old Mudd!  

MUDD UP has MOVED!!!!

I've finally managed to get the blog redesign up and running.

So, this is the last post at this URL. MUDD UP HAS MOVED!!!!

from here on in, check: http://www.negrophonic.com/

please update your bookmarks, RSS readers, blogrolls, and all that type of stuff.

Mudd Up! @ Negrophonic.com is here to stay... first post on the new spot has mp3s from The Ex and a tasty Mavado refix. lots more to come now that i'm done spending 'blog time' wrestling with CSS & HTML.

ongoing thanks for reading and contributing and keeping the mudd hott!

besos a tod@s.

ok. see you there.

ALMOST THERE

LIL RUPT RADIO 2NITE

hey New Yorkers &/or mp3-stream people, I'll be dropping by The Fader's Let Out show on East Village Radio show hosted by Yung Catch tonite. Show runs 6-8pm EST, i'll bring a bit o' wax for the latter half. the radio comes via easy internet streaming for worldwide crossfader-abuse-lovers.

and a good look for after the show with Andy tomorrow night, is hop on the J/M and head to Trouble & Bass in south Williamsburg, the party everybody keeps telling me is bananas puree.

SEE YOU SATURDAY

this saturday new york. please help spread the word!

andy is a magician with that guitar

+ i just realized how easy it is to incorporate youtube into mudd bogs: you just drop it in.  ive been looking around there. the lake is deep, the night is long.

so an appropriate piece to begin with is, of course and apparently, a Nass El Ghiwane - Bollywood remix joining footage of Indian dancers on a moving train (Lars Von Trier thief!) to a classic NeG tune whose beautifully poetic title translates as "Where are you taking me, brother?".

INDIGENOUS HOUSE & THE SLUM RUNWAY

• "now my head is full of hows" -- A Third Way.

• House, it has been noted, is a feeling. In the spirit of the below links i offer an indigenous beat experience:

       Boston area rave fragment, mixed by M-Dee. 1994. 13 min.

Somebody gave me this tape at a party where Benny Blanco was DJing, Benny who was always a nice person to buy records from. The cassette advertised a Primary rave. Mixtape as impressionistic scene souvenir.

• a Commie Curmudgeon examines global music and poverty chic, touchstoning that excellent Orlando Patternson piece.

• on a related note "whilst in the expanding global slum survival at subsistence level is increasingly the only option, in the West the celebration of the creativity and ingenuity of the slum dweller is becoming fashionable." -- Dezeuze, The Art of Precariousness. Precarity, art, ethics.

CITYMINE(D) & GAUDEAMUS

heavy & clever spam attacks have forced me to turn on 'comment moderation'. i'm finishing up a site redesign, switching to WordPress from Pivot. if there's any functionality you wanna see, drop a line. the new MuddUp! might go live before:

• this Thursday I'll be DJing at CityMine(d)'s Micronomics Fest in Brussels. 3€!

Decentered in Barcelona, Brussels, and London, CityMine(d) is a group of forward-thinking urbanists "focusing on issues of citizenship, democracy and urban regeneration." Who also know how to get down in style!

I haven't 'celebrated Thanksgiving in seven years, and this Thurs will be no exception. But Hans promises "exotic catering"!

• this Friday'll be speaking and performing at the Gaudeamus Live Electronics Festival in Amsterdam.

details here. Radian, etc. In the afternoon, Spanish sound artist Francisco López will speak on his work, then i'll give a critical reaction. ("I BOUGHT YOUR CD AND IT WAS BORING! THE ONE WITH THE METAL RIFF! TELL ME ABOUT BIG RAINFOREST BUGS! LET ME BLINDFOLD YOU AND PLAY MY MUSIC REAL LOUD, FRANCO!")

HARDCORE IRIE

Nialler9 ups Skream + Warrior Queen.

post + mp3 here

this large large tune is # 1 one worldwide hit in an alternate universe where Emperor Haile Selassie successfully beat off the invading Italian fascists in their immaculately tailored suits, then followed them home to conquer Italy, buy designer shoes, learn the use of pomade and the pleasures of Western women, eventually believing in his own divinity and annexing all of continental Europe to Ethiopia, where Skream now competes against Mavado and Nelly Furtado in the annual Eurovision contest, the capital of Imperial Europe having long since been relocated Dire Dawa, "place of remedy" in Amharic, the empire's official -- but unenforced -- language. Ras Tafari values tolerance.

