Join us at Vaudeville Park, 26 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, on Saturday January 28th 9pm-late… we’ll play good music and drink delicious drinks. Dutty hombre Taliesin will be there. Long time internet/blog friend Dave Quam, now producing music for Kingdom’s Fade To Mind label as Massacooramaan will also DJ.
2012 is here. While we’re all waiting for the mayan clock to tick over and usher in either the apocalypse or the dawn of a wonderful new era I suggest you get your mind right with the spirit world. The spirits in question here are those concerned with getting drunk, dancing your ass off and sweating out a year worth of ghouls and goblins. ˙∆ INFOS ∆˙ DUTTY ARTZ SWEAT LODGE DJs: Geko Jones Matt Shadetek Atropolis Lamin Fofana Taliesin Friday Jan 6th 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. >> RSVP ON FACEBOOK <<
This month Sweat Lodge is falling a week later than usual on Friday 12/16. Our good friends over at Turrbotax asked us for a date swap and we were happy to oblige! This month our guest is Jubilee, a long time friend of Dutty Artz. I’ve been wanting to get her to play Sweat Lodge but what with her hectic touring schedule and all was never able to make it happen… Till now! She’ll be supported by your handsome residents Matt Shadetek (me), Chief Boima, Lamin Fofana and Taliesin. It should be a lively affair.
˙∆ INFOS ∆˙
DUTTY ARTZ SWEAT LODGE
DJs:
Jubilee
Matt Shadetek
Chief Boima
Lamin Fofana
Taliesin
Friday Dec. 16th 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.
(NOTE: I wrote this a couple weeks ago for the huffington post, but they haven’t published it so whatever here it is )
Nobody understands Occupy Wall Street. At least not in the media. It is clear now, more than ever, how important framing is to politics in this country. We aren’t even being given the opportunities to ask the right questions about the Occupy movement, much less answer them. Media coverage reduces Occupy Wall Street to a protest about market regulation, and the bloodstained greedy hands of the 1 %. Even Liberal media doesn’t begin to suspect the power nascent at Liberty Plaza. Occupy Wall Street is about total revolution, just not the one you were expecting. Occupy Wall Street is a revolution in the lived lives of its participants. We should all be inspired by this.
Occupy Wall Street should be understood as a conference, not a protest. It is about sharing an emotional and social experience that creates a space for the unforeseen. It is a testament to the tenacity and creativity of a rag-tag group of people who are acutely aware of the fundamental space behind the curtain we have been presented as common sense reality. Capitalist sorcery is real and circumscribes our entire conversation about the potential for more fulfilling and just lives. We can barely begin to speak about, much less, address the dread and self-loathing that true consciousness engenders under present circumstances.
Of course, I cannot write “magic” and “true consciousness” without the need for a warning that I don’t mean New Age-y babble. Do you understand the power at play here? That I can barely speak of magic, even though it is quite literally the binding agent that defines the world around us? That a type of sorcery has been committed against us all, bearing branded sigils of protection against an outside world we see through the lens of a financially driven social system that has not, does not and never will serve us.
Occupy Wall Street is merely a charged space to draw energy from. It is not the solution. It is not the sign of the impending collapse. It is a place to share and dwell in power and resources, to visualize the possibilities for lives that overflow with fulfillment. Its real value is not in the demands it makes, or its duration, but merely in its existence. Occupy Wall Street tells white people what brown people have known for so long in America. This place is not for you. We will kill you if you get out of line. Stories of bootstrap success are no longer enough to keep us complacent. We are not bitter that we are not rich. We are bitter that a system exists where in the myth of a free and fair market confines us all. Living an entirely new life is only the beginning of necessary change. The fact that the job market is shit and that over seven million Americans are in jail, on parole or probation is one of many signs of the hubris of Capital — how lazy the system became in the face of its own largess. Job creation does not solve the problems that created the global Occupy movement. People want fulfillment, not just something to fill the time.
Still, we must ask, what is next? We must ask ourselves what resources we do control. To bring fulfillment into your life is the most radical act possible given the current degradation of life. We are being killed by the food we eat, the air we breathe and the media that enchants us to believe our dissatisfaction has no root cause. Consumption is offered as the cure. Infinite choice proves we are unique human beings. Sure, it will be worse if Michele Bachmann becomes the next president, but my dissatisfaction runs so much deeper then caring which face is given to the Capitalist hydra we let guard us. Occupy Wall Street is one expression of a universal need for meaning, regardless of political posturing.
