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Big shout out to Jahdan Blakkamoore writing and singing the chorus on this new Snoop Lion joint.

via Prefix mag

“The latest Snoop Lion track featuring Mavado and Popcaan might be his best yet since replacing the Dogg moniker. The song is one of the genre bending tracks that have become prevelant in 2012 and it’s held together by excellent production from Dre Skull and Major Lazer. We guarantee you’ll be singing the chorus by the end of the five minute track. “Put your lighters up / Get high with me / Fly me / Ain’t no dividing us.”

“Lighters Up” will be officially released on Dec. 18.”

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[youtube width=”525″ height=”360″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESj164wKc6I[/youtube]

Super excited about this new event, BomBeat, that I am launching with my crew Cumba Mela, and Nickodemus from Turntables on the Hudson.  Its all going down this Saturday, November 24th at Le Poisson Rouge, in Manhattan. Expect to hear a wide range of global bass music: cumbia, dancehall, kuduro, house, moombahton, reggaeton….

We have Jeremy Sole coming from LA, repping KCRW, TheLift, and Afro Funke.

We are going to try our best to get a free EP for ever event. Be sure to check out the first one bellow!

BomBeat EP1 November 24, 2012 @ LPR NYC by BomBeat

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Last week me and Atropolis played at the launch party for the new Dub Stuy record label and their home built reggae sound system.  Playing on this system was really really fun.  Physical sound vibrations, great bass and a great vibe. Big shoutout to the Dub Stuy team for having the vision to put this together.  We need more people thinking big like this in our underground scene in Brooklyn.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/51964571[/vimeo]

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Originally posted at Mudd Up!

[photo by Alex Walsh for The Fader]

If I start writing (again) about my time in Jamaica it could take up the better part of this morning. So let’s keep it simple: in late December I journeyed to Jamaica to report on the collaboration between iconic roots reggae group The Congos, and L.A.experimentalists Sun Araw and M Geddes Gengras for The Fader. It was an intense time down there in the lion’s den, adjusting my internal clock from NYC-breathless to Rasta time-management systems, entirely immersed in perhaps the strongest musical culture I’ve ever experienced, plus Ashanti Roy’s crazed grandchildren as sunrise alarm clocks, fish tea, George Michael with lasers, a minor yet disturbing horse-trampling, lots of Symbolic Murals, the melodious span and flexibility of patois, and so much more.

[photo by Alex Walsh for The Fader]

The article is now online, accompanied by several photos from Alex Walsh. Writing for The Fader spoils you — it makes me want to travel everywhere with top-notch photographers ready to dig deep and go after the spirit of the thing.

[photo by Alex Walsh for The Fader]

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It’s been over a year since Jeremy Harding called the one they call Di Genius to set up an interview for me. Stephen McGregor is, of course, the son of famed artiste Freddy McGregor, but he built his own lane producing some of the most innovative dancehall of this millennium, taking over his fathers Big Ship studio and turning it into a hit factory. His style melded perfectly with upandcomer Mavado – whose “Weh Dem A Do“- made me start checking compulsively for Stephen’s productions around 05/06. I have great video of him and his crew going off to unreleased Shadetek riddims and talking about why he keeps an open bible on his mixing desk- but until I get around to editing that shit- enjoy the interview tracked out by question below and stay locked for interviews with Ward21, Natalie Storm + more.

When your working on new projects – do you distinguish between what will be big in the Jamaican market vs the foreign market?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_Question-1.mp3|titles=DiGenius_Question 1]

Wa Dem A Do- which is the first riddim you built that I heard in NY- has this crazy cinematic density- but since then it seems like you have been hitting on all bases- why move away from the sound you built?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_DiGenius_Question-2edit.mp3|titles=DiGenius_Question 2]

Who are contemporary producers that you look up to? I hear neptunes and early timbaland, but who else are you checking for?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q3.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q3]

Are there young producers or other producers that you work with, or is it just vocalists that you keep in your camp?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q4.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q4]  

Whats the deal with the Island Pop sound that is dominating the radio right now in JA?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q5.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q5]

What do you think about the fact that anyone with a computer can download a cracked copy of Fruity Loops and start building riddims ?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q6.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q6]

How much do you think radio payolla affects what tunes get big or make it onto rotation?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q7.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q7]

You’ve pretty consistently had your riddims on the charts for the last couple years- how many riddims are you building a week, and how many of those ever get voiced?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q8.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q8]

Can you describe the process from building a riddim to finishing a riddim pack goes?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q9.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q9]

Is there anything outside of hip-hop and dancehall that you check for? Are you listening to trance and house directly or just hearing their influence through rap?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q10.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q10]

Do you think your work ethic seperates you from other producers, or young musicians?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q11.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q11]

Some artists claim not to listen to the radio or other media- but you say you like to keep up with whatevers new?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q12.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q12]

What’s your process when you start to build a new riddim?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q13.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q13]

Besides Jeremy (who manages Stephen)- whose the team at bigship and Di Genuis recordings?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q14.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q14]

Given your success as a producer- why push to voice more of your own riddims?

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DiGenius_q15.mp3|titles=DiGenius_q15]

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[vimeo width=”493″ height=”300″]http://vimeo.com/33641450[/vimeo]

Steve CHLLNGR showed me this way back when we were in Tejas for some music festival. He was excited about it. Even then the animated sci-fi music video in its embyonic stage looked like an incredible visual story. SKIP TO THE NOW >> Last week, the video was premiered in Wired, and right NOW it’s all up on Vimeo HD Channel. Oh, by the way… if you still like music, Steve’s debut album Haven is out as well.

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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.

[youtube width=”525″ height=”355”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc4K_CdiG40[/youtube]

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reposted from Mudd Up!

As a talisman against the fall-like chill of Brussels, here’s a heater-upper remix I did for Architecture in Helsinki a few years ago. The original is so good, I went all out brought in Mr Lee G on vocal duties:
Architecture in Helsinki Heart It Races (DJ Rupture’s Ital Hymn Mix feat. Mr Lee G) by djrupture

Speaking of Brussels — Belgium has had no government for over a year! Everything seems fine in Brussels, arguably Europe’s most spatially dissonant city. It’s a surreal place.

Today, Wednesday August 31th, I’ll DJ at ‘une petite fête entre amis’ put on by La8. Info. The next day I’ll make an appearance on Radio Panik 105.4 FM, not sure when, watch the Twitter for that. (Radio Panik is one of a handful of open-eared European radio stations that rebroadcast my WFMU radio show.)