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Raz Mesinai is a longtime homie of the Dutty Artz crew and is one of those crazy, iconoclastic and stubbornly original musicians that defy easy classification.  He’s been making spacy, sometimes terrifying, blunted bass music since before your mom ever started listening to Dubstep.  He posted this piece on his Tumblr the other day and I got a real kick out of it and thought I’d share it here.

MY WORK by Raz Mesinai

My work cleans up after itself as well as after the messes I make.

My work doesn’t want to be ‘current’, because that would mean that eventually it wouldn’t be.

My work picks up chicks for me, and then forces me to break up with them.

My work is not casual, nor is it relaxed.

(more…)

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nettle-album-release-flyer

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: iTunes Amazon Boomkat eMusic 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.

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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.

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Wizraeli, a blogger from Generation Bass sent me the link to Balkan Beat Box’s new video, Political Fuck, and after watching it I had to post it. As a long time fan of Balkan Beat Box, I am always impressed with their fresh productions and political voice.  I will never forget the first time I saw them at Central Park with Antibalas-Afrobeat about 5 years ago. They absolutely killed it.  Considering all the world wide noise thats going on today, this song is a strong representation of the global movement that needs to occur- putting the power back into the peoples hands.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYvg8RetDeg&feature=autoplay&list=ULmaXXhLmbc74&lf=mfu_in_order&playnext=4[/youtube]

 

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Tomorrow, I’m kicking off my Sunday morning radio show on WFMU! All summer long, 9am to noon – I’ll be playing music, noise, and whatnots on WFMU 91.1 and 90.1 MHz FM. For the past couple of years, I provided extra oils to keep Rupture’s Mudd Up! wheels greased proper, all the while filling in, co-operating, and board-opping for everyone from Rob Weisberg to Glen Jones, and now I got a three-hour spot on the longest running freeform, independent community radio station in the United States! The show doesn’t have a name, and for now we’re just calling it Lamin. If you have a good name suggestion, let’s hear it! As for a description, let’s just say we’re staying true to WFMU’s commitment to unstructured-format broadcasting. Go here to stream my last Sunday morning broadcast.

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[originally posted at Mudd Up!]

nettleBin

[Nettle, Bin Scrape Laden 12″ EP. Soot Records, 2001]

Everything seems a bit odd these days — a feeling I’m trying to get used to. As places go about compiling their Osama Bin Laden lists, such as PlayGround’s Ten OBL Disses & Tributes, I figure it’s time to clarify:

In 2001 I released a 12″ EP called Bin Scrape Laden. It hit shops around February, well before the September 11th deadline… On the inner vinyl ‘run out groove’ I had them inscribe the standard airport security phrase: “Are you carrying anything that might be considered a weapon?” The vinyl disc came packaged in rough cardboard record jackets that I hand-branded with the Arabic word for ‘Soot’ (and nearly burnt down the Madrid apartment Rocio & I were renting, but that’s another story).

When 9/11 happened, a lot of people who knew the record got in touch, asking — only half-joking — if the C.I.A. had contacted me. I came up with the name after I’d read breakcore pioneer DJ Scud’s 1998 article on Osama Bin Laden (which is weird in & of itself) in Christoph Fringelli’s Datacide zine. Scud had turned in an incredible remix for the EP. And most of the sounds I was sculpting those days sounded a lot like scraped-up trash bins. So the title clicked into place, although nobody got the play on words… until September 11th came and reconfigured our world.

Here’s a track from Bin Scrape Laden, produced by yrs truly under the name Nettle in the simpler days of 1999/2000. It’s named after a (sadly defunct) Pans y Company bocadillo.

T-nettle bin scrape laden-SOOT003-001T-nettle bin scrape laden-SOOT003-001T-nettle bin scrape laden-SOOT003-001

[audio:http://negrophonic.com/mp3/Nettle_Serranito.mp3]

Nettle – Serranito

So yes, I am available for presidential-level geopolitical consultation gigs and/or palm readings.

The “hidden moral” of this story is that it takes a lot of time, money, and people to make vinyl records, even weird Arabic influenced noise-beat ones with a strong prophetic bent.

In Casablanca last month Maggie and I went to the address of Hassania Editions. A major major label in the 70s, 80s, and beyond. Nothing but a dental surgeon on the top floor. The motorcycle shop dudes next door had no idea. The guy selling candy in a nearby doorway remembered, vaguely, when it had closed. About five years back. We walked around the neighborhood, a ‘popular’ one which would feel like a dangerous slum in the Americas but in Morocco it felt – was – safe, active, the opposite of shady. Spicy greasy bread and the best almonds I’d ever eaten and the first disc seller is peddling Zinga Zinga video CDs — humorous Gaddafi youtubery. Because sometimes you have to laugh. To keep from… I bought the MP3 CD this unlabeled tune came from at the second disc seller. I can’t make out the name(s) in the beginning… Carlos? Anybody?

[audio:http://negrophonic.com/mp3/06Track.MP3]

Mudd Unknown – from ‘Chaabi One 2010’ / Casablanca

It’s gorgeous. 11 minutes, a stroll rather than an appointment. Make it to the nine minute mark and you get rewarded by one of those Maghrebi rhythmic accelerations that remind you you’ve been drinking tea all day. That the heart can quicken. That love is real. That time runs in one direction: out.

