Wow, intense day in NYC. Can’t even put in all the links of activities, so I’ll just say that Sneaks was a blast last night and big ups to Sharmaji and Sunder for throwing a terrific party were people were down for adventurous music (although even within that I saw that the crowd ran away for the 15 minutes I played Post-Fly-Lo/Dimlite stuff…. amazing to me really, this is the stuff that interests me most, but I guess it’s a long stretch to call it dance music and mostly even underground people just want to dance.)
Tomorrow is OVC with the afterparty at Le Poisson Rouge. Then for me Dub War!!! Which I’ve never been to!
But the big news, for me, is that I got added, thanks to DJ N-Ron, to the Eyebeam Mixer party Saturday!!! Sweet! So come out if you can and support this great organization! I’m on from 11-Midnight. Info below!
Saturday, June 20, 9PM – 2AM
Eyebeam: 540 W. 21st St. (btw 10th and 11th Aves.)
NYC’s #1 art party is back!
Eyebeam’s warehouse space comes alive with the audience becoming an integral
part of the performance
MIXER: VERSION: Eyebeam presents a remix-inspired spectacular with an iPod rock stage, mobile soundsystem, and a cutting-edge karaoke room among many other delights.
About Mixer
MIXER, Eyebeam’s quarterly event series dedicated to showcasing leading artists in the fields of live audiovisual performance, interactive and participatory art, returns on Tuesday, June 16 and Saturday, June 20, 2009. The upcoming event, dubbed MIXER: VERSION, explores various forms of culture hacking—from software and hardware, to media content and infrastructure.
MIXER: VERSION takes its inspiration in part from the creative approaches of dub reggae music in which an original music recording is remixed by various producers, creating new versions that still reference the original. Within this creative exchange between producers there exists both a competitive spirit and a sense of shared culture.
At MIXER: VERSION, the competition and collaboration take place between the artists and audience through the artwork. Participants can jam on the “rock stage” with hacked iPods, sing ridiculous computer-generated lyrics in the Fever Karaoke room, or produce their own hot audiovisual mixes on the mobile Sansystem. All of that creative magic gets mixed together by our own crack DJs and VJs, so at any given time you might be providing the entertainment for everyone at the party!
Unexpectedly going to be back in NYC! Who knew? And Dave Sharma and Sunder were kind enough to give me a spot at their new weekly SNEAKS! at Rebar in Dumbo! Check it! AND, this is kind of my 30th birthday party, as much as I’m having one, so ya better come, ya heard?
And then I’ll be at the Open Video Conference for Friday and Saturday. So many good people speaking and being there that I don’t even know where to begin praising. AND if that weren’t enough, I’m playing the afterparty at Le Poisson Rouge, which is free to conference goers and and $15 otherwise (and I think that includes open bar!) I’m playing early, 7-7:45, and I think if everything works out I’ll have visuals by Mssngpeces, who I was fortunate enough to meet last year. Lovely.
AND OMG BEN SISTO JUST POSTED THE FLYER AND IT’S F’IN INCREDIBLE!!!!!
Best Poster Ever
Currently listen to this compilation of all the All City 7″ releases (of which there were 8, so I’m not so sure why it got called 7×7). Please people, go listen to this. It’s like this true testimate to how far beat music has come in the last 20 odd years. It incorporates everything that’s interesting and subtle and complex about the stuff that’s Post-Fly Lo (Can we say that now?), but totally showcases the diversity of it all. Snowman’s bangers, Fulgence’s awesome head-noders, Hud Mo’s almost beatless crackles (who knew he had it in him?) And kind of above everything else, Dimlite’s sheer utter brilliance. This man is THE composer of our time. I’m gonna do a full post on him in a bit, but it’s safe to say that both Quiz Tears on this comp and Ravemonds Young Problems on the Beat Dimensions comp are two of the most original pieces of music I’ve ever heard. And every time I play one of them someone comes up to me and says “What the F is that?” but can’t stop smiling!
Hope to see folks in New York. Oh, and, wordpress, thank you so much for fixing everything that was wrong with the interface. You actually making it somewhat enjoyable to blog again!
