“creativity was the ability to bring to life an image or idea regardless of resources”
- Chief Boima, Interviewed by Eddie Stats
Eddie Stats has a great interview with Dutty Artz familia Chief Boima and Vamanos from Ghetto Bassquake over at his blog Ghetto Palms for the Fader (linked below). In it came the above quote which Boima mentions in the context of film theory.
I love this idea and it brings me back to a concept that I try to bash my friends and students over the head with all the time.
Creativity is what happens IN SPITE of things like equipment, time and resources. A lot of people I know cling to the idea that as soon as they get this next plug-in, keyboard, piece of software, money, time or whatever it is that they don’t currently have that they’ll be able to accomplish their creative goals.
I am sorry to report that this is absolutely not the case.
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This post is cross-posted from the brand spanking new blog at mattshadetek.com. In addition to my usual stuff here at Dutty Artz I wanted a place to call my own and talk about some of my less dutty, more clean artz that I am up to. Expect a lot more wordz.
photo by the author in Flatbush, Brooklyn
I assume if you’re reading this blog that you’re someone familiar with my musical output. If not, please get familiar here at my soundcloud page.
Generally speaking I am pretty cagey about my new projects until they’re nearly done. I want to try an experiment this time in going through the process of making an album completely in public. Transparency! Throwing stones in a glass house!
I’m leaving America next Sunday. There’s nothing left for me here, and I’m not coming back. At least, not for a year. I’m not quite ready to leave, but I’m contractually obliged to- so this Sunday I’ll fly from JFK on a convoluted itinerary to Buenos Aires. I found out in the spring that I had received a Watson Fellowship. Wayne and Jace deserve credit as much as I do- they helped me craft my proposal. And there was some tactical chaos magic that nudged my chances just enough to matter.
So I’ll be gone for twelve months starting this august- attempting a sort of grand tour. Five months in S. America. A month in Jamaica. Six Months in Africa. Or something like that. So far only the first three months are planned. I’ll be in Argentina for a month, then Brazil for two. There’s a project behind all of this- a nebulous (now) attempt of getting a grasp of what it is that we (Dutty Artz) are engaged in from a broader prospective then I’ve previously had access to.
I’m looking for sustainable/scalable business models, new productions techniques, pirate economies, massive sound-systems, broken_links, and a bevy of things that I’m only faintly grasping at right now.
I’m taking a fancy camera and some HD recording devices and there are notions of collecting my documentation outside of the internet- creating a kind of visual/taxtual accompaniment to the Global Ghettotek fascination that I’ve been continually inoculated against but cant seem to quit. The whole project will be as open source as possible. I have no fucking idea what I’m doing, and need a lot of help. But there is powerful positive energy in the universe and I have my stars aligned and my crystals vibrating at 60 HZ just like the man at the botanica told me to do.
My email is TallyBower AAAATTTTTT GGGGMMMAAAAIILLL so if u have any suggestions, any friends anywhere along the way, beef to pick with the colonial underpinnings your reading in my mission, a favor to ask, food to try, places to surf, or anything that I need to know, or that you want to do for me, or that I can do for you. please just let me know.
It’s nearly impossible to leave New York- there’s too many people that I love, and projects that I care about- but nows as good a time as ever to get away.
This Saturday, I’ll be DJing at MoMA’s PS1 Warm Up series out in Queens. Also playing: Kalup Linzy (fresh from his life-imitates-video art-imitates-soap appearance on General Hospital!), Le Tigre’s JD Samson, and “surprise guests.” Weather right now says it’ll be 94 degrees with possible thunderstorms, but at this point in the summer, New Yorkers are used to that. This particular Warm Up is part of the Greater New York show.
Event runs from 3-9pm, I’ll be playing toward the end of the day. Hot weather music. Like maybe this tune but pitched down to compensate for heavy humidity and sunstroke conditions?
July 24th
MoMA PS1 Greater New York presents:
JD Samson / New York (DJ set)
MEN / Brooklyn (live)
Kalup Linzy / Brooklyn (R&B, Soul, Disco DJ set)
Kalup Linzy and the Sweet, Sampled, and LeftOva / Brooklyn (live performance set)
DJ /rupture / Dutty Artz, Brooklyn (DJ set)
With surprise guests!
“From radical turntablism (Otomo Yoshihide) to laptop music innovation (Numb), via classical instrument hijacking (Sakamoto Hiromichi), Tokyo’s avant-garde music scene is internationally known for its boldness.
While introducing some of the greatest musicians of this scene, “We Don’t Care About Music Anyway…” offers a kaleidoscopic view of Tokyo, confronting music and noise, sound and image, reality and representation, documentary and fiction. “We don’t care about music anyway”…
In other words, “we make it and that’s all”. Beyond the music and beyond its performance, the future and mode of existence of a city, and society as a whole, are in motion.”