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[audio: http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/grouper-Alien_Observer-02-Alien_Observer.mp3]
Grouper – “Alien Observer”

Last week, Portland, Oregon based musician Liz Harris, better known as Grouper released two separate incredible albums, Alien Observer & Dream Loss, wrapped together as A I A. Preview the striking Wurlitzer pulses and sweet drones title track from Alien Observer above. A I A is beautiful, strange, and unsettling; harsh, heavy drones & dark, delicate tones; songs about aliens and ghosts & loves lost and love yet to happen. Liz Harris also made a series of rare east coast live appearances, one of which was at Brklyn’s Glasslands last Saturday. Harris gave such a mesmerizing performance, the crowd was pin drop silent and so attentive you could hear the sound from the venue two doors down bleeding into Glasslands.

Harris describing her new albums: “Dream Loss is a collection of older songs, mostly written before a hard time. Alien Observer, for the most part, is made of songs recorded after that time. Each has a song that belongs thematically on the other, a seam stitching them together. Both albums… explore otherness. Being an other to one’s own self, to other humans; ghosts and aliens, both literal and metaphorical; and other worlds to escape to (beneath the water, in the sky). Thinking about people who have died…

The process of making these albums reacquainted me with what I want to explore in music: friction, exploration of something large and outside of me, describing and traveling to intangible objects and places, unseen movements and connections between people and spaces. Songs that move on their own, that have an autonomous monstrous quality, songs from another world.”

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[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/the-third-eye-foundation_standard-deviation.mp3]
The Third Eye Foundation – “Standard Deviation” from The Dark (Ici, d’ailleurs, 2010)

I spent my Saturday in doors working on nothing but noizes and beatzes, stopping to watch Al Jazeera‘s coverage of a suddenly chaotic #Egypt – Egyptians demanding for their pharaoh to resign. In the evening, I walked down a couple blocks to a Senegalese-owned halal restaurant called “African-American Cuisine.” On my way back, iPod decided I should stop listening to 8Ball & MJG and pay attention to The Dark, The Third Eye Foundation’s 2010 album. For the most part, I’ve payed attention to Matt Elliot’s output under his birth name, at least since 2003’s The Mess We Made, but not his earlier releases as 3EF. While based on track titles alone “If You Treat Us All Like Terrorists We Will Become Terrorists” sounds apt for the times, “Standard Deviation” is immense, absorbing, murky and warm with low, low rumbles and creeping, ascending voices. If you enjoy this track, the album is a nice cohesive mix-up you should definitely check out.

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So there’s another entry to add to the post-Screw canon: Expressway Yo-Yo Dietin. And, despite his wildly different sound (which sets him apart from the more accessible witch-house/drag scene and closer to the toxic sound of Houston’s small but sturdy noise scene), the methodology isn’t the wildest departure from DJ Screw’s lazy foray into the avant-garde. I may be wrong here but, advanced digital fuckery and ripped rap vocals aside, the thread that holds Expressway Yo-Yo Dietin’s Bubblethug together seems to be a simple delay. It actually sounds quite a bit like the default setting on Ableton’s Simple Delay effect, a nifty trick that gives rhythmic ‘umph’ to a lot of the weird excursions into various noise and drone territories that you’ll find on the album. So the results end up sounding like a Boredoms, Screw, Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunroof! fan ingesting something nasty with 12 other people in an empty building of the warehouse district of your nearest industrial graveyard. The following track is my personal favorite, a dark dirge with nearly intelligible vocals that gains power from the track sequencing when listened to as part of the album’s messy whole.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/05 Bubblethug 5.mp3]
Expressway Yo Yo Dietin’ – Bubblethug 5

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…root that mountain down.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/b3_i_wish_i_was_a_mole_in_the_ground.mp3]
anbb – I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground

Here, two Germans cover a traditional American folk song I first on heard on Jace/Rupture‘s Special Gunpowder – which was released 6 years ago! It’s about time we revisit. Who wants another album from Rupture? Start a petition! Anyway, I have been listening to (Carsten Nicolai’s) Alva Noto‘s minimalist electronic sounds/records for over 6 years, but for some reason never gave Blixa Bergeld (nor his famous band Einstürzende Neubauten) much chance, though I heard Rupture playing something at WFMU and talking about KOLLAPSing New Buildings – but honestly, I don’t know what they even sound like. Alva Noto and Blixa Bergeld have a full length album titled Mimikry out now, and I haven’t heard that yet either. This track/cover vers is from an EP titled Ret Marut Handshake, which contains some terrific beats and bits and sounds from Alva Noto with Blixa Bergeld’s voice boldly floating on top.

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Neofuturism and the Economy of Affect, a Noise Primer for Nueva York.
Or, Why Are We Working For Free?

I meant to say: 11 years ago I did this Welmo remix and someone just took the time to upload it to YouTube along with a pic of kids sniffing glue. Or inhaling goldfish. The song is Pre-Tropical anti-cop anti-gunman Spanish language rapping with a piano, and wikipedia tells me that I can add proto-breakcore or salsa-edits to the list. I was living in the future back then; I still am. The future is incredibly humid, even in October. Not much works here, including me. The distractions are draining but fabulous, even better than the sunsets in White Noise. I think the guy who posted my song is Polish. I love you all just not evenly. Remind me to sell a version of 4’33 on iTunes.

Before, the advertisers had to guess; now, with all the information we provide with keyword searches, on social networks, and in emails, advertising can be more precise. On top of that, the “content” of social networks, email, search engines, blogs—it somehow magically produces itself, that is to say the users produce it, that is to say it’s free. The extension of advertising to the domain of private chatter undermines the competitiveness of anything that costs more than private chatter to produce. Marx blamed the below-subsistence wages of the proletariat on the reserve army of labor; the below-subsistence revenues of the Times can be blamed on the reserve army of the social networks. . . Today we Google ourselves to see what the world knows about us; tomorrow we’ll just watch the ads.

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