Tim Staypuft knows what’s what. For a couple years now he’s been touting Skweee! Skweee’s this crazy, kind of simple but kind of infectious strange combination of dancehall, R&B, 8bit music and instrumental pop that basically only comes from Finland, Sweden, and now Norway. The big labels to know are Flogsta Danshall and Harmonia, but recently Oslo has gotten into the act as well with the Dodpop label and put out my two favorite releases so far, entirely Norweigan artists. Apparently 003 and 004 are on the way, can’t wait! Skweee’s weird stuff, but it’s all worth checking out, and I’ve definitely been bitten by the skweee bug! Basically it’s homebase is here, at Nation of Skweee. The added bonus about the whole genre is that it has great art (see below)
Just recently, the awesome Ramp Recordings has put out a whole comp of the stuff called Skweee Tooth that’s an excellent primer on the whole scene. And I wrote an article about it for XLR8R, which is finally up. Check it out!
Currently I’m listening to something that has nothing to do with Skweee … it’s Mux Mool! Check him out!
Currently Listening to J Squared, an Aussie currently living in Tokyo. Found out about him through the Yes Yes Y’all blog which is definitely where I get a lot of my beat gems from. Check em out!
Just thought I’d post a few pics from Surya Dub, just trying to keep folks in the loop. It was an amazing night. The positives were many. Both Sander/Eprom’s set and Mala’s set were truly great in totally separate ways. Eprom is really taking this melding of dubstep and glitch to another level, and doing so with such crazy synths that it goes off almost into prog territory for a minute, but always comes crashing back so hard that it just makes it perfect party music. The west coast is really creating its own version of “Dubstep”, loosely defined, at the moment, and no one is doing it better than Eprom.
Mala’s set was dark dark dark. I felt almost like I was listening to industrial or metal music, even through most of the common musical tropes from those genres weren’t there. It was just dub after dub of very slow bass-heavy stuff… a few remixes I did recognize of older tracks but mostly just new stuff. I’d assume it was almost entirely dubs from himself and Loefah, but there might have been a few other folks in there as well. Mostly very 1/2 time, but occasionally it would kick up into energetic full swung rhythms. It was truly an unforgettable and unique musical experience, so much so that it actually knocked me on my ass for about 1/2 an hour and all I could do was listen.
The less the positive thing, and something we don’t always let on, is that once again we lost money on the show… Surya only barely breaks even most times, sometimes it loses money, and only twice have we gone into the black (and even then we just use that money to pay back debts)… Maneesh and I tried to dissect what went wrong, why 350 people isn’t enough in Club Six, and frankly we’re not sure what else we could have done. It’s just hard hard hard to do a show in this town if you don’t have a built in audience of hundreds for your event and if you are reliant totally on door sales.
Don’t take this as griping too much, it was a great show and I wouldn’t have changed anything, but man, throwing events in this town is harder than ever. Still though, very proud of what we made!
Listening to “Believe Porpoise” at the moment, by We from their first album, As Is. This whole album was such a seminal release to me, came out my senior year of high-Sghool. I remember being so proud that there was someone fusing dnb and trip-hop (I didn’t even really know that much about straight dub then), and doing IN AMERICA. I was so fortunate to get to interact with these guys later in my career, but listening to it now brings me back to a rainy North Carolina spring and cueing this up on my janky discman, with speakers I borrowed from my bro’s boombox.
But memory lane is just a diversion when there’s a ton going on here and now. Basically I just wanted to shout out this producer who I know nothing about but who has already made my favorite album for the year. It’s J Todd, and you can find him on Myspace here. I found out about him because he had one of the most charming tracks on the superb Beat Dimensions comp from 2007, The Night. That was a little more sample-based hip-hop, like his first album XOXO. Now he’s got Ryzzynynce out through Itunes direct, and it totally rocks me. And I almost can’t even say why. It exists at this weird intersection between what Flying Lotus and all the Brainfeeder cats are doing in the wonky hip-hop space, 80s synth throwback stuff that you’d almost expect more in an electro set, and something else sort of undefinable. Actually, what it mostly makes me think of is rainy hot summers in the South, something about those syrup-y bass and synth lines. Strange, considering Todd’s from cold-ass Milwaukee, a city I have great love for. Sometimes the music gets a little hyper, like on Otaku Sunrise, but all the better for switching up the energy. Anyway, XLR8R tells me that he’s also part of some otherfinegroups, seems more a beat man for others in those cases. There’s even pictures of him MCing all over his myspace, so perhaps he’s got talent across the spectrum. Amazing that clearly he’s been doing his thing for forever (which you can kind of tell in how developed his sound is on Ryzzynynce) and yet he came at me like a bolt out of the blue. Thanks to Salva, Frite Nite, and Bryant/Lazer Sword for turing me on to him beyond the Beat Dimensions comp!