        Warrior Queen, in the meantime, just wants to chat about sex.

DA CAPO CAPER, or Joanna Newsom and The Whites

How is it that the notion of a CD containing "The Best Music of 2006" would be preposterous while the idea of book collecting "The Best Music Writing of 2006" is readily accepted?

Is it due to qualitative differences between music and writing? Does authority swoop down in the gap separating (source) art and (secondary) reportage? Is writing about music easier to rate than music itself? What rhetorical techniques does music journalism employ to gain understanding -- or at least the appearance of semiotic control -- over sound?

For example: imagine if dance, rather than writing, was considered the main mode of music criticism! Rhythm, response, realtime -- bodies on the line, first-person present, no third-person with its anonymous voice of authority. And it's true, watching a good dancer can help you understand the music, how it operates and inhabits us.

Back to the best. When do we use 'the best' as a primary category of anything cultural?

-What type of music do you listen to?
- The best.
- "The Best"?!

Best Music of 2006, the album. Such as CD, mass-marketed as the Best Music of 2006, is more or less unthinkable. Such a book exists. (I know because I'm in it-- included as a commentor on Wayne Marshall's piece).


You wouldn't buy a "Best Music 2006" CD for at least 2 reasons. First: because you probably wouldn't like most of the music on it. Music fans divide up the world of sound by genre, geography, scene, sound, and so on -- only after everything else has been whittled down do 'best' considerations i.e. 'this band is better than that band' enter into it. 'Best' is -- at best! -- a secondary category of music appreciation.

The second reason you wouldn't buy such as CD is slightly more subtle -- the lack of discernment that it implies. People who claim they like "good music" usually don't, oddly enough.This is why I silently groan whenever a stranger finds out that I DJ and then say "you're a DJ, that's so great! I LOVE music!"

.

And yet you might buy that book. The reasons cited above for not buying such a CD don't translate. What is different? An anthology of 'Best Music Writing' makes sense, somehow. How?


What is the nature of this transformation from art to art criticism? The body of journalism feeds off music but births something else entirely. What happens in the guts?

Music criticism is a machine (taxonomical, hierarchical, expository) that transmutes music and musical culture into words, narratives.

*

I'm not trying to criticize the inclusion/exclusion aspect of creating any anthology. I'm just wondering how this machine functions. And besides, Jeff Chang already did that in his essay on the Da Capo series:

"Half the essays were about rock. Only 2 were about hip-hop. None of the writers were of color... Da Capo's Best Music Writing series demonstrates the old problem that activists of color, feminists, and gay and lesbian activists raged against during the 1980s. A very particular kind of worldview – in this case, one that favors white, male, English-only, New York-approved, rock-centric writers and writing – is passed off as the universal standard of excellence... Canons are never accidents. They get made."

Return of the White Noise Supremacists - Jeff Chang

His argument, however instructive, is a bit misguided. If you debate inclusion/exclusion from a critical canon, then you are not debating the idea of a canon itself: you are reifying it, acknowledging it as a site from which Big Meaning flows, underscoring the significance of its power to exclude you in the first place. It's easy to walk through walls if they don't exist -- and as it turns out, they often don't. I feel all minority criticism should start from there.

.

That said, I sympathize with Chang's piece (particularly enjoy his breakdown on how the guest editor thing works). But rather than see SPIN do cover stories on Imazighen pop written by Najat Aatabou, I'd prefer music journalism which investigates the standard U.S. pop-heroes but f%cks with the organizational logic underpinning cultural assumptions. Imagine: an essay on 'world music' profiling the few artists with truly global reach: 50 Cent, Shakira, The Rolling Stones. Ethnographic sheen optional!

.

Or, better yet, imagine a piece on Joanna Newson, Devendra Banhart, and west coast freaky folk in relation to the demographic shifts which have made white people the ethnic minority in California State. How long can 'white' music remain untouched by the forces which (rightfully?) require every serious reggaeton article to employ demographic data and musings on ethnic identity? Just as examining reggaeton's popularity without linking it to the Latino population boom would be considered sloppy journalism, so too is discussing freaky folk's rising fame while allowing its relation to whiteness (real and imagined) to pass in silence, as the unreferenced norm.

