originally posted at Mudd Up!

Ice Trilogy – Vladimir Sorokin (Mudd Up Book Clubb January 2012 pick!) – aaaahhhh! I wrote: “It’s ambitious, totally nuts, capable of generating new emotions, perhaps the first ’21st Ct’ novel I’ve read.”

Embassytown – China Miéville. Language, addiction, bio-urbanism. Embassytown is especially wow in light of the rest of Miéville’ ouevre.

My Common Heart – Anne Boyer. My one complaint: (not tryna be greedy but) IT’S TOO SHORT!

“At night I dream of a poetry for the crowd. I imagine the bodies pressed against each other until there is not one set of feet left on the ground.”

:in the category of city slickers:

[Photo: Tyrone Brown-Osborne]

Harlem Is Nowhere – Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts. You heard our mix for this, right?

Down & Delirious in Mexico City – Daniel Hernandez. You heard the radio show we did, right?

plus an important Mexico addenda:

El Narco – Ioan Grillo. Lucid overview of “Mexico’s criminal insurgency,” putting the complex mayhem into historical perspective while avoiding the sensationalistic.

“If the East India Company was the first drug cartel, then the Royal Navy was the first band of violent cartel enforcers. After the two Opium Wars, the company won the right to traffic in 1860. The Chinese kept smoking and took the poppy with them in their diaspora round the planet.”

&

“I ask Mathilde [a poppy farmer in the Sinaloan mountains] to describe the effect of these flowers. What is the magic property they have? What is it that makes them so valuable? She looks at me blankly for a moment, then answers in a slow, thoughtful tone.

‘It is a medicine. And it cures pain. All pain. It cures the pain you have in your body and the pain in your heart. You feel like your body is mud. All mud. You feel like you could melt away and disappear. And it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. You are happy. But you are not laughing. This is a medicine, you understand?’

I’m burnt out on the NYC 70s & 80s glorification/nostalgia/histories, a genre that seems to metastasize each year, but Will Hermes’ Love Goes To Buildings On Fire is exemplary for its wide-eyed span: a five-year history of musical innovation in New York City that takes on rock guitars, salsa, rap, jazz, minimalism. Rare that these contiguous/adjacent scenes get examined together. There’s a paragraph in here about how session musicians formed a kind of connective tissue across scenes & studios — so many ways to think about how music circulates and histories congeal. Here’s to more thought-provoking anticoagulants in 2012.

#2012 Vectors of Ambition. Put that work in.

Our friend Daniel Perlin (a.k.a. N-Ron, but you’ll soon know him as Merlin) is throwing a crazy end of year houseparty at a space in downtown Brooklyn – Please join us in celebrating the amazing year that was 2011 and the arrival of 2012! Help us push away the spirit of apocalypse… He’s gone and invited the incredible Ripley, yrs truly, and some special guests. MORE details after Saul Williams, c. the year two thousand:

Saul Williams – Penny For A Thought

Radio last night was lively, with large exclusives from Traxman and DJ Matabaya, upcoming soca power from Poirier, the overlooked Luciano remix of a Salif Keita & Cesaria Evora song, and an overall energized future lean like Jay Electronica’s crushingly expansive Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge). Lets’s get open! Here’s lookin’ at you, two thousand one two! Streaming:

tracklist Read the rest of this entry »

