FERAL DIGITALS GNAW BOWED STRINGS

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[photographer: Bjarni Grims. copyright Bedroom Community 2009]

It’s confusing because there are two Ben Frosts – a musician and a visual artist – and they both come from Melbourne. But when I listen to Ben Frost everything makes utter sense. The soundworld explored on his new album, By The Throat, is pretty much perfect. Acoustic instrumental weight in restraint attacked by feral digitals. I couldn’t be happier.

I feel a deep affinity (if not envy!) for what’s happening here. It’s a less mean-spirited version of acoustic/electronic/noise balances I’m working with for the Nettle Shining-in-Dubai Resplandor project, and Frost’s recording quality/production level is SKY-HIGH, sounds stunning. Not sure if the wolf noises have earned their right to be here, but they’re infrequent.

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Here’s a song from By The Throat. It starts off pretty then something else happens.

[audio:Ben_Frost-Hibakusja.mp3]

Ben Frost – Híbakúsja (buyable at Amazon)

RADIO TONITE

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Radio tonight: special guest Bendude from Montreal’s Masala crew! Topic: Digital digging. (aka Secret Google Cheat Codes). We’ve hosted ‘analog’ diggers like Beto from Soundways and Sonido Martines, now it’s time to learn about the other side…

KEYWORDS: Cd-rs, rapidshare, mp3s, coupe decale, cumbia, world music 2.0, internet submarines, poorly rendered turtles all the way down, francophone.

SOLAR LIFE RAFT VIDEO

Yes, I already blogged this, but I’m excited and will repeat myself with more details… Huge shout out to director & animator, Sara Taigher, and illustrator Maria Chiara Di Giorgio.

It was fascinating to watch this animation idea go from vibing with Sara in Rome one hot day last August to storyboards to the final version. Her visual narrative conjures up lovely, imaginative accompaniment to the music and short story found inside the CD packaging. For the 3-minute video we wove two sections of the mix together, using two of the exclusive SLR tracks (one by Matt & I, one by London grime producer Mizz Beats) and those magical voices from Nico Muhly (whose blog is outstanding). “Underwater High Rise feat. DJ Kiva”, our tune, will be released on 12″ next week with 2 other songs from us.

Anyhow, welcome to our world…

Ever since the water rose we had to move the batteries up to the sixth floor and the dolphins have taken over the old studo. Nokea found an octopus in the stairwell. It was sleepy or high or something..

promo text: The production duo of DJ /rupture (aka Jace Clayton) and Matt Shadetek are pleased to announce the release of this absolutely breathtaking new video, directed and animated by Sara Taigher with illustrations by Maria Chiara Di Giorgio, set to the music off their just-released record, Solar Life Raft (out last Tuesday on The Agriculture). The video is a medley featuring DJ /rupture + Matt Shadetek’s “Underwater High Rise,” Nico Muhly’s “Mothertongue Pt. 1,” and Mizz Beats’ “Blue Night.”

NYC TONITE & UPCOMING

It all happens at the American Museum of Natural History tonight! Dutty Artz extended familia IN FULL EFFECT: DJ /rupture, Matt Shadetek feat. Jahdan Blakkamoore, Sonido Martines, Maluca… 9pm-1am. Price includes admission to the Space Show and a free return visit to the museum. You can buy tickets here.

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for a warm-up jam,

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/leaky/MattShadetek-Strength_In_Numbers-SOLAR-LIFE-RAFT.mp3]

Matt Shadetek – Strength In Numbers

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and on Saturday, Sonido Martines & I will shift over to Queens, for a Night of Psychedelic Cumbia! at D’Antigua, 84-16 Northern Blvd, Jackson Heights. It’ll be Sonido, myself, and 2 sets by the M.A.K.U. Soundsystemnoche

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next weekend Matt Shadetek and I’ll be performing at a free-with-RSVP party @ The Empty Bottle in Chicago on Friday November 20th, and then @ the Video Saloon in Bloomington, Indiana on Sat. Nov. 21.

