O’Neil Edwards 1/3 of Dancehall trio Voicemail.

Jamaica, please stop shooting your artists.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fl5JRyABfQ[/youtube]

Voicemail come first on this Style and Swagga medley.

From Dancehall.Mobi:

‘Oneil Edwards, one-third of the popular dancehall group, Voicemail, was reportedly shot multiple times at the gate to his house in Duhaney Park, Kingston, early this morning, and is now undergoing critical surgery at the Kingston Public Hospital. Unconfirmed reports indicate that robbery was the motive, and that he was shot at least once in the head.’

I’ve been playing a lot of Voicemail tunes lately, especially the Style and Swagga version above and I would like all of them to continue making their great music.

Badmen of Jamaica, I would humbly request that you refrain from shooting any more artists, producers, djs or anyone else.  If you need to shoot someone please shoot each other and leave everyone else out of it.  Thanks.

yannisandypasta

[Yannis, smiling. Andy, wearing someone else’s glasses]

a pertinent blurb: On Monday May 10th, from 7-8PM: Mudd Up’s DJ Rupture will host guitarist Andy Moor (The Ex, Dog-Faced Hermans) and composer Yannis Kyriakides. They’ll be talking about Greek rembetika music, as well as their incredible duo collaboration for guitar and electronics! WFMU, 91.1fm NYC.

+ + +

YES, in other words, the men behind one of the year’s most captivating albums to date, Rembetika, will be live in-studio, talking about the sonically expressed woes of displaced Turkic Greeks, sharing dark old songs from Asia Minor which unspool in time signatures as unsettling and engaging as the stories behind the players, and demystifying the magic contemporary music they make together using guitar and “computer”.

Here’s a tune from Rembetika ‘reinterpretations of classic Rembetika songs’:

[audio:http://negrophonic.com/mp3/Yannis Kyriakides & Andy Moor- A School Burnt Down.mp3]

Yannis Kyriakides & Andy Moor – A School Burnt Down (Rembetika)

20U 400

Ghostleg, our VJ friend in Australia re-ups the visual remix of some United Fruit Company propaganda he started on for New York Tropical, this time  with Uproot Andy‘s Vale La Pena remix.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiFT2baUQlo[/youtube]

A couple weeks ago, Los Rakas got flown to NYC for some super-private birthday event and as a result, I got to kick it with them for a couple days while they made the most of their time, hitting up radio stations and meeting east coast industry types on a promo blitz.

The Panamanian by way of the Bay-Area Ambassadors of Plena, have been on my radar for a hot one. On one of my trips to the Bay area last year, my host, Chief Boima, asked me what I wanted to do while I was in town. Answer: what is link up with Los Rakas for the daily double.

I got my hands on a dj promo cd from them with some acca’s from their La Tanda del Bus mixtape. Slowly between rounds I started working on some remixes for them with friends, which you’ll be hearing on the forthcoming Dutty Artz compilation and Los Rakas remixs EP respectively

The back forth flow between these guys makes them my favorite duo since Camp Lo, though definitely in a more raggamuffin style. They spit bars in both English and Spanish and rep hard pa mi gente..

I heard alot of blazing new tunes from them while they were here and you should too by listening back on Fader Magazine’s Radio show interview on EVR.  On the way there,  Rich started telling me about/singing this tune he stayed up was writing till 5am the night before. Just from hearing him in the car I knew the tune was gonna go long.  He was writing to the riddim for Hold Yuh which Dancehall.Mobi was just pointing out is still climbing charts. No lie, you can often hear two or three cars bumping that piano riff at different intervals of the song on the walk from your door to the train here in Brooklyn, atleast thats the case in my hood. Its in heavy rotation and both Rich and his homegirl Fabiola Wan came correct on this one.

