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Omega El Fuerte running things in Washington Heights last night.omega-gif

The great thing about Omega fandom is that it requires no explanation. Either you haven’t heard of him (in which case, read the Omega profile I wrote for The Fader last summer) or you have, and his bad-assness is utterly self-evident. It’s simple: this former reggaeton choreographer is “El Fuerte”, one of the best musicians around in any genre right now, period, the undisputed dark king of Dominican merengue urbano / mambo. Plus he’s kinda scary – we’re not fooled just because he dropped the “y su Mambo Violento” from his name. (When you find an Omega fan, ask ’em about Rita Indiana — they’ll have an opinion on her too.)

Omega El Fuerte plays twice this weekend in NYC – as I tweeted: “all NYC’s latin ‘cosmopolatino’ websites that *didnt* mention OMEGA’s gigs here this weekend: #FAIL” ….

continue reading + nab an Omega-Playero-revival mp3 over at Mudd Up!

omega the armory 650

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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]

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Or, Rita Indiana is taking over Santo Domingo and the Dominican Republic. We’re wrapping up a bunch of tunes, but until then, here she is injecting voodoo-mambo-punk into the television itself…

interview style

playing ‘live’ with Los Misterios in a bizarre TV studio

and the accompanying interview

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Checking in (from backstage at a capital-J jazz festival in the Austrian Alps) to say — cop La Yegros now and brace yourself for heat to come, because we’re putting the finishing touches on an EP from Rita Indiana y Los Misterios.

what to expect? As she sez: “musica tercermundista con drummachines mal manejados, sintetizadores hechos en casa, bent toys y mucho mambo.”

F%#k translations, let’s dance!

here captured live in sultry mode, best use of gardening metaphors:

watch this one for ‘revelations’: