of the heavy lifting. It contains detailed accounts of interrogations of “highvalue detainees” at secret “black site” prisons. An excerpt from the piece – about a tenth of it – appeared on the OpEd page of Sunday’s New York Times. It’s a potent reminder that the clean up process has just begun.

Wayne says PDFs are the new MP3s- so here is a PDF of the whole article as it appeared in the New York Review of Books. This is painful to read, and while for some it might be confirming what they thought they already knew- there’s something deeply moving about reading first hand accounts of the abuse against “our enemies.”

Mark Danner “US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites” PDF (9 pages)

by on

Through my travels in the internet I read this article on the NYtimes site. It’s an article about a budding sub-culture of American Islamic punk bands, criticizing both American imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism which arose in response to a novel. The novel is Michael Muhammad Knight’s ‘The Taqwacores’. From the blurb for Knight’s forthcoming memoir, via his Wikipedia page:

“Impossible Man follows a boy’s struggle in coming to terms with his father—a paranoid schizophrenic and white supremacist who had threatened to decapitate Michael when he was a baby—and his father’s place in his own identity. It is also the story of a teenager’s troubled path to maturity and the influences that steady him along the way. Knight’s encounter with Malcolm X’s autobiography transforms him from a disturbed teenager engaged in correspondence with Charles Manson to a zealous Muslim convert who travels to Pakistan and studies in a madrassa. Later disillusioned by radical religion, he again faces the crisis of self-definition. For all its extremes, Impossible Man describes a universal journey: a wounded boy in search of a working model of manhood, going to outrageous lengths to find it.”

Here’s an interview with him where he talks about progressive islam, wrestling and the Five Percenters.

Not quite sure what to say about this more than I think it’s interesting to see that there are people out there rebelling against, wrestling with and writing sincerely about the big questions. That kind of passionate engagement seemed like something my generation had lost in the haze of cynicism, non-position taking coolness and infinite consumer choice. As someone else as well who felt that reading Malcolm X’s autobiography was an important event but felt unsure how to respond to it I thought this guy’s response was interesting if a little extreme (move to Pakistan and attend a Madrassa). As a lover of books in general I also love the idea that a novel could generate this kind of response and create this kind of cultural space.

by on

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIwu49rAVsE&e[/youtube]

Rupture will be back in NY soon but for those who miss him, check out this ‘mini-documentary’ from the industrious and praiseworthy Maga Bo. Jace talking about life in NYC, Sunset Park, Brooklyn where much of the DA crew lives, how NY has “no quality of life” (true), music, cultural density and about always being late. Short and sweet Bo has done a bunch of these, on his YouTube page. Worth checking out.

by on

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yazG1hKuCww[/youtube]If you live in a major metropolitan area, you’ve probably seen these shirts, with the big STOP SNITCHING graphic on them. In the video above, taken from the Criminals Gone Wild DVD series, we hear a masked self-professed criminal commenting on Dipset rapper Cam’ron’s interview with Anderson Cooper where they discuss the subject of police cooperation and whether Cam would snitch on a serial killer next door. Saying he would move and not tell anyone Cam seems to be taking the whole stop snitching ethos to a ridiculous extreme.

The moral code of not snitching arose as a response to the divide and conquer techniques of white slave holders. By rewarding slaves for snitching on one another the masters were able to ensure that slaves remained divided from one another and would never be able to trust one another enough to organize and revolt. If you can’t tell your fellow oppressed people about your plan to overthrow the bosses for fear that they’ll tell on you then you will never be able to build a group insurrection to overthrow them or take revenge.

Katt William’s in a fairly recent comedy routine decried Lil’ Kim’s going to prison for as he says “NOT snitching, something your MAMA ALWAYS TOLD YOU TO DO!” The fact that a culture of not-informing arose in response to a coordinated program of divide and conquer, setting the oppressed against one another is completely un-surprising and makes perfect sense.

That that would be incorporated into a criminal code also makes very obvious sense. Criminals do not have recourse to the law to settle their disputes and therefore often need to police themselves and those around them, often through violence. Indeed, as the masked man in the video points out, if you are not going to snitch on the serial killer then you have a moral responsibility to as he says “get your boys and go deal with him”. But as he also points out, if you are not a criminal, this shit does not apply to you.

Taken to the furthest extremes, basically, of never cooperating with the police for any reason, as Cam’ron seems to propose with his serial killer comments, reflects a completely amoral view, basically that none of us have any responsibility to anyone but ourselves. In truth, this is not at all surprising considering Cam’ron is one of the major proponents of crack rap, a genre that unrepentantly glamorizes selling drugs in your community and basically reflects a sociopathic and completely self-involved ‘everyone for himself’ attitude. The fact that Cam’ron is being given a lesson on ethics by a masked, self-professed violent criminal on a DVD that advertises among it’s features “assaults, shootings, drivebys, rape, getaways, carjackings, setups, drug spot robberies, home invasions, deadly retaliations, interviews, and more!!!” (from their youtube description) should give all his fans and knee-jerk “stop snitching” advocates something to think about.

by on

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFSVG7jRp_g[/youtube]

Imagine this, in a few weeks we may have a president who can comment intelligently on Jay-Z’s ‘American Gangster’, materialism in hip-hop and use slang like “Be down” and “Keep it real” without sounding ridiculous. It is a strange and amazing moment in America. Hip-hop generation indeed.

In nine days I think we’ll start talking a little more about non-political matters and more about music, etc but for now pre-election mania continues.

Also, for those that aren’t following. As it stands now Obama is kicking McCain’s ass! The Republicans may lose control of all branches of government in a historic rout. They’ve already formed the circular firing squad and started blaming each other for a loss that hasn’t happened yet. And a pet-peeve: I’m sick of people saying “I hope it happens but I’m not gonna be over confident”. You know what? If you care at all you know you will be utterly devastated if Barack doesn’t win. Go all in, we’re past that point.

by on

Doug Blackmon of the Wall Street Journal went to Mississippi and found some black McCains. They’re descendants of slaves owned by the white McCain’s in their plantation years one hundred fifty years ago. I’m sort of surprised that no one has brought this up before. No political dynamite here but another interesting, complicated American story.

by on

I love Bun B. His last album “Trill” was sick, and I’m sure “II Trill” the new joint will be great. Here he is courtesy of the Fader talking about sociological dimensions of the hood, Barack, and 4 minutes worth of other stuff. This dude basically holds Houston down singlehandedly (if you never read his excellent polemic against the critics of southern rap, it’s sick) and is in my opinion almost everything you want from an MC, smart, articulate, ill with the flow and advises people to “defend your blocks/ and turn your projects into fort knox”.

edit: embed code is breaking my formatting, sorry, follow the link.

by on

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vdTl2zOrqPI[/youtube]

This is a video, by Bashy, from a couple years ago of him just talking to Wiley on road in London. They’re basically just chatting about this and that, grime, the war they had, etc. The content is not actually what’s interesting. More it’s a view into Wiley as a person, which is what makes him so compelling as an artist. I met him once and he was polite and friendly, but I definitely wouldn’t say that I know him like that. That said, from listening to his avalanche of mixtapes I feel like I know him, his struggles, happinesses, scars. He seems like a genuinely likeable person and this makes me want to spend time with him through his music. Few people can do this. This video is a little window into that. Here his new “spirit in the beat” over at Rupture’s blog.

by on

DATV is very proud to present DATV#003: Dexplicit at Trouble & Bass. T&B brought Dexplicit to play at Love in NYC and we were there to film the mayhem. It was a great party. Dex ripped it up with a banging set of bassline/niche tunes, the T&B crew dropped their own blend of 4×4, dubstep, club hotness whatever (not quite sure what to call what they’re playing nowadays) and the ravers LOVED IT UP. A couple days later me and Rupture met up with Dex and Star Eyes for some shopping and an interview. Check it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4BAqqv0Tp0[/youtube]

Dex is a great guy and was very cool to talk to, he had a lot of interesting stuff to say. We had to cut it way down to keep the piece moving but for the hardcore heads who want to hear EVERYTHING he had to say you will be able to catch the full version on the DATV DVD later this year. The video starts with a killer Dexplicit remix of DTL alter ego Curses! “What I Need” that will be out soon on Trouble & Bass. Check their website for more info on releases, parties etc.

Big shouts to the whole Trouble and Bass crew, Drop The Lime, Star Eyes, Math Head, The Captain and my boy Zack Shadetek, Dexplicit, the photographer who goes by Madaes on flickr (wicked pictures bro) and all the ravers who were there raving. More DATV episodes coming soon, we’ve been having fun making ’em, keep watching.

AND if you’ve been listening to Rupture’s radio show you may heard the excellent “Language Removal Services” piece played by his guest, poet Caroline Bergvall, in which they take people reading or speaking and remove everything but the silences between words, umm, uhh, ehhs, etc. Inspired, DJ Empirical went and made one out of the show where Rupture broadcast a longer version of our Dexplicit interview as audio. Want to listen to Jace and Dex umm and ehh and wow for a bit? Here, now you can. It’s pretty funny, and wierd. The show is now podcasting here, and you can also check out the WICKED mix that Dex did for the show, broadcast the week before he appeared.