For the lucky BK people this gem shows this coming Friday 16th at 8pm as part of the Rooftop Film Summer Series at the Old American Can Factory 232 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY (info).
The second episode of Dutty Artz Radio is up! Me (Matt Shadetek), DJ Rupture, Mosholu Park aka Lamin and Taliesin all got together in the basement of Dubspot to all DJ some short 20 minute sets and do the first episode of our new book club!
The book we talked about is Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.
I chopped the audio into separate parts for your mp3 player pleasure. We streamed it on UStream although somehow the video got lost. The full chat transcript is after the jump though so you can read back if you want. We’ll be doing this weekly on Thursday nights at 7PM NYC time (EST) at http://www.ustream.tv/duttyartznyc
This coming Monday we’ll have a special edition after Dubspot Radio which is at 8 (and I also run) with special guests NGUZU NGUZU! YAAAAA! We’re very excited
Check 1:40 for the real moment(s) of clarity here.
Dutty Artz is a book club. You might have thought we were a record label- given that we’re releasing tracks every month and constantly feeding the internet with audio files- but it goes a lot deeper then that. If you want to be part of the club, you should read Octavia Butler’s Parable of The Sower. If you’re not in the Northern Hemisphere- you might want to wait until Summer, caus this one is dark, and if read before bed, almost guaranteed to induce the vivid nightmares that lodge in your psyche for days before revealing themselves as dreams and not memories.
We’re scrambling just like everyone else right now- trying to figure out what it means to be a record label in an era where recorded digital media has no value- and the only people making money are slicing off pounds of flesh to get branded. You’ll see us move in that direction too. It’s inevitable. Hopefully we can do it without losing too much respect. Until then you can find me steady dreaming of new distribution paradigms as we pass each other printed relics.
My new solo instrumental album Flowers is out! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
It took me a while to get this out, longer than I’d like considering it’s on my own label but now it’s out and it feels GOOD! I love completing projects. But it’s not done! Now I have to actually sell some copies! If you or your grandma or your friends on the internet would like to support the Dutty Artz movement and contribute to the cause of me buying diapers, catfood and continuing my lavish lifestyle for me and my young family that would be great! There are many places to buy it. Here is a list:
BUY MATT SHADETEK – FLOWERS:
Boomkat:
This is probably a good option if you want FLAC or any of those non-mp3 formats.
If you buy here please write me a lavish review and give me five stars! I deserve it! If you’re browsing the store from your phone or whatever I am featured in front of the Electronic category in the USA store.
Friend of Dutty Artz Moon from Lustre Kings invited us to participate in this party to celebrate the screening of ‘Wah Do Dem’ a new film set in Jamaica that’s been generating a nice buzz. I’m excited to participate along with a lot of my favorite people, it’s a family affair. Brooklyn outdoor summer vibes!
BAM, Downtown Brooklyn, corner of Fulton and Lafayette
WAH DO DEM movie premier block party!
featuring performances by Jahdan Blakkamoore, Matt Shadetek & Geko Jones(Dutty Artz), DJ Gravy (Rice & Peas), Jah One Soundsystem, Cool Places Sound, Lustre Kings Productions and SPECIAL GUESTS!
This is a BAMcinemaFEST and FABfest event.
COME OUTSIDE AND ENJOY DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN WITH US AT THIS VERY SPECIAL EVENT!
This Friday I will be swimming the Oceans of Blood with former Change Agent homies Orien McNeill and Zack Shadetek on a fundraiser for their crazy boat project. Open bar and a fake blood slip and slide and me djing from 11-1AM What more do you want, really?
SUPERFRONT‘s “Architecture Mixtape” series launches tomorrow – Thursday, April 1st – at Studio X, with our own DJ /rupture sharing hosting duties with MITCH McEWEN, Founder and Director of SUPERFRONT – presenting recent exhibits curated in both SUPERFRONT’s Los Angeles and Brooklyn galleries. The audience will be invited to participate in a public program that integrates music and community organizing into the production of architectural discourse. Catalog publications and the DJ /rupture-produced soundtrack will be on display.
Superfront “Architecture Mixtape” has four sections – w/ Matt Shadetek dropping all all kinds of dutty dancehall wickedness, and Mosholu Park delivers more recent, ferocious, dancehall explosives, DJ /rupture blurs sublime dancehall riddims he acquired in Brooklyn over the years, and Taliesin’s section is heavy on the R&B side and it’s terrifically good fun!