Peace good peoples. I’m new around here, so thanks firstly to Jace for having me. This here is a mix from my group Old Money for the good folks at VANE. Less a compilation of “the new hot shit” and more so genuine touchstones of influence for us. A cpl unreleased jawns on there from us, as well as one from Boima’s forthcoming African In New York. I’m really and truly still amazed that Boima managed to make me like that Usher song.
Vanity Jukebox Vol. 13 Pretty Danger Mixed by Old Money by sotrvanenyc
Playlist
1. Mad One – House Girls 7 – No War Inside
2. Old Money – [untitled]
3. DJ Mujava – Mugwanti / Sgwejegweje
4. DJ Tira – I Wont Let You Go
5. Old Money – Mothership [unreleased]
6. Nina Simone – See-Line Woman
7. Rebirth Brass Band – Feel Like Funkin’ It Up
8. Outkast – Spottieottiedopalicious (Nacey Remix)
9. Isa GT – Funketa
10. Kes The Band – Wotless
11. Crystal Waters – What I Need (Club Mix)
12. Maluca + The Party Squad – Lola (Ging Danga)
13. Usher – DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love (Chief Boima Remix)
14. Lil Silva feat. Sampha – On Your Own
15. Gelú-Six – In The Building
16. Baobinga & I.D. – Man Down
17. Jhene Aiko – Club Stranger (Nguzunguzu Remix)

<<DOWNLOAD HERE>>

Also – our most recent video – “Dolla Van (Acuras, Maximas, Cressidas& Celicas)”

Also – one of the primary of the say 8 or 9 elements that influenced it – Lost Boyz – “Jeeps, Lex Coups, Bimaz & Benz”

S/o the OG “urban” brands in the vid. Mecca USA, Walker Wear and the like. And RIP Freaky Tah. If you’ve been living this long w/o Legal Drug Money you’ve been living foul!

Steve CHLLNGR showed me this way back when we were in Tejas for some music festival. He was excited about it. Even then the animated sci-fi music video in its embyonic stage looked like an incredible visual story. SKIP TO THE NOW >> Last week, the video was premiered in Wired, and right NOW it’s all up on Vimeo HD Channel. Oh, by the way… if you still like music, Steve’s debut album Haven is out as well.

Wait, these stockings aren’t tight. They’re Supertight. Featuring Mariah Carey.

I can listen to this BACK2BACK2BACK2BACK

But besides what’s keeping me all polyriddimic on the escalator out into time square every day- there has been some heavy drops in the last couple weeks of dope new free music. I’ve been trying to figure out for a long time just how free music works on the internet. Call yourself a net label and you risk failing b4 you even start. Give away free mp3s of pay to own releases that almost no one buys and suddenly you are a legit record label. Along with his dope fake NY-Times review Tracky Birthday also released a manifesto of sorts about net labels and free music… choice quote “Net Labels are Like Hookers, Only Cheaper.”

Body High just dropped a killer set of free edits which u should grab ASAP I screwed down the Game Over edit at Sweatlodge and it was NEXT.

The other freelease that I’m feeling comes from Austin (h/t to Wayne for the headsup) LOTIC MURDERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS listen 4 urself

NYE in NYC is known amongst club owners/promoters  as amateur night, a night of ripped off all inclusive deals,  drunkin debauchery, served with a side of nonsense.  Sorry to sound bitter, but if your coming into NYE in NYC without knowledge of the club/bar scene you can either have the worst or best night of your life.

That said, I am super excited and thankful to have been invited to perform at Dreamtime 2012; an underground warehouse event curated by friends and circling bodies of communities I’ve performed with/for throughout the years.  This event is the meeting ground for  music, fashion, healers, art galleries, organic catered food, yoga, workshops, installationsfilm screenings and more.

LOCATION/ DETAILS/ TICKETS:

It will take place throughout a 2 floor/10,000 sq ft warehouse located in Williamsburg, at 75 Frost Street (Walking distance from the Bedford L stop).  You can purchase tickets here.

For me, it is events like these that really speak to me when thinking what New York has to offer to artists, performers, and creative thinkers. NYC artistic landscape is constantly evolving and shifting throughout the boroughs and at times NYC seems to have lost its edge due to stricter policies enforced over the past 20 years.  I do feel that NYC has choked the performance space to death with rules and regulations, which has lead to underground warehouse events hosted by courageous individuals and groups of people that are willing to invest and possibly loose a few bucks if the 5-0 comes to break up the fun.

So if you are in search of something fresh, exciting and innovative; and you are looking to experience an event bought to you by local artists of all crafts, this is the place to be on New Years.

