WEST AFRICAN APHASIA AND THE BROOKLYN NIGHT

The (admittedly loose) theme of yesterday’s radio show was West African Aphasia – songs whose titular information was missing, largely due to bad xerox CD-r packaging.

Bootleg african CDs go for around $2 each up in Harlem – VERY AFFORDABLE.

here’s some soukous from Afro-Rhythme’s Soukouss Vibration vol. 6. The back info is illegible, the front simply says “Ancien Combattant”, with an image of a sun setting over miles of ocean… but the image has been copied so much (or so badly) that it now looks like a nuclear explosion over a dark, blood-red sea.

[audio:soukouss_vibration_excerpt.mp3]

Soukouss Vibration – tracks 5 + 6 soukouss medley

this Saturday I’ll be dropping beats late (like 3:30am) at the Lose Yr Sh1t! Brooklyn loft party, alongside dutty hermano Geko Jones, and $mall Change & co. Party goes til the sun returns, apparently there’s a nice roofdeck, etc.

Fact is, when you DJ late at a loft party, the guidelines and expectations – already loose – become looser; expect surprises. Plus its my b-day 2 days later so, as Lil Jon says, “Yeeeaaah”.

LYS eflyer

PORQUE SOY SONIDERO

678536785367853

My new mix CD, Porque Soy Sonidero Y Voy A Muchos Lugares (made for this last tour) is now available exclusively at Turntable Lab. An hourlong blend of now-thing summer bump.

[audio:DJ_Rupture_GO_BUY_THE_MIX_SWEETHEART.mp3]

DJ Rupture – Porque Soy Sonidero excerpt (Shinehead riffing on Sting into a brand-new DJ Lengua refix)

I’ll have copies with me at live shows as well. Live shows? Like this one.

fiesta soot sept 13

CONTEMPLATION OF ACTION

 

destruction-grid

[image: R. Alkadhi]


Amid loose gravel and stray shoes, stains and rubbish, Action sees a grid parsing an Iraq in miniature. Within that microcosm, people wander around as if in a daze, pointing, staring, contemplating in silent disbelief. Action observes these miniature people, some of whom may in turn bend down to study the atrocities on the ground below them. – Rheim Alkadhi, Contemplation of Action

& memories pried from decades-old shellac give rise to an equally real & mythopoetic Baghdad as the one Rheim documents

[audio:Kementchedji_Alecco_Taqsim.mp3]

Kementchedji Alecco – Taqsim

from Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted – Baghdad 1925-1929. This article opens a window on this music. In a short time a city can swing from open to closed, from something fluid & made of multiples to occupied, divided, entrenched. What awaits us?

bagdad

edit: Rheim just directed my attention towards this excellent post, which has more Iraqi shellac and explains why the Honest Jon’s comp sounds so good:
“For those who are wondering, 78rpm masters have shockingly less surface noise than the final product, the mass-produced gramophone record copy of the master, which often contained loads of garbage, or filler, along with the shellac – Paramount Records used sand and cement in their mix, for instance, making virtually all of their records sound like crap. . . Very few companies exist which still have accessible masters or clean file copies of their original 78s, much less are willing to work with a small label for a release.”

GO GO GO

[audio:13 – Don’t Stop Go! (Produced by Koolade).mp3]

Izza Kizza – Don’t Stop Go! (prod. Koolade)

Koolade is from Croatia! i played in Zagreb (his hometown) once. People asked smart questions. Our hotel stood next to ‘Colonial Cafe’, lil negroes as the logo. After our party there was a rave that i didnt go to – they said there was a big rave scene — it sounds like Koolade might have dipped in from his super duper synths.

from Kizzaland, a free Izza Kizza mixtape by Catchdubs!

USMAP

[US states renamed for countries with similar GDPs]

A SONG ABOUT FLOWERS OF THE VALLEY

paav

Esoteric romantic mysticism and darkness floating over deep-sea-level of the christian mind.

their own words get it right, why bring in more description when what we crave is experience?

[audio:Paavoharju_Italialaisella Laivalla.mp3]

Paavoharju – Italialaisella Laivalla
from the album Laulu Laakson Kukista

…and at another edge of Europe, rembetika, Paavoharju’s inverse, which also touches, even as it slumps forward. The dogma of addiction. Songs in 9.

[audio:A_Kostis_Stin_Ipoga.mp3]

A. Kostis – Stin Ipóga (In the Basement)

from Mourmoúrika: Songs of the Greek Underworld 1930-1955

CUUUUUUUUMMMBIA

más y más

cumbia outtake main

[Pablo Lescano / Damas Gratis.]

Slow Burn, my cumbia feature for the July/August issue of The Fader magazine, is now available online (albeit without the lush full-page photo spreads). Several years of listening and research followed by a whirlwind week running around Buenos Aires gave rise to this article, I hope you enjoy.

To accompany the essay, I did a cumbia mix for Eddie Stats’ weekly column, Ghetto Palms.

Click here to find the downloadable mix along with my tracklist & some notes about what’s what. (and if you facebook or whatever, this page has the mix in its embeddable internest-y glory.)

Y si lees castellaño, aquí tenemos un artículo bastante académico sobre cumbia villera. [spanish-language cumbia villera article, thanks W&W]

[RIP IMEEN – this is where the IMEEN player went]

…TO BE CONTINUED

touristinfo

In this young new global underground dance whatever scene we’re in I think that we really need to make sure that if we’re gonna engage in a style that we’re doing it on all levels, not just formal (wow this beat pattern is great, I’m gonna put my euro synth bass on it and call it ‘global-fusion’) but on the levels of slang, culture, meaning, people, relationships, beef and history. And some may say: “But it’s too much work to learn all these languages, and I’m on the other side of the world and blee blah bleh” well then I’d say either make some friends who can teach you or maybe you should focus in on something that you can understand and try to develop some depth in it. Basically, not being a tourist is hard work but I think, worth it.Matt Shadetek