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Ali Hassan Kuban – Bettitogor Agil

Ali Hassan Kuban was a Nubian singer, bandleader, and producer from the south of Egypt/north of Sudan, a “region is revered as a link between black Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean.” His family moved to Cairo when he was young, and as a teenager he performed traditional Nubian songs at weddings. He released several albums in the 1980s and ’90s, updating traditional Nubian rhythms into powerful party songs. “Bettitogor Agil” is from his 1991 album Walk Like A Nubian, recorded in Berlin and produced by Sabah Habas Mustapha (a Brit, real name Colin Bass of pro-rock band Camel and some other weird whirled music projects.)

Its 11 in Kingston which means it’s time for a nap and then a couple hours of Weddy-Weddy and then a longer nap. But in New York Brent Arnold is sacrificing a Afreet while Jace runs an ekg strapped to its chest through his Sufi Plug-Ins to make sure everyone is in tune for tomorrows free Nettle show at Zebulon. If that isn’t enough to make me fly back, New York Tropical finally starts back up on Friday. But the West Coast Needs Love Too. Joseph Stewart is helping to bring a little more intimacy to Los Angeles on Thursday- I asked him a few questions about what his new night, 2True is all about.



T: What inspired y’all to start the night?

J: My club partner Max Krivitzky and I went to see Kyle Hall and Carl Craig play at a big Scion-sponsored event in a cheesy Hollywood club and the promoter had hired a Funktion-One soundsystem. I’d never heard anything like it in my life. I’m an audio engineer and studied electronic music in school so I’m very sensitive to the quality of sound but before that night I’d never thought that level of fidelity was possible in a club environment. One of the reasons I love sound is that it literally touches you – sound itself is the compression and rarefaction of air exciting your insides – and on a Funktion-One system you feel it very clearly all around your head and chest and it’s not painful. That night Max and I started talking about how great it would be to have that kind of sound for more underground parties with no theme and minimal “production”.

T: Given that the lineup looks pretty similar to parties that seem to jump off every week, what are you guys going to offer that isn’t already going on in L.A.?

J: We are very lucky at the moment to have a good thing developing here in LA but since Wildness (Wu Tsang, Total Freedom and Nguzunguzu’s old party) stopped happening we’ve had to chase the dance a little bit. Mustache Mondays and A Club Called Rhonda in particular are always incredible and book amazing djs, but we’re after something a little more intimate with where djs can really experiment and do things they wouldn’t normally in a larger venue. The non-theme is – great sound, small room and international bass musics (particularly of the house diaspora). As for the lineup, Total Freedom, Kingdom and the Nguzus are not only friends but 4 our favorite djs and majorly inspirational to us so it only made sense to invite them to play our first night. Also our friend Hans-Nikke Nielsen, a recent transplant from Perth and very talented dj, is actually making what I believe is his first LA appearance…

T: What’s inspiring to you about nightclub spaces, why make more nightclub space?

J: I think the main thing is that they facilitate what our friend the artist Brian Rogers called “an impersonal intimacy,” which people talk about in histories of the Paradise Garage or any famously mixed club. Reading your account of the Baile funk in Brazil reminded me of this as did Wildness (Wu Tsang, an artist who organized Wildness with Total Freedom and Nguzunguzu, is working on a film, Damelo Todo, that works on these social relationships). I guess we want to create a sonically-activated safe-space for impersonal intimacy. More wisdom from Brian: “Music is always promiscuous, always crossing borders…it’s us that have to catch up and make good on that.”

T: What is the dream for 2true? And how does that fit into the existing scene in L.A.

J:We’d really like to develop enough of a regular draw so that we can eventually focus pretty much entirely on unknown and emerging djs except for a few special events. This is a very exciting time for dance music and we have heard enough bedroom djs and producers around the world blow our minds to know that we want to hear things develop regularly on a Funktion-One with a sweaty room full of our closest friends. We don’t really know how that will fit into our existing scene but we’re psyched to find out.

OR, ITS 2011, CAN’T WE JUST KEEP SAMPLING THE NATIVES??

THOSE SAMPLES GOT CAUGHT IN THE INTERNET BECAUSE THEIR FARMS AND TREEHOUSES ROTTED AWAY AND FRUITY LOOPS AND COWBELLS ARE ALL THAT’S LEFT, SO THE PEOPLE THAT MAKE THEIR LIVING THAT WAY PRETEND THEY WERE IMPORTANT. THEY MATED WITH TREES AND DROWNED THEIR CHILDREN TO HONOR THEIR RIVERS. THAT WAS WHAT WAS IMPORTANT.

MAYBE ITS OK IF WE REPLAY THEIR DRUM PATTERNS?

ITS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT THEY’RE NOT DEAD, WE ARE. ACCESS TO POWER IS A PATTERN WE REPEAT.

“I WISH I HAD A TON OF MONEY, THEN I’D BE FREE.”


FREE LIKE A BIRD.

Over two years ago Jace and I started talking about doing an artist residency project in Morocco. Five years ago Jace started talking to Maga Bo about how boring clubs and festivals are and what sort of more in-depth work they could do, as musicians, as DJs, as curators, as artists, and as friends. Beyond Digital is finally here. The future vision is an international non-profit that curates artist residencies focused on interesting localizations of international tech. Cell phone banking, Berber Auto-Tune, Mesh Networks in Cairo, Pirate Distros…..

In June Jace, Bo, John Francis Peters, Carolyn Lazard and I will go to Marrakesh. More people will come to help with documentation and to complete their own projects- this is the group that’s locked in so far. Everyone has different priorities- but we’ll be working together on everything. Bo is going to record an album in a DIY studio we build. John, who is the photo editor at The Fader, is going to complete photo-essays and teach digital photography. Jace is going to follow Berber Auto-Tune to its originary-point and beyond. Carolyn is going to film documentary shorts. I’m going to try and keep everything organized while doing my own research on small studios and DIY digital culture.

We will also be putting on skill-shares and media production workshops. Everything we do will be documented and spread out from Morocco through museum shows, lectures, dvds, streaming and just about every other format you can imagine translating a month into. On the ground we’ll interface with Dar Al-Ma’mûn cultural center and Arab Media Lab.

We are working behind the scenes and non-disclosure agreements to lock down some serious institutional, grant, and corporate support. BUT- right now we need YOUR HELP. We need to send Jace and Bo to Morocco in the spring to do preliminary organization and networking to make sure everything goes smoothly in June. The main cost here will be travel expenses (transatlantic flights, local car rental, frugal accommodations & food, translator). Part of the money raised will be used to create a website. Anything over the amount we’re asking for will be re-invested in the June portion of the project. Project donors can receive curated CD’s from Moroccan markets, signed prints from John Francis- Peters, instruments, custom mix tapes, and if you feel like balling the fuck out, you can even pledge your way to Jace and Bo djing your dinner party, wedding, or day at the beach. Help us get there.

Busy Signal
“My girl yuh no… boring / gwan wine bend over touch your toe ring” – Busy Signal

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Busy Signal – Wine Up (Nuh Pop Dung)

File this one under things that make me happy. Busy Signal is in top form and Washroom deliver a gorgeous reggae flavored dancehall riddim entitled Bad Suh. I’ve been starting my sets with this one recently and also playing a few other cuts on the riddim including the Tifa and Voicemail. People in my Prospect Heights neighborhood may have been confused to see a tall red bearded man gesticulating and shuffling his way through the black grimy snow on his way to the subway to the sound of hot dancehall in his headphones.  Anti-winter music.

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.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUs7iG1mNjI[/youtube]

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.
(more…)

It’s Black History Month, so we reflect on our dark-brown and black American heroes. iTunes is providing a road-map to our immediate musical heroes. Lil Wayne is black, and the Black Eyed Peas are caramel. You already know, Kanye West is blacker than Cornel West, but Cornel West is a better rapper. Stevie Wonder smiles way too much, and R. Kelly is the walking embodiment of complicated. Dr. Dre’s great grandfather escaped from a plantation and started a own colony somewhere out West. Kid Cudi wears white-boy suits; he is a regular on MTV. Michael Jackson is not dead; he is white.

Did today happen? Does adulthood exist? All I know is that it’s snowing, again — or maybe it never stopped. The last time I was this tired I was walking through a forest after a show and before the airport. Mudd. Deliciously low visibility. A river. Nature has so many things without off switches. We passed a homeless guy pushing a cart.

Last night’s radio show, now streaming, featured a very informative Benjamin Lebrave from Akwaaba Music.

you can subscribe to the Mudd Up! podcast for downloadable versions, issued a week after FM broadcast: , Mudd Up! RSS. Also useful: WFMU’s free iPhone app. We also have a version for Android (search for “WFMU” in the marketplace).