Don’t have too much time to extrapolate on the goodness of these new latin joints, but I was reminded to share them when my track “Speakin Nuyorican” (which STILL hasn’t even been officially released yet) popped up on this Flavorpill/Absolut mixtape this past week (alongside some pretty decent company). Sorry about the somewhat infrequent posts- between getting my computer + entire digital music library jacked, experiencing the over-the-top insanity of Austin’s SXSW festival, and breaking my nose in a mosh pit, I’ve been a little preoccupied. But I’m bouncing back as we speak (and trying to remember all the good songs that I need to find again). 

All I will say about today’s tracks is that they come from albums that are great quality listening all the way through. Never heard of Dusty before, but in addition to producing and playing, he also runs the excellent Jazz & Milk record label (who very well may have the classiest album art in the game right now). 

Novalima is a project I’ve known and loved for several years now. I was skeptical about whether they’d be able to outdo their last album, but Coba Coba really just picks up their whole dubby, electro, afro-peruvian sound where Afro left off. If you’re a fan of funky syncopated time signatures and rootsy production, it doesn’t get better than this. 

BONUS MUSIC: I stumbled upon this very fresh SUPERMERCADO MIX by DJ Emil while looking for one of the tracks from Jazz & Milk. Nomadic Soundtrack indeed!

Dusty :       Salsa Step
taken from the album “Keep It Raw” on Jazz & Milk (2009)

Dusty :       Loco Para La Pista (Solo Moderna Remix)
taken from the EP “Keep It Raw Remixed” on Jazz & Milk (2009)

Novalima :       Yo Voy
taken from the album “Coba Coba” on Cumbancha (2008) 

I wrote about Antony Hegarty a while back in regards to the release of Hercules & Love Affair‘s amazing self-titled debut, which kind of stole the show for me in terms of last year’s cream of the crop records. I think that album appealed in particular to people like me: music heads who felt a significant void in contemporary electronic and/or disco music; folks who loved to boogie but maybe couldn’t help harboring the suspicion that a lot of what they danced to was kind of wack. It was a record  that opened people’s eyes in a lot of ways, not least of all to remind us that party bangers can be lyrical and complex and even beautiful. For them Hercules‘ depth resonated certainly in the music, but also, and perhaps even more importantly, in  Antony Hegarty’s voice. That album left more than a few newbies wondering simply, “Who is that?”

If your only experience of Antony’s pipes came from listening to the psuedo- psycho- emo- disco of that collaboration, then you’re in for a treat. Because it’s the softer, weirder, more elegant stuff that really thrills: music that sticks with you when you go to sleep at night; that drags you through the kind of screwy dreamscape you might find yourself in if you fell asleep watching Alice In Wonderland, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and The Shining… at the same time. His voice and the sonic landscape it inhabits burst with the sort haunting, sensual, confounding beauty that you might expect of a 6+ foot tall ghost-pale transvestite… which is to say, what expectations? 

For my part, I can’t think of too many voices in contemporary music who have elicited the kind of physical response I registered the first time I heard Hegarty sing. I remember cringing. I remember my heart beating a little faster. I remember registering a deep gut tingle, perhaps in disgust, perhaps in awe. Certainly the lyrics themselves, which often alluded to the less-trod paths of sexual aberration, jarred me. I found myself regarding his music with equal parts suspicion, confusion and utter enthrallment. In some ways I felt almost victimized by the melodrama. Syrupy. Hyperbolic. Schmaltzy. But somehow, endlessly captivating. Was this the kind of stuff that you weren’t supposed to admit you liked?  Was Antony Hegarty a hipster’s Celine Dion? Maybe. But if it was schmaltz he was selling, the stuff worked like a potion. I’ve been hooked ever since.

That first encounter came just after the release of his second album “I Am a Bird Now”, at which point I resolved myself to see him in the flesh. I’ve since watched him perform twice and each time I left the show nearly speechless. Live, perhaps even more so than on record, he is a force — smoldering with a subdued intensity that only crests from time to time as the trembling vibrato of his voice rises into a plaintive gale. His live shows reveal a musician clearly at ease with his vocal prowess and a man who thankfully hasn’t forgotten that, at the end of the day, we all still like dance music. Thus Beyonce:

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

I’m supplying you today with a few other things to boot: a favorite track from each of his three albums and his new video, directed by, um, THE WACHOWSKI BROTHERS. (Did you ever hear of that movie called The Matrix?) Like I said, Alice in Wonderland meets Priscilla meets The Shining. Plus maybe a dash of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Bugged out.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y30PCFVTyDQ[/youtube]

Enjoy. 

