Category: st. elsewhere

PITCHFORK TV: DAYTRIPPING WITH DJ RUPTURE

Back in October, Pitchfork TV followed me around for a day: studio visit, Brooklyn tacos with Matt Shadetek, some recording in Bushwick alongside Brent Arnold, and my show on WFMU.

It was a strange thrill to walk around my usual haunts being filmed by a 3-person camera crew: people stare, ask questions. Soaked in the media bath. You feel mildly famous and ultra-conspicuous

the revolution will not be televised – it will be embedded.

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For more behind-the-scenes info, music producers and beatmakers should check out this great post by Matt Shadetek where he discusses our studio technique in detail. Matt will be doing these weekly, take note!

SOLAR LIFE RAFT VIDEO

Yes, I already blogged this, but I’m excited and will repeat myself with more details… Huge shout out to director & animator, Sara Taigher, and illustrator Maria Chiara Di Giorgio.

It was fascinating to watch this animation idea go from vibing with Sara in Rome one hot day last August to storyboards to the final version. Her visual narrative conjures up lovely, imaginative accompaniment to the music and short story found inside the CD packaging. For the 3-minute video we wove two sections of the mix together, using two of the exclusive SLR tracks (one by Matt & I, one by London grime producer Mizz Beats) and those magical voices from Nico Muhly (whose blog is outstanding). “Underwater High Rise feat. DJ Kiva”, our tune, will be released on 12″ next week with 2 other songs from us.

Anyhow, welcome to our world…

Ever since the water rose we had to move the batteries up to the sixth floor and the dolphins have taken over the old studo. Nokea found an octopus in the stairwell. It was sleepy or high or something..

promo text: The production duo of DJ /rupture (aka Jace Clayton) and Matt Shadetek are pleased to announce the release of this absolutely breathtaking new video, directed and animated by Sara Taigher with illustrations by Maria Chiara Di Giorgio, set to the music off their just-released record, Solar Life Raft (out last Tuesday on The Agriculture). The video is a medley featuring DJ /rupture + Matt Shadetek’s “Underwater High Rise,” Nico Muhly’s “Mothertongue Pt. 1,” and Mizz Beats’ “Blue Night.”

SUMMER MIX, GNAWA, GONG

okay, its only late May, so other contenders will surely emerge. But for now – mix of summer! Chief Boima & Sogui So Good : Baobab Connection vol. 2. thanks Lamin!, who posts some excerpts & writes: “Boima continues with his versions and refixes, and Sogui So Good picks up right where Boima left, proceeding to drop straight dance floor pleasing jams that will make the staunchest African two-stepper actually shake his bones, rather than just sway from side to side.”

bc2covernn8

[c’est un monde de l’photoshop]

several folks have asked me about the Gnawa Diffusion album Bab El Oued Kingston (containing sample-source for Trim’s “Thief in the Night”) – it’s well-down gnawa fusion – especially the 2nd half – with a few excursions into chaabi territory like in “Gazel au fond de la nuit”. The singer’s voice shines throughout.

[audio:Gnawa_Diffusion_Syndikaina.mp3]

Gnawa Diffusion – Syndikaina

GnawaDiffusion

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Hyssop posts the sample-source for Nas’ Oochie Wally – turns out it’s Gong!! – alongside an excerpt from my related Gold Teeth Thief mix moment.

TROPICAL SUBSTITUTE DATA

i will not be at this party (Jahdan & I will be throwing down in Madrid then). but the last one was FUN, CONSENSUS FUN. June 6th, Glasslands, Brooklyn. Soot & Dutty Artz present:june6

& if I were there I’d play this song

[audio:Celso_Pina_Cumbia_Engolilla.mp3]
Celso Pi̱a РCumbia Engolilla

and a bit later on, same production crew helping out,

[audio:Julieta_Venegas_Eres_para_mi(SonideroNacionalCumbowRmx).mp3]
Julieta Venegas ft. Anita Tijoux – Eres Para Mi (Sonidero Nacional cumbow rmx)

Venegas knows not to argue with the wind. Geko tipped my hand on this remix of the Mexican pop star.

Julieta Venegas-Limon Y Sal-Frontal

UPCOMING

nearly forgot! – I’ll by DJing at Remor in Girona (Barcelona) this Saturday May 24, and then on Saturday May 31 I’ll be at the Novara Jazz Festival in Italy, and the Saturday after that you can catch me live featuring Jahdan Blakkamoore at Madrid’s La Casa Encendida for only 3 euros!

