This February edition of Sweat Lodge we’ve got a special guest for Sweat Lodge all the way from Colombia by way of London. Isa GT has been a friend of the DA crew for a while now and making and releasing some awesome music. I first met her a few years ago at SXSW when she decided to jump on the mic and MC a little during my set at the Peligrosa / Tormenta Tropical party. It was outside on a patio and I played between Dubble Dutch and NguzuNguzu (before I knew DD!) and it was the first time I heard El Bebe Ambiente by NguzuNguzu. Suffice to say it was awesome and in the process Isa made a big impression on me with her personality. Actually here’s a picture, w/ everyone I mentioned plus Peligrosa madman and homie Orion. My arm looks like a weird snake but really that’s some historic shit right there. I’m happy to say we’ve connected the dots and here she is in NYC!
>> FACEBOOK RSVP <<
Here’s a flavor of what she does, she’s going to do some performing and some DJing at the party.
˙∆ INFOS ∆˙
DUTTY ARTZ SWEAT LODGE
Isa GT *LIVE/DJ* from Colombia via UK
DJs:
DJ /Rupture
Geko Jones
Matt Shadetek
Friday Feb. 10th 10PM-4AM
$$ FREE $$ ADMISSION
at The Cove, 108 N. 6th St, Brooklyn NY. Take the L train to Bedford or G to Lorimer and walk.
I’ve been on the road lately trying to get my worldwide airmiles up like the Jetlag King- DJ /Rupture. Miles to go before I sleep or even come close on that one, but the result thus far has been getting to play with a lot of ladies and gents I respect and admire and making friends of them along the way. Coming up in a couple weeks here in NYC, Que Bajo?! and Conrazon are collaborating with SOB’s to debut a friend and inspiration of mine by the name of Humberto Pernett. I wanted to take the time explain to you all who this guy is on a personal level as I’ve recently spent a great deal of time with him in Cali for the Petronio Festival and got to know his story.
Pernett’s dad was one of the founders of el Carnaval de Barranquilla. He grew up around amazing musicians his whole life. His aunt Carmencita Pernett was one of the first artists to take cumbia to mexico. Artists born in this type of conditioning? Femi Kuti comes to mind..
I think just by looking at the record cover you can tell dude’s family were some serious party people.
It was inevitable from his upbringing that Pernett would go on to explore los ritmos de la costa. Tambora, cumbia, bullerengue, puya, mapale sound more like the names of root vegetable or ingredients to a sancocho stew than names of rhythms but then all these styles are so distinctly satisfying on the dancefloor that their cohesion only make sense when you think about them that way.
Taking a blessing from his musical godmother, Toto la Momposina, Pernett would go further south to Bogota where he would meet Richard Blair, a UK-born producer and they would go on to form the band Sidestepper whose 3am: In beats we trust album would reverberate worldwide.
As someone who listened to the 6 degrees music label early on, and a researcher of world music fusion for quite some time I can say with confidence that the music from that album would go on to inspire a great many producers for years to come. Our global/tropical bass scene has a lot to thank them for. Electronic music, indeed, but at its essence their sound was a less mechanical and rooted deeply in Colombia’s rich musical heritage. It was a clearly defined turning point for Latin music.
Moving on to work on his own projects Pernett has continued folding time and space to create his own blend of psychodelic caribbean sounds. Carving a sound very much his own.
I invite you to listen to his soundcloud where he has over 100 original tracks and remixes uploaded
Change isn’t an overnight thing. The last car in the roller coaster sees the turn before it happens. But from where I’m standing, Pernett is a largely unsung hero who has and is helping shape the future of latin music. He’s someone that we should pay a lot more attention to. He’s so far ahead of the pack that it will probably be another couple years before the world catches up to his sound let alone his performance capabilities. His ableton live set up lets him trigger and effect tracks, while playing gaita or any number of traditional instruments which he can also effect, while singing and dropping some surreal visuals using his filters on his laptop cam. He’s one of those artists that keeps pushing himself to do more. To be more. And you should too. Be there to see him Oct 9th and feel more.