      Fistful Of Love

      Epilepsy Is Dancing

Taken, respectively, from the LPs “Antony & The Johnsons” on Secretly Canadian (2000), “I Am A Bird Now” on Secretly Canadian (2005) and “The Crying Light” on Secretly Canadian (2009)

Holy crack rocks! We ‘Tards are going to open for Public Enemy this Sunday @ B.B. King’s in Times Square!  And to top it off, it’s going to be Flavor Flav’s 50th B-day party!  How crazy is that?  Flav is 50???  This is going to be a super special show, we are going to have some special performers with us…  I can’t say much more right now…  But yeah, it’s going to be special.  Then after this show we hop on a plane headed to Austin for SXSW.  It’s gonna be a crazy time there.  If you are going to be there, holler at us for our schedule.  We are doing a showcase Thursday at the Red Bull Moon Tower and it’s going to be off the hook! All our other shows there are free with free booze, what else do you need???

So in honor of Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Terminator X, The Bomb Squad, Professor Griff and the S1W’s…  Here is our remix of Bring The Noise.  (Previously released on our Endless Dummer Mixtape.)

Public Enemy vs The Beatards: Bring The Noize
from Endless Dummer on MTR! (2007) 

Mixtape extended fam, Chen Lo, hit me up with this official remix of ABC’s, the single off K’Naan’s recently released Troubadour album. I’ll be honest. I didn’t even know who K’Naan was until I caught his set at All Points West last August. But the dude’s got one of those ill voices that reminds me of K-Os or any of the higher-frequency registering members of Jurassic 5. And as usual, Chen does his thing on this track, which is bult on a hype horn-laced beat that sounds like it could have been sampled from a Mulatu joint (who wants to check?). I’m lovin the kid-sung hook and Lo’s reference to Somali pirates. These two artists make a dope team and I hope to hear more collaborations in the future. Continue reading…

This is the state of my previously white Pro Keds after last night’s crowd-surfing electro-punk warehouse party in Williamsburg. I dance a lot (pretty much why I started DJing), but it’s still a rare occasion that I get a chance to go that crazy. Thanks to all the bands on the lineup (especially Team Robespierre, Juiceboxxx, & Ninjasonik) who induced nothing less than sweaty frenzy between each consecutive power outage (the momentary spaces for shouts and chanting only increased the intensity of the mayhem). Big shouts to Spankrock and Amanda Blank who were keeping things hype too. Here’s some pics from the show (you can see me getting rowdy  in a couple). 

Today however, I needed some serious Sunday recuperation. Afternoon trip to the Russian & Turkish bathhouse with the homies, little bit of savory Israeli cuisine to take me back to Tel Aviv, and sitting back with some recent mash-ups that I’ve been loving lately. Erik The Red is a friend for a while now, and I only wish he would hit me up with blends like this more often. Jayceeoh is a cat I just met recently over the interweb, but I’m looking forward to DJ-ing together later this month when he drops a new Brazilian mix (stay tuned). Pretty cool to hear my own track get the mashup treatment (he used my beat “Fumando” on “I Know That’s Gangster”). And “Blame It” is a guilty pleasure that I can’t pretend not to love. Then I’m putting up a remix I just finished now for Mayer Hawthorne & The County. The og had me flipping when I first heard it, and from listening to the other joints on his myspace, the album sounds like it’s gonna be a monster. Now I need to go find me some new PRO KEDS!!!

Mayer Hawthorne :       Just Ain't Gonna Work Out (Captain Planet Remix)

Alice Russell :       Hurry On Now (Erik The Red's Tubbified Mashdown)

Jaime Foxx vs. DJ Spinna :       Blame It (Jayceeoh Edit)

Jay-Z, Sean Kingston, & Bun B :       I Know That's Gangsta (Jayceeoh vs. Captain Planet Edit)

ALL MTR EXCLUSIVES!!!

Chandeliers are a banging good time live, but I wasn’t sure that three analog keyboards and a drummer would sound as dynamic on record. The four piece plays with a lot energy live, and they bring a steady, but quickly shifting stream of funky, electro pop. It’s great music for art school loft parties, and I say that with all sincerity. With The Trush, Chandeliers keep the energy up and maintain a live drum sound that gives the album an organic freshness. Comprised of members from Icy Demons and Mahjongg, Chandeliers are more of a dance outfit that keeps all the songs under five minutes and never strays too far from pop sensibilities. The melodies are often angular and stark; sometimes producing a playful tone, but at times they create dark and alien atmospheres. The songs are typically linear in structure, with multiple themes spinning into and out of the slowly evolving beat.

There’s nothing in The Thrush that Squarepusher hasn’t done before, and live bands making dance music have been a dime a dozen over the last ten years. But Chandeliers standout to me, and I’m not quite sure why. I guess I imagine they’re all going to nail hot sculpture majors right after their set, and that makes me happy. Continue reading…