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then a few days later, it’s off to Mexico, where I’ll be doing a talk on DUB and 3 shows across 3 cities (Puebla, D.F., Guadalajara) with Adrian Sherwood. Here’s a flyer for the 1st event, a free talk in Mexico City on Thursday November 26. Nos vemos!

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SILENT CITY

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Kurdish Iranian musician Kayhan Kalhor teamed up with local string quartet Brooklyn Rider to record an album called Silent City. Like a good science-fiction book, Silent City has a terrible cover and fascinating contents. Placid, contemplative, not-entirely-Western classical. (Would have worked well on my recent ambient radio show.)

The 29-minute title song employs soft drones, cycling melodies, and gentle volume swells to great effect. One of the under-appreciated powers of acoustic classical music is dB dynamics, sheer AMPLITUDE RANGE; a concert hall can soar from whisper to rumble, and pieces can be written which exploit this, this walking alongside silence when necessary. Go from loud to quiet in a club, and not only will you hear everyone talking over the music, somebody will start shouting. At you. To turn the music back up. (Not necessarily a bad thing; perhaps classical music would be more interesting if the audience members shouted like drunk ravers from time to time.)

I would love to see Kalhor and Brooklyn Rider perform live (we played on the same night last week in Copenhagen, I did not catch them). Here’s one of the shorter songs from the album:

[audio:kayhan_kalhor_and_brooklyn_rider-parvaz.mp3]

Kayhan Kalhor and Brooklyn Rider – Parvaz [buyable]

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SOLAR LIFE RAFT – NOW AFLOAT

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yes! my new mix album, Solar Life Raft, made with Matt Shadetek, is out this week as digitals, in stores next as little boxes of plastic (with cool short story liner notes & artwork).

currently available at places like iTunes (US), Amazon, Boomkat, eMusic…

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plus a world-klass record release party – next week, join myself, Matt Shadetek & Jahdan Blakkamoore, Maluca, and Sonido Martines at the planetarium of The American Museum of Natural History in NYC!!

ONE STEP BEYOND.

The FADER Presents

ONE STEP BEYOND at the American Museum of Natural History

Friday, November 13, 2009

DJ /Rupture
Matt Shadetek Feat. Jahdan Blakkamoore
Maluca
Sonido Martines

9pm – 1am
$25- Price includes admission to the Space Show and a free return visit to the Museum.

Buy tickets in advance here.

LUIS

So. Halloween was last week, but there’s still time for a little gothic animation / reverse room destruction / nightmare from Chile. Sporting admirable production values: “Materials: charcoal, dirt, flowers, found objects, and cardboard.”

NYC TODAY: RADIO TALK, REAL TALK

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I will be on WNYC’s Soundcheck at 2pm today, along with Sleater Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein. We are both contributors to the De Capo Best Music Writing 2009 anthology, and will be reading from that, chatting with host John Schaefer, and playing to some excerpts from my upcoming mix, Solar Life Raft.

As I mentioned recently, the De Capo book has a reading and release party at Housing Works Cafe, 7pm tonight, with afterparty at 9pm. Come join Greil Marcus and a handful of us as we read selections and field a bit of Q&A.

Also at 7pm – my weekly radio show on WFMU 91.1. fm. The show, as always, is preceded by Douglass Rushkoff & followed by Trent – a nice sandwich.

Lamin will help me simultaneously manifest in SoHo and Jersey City. Key figures from tonight’s show include: Michael Watts, Chief Boima, Geeshie Wiley, Roll Deep, Victor Deme, & Mike Ladd explaining How Electricity Really Works.

Just returned to the States, lots of new music to share. The tree outside my window is half of what it was. Fall.

COPENHAGEN TONITE

Finally finagled ambient wi-fi with Maga Bo here in a sunlit Copenhagen flat around the corner from Christiania… playing tonite. screenshot details below. link. also facebook. I’ll be checking out WOMEX activities for the next few days, if you’re around, twitter (@djrupture) probably the best way to get in touch.

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