Free and open to the public
RSVP: gdb210[at]columbia[dot]edu
Studio-X
180 Varick Street, Suite 1610
1 train to Houston Street
Just about everyone in the DA camp will be in Austin this week for SXSW… everyone except /rupture who will be holding down NY in our absence. If you have the privilege of time/cashflow to get down to Austin- come say whats up- if not- I’ve got a nice new treat for you. Chief Boima, whose African By The Bay E.P. absolutely took the world by storm a few months ago has a got a new E.P. entitled “Techno Rumba” set to drop at the end of next month.
DJ /rupture took the instrumental remix that he and Matt Shadetek did of the title track “Techno Rumba” and invited one of our favorite artists, Kalup Linzy, to add his magic vocals on top. This is straight post-breakup soul-searching material. If your not familiar and DOWN with Linzy’s work- act like you know. NEXT LEVEL.
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Catch Boima down south this week.
Wed: Bersa Discos party 9-10pm
Fri: at Creekside 1-2am
Sat: in San Antonio at Lava Lounge
It feels practically useless telling anyone to go see anything in Austin- since the flux of people just moves along with its own brownian motion. But you can catch me tag-teaming with Mosholu Park Thursday early at Bersas, Friday night afterhours at the Green Owl Ranch, and Sunday out at Dubbel Dutch’s spot. Follow DA on twitter for more real-time updates.
The myth that once propelled bands to pay out of pocket to come out for events like SXSW and CMJ was of a label A&R discovery- and a consequent big signing bonus. Now that (hopefully) no one is waiting on that dream- we can all just admit that events like this can just be about celebrating quality music and finding some time to spend with your extended musical family.
Check the post below for JD and Matts SXSW damage.
“There are so many Africas, and so many arts of Africa. Picasso and Matisse thought they had hit on the essence of Africa during the first decade of the 20th century. The African masks and sculpture that influenced such works as Les Demoiselles D’Avignon (1909) seemed to be the very embodiment of a youngish Spaniard’s priapic idea of the primitive: wonderfully, savagely stylised; bursting with a toe-curlingly alien erotic charge. How patronising of Picasso to think that that’s what African art amounted to. Well, perhaps that’s a little unfair. The point was that Picasso, ever grasping, ever restless, was seeking out new ways of representing the female body.
Yes, anthropologists quickly began to prove that Picasso was either wrong or telling just one tiny part of an immensely complicated story. In 1910, the first major excavations took place at Ife, a site in what is now south-western Nigeria, not too far from Lagos. (The walled city-state of Ife, legendary homeland of the Yoruba, flourished for 300 years, from about 1100-1400 AD). Thirty years later, in 1940, another great cull of objects from the same site hit the headlines again: “Worthy to rank with finest works of Greece and Italy”, shrilled the Illustrated London News.
Many of the works that those anthropologists found are now on display in this major show of north-west African sculpture, and the works here lend credence to that headline writer’s claim. At the same historical moment that Andrea del Verrocchio was doing his wonderfully painstaking, high-Renaissance drawing of a female head which can be seen elsewhere in this building, anonymous artisans in Ife were working with brass, bronze – yes, these Africans knew all about bronze casting long before the Europeans arrived to show them how – copper and terracotta to produce a series of exquisite heads that are not only the equal of Donatello in technical brilliance, but also just as naturalistic in their refinement. So much for African primitivism.” – Michael Glover (The Independent) reviews Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa, British Museum, London – read the full article here.
Tomorrow I’ll be DJing at a benefit show along with DJ Small Change for an art project which two of my long time friends, including former collaborator Zack Shadetek have been working on. The show is a benefit to raise money for Swimming Cities trip down the Ganges river in India.
From the press release:
Taking a new waterway each year our projects create a vivid community of artists floating into towns to present an interactive environment which encompasses art, sculpture, music and performance. The uncommon talents of our members interact in an organic design process in a unique form of living art. Our previous projects include THE SWIMMING CITIES OF SWITCHBACK SEA on the Hudson River for Deitch Projects and THE SWIMMING CITIES OF SERENISSIMA across the Adriatic Sea for the Venice Biennale.
Basically they build these crazy ass art-boats and float them down various rivers while living on them and doing performances and freaking people out. There are a bunch of good artists, many who are also friends who will be having a silent auction of donated works to raise funding for the project. And there’s an open bar.
FRIDAY MARCH 05
56 Walker St, Tribeca
7pm-1am, $10 Door, Open Bar
DJs Small Change and Shadetek
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Friend of Dutty Artz Moon from Lustre Kings invited us to participate in this party to celebrate the screening of ‘Wah Do Dem’ a new film set in Jamaica that’s been generating a nice buzz. I’m excited to participate along with a lot of my favorite people, it’s a family affair. Brooklyn outdoor summer vibes!