My new mix will feature him heavily, as have all my sets recently, so definitely check him! I myself hope to stay in the loop with his upcoming productions.
PS 1 on this – Looks like Beat Dimensions 2 is FINALLY on it’s way! Rush Hour just shows a couple of EPs right now, but it’s all the dopest beat makers out there at the moment, and, like always, a few that I’ve never heard of. Big up Cinnaman and Jay Scarlett as always. EP 1 here. EP 2 here.
PS 2 on this – Holy Schnikee’s I hadn’t actually taken the time to really check out the new Brainfeeder site! Go there right now and let your brain explode.
Also wanted to point out that a group that I’ve been following for a long long time is on the verge of releasing their first solo album, finally, after like years of tweaking. Think I’ve been in touch with these guys for 3 years and they’ve only had one official release before they struck out on their own and founded their own 3by3 label. It’s Cloaks, and they’re mindblowing if you can take it. Their album and site features awesome artwork by my buddy El Kano (which you can see to the left). Can’t post any tracks here, but just head to their myspace page and check out the sound (also, their website itself is gorgeous)… That sound is, well, … judge for yourself, but to me it’s this crazy clash between glitch, dubstep and industrial. But genre descriptions aren’t actually that helpful to describe their music, it would be more accurate to say it sounds more like a digital robot tearing apart chunks of rusted metal … it’s right on the edge of beat music, but whenever you start to lose faith the rhythm creeps back in. Plus, as bonus points, I’ve heard that they make ALL this music complete with analog gear. I know they’re based somewhere way outside the mainstream of the UK music scene (I’m thinking Norwich … which, forgive me Brit’s if that’s like THE place to be at the moment).
Anyway, all this to say that their 9 track (get it? 3×3?) LP Versus Grain is out on their own label a month from tomorrow. I’m sure Boomkat will carry it. Looks like they’re playing at Corsica Studios in a week, so check ‘em out there if you happen to be in London (man do I ever wish that SF had a place where we could do shows like Cloaks… oh wait… maybe that’s GAFFTA! But more on that to come…)
Ah, what the heck, here’s one short track, Low Quality, with drops in it, to give you an idea. Be scared or enjoy, it’s your choice.
*Closed the comments to entries on the blog older than 3 weeks old, I was just inundated with spam. This goes along with some general housekeeping that’s designed to get me blogging more often (I know I know, a perpetual promise, but things are different this time…)
*Updated my fav tracks section of the moment. Looks like I’m actually listening to a lot of dubstep again, which wasn’t the case for a while. But really favoring the stuff that’s so complex and ethereal in some ways that it reminds me more of icelandic electronica or Vladislav Delay or almost field records/tape music … Specifically I’d shout out Rich Reason and Fantastic Mr. Fox, who clearly have a level of sonic detail that leaves many others in the dust. A lot of this stuff now gets featured on Rob Booth’s Electronic Explorations show, which I’ve been catching up on back episodes of. Highly recommended.
*I’ve done the recording, but not the editing for, a mix for Modyfier. I’m sort of not happy with it at the moment, but I want it done. I’ll go back and edit it, and then probably discuss that process, since that’s the whole point. Rayna might get a big ramble from me, but hey, when you access Kid K to process, he takes it there. The funny caveat to making this mix was meeting the woman of mystery herself at GAFFTA meeting, an organization we’ll both have a nebulous connection to in the coming months. Very cool. Keep and eye here, Gaffta.org, and at Modyfier for more info.