We must begin by examining our lives. This is not a question of what consumptive choices you make, but what productive forces you unleash onto the world. We all have the potential to create spaces for fulfillment in our lives. What is the passion that drives you? Is it aligned with every moment of your life? What are the fantasies you have let wither inside you in fear of their impossibilities? Now is the time to bring them to the fore and think creatively about actualizing them. We are all deeply resourceful in our creativity and need only to be reminded of our true potential. Begin with small negotiable tasks like eating well, and creating time to do the activities that bring you the most joy. With each small step, the path becomes easier. #OCCUPYEVERYTHING
To celebrate our ongoing monthly Sweat Lodge party series at The Cove in Brooklyn (next edition next Friday Nov. 4th! info below) and to give all you unfortunates who haven’t been able to attend yet a taste of the magic I’ve recorded a new DJ mix. It’s mixed live on Serato Itch which is something new I’ve been trying out – button pushing based DJing instead of vinyl control records – and I had a lot of fun creating it. There are some mistakes and in the spirit of human imperfection and because I’m too lazy to edit them out I left them in. It’s kind of representative of the drunk madness that goes down at Sweat Lodge anyway. Although I was not drunk when I recorded this I swear. The focus is on the Dutty Artz fam and catalog with a bunch of new and unreleased tunes and remixes from the crew. Enjoy!
1. Matt Shadetek – Sweat Lodge Exorcist Intro
2. Tod Dockstader – Electronic Pieces (8): Part 1
3. William S. Burroughs – Last Words With Ras I. Zulu
4. Dj Eridson, Mzee, Kampi Moto – Umoja [2012] (Remix made Angola)
5. Nguzunguzu – Strut (Lamin Fofana Remix)
6. Floetry – Say Yes (Kingdom Remix)
7. Sorie Kondi – No Money No Family (Chief Boima Remix)
8. Atropolis – Mbria Funk
9. Contakt & Mayster – Korak
10. Contakt & Mayster – Korak (Matt Shadetek 3Ball Remix)
11. Don Omar – Danza Kuduro (DJ Rodriguez 3Ball 2011 Remix)
12. Joelito – Sickhead
13. Antony Santos – Vete (Uproot Andy Moombachata Remix)
14. Geko Jones & Reaganomics – Las cuatro palomas Remix
15. DJ Arafat – 5500 Volt
16. Cajmere – It’s Time for The Percolator (Chief Boima Coupe Decale Remix)
17. Kalup Linzy feat. James Franco – Rising (Cardopusher Remix)
18. Appietus – Miss Doctor (Secret Agent Gel Remix)
19. Maxwell D – Out The Window
20. Dubble Dutch – Mad Loopz
21. Gunselectah – Villa Ghetto (Matt Shadetek Remix)
22. Nguzunguzu – Timesup
23. Robzilla ft. Jahdan Blakkamoore – World Keeps Spinning
24. Luisa Maita – Lero Lero (DJ Rupture Remix)
25. Active Child ft. How To Dress Well – Playing House
26. ASAP Rocky – Peso
SWEAT LODGE PROMO VIDEO:
Filmed by Atropolis and edited by Erik Marika Rich:
Check this short video shot at Sweat Lodge by Atropolis and 2Melo and edited by Erik Marika Rich.
Next Friday September 9th we’re back at the Cove for another Dutty Artz family reunion. I’d just like to say thanks so much to everyone who came and partied and played at the last one, especially Uproot Andy and 2Melo, I really enjoyed it and I think it was maybe our best attended party yet. For the next one we’ve got Chicago’s own DJ NewLife who has been running one of Chicago’s best tropical/whateverbass parties flying in to drop some bombs for us AND DA’s own Taliesin is back in the states after a crazy world traveling year spent in Brazil, Jamaica and South Africa (and many places in between). Chief Boima is also back in the building after his own travels in Africa, if you were there for the last one he was dropping some crazy music from Liberia that really caught my attention and I’m eagerly waiting to hear what he’ll play this time. Lamin Fofana is also re-joining us and I’m equally excited to hear what he’ll pull out with the new DJ setup he’s using, hopefully including some of the new crazy techno-ish stuff he’s been producing. As usual I will be there DJing, selling hats, shirts and CDs and of course getting drunk and yelling over my friends DJ sets.
INFO:
Dutty Artz Sweat Lodge
The Cove 108 N. 6th St, Brooklyn (L to Bedford Subway Stop)
I’m very excited to present this video. It’s a short Behind The Scenes look at our Beyond Digital: Morocco art project. You can also check out my series of Fader posts, and the BD website itself, but this video is by far the best summary and explanation of what we were up to in June, and in so doing it provides glimpses of what’s to come: an incredible photo series by John Francis Peters; poignant video essays by Maggie Schmitt and Juan Alcon Duran; my free Max4Live audio tools suite, Sufi Plug-Ins; Maghrebi percussion sample pack & music by Maga Bo; and more… We’ll also be doing an event in Tangier on September 9th, more info next week.
