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[Dirty Projectors in the park – by thepiratehat]

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/DirtyProjectors-StillnessIsTheMove.mp3]

Dirty Projectors – Stillness Is The Move

I’m finally getting used to the weather here- the unusual is the routine.  Today, it’s cold, cold rain- everything is slow- trains, buses, lines, money, etc.  Two days ago, it was warm and sunny in Brooklyn, and I was running errands, in t-shirt, borough to borough (park to park, Central Park north in Harlem and Prospect Park in Park Slope) enjoying the sweetness and soulfulness of Bitter Orca (not every song stood out/there were two or three tracks I skipped over, but nonetheless the album has some very good moments)

The groove on “Stillness” is easy (because the musicians  involved are comfortable and talented) and the voices are almost restless, transient and sugary, echoing the best of Mariah, Christina, Ashanti,  etc– while maintaining Dave Longstreth’s signature and timing. Longstreth has a distinctive style and voice, which I’m not going to attempt to describe here.

Dirty Projectors managed to deconstruct and reinterpret sugary teen-pop R&B as something inoffensive, harmless and nice,* the same way Vampire Weekend reimagined Kanda Bongo Man/Kwassa Kwassa/Koffi Olomide into “Cape Code Kwassa Kwassa.” It’s a little strange, but you can still listen to it while walking in the park and sipping lemonade.

*Let’s face it, Mariah Carey has some of the most abhorrent pop songs-  aside from the remix joints she did w/ ODB and LOX and, of course, that Bone Thugs collaboration.

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Terius Nash aka The Dream in the studio.  This guy is a BEAST.  His past two albums are crazy, pretty much all I’ve been listening to for a while.  The fact that he’s making shit this fast should just make everyone else quake in fear.  He deserves his hype. Shouts to Kingdom via Twitter for the link. I’m on there too. Tweet tweet tweet.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uXe6Y9wv0k[/youtube]

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[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/lilwayne-canitalktoyou.mp3]
Lil Wayne – Can I Talk To You (Feat. Nutt Da Kidd & Mack Maine)

I’m not going to talk about this track (from The Leak V) It’s great, you already know… but what can we say about this new picture/image? Emotional, laughter, astonishment, what do you feel?
Lil Wayne threw away the pen and the pad, completely erasing the distance between himself and his art.

pictures courtesy of The Smoking Section.

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Alright, it’s been a good minute, but I’m still digging through, cleaning and learning how to rip these vinyls proper. I switched from Audacity to Adobe Audition (formerly Cool Edit) and the sound of the rips are notably better–sound quality still needs improvement though. Next step up is ProTools or Ableton Live, I guess.

Here’s a sweet little pleasurable song from a rather obscure American funk/R&B group. Members of this band used to be songwriters and musicians for Motown, as part of the in-house production team in the 1960s. This song appears on the B-side to their most popular hit “I Can Understand It” from 1972. It’s funny, but this tune is strange and familiar at the same time. It reminds me of a Maxi Priest song, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/TheNewBirth-OhBabyILoveTheWay.mp3]
The New Birth – Oh, Baby, I Love The Way

We are still in 1972, but let’s get away from Detroit and visit the Makossa Man, Manu Dibango in Yaounde. His album “O Boso” is recommended for warm, beautiful Summer nights, with smoke, steam and sweat –several counties in the tri-state area are under severe thunderstorm watch.  Anyway, among all my parents 7 and 12″‘s I was able to get my grubby hands on (and actually listened to), this is one of the most surprising, varied, and unique 12 inches.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/ManuDibango-Hibiscus.mp3]
Manu Dibango – Hibiscus

“…we are playing a music whose unity has it’s roots deep in African earth, but whose harmony and construction reflect the influence of all the branches which have grown in the common three century old tree of music.” – M. Dibango, 1972

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First, here’s an all Steve Gurley mix I’ve been listening to quite a lot lately. I am flagrantly ripping this from the dubstepforum, where it was ripped from Uptown Music Forum, where it was posted about a year ago. The mix was done by someone named AverageJoe, an ordinary DJ with a funny Homer Simpson gif as his MySpace default.

Steve Gurley Mix

***

And now some pictures from last Friday.

The first is of Mr Eliel Lucero skankin’ (to some really good Roots music Matt was playing earlier in the night) in his brand new Dutty Artz tee! Get yours!

And here I am, standing around (yeah, i’m mad bcuz i’m only) in my plain old regular tee— waiting for that lite tropical pink.

And here’s Yellowman, AKA Geko Jones. This man spins and dances behind the decks like a mutha, (but then again, he falls into a state of deep concentration at times.) I’m not sure who’s the better dancer behind the decks, Matt or Gex? I don’t think Rupture dances behind his decks. Maga Bo doesn’t either. Well, I’ve never seen them dance behind their turntables anyway. Have you? If you have, I need photo-or videographic evidence of these two men getting down.

Maga Bo, author of Archipelagoes —a monster I can’t find the words to describe—, here manning the controls at the bottom of a bluest ocean with weird fishes and creatures swimming over his head and around him, while at the same time modeling tee shirts by designer Ghislain Poirier. Oh, Big Poppa Ghis (© Rupture), thanx 4 D Gros Beats. One beer wasn’t enough.

(I don’t have a single picture of Matthew Shadetek for some reason, and the man wasn’t scarce either. I apologize for that.)

And the people, the people, the party people…

Yes, lady on the left can shake it like a salt shaker.

My, my.. dazzling, beautiful brown eyes…

Go ladies.. all you stereotype ladies

Getting hazy and sweaty right about here.

Goodnight.

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I heard Alice Russell‘s “Hurry On Now” at a party at Howard University earlier this year. The Boub instrumental sounds modest, generic even, but it’s also captivating and flawless under Ms. Russell’s voice which is really engrossing and powerful. This song was stuck in my head for several months. A friend who was at the same Howard party identified it for me.

Alice Russell – Hurry On Now (Boub Remix)

Alice Russell – Hurry On Now

Click here for more pictures of Ms. Russell holding a bunch of bananas.

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Mama’s Gun is one of the sexiest albums I have in my CD collection. I know, it’s a little strange. The album deals with horrific, unsexy nightmares and things like police brutality (Amadou Diallo), mental imprisonment (plus, the high rate of incarceration for black males). A large chunk of the album tackles self-esteem issues and breakups. Anyway, Miss Badu’s music is not always joyless and serious/militant/political. In fact, she’s more playful and introspective than most hiphop singers.

<pic taken by dogsivu>

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This one is haunting and amazing. Produced by Madlib, it is from her new album New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) – Only Badu can present something like national delusion in such a phunky manner (“Amerykahn Promise”).

dead prez said it’s bigger than hiphop. Killah Priest said all religion ever did was divide… Erykah sez hiphop ain’t dead yet, regardless of what Nas said. hiphop is alive, uniting cultures, races, all around the world. While I don’t think hiphop could ever be bigger than religion, she might be onto something with the government part, and her gospel in general that together the ants can conquer the elephant.

& coming soon, New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)

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[[U know who will be vibrating our pixels & stimulating neurotransmitters here at DA blog from time to time, ladies and gentlemen pls welcome MC SMEAR. this post is strictly visual but truss, there’s a biiiig story behind it, where Common & Andre3000 are just the iceberg’s suddenly feminine tip…–Rupture]]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HNJt5ADHzIY