Los Rakas ft Faviola – Abrazame

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/Abrazame.mp3]

After they sent me the tune and acca, I passed them off to Uproot Andy to lay over his remix of Gyptian’s version who then passed both tunes to our man Eddie Stats over at Fader’s Ghetto Palms blog and then Los Rakas went on to be the most famous guys in the world – the end

While delving a bit deeper into Kayhan Kalhor‘s repertoir following a Mudd Up tip-off, I came across baÄŸlama player Erdal Erzincan, who he collaborated with on the album The Wind. I can’t really tell you too much about him, except that the following video is amazing and that you should watch it in its entirety.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5kpcQ95jnc[/youtube]

It’s mostly a showcase for his jaw-dropping technical prowess (the guy actually makes the tapping technique popularized by Eddie Van Halen sound cool), which goes beyond the virtuoso habit of playing a ton of notes and actually tells a story. There are a ton of subtle structural and sonic details (rhythmic shifts, open spaces, buzzing strings) that keep me coming back to this clip, which now that I think about it, has been pretty time-consuming…Anyway! Kalhor has this to say about him (via):

“I appreciated at once that Erdal is a very good musician, a very serious baglama player – but he is still, normally, working within the demands of Turkish music today,” says Kalhor. “Ihis means songs and maybe a minute of playing in free time, and then another song. In Turkey, if you have a CD the market says you need 14 tracks and you have to have singing. I didn’t ask Erdal to sing. I explained to him, ‘I’m looking for something that departs from nothing and then goes into developing material and then goes into something else really improvised. Maybe we’ll go for a climax in terms of melody and energy and keep it there…And I’m looking at this for a form for maybe an hour of music.’ And he said, ‘I haven’t done that before, but I would like to do this.’ And he showed that he was indeed very much able to do this, and many of the things he played surprised and delighted me. What I’m trying to do in these kind of projects – whether with Shujaat or, now, with Erdal is to learn the music and experience the world through their eyes. And I am not trying to change what they do so much as offer them another vision of it. Musical Turkey, for instance, is very much based on composed songs. Improvisation of the kind that Erdal and I undertake, developing material, is something that has been forgotten…”

And here’s a video of them playing a beautiful piece together live, with Ulas Ozdemir and Ali Akbar Moradi:

[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x77anf_kayhan-kalhorerdal-erzincan-ulas-oz_music[/dailymotion]

Man, when Beyonce makes songs and videos like this it just really makes me hope that those scurrilous rumors about Jay-Z being gay are not true and that he is taking care of his responsibilities on the home front.  Otherwise, WHAT A WASTE!  I like this on a lot of levels.  Especially the Betty Page style old film look and costumes.  And although I don’t always feel what she does I think this song actually has some passion and intensity.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKqIgqJEH-o&feature=player_embedded#![/youtube]

I don’t usually post shows I’m not actively involved in but this is a very rare appearance from the veteran reggae sound on one of my favorite sound systems in the city.

June 23rd  @ Santos Party House

Doors at 7:00pm $10

Hosted by Fiona Bloom and Misbehavior

Today, from 3pm to 6pm, I’ll be playing tunes on WFMU 91.1 fm 90.1 fm wfmu.org – essentially taking over the airwaves for three hours!

Tune in! modesty aside, I have an incredible amount of extremely good music to share & I’ll be as organized as possible, but it’s going to be eclectic and heavy! Expect crazy heat, everything from Busy Signal to Mosca, to Aby Ngana Diop to Jack Rose!

& of course, stay tune for Mudd Up! with DJ Rupture 7 – 8 pm – our regular, reliable hour of undeniable heat and pressure every week!

Plus, I’m going to play a special something for my friend Goalie!

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/11394518[/vimeo]

COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU

“Cinco de Gallo” starring Geko Jones as Ricky Retardo and Uproot Andy as Gauchito Gillis

Wednesday May 5- we’re parking a taco truck outside Santos Party House and bringing the best Mexican bands in NYC to come rock out in Manhattan for a Hyper-Mexican party.. think Tron meets mariachis with fluorescent colors, spaceship cumbia, and glowsticks.

sponsored by Mex And the City and New York Remezcla

Weds May 5 Santos Party House

96 Lafayette St Doors 930 PM $15