Auto-tune lovers take note: the video previews a snippet from the best auto-tune interview ever, when we spoke with Moroccan pop star Adil El Miloudi in his home.
Adil El Miloudi: “Autotune gives you a ‘me’ that is better.”
As announced in this post, the Mudd Up Book Clubb kicks off this month. We have a time and location now: It’s going down on Monday June 27th, at 7pm on the rooftop near rue Jean Jaures in Gauthier, Casablanca. It’s a particularly appropriate place to sit down and discuss Maureen F. McHugh’s Nekropolis, a science fiction novel set in 22nd century Morocco involving biochemical slavery, immigration, genetic chimeras and more. See the original post for more info on the event and the book.
We’ll have a Ustream feed going for everyone elsewhere. I’m looking at a Filastine’s Barcelona rooftop for the next edition, let’s keep these pages turning..
Storm Saulter is one of Jamaica’s most prominent young film-makers . With the panoptic gaze of interchangeable dancehall djs staring down from Digicell and Lime Tv advertisements, the hype cycle of radio and the frantic rotation of fashion and dance moves you couldn’t be blamed for not realizing that Kingston has a thriving if limited independent arts scene. The best and brightest all seem linked to Edna Manley – but Storm actually finished up film school in the states. After seeing his latest video for Tarrus Riley, and sitting in on a press screening of his full length Better Mus Come I sent over some questions about Jamaican politics, the challenges of independent film making and what drove Storm to leave behind the opportunity and infrastructure of Los Angeles.
T: You were born in Jamaica, but went to film school and worked in Los Angeles, given how limited the Jamaican film industry is, why return to the island to work?
S: It seems better to start a movement and build it from the beginning than to be just another person trying to make a statement in the same space as thousands of others trying to do the same thing. We are defining new Caribbean cinema with the work we are doing now. Lots of young people (and a few older ones) in Jamaica and the region are seeing filmmaking as a real and exciting possibility for them right now. Better Mus’ Come is the beginning of a real movement.
T: The space you work in is shared by a bunch of other young filmmakers- can you tell me a bit about the space, who is there and how you all came to work together. What is the ethos and purpose of New Caribbean?
S: I share an office with my brother Nile Saulter, Joel Burke, and Michelle Serieux. We are all filmmakers and we collaborate on all our projects together in different capacities. Directing, Producing, Cinematography, Editing, Writing. Our office is at 10a West Kings House Road, Perry Henzell’s home and production office during the creation of “The Harder They Come”. We share the property with a number of Directors and Producers. Ras Kassa, Ras Tingle, Jay Will. It is unquestionably the home of Jamaican filmmaking.
For more on New Caribbean Cinema go to www.newcaribbeancinema.com
T: Both the Tarrus video and Better Mus Come seem to deal with a similar type of historical amnesia- the way that systems of power attempt to limit certain types of information and stories in order to be able to continue propegating themselves. How do you see your work in creating new historical narratives or re-examining power?
S: Better Mus Come has had such an explosive impact in Jamaica because it is telling a story that we all know of, but we never knew the details. We would hear our parents speak of the 1970’s, The Cold War era, when Kissinger came to Jamaica and threatened Michael Manley and Jamaica with annihilation if we didn’t step away from Cuba. The beginning of this gang war tradition. There is a reason we were not taught this in school, so that events like the Tivoli massacre would seem like a new development that needed to be solved using brutal force by the Police and Military. But this is not new, it has only evolved from the same source. I guarantee you that many more of these ‘hidden’ stories will be told by this generation of filmmakers. And to be able to do so is empowering to the artists and the people.
READ THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW AFTER THE JUMP Read the rest of this entry »
Taliesin isn’t quite this angular and shadowed in real life, but how awesome it is to see him all up in the Huffington Gas?! Underneath the headline of his piece are eight gray boxes, labeled, respectively: Amazing, Inspiring, Funny, Scary, Hot, Crazy, Important, and Weird. The website is horrible.
But if you can ignore the screaming FB-friendly/SEO-desperate/clicktrail-slutty/headache-inducing clutter around Tally’s words, they’re nice. An excerpt:
So, you graduate from a small liberal arts school with five-figure debt and want to work in the arts? Start drafting those coffee-shop and restaurant resumes to keep you afloat while you put in long thankless, underutilized hours as an unpaid intern.
I graduated from Bard College last May and the only people I know from my graduating class with full-time paid jobs in the arts are the wealthy few whose parents bankrolled summers of full time unpaid work for them while we were still in school. Let’s not even get into the fact that most internships are technically illegal. The point is that the largess of the late ’90s that gave my generation our fantasies of success and airs of entitlement is long gone, and we are collectively struggling to face the reality of down-scaling our dreams in the midst of a sour economy.
But it doesn’t have to be like this. . . [read more]
I think I lost my flipcam last week- or it got stolen. It doesn’t really matter since I cant edit the HD footage on my Acer + it just eats up memory with videos I can barely replay. My homie Justin has a nice camera though- and last week we did a test run for a hopefully vaguely ongoing, but maybe never again, video series looking at studios and producers in Kingston. Supposed to reach to Bigship next week, but time is sticky in Jamaica. Enjoy.
If you follow Shadetek’s blog you know we have been thinking alot about digital marketing, how to monetize content, and keep making the music that we love. It has been a busy winter for DA, we linked with Leeor from Friends of Friends PR to help amplify and sharpen our message, Jace and I started to engineer Beyond Digital, a non-profit that funds international arts residencies and interventions, we joined forces with Emeka Alams from Gold Cost for a capsule line (and that’s just a taste of the plans that are not TOP SECRET, SECRET OR CONFIDENTIAL). Just to keep things hectic I moved to Kingston, AKA HUSTLE UNIVERSITY, where even the kid that opens the gate is just waiting to play you his newest riddims off a usbstick. MOVE QUICKLY AND GET WEIRD. Mine deep for the magic cambio strategy that converts cultural capital to liquid capital fast enough to keep us all eating.
With that in mind, I reached out in December to Stephanie Brown about an interview. She’s a Digital Marketing Manager for a major label in Canada. I wanted to know more about what exactly her job entailed- and what bets the people with the money and infrastructure are making on how to sell content. #realtalk bizness
T: As a Digital Marketing Manager for a major Label in Canada, what exactly are you responsible for?
S: I direct strategy for marketing our artists online in Canada. When we have an album coming out, marketing managers will meet with me to discuss what sort of promotional support we can give the release online, and where to best spend their ad dollars. The idea is to create awareness and hype about the artist by placing content on the entertainment and music sites that will get the greatest visibility in Canada. So, when the album finally drops, audiences will recognize the artist and hopefully be inclined to buy the album. I manage relationships with a number of partner sites who use our content from our artists (electronic press kits, interviews, etc) to support their editorial coverage, which is really a win-win situation. Additionally, I plan social media promos & contests, aid with online ad buys, and oversee our direct-to-consumer marketing channels.
T: Social media seems to be most powerful when an artist is directly communicating with fans- but obviously most big label social media is not being generated directly by the artist – who actually is sitting on the computer updating each artists facebook, myspace, etc- do you guys have back end access that streamlines all of this stuff?
S: We monitor our artist’s social media platforms in terms of numbers, just to see who’s gaining momentum. But aside from that, artist management is typically responsible for updating those properties. We offer suggestions, but the decision lies ultimately in the hands of management. For some of our domestic artists, we’ll post news and happenings on their Facebook and Twitter pages if we’re requested to do so. We’re always transparent about it, so we sign off on our posts as “Team” whoever. Many artists actually do post themselves, or work closely with their managers to establish their digital identity.
T: How is the balance understood between digital and more traditional marketing? Are marketing plans all done holistically or is digital and traditional really heavily divided?
S: The digital element of marketing plans is undoubtedly an important facet, but it is typically independent from television, print and radio. It’s always a point of reference, because we want to ensure that the messaging is cohesive across all mediums, but it’s still its own world. However, if we wanted to run an online promo on a large scale, we’d be sure to support it with traditional marketing. Those promos are typically those with a big budget and a kickass prize-like a meet and greet with an A-list artist in Australia, for example. The submissions would be collected and shared online, but we’d use print, radio, and TV to direct people to the contest website. Otherwise, a portion of the total marketing budget will simply be allotted to online, and then it’s up to me and the digital team to direct where to best spend it. Read the rest of this entry »
Dre is one of Sharon’s (endless) nieces and nephews calling “Auntie Sharoooon” through the Solid office. He also runs Shockwave Inernational. They just dropped breaking point Vol. 3. I was driving with Timberlee to the re-opening of Kartel’s nightclub The Building last night and she kept pulling up on Mavado’s “Stullesha” which I hadn’t heard before and serves as a follow-up of sorts to long distance anthem “Stulla” – it’s on Stephen’s “Winnings Riddim” which is just perfect. I was trying to remember the name of the tune this morning when Dre linked me on FB to the DL of Breaking Point- BOOM. Not everything’s perfect though and I’m guessing most people will get annoyed at the break in mix that comes about two thirds through the mix. In my imaginary Jamaica, sessions never went off to Rhihanna or Nelly. But thats the real world music- so if you can bare through another teach me how to Dougie lesson- grab the untracked version. If you want to do some selective editing grab the tracked version.
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grab the whole riddim pack c/o DZ HERE. Below are a few photos from a Baby Cham, Bounty Killer, Tanto Blacks show in Portmore last Friday.