The folks responsible for this event are Unitribe, Get Your Dance On, Evolver, Beyond Kombucha,  City Life Wellness, and more.

Links to hear and see some of the performing acts of this Event:

CLICK LINK BELLOW TO HEAR SKYTREE’s LATEST ALBUM:

Crystal Consciousness (name your own price DL on Bandcamp) by Skytree

EARTHRISE ft. SRIKALA

Low Income Tomorrowland, a project studio run by artist & musician Jace Clayton (DJ /rupture) seeks a bright and resourceful studio assistant to work closely with Clayton on a number of installation, performance, and software-based art projects for 2012.

For more info, check out the New York Foundation for the Arts listing.

In our world, “art project” is a code name for “crazy shit.” 2012 gonna be fun.

For the January edition of Mudd Up Book Clubb, we will be reading an epic and incandescent piece of contemporary Russian fiction: Vladimir Sorokin’s Ice Trilogy. It’s ambitious, totally nuts, capable of generating new emotions, perhaps the first “21st Ct” novel I’ve read.

Ice Trilogy is like a joke without the relief of a punchline. I regret recommending it to friends because suddenly I need to explain what it’s about, and end up sounding crazy… The book opens as a 19th century Russian novel. Then comes a trip to Siberia and an encounter with the Ice. It’s best if you read it. Let’s just say that the traditional arc of 20th century history is left intact but superimposed with a much more urgent momentum: the Brothers and Sisters of Light’s search for blond, blue-eyed people to smash in the chest with an Ice hammer, in hopes that the heart inside will awaken, and speak the language of the heart.

Pulpy, “literary”, and unrepentantly other, Ice Trilogy is a book you read with and against, a work that lingers.

The NYRB translation collects Sorokin’s three books — Bro, Ice, and 23,000 — into a single volume. 700 pages long, and entrancing.

The Mudd Up Book Clubb will meet at 5pm on Sunday January 22nd (TBC) in Manhattan for lively discussion followed by popsicles.

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Past Book Clubb selections:

December 2011 NYC: Lauren Beukes Zoo City

November 2011 NYC: Samuel R. Delany Times Square Red, Times Square Blue

September 2011 Tangiers: Juan Goytisolo – Exiled from Everywhere

August 2011: Madrid: Cesar Aira – How I Became a Nun

June 2011: Casablanca: Maureen F. McHugh – Nekropolis

Activated by the Geko Jones-led call for a December 15th day of #YoutubeDivas, here’s a selection of incredibly talented vocalists who stretch & confuse the boundaries of voice, body, song.

If a “diva” is someone who uses the inherent performativity of gender to radiate brilliance, then here are some stars in my galaxy. These five women are particularly important to me for their brave, exquisitely articulated visions of what music itself can be.

And if this post has a reading list, it’s:

Pamela Zoline – The Heat Death of the Universe

Joanna Russ – The Female Man

James Tiptree Jr./Alice Sheldon – The Girl Who Was Plugged In

now for the #Youtubedivas:

MAJA RATKE — I have a Maja Ratke dublate, for real! Got it cut in Bristol. At some level, being a ‘good’ singer is easy — you play the game by external rules, you sing on-key, you behave the way good singers behave. Creating outside of the drab-but-heavy gravity of normalcy ain’t easy. Maja, like Meredith before her, makes the difficult look at once difficult and effortlessly elemental.

MEREDITH MONK — From 1979. A lot of people learned a lot of lessons from Meredith Monk… If her name is new then you have homework to do. Bonus: our favorite semi-forgotten NYC black queer pop minimalist Julius Eastman accompanying her on vocals!

CAROLINE BERGVALL — Caroline and I have worked together, she is one of the great poet/voices of our time! Brilliant, hypnotic, smart, visceral. The 1st video is Caroline reading — so rhythmic, her flow. If this video doesn’t have more than 75 plays by the end of today, something is very wrong. The 2nd is me in Knoxville. I was opening for the Dirty Projectors in this beautiful old theater and decided to begin my set with a piece-in-progress by Caroline.