*Getting very excited for Surya Dub this weekend, I’m still convinced that Mala and EPROM is a great Surya Dub pairing. But I’m not sure how much buzz there is around the show (and only partially because I haven’t been paying attention). If you’re reading this and are coming or even if you’re not but support us, send folks to the going link and have them get their tickets early! www.going.com/suryadubmay30 Or just have them come out! Maybe it’s just pre-show jitters.
*PS – More meta – my god, I just realized how different this blog looks on FF vs Safari. I can only imagine what it looks like on IE. If anyone knows specific resources about alignment/layout/photos/embedding in working with the Royale theme in WP, hit me!
*Moving again, inventorying stuff, it’s a lot to take in.
*Raffertie continues to be insane. His new joint is on Seclusiasis and it’s great.
*Other things that rock me right now: New Nosaj Thing album is brilliant. Akira Kiteshi’s new stuff is mind blowing. J Todd is unstoppable. More to come on these guys.
*Architeq shouted me out that Mary Anne Hobbs shouted me out on her radio show this week. Big ups to both of them. It was a great show, you can snag a full copy of it here.
And now the announcements.
I’M OPENING FOR BASSNECTAR AT 103 HARRIET
Aight, this is a BIG BIG deal to me. I’m truly blessed to be asked to open for Bassnectar in the Main Room of 103 Harriet (which you ALL know as another name as a club on Folsom St, which name I can’t say for some reason). Not only is it the best sound in the city, THEY ARE BRINGING IN EXTRA BASS for the show. OMG. And, to boot, I’m being given a full 1.5 hours to open the night, easing in the vibe from 10 – 11:30. Unbelievable. I’ve been collecting new material, and you’ll hear glitch and dub, a bit of classic 2 step, dancehall, some crowd rockers, usual eclectic Kid K style. I will be leaving the SUPER crazy stuff for the excellent performers later in the night. Oh, which, by the way, are fabulous! Kush Arora of Surya Dub! Boreta of the Glitch Mob. Adam Ohana, always On-a (heh). And the prince himself, Lorin Bassnectar. Not to be missed, the sound of SF in ‘09.
(I’d include a flyer, but there isn’t actually a specific one, only the generic Bassnectar pic, so you’ll just have to trust me.)
——————————————
SURYA DUB IS COMING BACK!
Ever since the very first Surya Dub 2.5 years ago, we’ve talked and talked about Mala/Digital Mystikz as a guest. The timing never worked out. Till now. We are so so so proud to welcome the man who’s probably had more influence on Dubstep’s sound this decade than anyone else to our special night. And, we’ve paired him with one of my favorite rising stars of SF’s Glitch/Dubstep/Whatevs scene, EPROM, who impresses me more and more every time I see him. Plus, it’s the return of SD former resident Ross Hogg upstairs to ease your reggae and hip-hop cravings just right. This is really one of those combinations that’s going to be up there with the Fly Lo, The Bug/Warrior Queen, 2562/Gaslamp shows, one you’re going to want to spread the word on and say “I was there”. And, please, do help us spread the word, and forward on to lists is most appreciated!
Because of international talent the tickets on the day of are a bit more expensive. BUT, to compensate for the fam, we are offering 100 presales at our normal price of $10. Please pick these up now if you think you’re coming! www.going.com/suryadubmay30
Finally, in a funny little extra note, I’m the DJ at the cocktail hour for the San Francisco Music Tech conference, along with some folks from InGrooves. If you happen to be going to the conference, look for me there Monday the 18th!
Little promo bump! I’m getting to play on this cool veggie powered bus that gets used once every other week for the Transported SF parties! This is a totally awesome idea, and does a lot of things that interest me in throwing events right now. 1) It takes total advantage of the space in which events can happen, and uses it to the fullest extent… that is, San Francisco is the palette, and the bus gets to go wherever, and the point is not to know but to experience the city that way. 2) Once you get on, you don’t have the choice to get off, the the whole experience has to be catered in such a way as to make everyone as happy as possible 3) The time I went before it was an awesome crowd, down for fun and good music, colorful and thoughtful, and not in the least bit annoying. 4) get out of the house on a Thursday night!
I’ve added some photos below, courtesy of Wetribe, who seems to be one of False Profit’s main photographers. Definitely consider coming if you’re in the bay area! Tickets here. Big up alxndr for putting it together! Added bonus that the former occupant of my current room is also playing! Come out Thursday March 12th!
A week before Surya Dub, I had the awesome fortune to put together a show for Mary Anne Hobbs, who was coming out to LA and San Francisco to meet some of the artists that she plays on her show. The whole experience was awesome for me since Mary Anne stands at the pinnacle of not only a certain type of music, but also a certain presentation style, and, like most of the best connections, I got to know her over 24 hours, not just through a show. She was a joy to hang out with, and one of the things that made her click to me is that like so many artists that I now both enjoy and enjoy hanging out with, she has journalistic blood in her. Her stories of global travel both for Bikes and Music are inspiring, and off camera/off air she’s a touch more snark-y and critical, which just makes her all the more fun!
The gig itself was great (well, the upstairs room was great … for my room, meh …I have to say that’s the least people I’ve played to in a long time … until the next gig at 103 Harriet!) But the coolest thing was the two videos that it produced… One by Mary Anne for her Youtube channel and one by Professor Smith and myself for XLR8R. Check ‘em out below. Couple notes: one is that I’m SUPER happy with the location and the sound for the XLR8R one … I loved that location but was worried about the wind on the mics. So that was a win for me. Also … yes, that’s me asking Mary Anne a long ramble of a question in her video …
XLR8R’S WEST COAST ROCK’S SPECIAL
Finally, looks like someone has ripped the BBC show that she did! Get it HERE from Rapidshare (where all good things that don’t live on What.CD live). Track list below. Big tracks here for me are Zoning by EPROM, WLTA by Teebz who I had the good fortune to meet last week, The Architeq vs TAKE track, and Sonido Del Principe track on Bersa Discos.
0200
Mono/Poly – ‘Red & Yellow Toys’ (Dubplate)
12th Planet – ‘Smokescreen’ [Jack Sparrow Mix] (Dubplate)
Exile – ‘We’re All In Power’ From the ‘Exile Radio’ (Plug Research)
Bookworms – ‘How Can I Remix’ (Dubplate)
Samiyam – ‘Bricks’ (Dubplate)
Teebs – ‘WLTA’ (Dubplate)
Alice Coltraine Ft Pharoah Sanders – ‘Journey in Satchidananda’ from the EP ‘Journey in Satchidananda’ (Impulse)
DJ TOMAS INTERVIEW
Flying Lotus – ‘Auntie’s Harp’ from the LP ‘Los Angeles’ (Warp)
Architeq – ‘Sleeping Bear’ [TAKE Remix] (Dubplate)
Jega – ‘Soul Flute’ (Planet Mu Dubplate)
Daedelus – ‘Touchstone’ [Jimmy Edgar mix] from ‘For Withered Friends’ (NinjaTune)
Vaccine – ‘Radiate’ (Dubplate)
GLITCH MOB INTERVIEW AND LIVE SET, LOW END THEORY, LA
Dam-Funk – ‘Killdat* (Stones Throw)
0300
Ras_G & The African Space Program – ‘Crazy Alien’ (Dubpate)
Madlib – ‘J.D. & J.B.’ from ‘Beat Konducta Vol 5-6 Bonus 45′ (Stones Throw)
EPROM – ‘Zoning’ (Dubplate)
Kid Kameleon Interview
LAZER SWORD LIVE SET, 103 HARRIET
Bassnectar – ‘Boombox Sketch’ (Amorphous Music)
Ghosts On Tape – ‘Mogadishu Nightlife’ (White label)
Clubroot – ‘Sempiternal’ (Lo Dubs dubplate)
MIA & Rye Rye ‘Tictok’ [Ant-Ten-Nae remix] (Dubplate)
Nobody presents Blank Blue – ‘Blank Blue’ from the LP ‘Western Water Music Vol II’ (Ubiquity)
DADDY KEV INTERVIEW & MIX, LOW END THEORY, LA
Nosaj Thing – ‘Coat Of Arms’ (Alpha Pup)
Sonido Del Principe – ‘Cartagena’ from the compilation album ‘Bersa Discos 4′ (Bersa Discos)
THE GASLAMP KILLER INTERVIEW & LIVE TRACK, LOW END THEORY, LA
Dorian Concept – ‘Yorktown Recreation’ From ‘Maximized Minimalization’ (Affine Records)
Legion Of Two – ‘And Now We Wait’ (Planet Mu)
Wanted to do a little recap on the Surya Dub 2 year. It was truly incredible, one of the best shows I’ve ever been involved with. By the numbers it was probably between 450 and 500 people, so one of our best turnouts … but in addition to that it was solidly packed from the beginning to the end. There was still a solid crowd of 50 when we kicked everyone out at 3AM. As always the crowd was super diverse, dreads, hipsters, hommies, style-y latina women, burners, dudes with money, dudes with nothing, and lots and lots of people who we see at many of our events, and many more that we don’t.