You could even do it as a visual essay!

*

Everywhere music fans gather you'll find music criticism. It may not be formal, buyable, or 'the best' -- but it'll be there. Perhaps in the form of good dancers.

/

THE EX + DJ RUPTURE U.S. TOUR

(I'll giveway some tix to various shows later on)

DJ Rupture + Andy Moor: **live duo** (description below)

Dec 2 - N.Y.C. - Tonic. $5 midnite show on Saturday, U.S. debut, hot damm!

Dec 6 - Chicago - Hideout.


The Ex + DJ Rupture: US tour

Dec 7 - Minneapolis - Triple Rock Social Club. w/ The Stnnng, The Agenda
Dec 8 - Chicago - Empty Bottle.
Dec 9 - Pittsburgh - Garfield Artworks. w/ Allies, Xanopticon
Dec 11 - Baltimore - Ottobar. w/ Aloha, Lowmoda *
Dec 12 - Cambridge - MiddleEast downstars. w/ Aloha *
Dec 13 - NYC - Knitting Factory. w/ Aloha *
Dec 14 - Philadelphia - First Unitarian Church. w/ Aloha *
Dec 15 - Hoboken - Maxwells. w/ Arbouretum


* due to time constraints, on these shows Rupture will perform a  30-minute set. Longer sets everywhere else.

THE EX - if you don't know, you should! they've toured with everybody from Fugazi and Shellac to Konono & classic Ethiopian musicians. Heck, they've even done a D.I.Y. tour of east Africa -- no joke!! The drummer from Godspeed described em to me as: "“this awesome dutch ex squatter punk free jazz european folk band moving more and more in a bizarre african direction” check Touch&Go's nice bio.

.

DJ RUT-PURE. Nonstop ruts! Spanning spaces that make your rump go bump. America's most agile & reckless turntable chump. Feckless or fearless? We're stumped!

RUPTURE+ANDY MOOR
For the past 2 years, turntablist DJ /rupture and guitarist Andy Moor have been playing completely improved duo sets, with a collaborative album slated for 2007 release.

Their dynamic interactions range from moments of delicate avant-garde soundwork to futuristic beats intersected by angular guitar.

 ANDY MOOR, from England, is a member of legendary band The Ex (Touch & Go). From their anarcho-punk birth in 1979 (!) they've tirelessly explored a melting-pot of styles: noise, rock, jazz, improv, and African and European folk. He's also a founding member of the bands Dog Faced Hermans and Kletka Red. Moor has played electric guitar over the last 15 years with improvisers such as Kaffe Matthews, Han Bennink, John Butcher, Tony Buck, Yannis Kryiakides, and many others. His discordant, highly rhythmic baritone guitar playing is elemental and muscular, electrifying and unique.

The last time RUPTURE played upstairs at Tonic he was DJing in a band with Norah Jones. Since then he's gone expat, released records on Tigerbeat6 and Soul Jazz, toured the world a few times, and performed alongside the 80-member Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. When playing with Andy, Rupture moves between polyrhythmic beat-science and unorthodox textural DJing that pushes the use of turntable as instrument. Expect flipped hiphop battle techniques and his usual disregard for convention.


& IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS

or at least it did, for 4 minutes, a few months ago, in the Netherlands.

DJ Rupture + Andy Moor, Live @ OT301, Amsterdam

(yeah i'm using a Skream record. mad bonus points to anybody who can ID the other ones)

THE EX & DJ RUPTURE - DECEMBER US TOUR

So -- this December I'll be touring the U.S. with The Ex!

we're gonna hit the following cities: Minneapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cambridge, NYC, Baltimore, & Hoboken. Bang!

Touch & Go has a nice succinct write-up of The Ex for newcomers.

in addition to these shows, i'll be doing a guitars+turntable duo set with their guitarist, Andy Moor, on Dec 2nd in NYC at Tonic and Dec 6 in Chicago at the Hideout. 

gotta run, dates, venues & watermelon bullets soon come.