Que Bajo?! & Conrazon Present
Pernett (Colombia)
Oct 9th @ SOB’s $10 /10pm
204 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014-4810
(212) 243-4940
I’ve been traveling to Colombia at regular intervals to present a new sound fusing folkloric Afro-Colombian rhythms with modern day electronic music production techniques that harmonize into a synthetic club sound rooted in tradition. Via the internet, the birthplace of Cumbia has become a source of inspiration to a number producers worldwide. Recently, we invited some of the top names in the scene to a bandcamp in Colombia and a filmmaker to document it. We want to provide an insider view of the impact this music is having on the local scene and how a small network of globally minded producers are defying conventional standards of Latin club music.
We have a couple weeks to get this production costs for completing this project funded. To hear more about how you can help please visit http://www.indiegogo.com/Pico-de-Gallos
Next Friday (the 13th! hope you’re not a superstitious partier!) at Sweat Lodge we’ll be celebrating the release of new DuttyArtizt Atropolis debut self-titled album. Atropolis will be joined live by Uruguayan singer Noelia Fernandez (who appears on the album) and her comparsa and Nabin Shanti will MC for his set. On hand will be myself Matt Shadetek, Geko Jones, Chief Boima and DJ /Rupture. So far these parties have been nothing short of amazing and we aim to continue the trend. This time we’ll also have some exclusive Dutty Artz stuff for sale including CDs of the Atropolis album, new Dutty Artz hats and hopefully t-shirts too if the boxes arrive in time. This will be the first time any of this stuff is available for sale anywhere. The party itself is FREE cuz we’re nice like that.
DUTTY ARTZ SWEAT LODGE
Atropolis Album Release feat. Atropolis w/ special guests Noelia Fernandez & her comparsa and Nabin Shanti
DJs:
DJ /Rupture
Matt Shadetek
Chief Boima
Geko Jones
The Cove 108 N. 6th St. Brooklyn, NY. L train to Bedford Ave.
Que Bajo?! returns to NYC after touring Miami, Medellin, Barranquilla, Bogota, Cali, and SXSW… come hear exclusive new remixes from myself, Uproot Andy, DJ Orion, Toy Selectah, Isa GT and more and check out our guest DJ’s Venus X of the Ghe20 Gothik Party who just rocked the shit out of the fader fort at SXSW and Panchitron from the Peligrosa All Stars crew down in Texas. Pancho’s mixtape stayed in heavy rotation last month for Que Bajo?! fans
Thursday March 31
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleeker St
11pm -$10
the Dutty Artz familia keeps growing. Welcome Adam Atropolis, lifelong New Yorker and next-level beatmaker and songcrafter. Right now he’s in Colombia with his Cumba Mela crew, cooking up all sorts of very cool, very considered collaborations with local musicians (“we’re working with the king of kings of vallenato today,” begins a typical email), from the nu-skool electronic heads to, well, squeezebox lord Hugo Carlos Grando, king of the kings of vallenato.
but better to have Atropolis explain. He’s been there for two or three months now, and is coming back soon, so expect to hear a lot more from (and about) Atropolis real soon. – Jace Rupture
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It’s been too long since we posted anything. Just to update the world, to those who are actually reading, part of the Cumba Mela collective has been doing a mini-tour through Colombia for the past two-months. There is a lot of great footage and music to come. For those who don’t know, we are producing a compilation with artists that we are collaborating with throughout Colombia. We are also performing and producing a documentary that illustrates our journey.
So far we have worked with a handful of artists. Once we return to the states February 1st. we will have more solid posts, previewing the work we have done here so far.
For now, I would like to share with you our experience in Palenque ; an historic village in Colombia with a massive heritage of preserved African traditions. Benkos Bioho, an escaped slave who aided many other slaves to live freely in this community, founded Palenque in the 17th century. Today, the traditional language of Palenquero can still be heard among the streets. The language was formed due to the diverse African tribes that lived together. Therefore, the native language of this area is a mix of several forms of African dialects with Spanish.
We were in Palenque during a champeta festival, which was really crazy. Since we have been in Colombia, we performed in Bogota, Medellin, Cali, Cartagena, and Barranquilla. And of all the places, we found the craziest and loudest sound system I have ever heard (no joke), in this small remote village, with wild pigs, goats, and chickens running around.
Anyway, during our 3-day visit we had the honor to be in the home of Raffael Cassini, one of the members of Sexteto Tabala. His group is regarded to be one of Colombia’s most highly regarded and important Afro-Colombia artists. It was amazing to see how such a highly regarded musician is living such a humble life-style in the quaint village of Palenque.