Particular highlights were playing a 1/2 hour roots set upstairs to kick things off, getting into a lot of my Horace Andy and White Mice… Hearing Collage be the best damn MC out there… Watching Gaslamp Killer go absolutely bizerk, and then hearing people musing “hmmm, I really didn’t expect him to play so much dubstep…” … Maneesh smiling (since he’s often the stress ball of the crew) … All of 2562’s solid solid set, which included the awesome Untold track “Just for You”, my musical highlight of the night … getting to play Menta’s “Sounds of the Future” for a late night crowd … and of course a lot of very nice compliments from people like DJ G, Sitar, Shockman, Eskmo, Iris, and many many others.
There are some videos and pics below, the first shot by a professional who is friends with our VJs Contact, the second of GLK’s performance, and the 3rd (only slightly embarrassingly) of the transition between GLK and 2562 (with me talking). And as for the next Surya Dub? It’s a bit up in the air at the moment … it’s not going to be for a little while, Surya Dub crew is actually meeting tomorrow to determine the fate of the event… but watch this space for info, and in the mean time the crew will do stuff on the road and as individuals. Thanks though to all who have supported the diverse sound so far, we’ll definitely keep it live!
All the following photos are courtesy of Kelly Koehler, our in house photographer, who is the bee’s knees.
Me at work
Jack know’s what’s up, check the threads
Set List
J.Rogers – “Oh gosh…”
Line around the block, this is taken from the side smoking section
Jimmy concentrates
This is the reason I wanted to book GLK … so so so amazing as a performer
This was one of the best things about this show… when we had Fly Lo all these kids with Stones Throw kids came and stood right in front and killed the vibe for me a tiny bit … but this time it was all about everybody getting down
Pounds (I think that’s me… Asher, our sound guy looks on)
My favorite shot of the night
Sometimes I do Mic duty … I need a couple drinks in me to do it proper, but I got some compliments for this night
2562 did an awesome job … he doesn’t look so excited in any of these pics, but it was totally the perfect thing to follow GLK, super dance-y
DJ Collage was awesome on the mic
I like this one because it’s hard to tell what’s going on… It’s me in front and Joe behind me…
The following ones are from the Nite Vibe photographer who often comes out to our events. He’s super good at capturing the crowd. Check out the whole set, it’s all good.
Jack (1/2 of Contact)
Danny (the other 1/2 of Contact)
My friend Ron aka Shockman, documenting the process
Saturday, June 20, 9PM – 2AM
Currently listen to this compilation of all the 
Listening to “Believe Porpoise” at the moment, by 
But memory lane is just a diversion when there’s a ton going on here and now. Basically I just wanted to shout out this producer who I know nothing about but who has already made my favorite album for the year. It’s J Todd, and you can find him on Myspace 
Also wanted to point out that a group that I’ve been following for a long long time is on the verge of releasing their first solo album, finally, after like years of tweaking. Think I’ve been in touch with these guys for 3 years and they’ve only had 
A week before Surya Dub, I had the awesome fortune to put together a show for Mary Anne Hobbs, who was coming out to LA and San Francisco to meet some of the artists that she plays on her 
