barcelona – mudd up!

REGGADA LLUMINOSA

first up, chaabi, because we miss Barcelona. I’m reading a book with a character named Thomas Lull and I keep thinking it should be Llull. This will make sense if you’ve lived there for awhile. I love the double ‘ll’ in Catalan, words like Llum (light), also a woman’s name. I’ll be playing a 2-hour set at the free SONAR party next Tuesday, will sneak in some Barcelona Maghrebi stuff.

[audio:https://negrophonic.com/mp3/Abdelhak Laaroussi – Chaabi.mp3]

Abdelhak Laaroussi – ?

Then, eastward. This is the sound of reggada thinking about itself, with hesitation and repetition, probably the way we all think about ourselves. Structurally ripe for DJ use.

[audio:https://negrophonic.com/mp3/Reggada-Instrumental.mp3]

Reggada Instrumental

And a less existential reggada song, unselfconscious. From ‘La Nouvelle Génération’, a comp CD I picked up in Bay Ridge (Brooklyn):

[audio:https://negrophonic.com/mp3/Kirat_Mamma.mp3]

Kirat – Mamma

regada

GAAN A BED

There’s a heavy backend to this post – the role of reggae & reggae signifiers in South America, breakcore guys bringing their swagger and bruised complexity to dubstep production, the new clutch of ‘breakstep’ musicians in Barcelona, crunk synths as the new Amen break, my softcore style, etc etc – but it’s late.

I discovered this Cardopusher album (“Unity Means Power”) when the Japanese label, Murder Channel, wrote me asking for a blurb. Half of it is standard breakcore but when Señor Pusher bends the formula wow happens, such as this jam, crunked out breakstep so good that I don’t mind that it’s soaked in token Jamaican ragga vocal samples. They don’t bother me at all which is strange since my tolerance for that sort of bumbaclott thing, these days, is low. Scud’s “Total Destruction” was released a decade ago, after all.

Last time I was in Bcn with Cauto & co., Cardopusher had recently moved there (from Caracas, Venezuela) but it was late then too, so we didn’t meet up.

[audio:Cardopusher_GaanABed.mp3]

Cardopusher – Gaan A Bed

cardo cardo

LA PRÃ“MIXA SEMANA

a lot of folks have been contacting me about Sonar-time activities next week in Barcelona.

here’s the deal-

my band Nettle plays next Friday, June 15th, 4pm at Sonar.

the best off-site party in Barcelona is U.S.B.. 4 local event crews team up to bring us: Bong Ra, Filastine, Vex’d, Maga Bo, DJ Distance, DJ Maxximums, and more over 3 days. (more info + fotos here)

just in from Rio, Maga Bo & MC BNegao perform at a USB kick-off in Poble Nou next wednesday, and then fri & sat nite’s events take place IN A CAVE (!) turned club outside of Bcn called La Cova. Here’s the flyer for that: