Month: August 2012

SUFI PLUG INS ON THURS., BOSTON PARTY ON FRIDAY

[screenshot from Sufi Plug Ins’ clapping drum machine, PALMAS]

This Thursday evening, Bill Bowen & I will present SUFI PLUG INs at Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee’s Advanced Ableton Users meetup in Manhattan. Free with RSVP, live streaming. 7:30-10pm.

& on Friday Lamin Fofana and I are heading up to perform at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, where will be joined by DJ Rizzla for a night of ‘DJs on the Harbor’, throwing down at their lovely waterfront space. Come through!

NPR (again!) – RUPTURE STUDIO 360 PROFILE & REMIX CONTEST

[Photo by Josh Rogosin]

Over the weekend, NPR (national public radio here in the US) aired a profile of me on their Studio 360 arts & culture show. Very exciting to get beamed into the ears of a million or so Americans… Host Kurt Andersen came out to my studio for a few hours of talk & filming. You can listen to the audio below or download from their site. There’s also a nice writeup includes a video of me showing Kurt the DJ basics.

To accompany the radio piece, we are staging a “DJ /rupture Remix Challenge.” They explain:

We want you to take the stems to “L’Avion,” by Nettle (DJ /rupture’s band project), and create your own remix — he’ll choose the winning remix and we’ll play it on the show.

The deadline to be considered for our contest is Sunday, September 2, 2012 at 11:59 EDT.

You can stream the song below and download a ZIP of the stems. Hint: the tempo is 86bpm and the time signature is 6/8 (kinda). I’m really looking forward to hearing how people reinterpret this material. The separated audio stems include voice, banjo, cello, percussion, electronics. Have fun with it! – risks will be rewarded. Or to put it more bluntly: THIS IS A GOOD CHANCE TO GET YOUR WEIRD MUSICAL IDEAS ONTO NATIONAL RADIO, FRIEND.

Here’s a video of an early version the song, “L’Avion,” which we wrote + first performed in Tangiers Morocco.

And last but not least — walking Kurt Andersen through the basics of DJing with a little help from Kelly Rowland:

NEW RUPTURE MIX – CHANGE THE MOOD!

Last night I hit the decks to put together 22 minutes of summer, blended and intensified for your listening pleasure.

Direct download here [50 MB].

Stream:

This mix was put together in anticipation of a Dutty Artz event of the same name. Here’s my original post about that, a combination birthday party (let’s roar, fellow leos!), fundraiser, and dutty wine dance up.

CHANGE THE MOOD! August 17th @ Glasslands, Bklyn

This Friday I’m throwing a birthday party slash mayhem management course slash fundraiser with the DUTTY ARTZ crew at Glasslands in Brooklyn. You are strongly encouraged to come. Flyer & info:

Dutty Artz presents CHANGE THE MOOD! a fundraiser party for Beyond The Block.
Fri. August 17th at Glasslands, 289 Kent Ave, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 11pm. $10

Hosted by Pupa Bajah and Jasmin Cruz
NYC debut of Chants (live from Madison, WI)

DJ Ushka vs. a Rhino
Chief Boima vs. a Robot
DJ Rupture vs. an Elephant
Taliesin vs. a Vampire
Geko Jones vs. a Chicken-Stealing Fox
Atropolis vs. the Euro

visuals by Rainstick | Rupture’s birthday | silent auction fundraiser

RSVP here on Facebook


CHANGE THE MOOD! will feature performances by Dutty Artz affiliated visual artists, musicians, DJs, and MCs. A portion of proceeds & silent auction will support the Beyond the Block Sunset Park initiative. The party combines Dutty Artz’s ground-up artistic vision with a desire to connect music fans to the struggles faced by local communities of immigrants, artists, workers, and young people that often help inspire contemporary global fashion trends.

CHANGE THE MOOD! performers include Chants from Madison, WI, making his NYC debut on the strength of his ‘Night After’ EP (“Chants makes very beautiful sounds that make you feel like you’re swimming in an underwater world of loveliness” – Dummy Mag), recent WIRE mag coverboy DJ /rupture, Que Bajo’s Geko Jones, Rick Ross protégé Chief Boima, and more.

BEYOND THE BLOCK. Can a hype block party double as an opportunity to spread information about stop & frisk, immigrant rights, police surveillance, and housing? We say yes. As the championing of diversity, a global outlook, and a celebration of the local become increasingly common in today’s dance music scenes, we see an ideal opportunity to use the energy & open-ended vibe of a great party to connect musical ideas to their real-world analogs: to create a space where we can talk about – and dance to – an incredible musical selection while sharing useful information for our communities that are impacted by issues pertaining to undocumented workers’ rights, transnational identity, health care, police violence, housing and more. Happening on September 22nd, the inaugural Sunset Park edition of Beyond The Block is a collaboration between Beyond Digital, Dutty Artz, The Arab American Association of New York, La Unión, and individual artists and Brooklyn-based community members.

SEE YOU AT GLASSLANDS ON AUGUST 17!!!!!!!!

SUFI PLUG INS ON NPR

Yesterday NPR’s flagship news program, All Things Considered, aired a piece on my Sufi Plug Ins project! One minute it’s drivel from Mitt Romney’s camp, the next my crew is talking about weird synthesizers and love song maqams.

Here’s the audio & accompanying article: Sufi Plug Ins on All Things Considered.

People keep asking me if I plan to sell SPIs. The answer is no. They’re free, always will be, and we’re gonna build more – VST versions are the next priority. In order to make the Sufi Plug Ins exactly as they needed to be, the whole thing was self-funded (I can always eat less) & the entire team – Bill & I here in New York, Rosten in LA, and Maggie & Juan in Madrid – volunteered their formidable skills.

If you’d like to support, there is a donation page, there are nice t-shirts, and artist prints in an edition of 6. VST wizards wanted, too. Get in touch with any questions.

If this is a bit confusing, check the demonstration video or read my original post.

SUFI PLUG INS: demo video from Beyond Digital on Vimeo.