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& now for youtube:

turntable rebajada from Sonido Martines. I like this one because the visuals are as simple as the rebajada itself – yet more disorienting. Andres Landero ground down to 33.

… which leads us to a cumbia utopia – in the sense of an impossible, impossibly pleasant location. I’m not just referring to the pretty girls dressed in haltertops or asymetrical synthetics who are dancing on a computer-generated plane with that radiant horseshoe crab in the foreground as brass notes flare near a pre-peak-oil fantasy truck sold on eBay by Mad Max, now sober, turned beekeeper to support his love of honey – although that is a part of it. There is also a sense of rescuing. And, as always, the cumbia itself. Herself? Spanish, a gendered language.

BAGHDAD, NEW MEXICO

baghdad.jpg

[audio:Rahim_Alhaj_Baghdad_New_Mexico.mp3]
Rahim al-Haj – Baghdad, New Mexico

haj5haj5

On the CD’s back cover Bill Frisell says “I hope many people will have the chance to hear his new album, Home Again, made up of his own very personal compositions.” But despite the ominous signs, it’s not a bad album. Solo oud with plenty of strumming, downright banjoesque at times.

Forged endorsement is an interesting concept. Let’s save that for another post. Also, we’re starting a blog about ___ that will be bilingual, despite the fact i’m a lazy and unfaithful translator.

haj photo
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Andy was the first person to ask me about the last song featured in Masala’s post, which I hadn’t recognized when I first heard it, Do You Think I’m Sexy version from Sonido’s Rebajadas mix. Since then a lot of people have asked.

CHARTRES-TOPPER

in addition the 2nd day of Musique Action tonite, a last-minute Rupture solo DJ set will go down in Chartes (Orleans) tomorrow, and I’ll rejoin The Ex + Getatchew Saturday in Kortrijk, Belgium.

Outside our hotel there’s a Turkish restaurant where they’re listening to music on the room speakers & simultaneously blasting saz pieces from laptop’s YouTube link.

Expect more polyrhythm/cacaophony as our attention spans shatter along digital fault-lines.

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havent had time to listen, but: new Boy Better Know mixtape, as blogged by Prancehall, who also knows.

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the cumbia bug is infectious! Time to release more spores:

Afrosound – Ponchito de Colores

I’ve got multiple versions of this song, here’s the weirdest one– whoop whoop, plus someone quacks the bassline. This version is by Afrsound (thanks Sonido). All the others are from Ecuator. At this moment, a stronger blogger could resist the urge for ‘cute alpaca foto’…

Alpacas-Andes-Ecuador-Photographic-Print-C13062736
…as it’s downright SUMMERY in France, time for a romantic cumbia sonidera from the kung-fu-influenced Mexican-Peruvian Grupo Ginnsu outta NUEVA YORK, with wah on the guitar. (Ginnsu’s website is noisy but kinda crazy.)

Grupo Ginnsu – Cumbia de los Patos

(“Ducks’ cumbia”? am i missing something?)

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EX, PATCHES, RAVEPOLITIK

History is made at Night. blog around the identitity politics “of dancing and musicking”

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The Ex & Gétatchèw Mèkurya FREE, at Lincoln Center this August. What!?!? WFMU greased these wheels.

“The Ex are among the most freeform and inspiring musicians and people we’ve had the fortune to experience live and on record. To hear them in full steamroller twin-guitar attack joined by the 73-year old Lion of Ethiopian saxophone is going to be a musical experience we’re all gonna remember.”

next weekend The Ex will be playing songs with a less-illustrious collaborator – me. They’ve been invited to curate the Musique Action festival and have a weekend of improv & unlikely unions planned.

“The 7,8,9th of May, The Ex will curate three special nights, on the 25th anniversary of the amazing Musique Action Festival in Vendeouvre, Nancy, France. The first two nights are The Ex and guests, in different combinations. Guests will be: dj/rupture from New York, the Australian bassplayer Clayton Thomas, saxophonist John Butcher, drummer Han Bennink, trombonist Wolter Wierbos and Ethiopian masinqo-player Afework Negussie. On the 9th will be The Ex & Getatchew Mekuria & Guests. Getatchew Mekuria specially flies over from Ethiopia for this concert.”

on the 10th, Ex + Getechew & Rupture (solo this time) play nearby town of Kotrijk

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Andy Ex & I have a duo CD coming late summer or early fall. The title: Patches. it’s all mastered & sounds pretty good – live excerpts from concerts we gave in Europe over the past 2 years.