On the following day we had a beautiful experience with Las Alegres Ambulancias. We set up our mobile studio in their home and recorded a track with them. A remix of this track should be out hopefully in the next year. The completion of this entire project will hopefully be finished in a year.
Be sure to check out the short documentary bellow on Las Alegres Ambulances.
On our last day we worked with this young hip-hop crew. It was the first recording this 16-year olds have ever done in their life. We will be posting this track with some remixes soon, as well as some footage of the production behind this track.
Once we returned to Cartagena we met up with two more artists from Palenque. Viviano Torres, one of the fathers of Champeta, and Son Palenque. We got the honor to record with both of these artists. So stay posted to hear our collaborations with them.
As of now, we are in Taganga. Since we have been in this chilled out beach town we met up with Juan Carlos and Walter Hernandez, from Systema Solar, in their beautiful home studio. So keep posted to check out whats to come!
It’s the return of the intergalactic gauchitos better known as Uproot Andy and Geko Jones. After a brief winter recess moon-walking across the globe and cooking up hotter than habanero remixes the Que Bajo?! party is back like a zombie Danny Trejo
On January 27th we welcome the Dutch-Dominican wonderkid DJ Munchi all the way from Rotterdam, Netherlands. Moombahton stylee from one of the scenes top notch DJ’s.
We have a couple of special surprises to announce as we get closer to the date but I wanna go ahead and introduce VJ Miixxy who will be controlling visuals for the evening.
I got about 45 minutes warning that Los Gaitero de San Jacinto were performing in Paris the other night. The band has been active since AT LEAST 1940 so there’s only so many chances we’re gonna get to see them. I was hanging with percussionist Cyril Atef when I got the text. We had been discussing the african origins of colombian music and instumentation while going through choons for almost an hour. Him tagging along was merely a variation on a meme. I still have to download the video and flicks of the show from my camera but lemme go ahead and do a separate post to tell you about the opening act we walked in on, a cumbia-fusion meets visual trio from Bogota called retroVISOR
On rhythm section you have Camilo Giraldo Angel & Luis Alfonso Cruz laying down some free range samplodelic tripiness but it was the work of the VJ and concept director for the bands videos, Carmen Gil Vrolijk aka Carmen Electrik that really got me interested in their performance. Criminally brilliant with a side of smokin hot she’s chopping some well fruity slices of video mango that illustrate the flavor of these songs amazingly
she has degree in plastics
In the above tune, Chicha! she collaborated with a Estefanía Barreto & Juan Camilo Quiñones to create an 8 bit video that deals with native inhabitants being pushed out of their lands by big industry, a problem Colombia still faces today particularly with the damage being done from unearthing gold which releases mercury, cyanide and arsenic into the soil and water table. I’m waiting for my copy of their retroVISOR VJ Sessions DVD while doing my homework on what else she’s up to and trying to convince her to come out and session with me when I play in Bogota again
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.
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- Chief Boima’s Techno Rumba EP is out today! Download/listen/enjoy the special #RUMBA mix Boima made to celebrate the release. Hit up iTunes, Amazon or Boomkat & do your part. Tracklist after the jump -
Here’s a new remix from Uproot Andy and Geko Jones. I’ve heard “Manuelita” a few times already, usually during the early hours of the night, warming and shaking up party people. Here’s what Geko said about “Manuelita” to The FADER’s Ghetto Palms…track is a remix we’ve just made of a traditional style Colombian bullerengue song. Doing these kinds of remixes blending folkloric music with club music is one of the sounds that has come define our party and this kind of remix has itself really become traditional for us over the last year or so.
Gex and Andy are currently on tour, coming thru your city or a city near you. Que Bajo?! sound system pushing forward with Boima tomorrow in San Fran!
Petrona Martinez inherited a strong singer’s tradition from Bullerengue, an Afro-Colombian dance rhythm born during the African fight for freedom from slavery and originally sung solely by pregnant women confined to their homes and thus unable to attend village dances. The melodies were passed down through the generations. She learned them from her grandmother and great-grandmother as they sang while doing daily tasks and attending Patron Saints Festivals. She is now passing them to her sons and daughters…
Uproot Andy was inspired and made a great version of the song (especially sharp and on point – always kills the dance!) This was released by Bersa Discos and buyable here. I was going to post this prior to last Thursday’s megaparty, but here it is now -
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