CHRISTINE SEHNAOUI is my favorite saxophone player. Not into the jazz dudes. Love Christine sounding like anything but a horn. Have you ever heard brass speak like this? Three years back I profiled her for The National:

During the last few weeks, my friends and family have mistaken the work of Christine Abdelnour Sehnaoui for both a broken air conditioner and a car dying outside my window. I can’t say that I blame them. Her recordings call to mind unoiled hinges, deflating balloons, asthma attacks. This Parisian alto-saxophonist, born 31 years ago to Lebanese émigré parents, plays like music does not exist.

Lastly, here’s a diva in the traditional sense — Violinist/vocalist Daoudia, a massive chaabi star from Casablanca. If you’ve spent time in Morocco, then you’ve heard her. Friends in Casa who’ve dealt with Daoudia report that the chaabi matriarch is humble and down-to-earth, too.

7PM TONIGHT! I’m starting a new radio hour on WFMU 91.1 FM in New York and 90.1 in the Hudson Valley! As Jace mentioned on Monday, I have a slot on WFMU’s Winter 2012 schedule. My show is right before Jace/Rupture’s Mudd Up which means you’ll have 2 HOURS OF DUTTY, & etc!

WFMU is a wonderful institution. The longest running freeform, independent community radio station in the United States! I’m excited and very much looking forward to doing this once a week this winter! We’ll staying true to WFMU’s commitment to unstructured-format broadcasting, and we’re going everywhere all the time. Listen in.

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We’ll do our best to give you good apocalypse in 2012. Our ice cream comes in 5 flavors: regular black, mudd, noir noir, soft bop, and dust bowl.

We the good peoples of Dutty Artz invite you to join us in a hostile take over of the twitter feed on December 15th. We’re asking everyone we know to tweet the hashtag #YoutubeDivas and a link to a video of a female artist. Help us co-op twitter and expose obscure female artists that aren’t getting airplay due to payola and media bias.

Its a simple idea.. but if we can get enough people to participate it will lead to more conversation and exposure for a lot of these artists. We’ve heard a lot of feedback from ladies in the scene about how hard it is being a female DJ or producer and we’re doing our part to help balance that. In a post lecture conversation with DJ Rizzla last week (thanks for curating Ripley!), Rizzla pointed out how if we’re to eliminate bias the majority need to first surrender some of their power to the minority. We like that idea.

There are a ton of people who have never heard of Fairuz, Mercedes Sosa, Cesoria Evora, La Lupe or any number of well established female artists. But there are also contemporary electronic music producers and vocalists like Jahcoozi, Flore, Ekova, Zuzuka Poderosa who have worked really hard and recorded some amazing music. These ladies are sometimes huge within their hemispheres but this is an attempt to bring some of them to light to wider audience.

I’m posting the video below and others to get the word out. Please share if you feel comfortable but more importantly share videos by your favorite divas and unsung heroines. There are some amazing women out there from all over the world.

You can also help by sharing the facebook event page or inviting your friends.

Following this experiment… on Saturday here in NYC, we’re hosting a fundraiser soundclash for an organization called Just the Tip of Feminism. DJ’s are battling out playing sets of strictly female vocalists.

Dutty Artz fi di gyal dem.

Free Download –> Pa la Escuela Nene (Geko Jones vs Frikstailers)

The first show in Mudd Up Radio’s new Wednesday night time slot is now streaming! SOAP BLEACH SOFTENERS. Gentle beginnings. New music from Cauto, Vladislav Delay, Ghanain gospel, Erothug, and, yes, Lana del Rey:

WFMU’s Winter 2012 schedule shuffle means that, starting this week, Lamin Fofana will host a show right before me on Wednesdays! We’ll do our best to give you good apocalypse in 2012. Our ice cream comes in 5 flavors: regular black, mudd, noir noir, soft bop, and dust bowl.

December 7, 2011, Mudd Up! w/ DJ Rupture on WFMU – tracklist:

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