More vibes comin’ atcha! This one’s a dubstep-centric mix I cooked up featuring BIG tunes by a bunch of friends, in addition to a few folks who’s paths I hope to cross one of these days.
A few months ago I wandered over to Sonotheque to check out Zizek’s first-ever Chicago performance. The rag-tag crew of Argentina-based sonic alchemists threw down beats the likes of which that sound-system had never before been asked to reproduce. The swaggering shuffle of electronic cumbia with huge bass forced all of the few people in the place to sway and eventually dance their faces off. By the end of the show, members of the crew had formed an impromptu acoustic cumbia jam with traditional drums, percussion, melodica, and vocals. It was a crying shame that there weren’t more people in the house to experience and partake in one of the best dance parties of the year.
Zizek is dedicated to the creation of endless tropical nights of dancing utilizing the emerging sounds of Cumbia, Hip Hop, Dancehall, Reggaetón, Bastard Pop, Mashups and more. The goal however is to give these styles, ideas and rhythms an Argentine touch, with the aim of putting Buenos Aires on the map of the global music scene.
The star of Zizek has been Cumbia, a Latin American sound born from the fusion of old and new worlds in Colombia. Zizek is adapting cumbia’s distinctive rhythm to make it relevant to a new generation of Latin Americans and it´s artists have created a few genres of their own, like cumbia beat, cumbiastep, and cumbia hop. Zizek´s producers are bringing out contrasting takes on a genre that already has a massive following and it is exploding faster than it ever would have up until now.
Following up their much hyped SXSW appearance, the revolving Zizek crew will be in the USA, Canada and Mexico again this July for a coast to coast summer blowout tour. DJ Villa Diamante and Bersa Discos Oro11 together with ZZK Records newest artists Fauna and Chancha Vía Circuíto will be bringing the new sound of Argentina to North America this time around.
The tour will feature DJ Sets and Performances by:
Villa Diamante
B.A.´s “it DJ” and Zizek Resident, specializes in mashing up Argentine & Latin American flavor with Northern Hemisphere Hip Hop, Grime, Electro, & Pop.
Fauna
Fauna´s “Tropitronica” sound blends Latin elements with electronic beats and the duo includes live hip-hop/ragga vocals to round out their upbeat, sonically innovative productions.
Chancha Vía Circuíto
Chancha is one of the hottest names in the new cumbia scene. His productions have caught the eye of international beat hunters and his tracks have been featured heavily on mixtapes by Diplo, Maga Bo and more.
Oro11
Co -owner of S.F.´s Bersa Discos, Oro11 lived in Buenos Aires for 3 years where he developed a taste for intensifying and modernizing cumbia villera through harder dancehall and Baltimore club beats.
Tour Dates:
07.10.08 (LAMC) @ SOBs - New York City, New York w/ Toy Selectah
07.11.08 @ Club Lambi - Montreal, Canada
07.12.08 (Ritmo y Color Festival) @ Brigantine Room - Toronto, Ontario
07.14.08 @ TBA
07.15.08 @ TBA - Detroit, Michigan
07.16.08 @ Sonotheque - Chicago, IL
07.17.08 @ TBA - Cleveland, Ohio
07.18.08 @ TBA
07.19.08 @ SOBs - New York City, New York
07.22.08 @ Nectar – Seattle, Washington
07.23.08 @ Berbati’s Pan – Portland, Oregon
07.24.08 @ Mezzanine -San Francisco, CA w/ Bersa Discos & Drop the Lime
07.25.08 @ TBA - Los Angeles, CA
07.26.08 @ Getty Museum - Los Angeles, California
07.31.08 @ Pasaguero - Mexico City, Mexico w/ Las Kumbia Queers
After I posted Since You’ve Been In This Club — my remix of Usher’s Love In This Club and Sasha Frere-Jones singing Kelly Clarkson’s Since You’ve Been Gone — I got a comment from Refusenik asking if I could post the instrumental, or perhaps a version with Kelly Clarkson’s original vocals on it. So I messed around with Clarkson’s vocals and came up with an interesting, but by all accounts annoying (the vocals are way pitched-up) mix, in addition to a dub/instrumental version. Give ‘em both a listen above.
Here’s another in our continuing series of summertime ‘08 mixes to bump at your next sublime experience.
I had been noticing DJ Intel’s name on flyers all over Chicago recently, but hadn’t had a chance to hear what he was up to until we rocked a party together a few weeks ago. His set was so dope! This mix is also dope; kind of epic in fact! It’s not about beat-matching and blends per se, but instead about moods and magic:
Kid Kameleon
A beat strategist and technology enthusiast who blends, chops, restructures and generally smashes rhythms from across the sonic spectrum. From breakcore and ragga-jungle to dubstep and grime, with stops along the way at B-More, dub, dancehall, hip-hop, DnB, electro and the straight up unclassifiable, he’s a champion of underground sounds and outsider music. The Kid has dropped his fast-paced, eclectic style at parties from California to Estonia, sharing stages with the likes of Kool Herc, U-Roy, DJ Spooky, Asian Dub Foundation, Alec Empire, Squarepusher, The Bug, Vex’d and The Plastician, and many more. A blogger ( kidkameleon.com, riddimmethod.net, and localoaf.org), he also writes a monthly column called Basic Needs for XLR8R magazine covering “Low End Necessities from Ragga to Dubstep and beyond”.
Ripley
Ragamuffin Dubwrecker. “rootical rally-cry uproar, rythmic danger in overdrive.” “lifesaving whirlwind mistress of sonic devastation with hot sauce.”
Summer’s just about here and that means it’s time for a sweet, waist-winding dancehall mix. Montreal’s DJ Ghostbeard (AKA Jeff Waye, the guy who runs Ninja Tune’s North American office) just happened to drop such a mix on me recently and I feel it’s only right to share.
Ghostbeard’s like the only dude in the world who doesn’t have a Myspace page (at least that I can find) but this article sheds a small amount of light on the shadowy character. Anyway, it’s probably best to let the mix speak for itself:
Let me begin by saying that I’m not trying to make Obama look bad here, in fact I hope with every fiber of my body that he becomes our next president, but I want to share with you an observation I made recently.
I was watching the video for Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up on YouTube (I don’t know, I think I got Rickrolled) and I noticed that the way he was dancing looked familiar, and then I realized; Obama dances like Rick Astley!
Just check out that arm shake in the beginning of this video:
And then in this one. In fact watch them together:
Some of you might have noticed that the Mashit MP3 Shop went down for a minute there. If you recently tried to come buy stuff and saw absolutely nothing, it wasn’t ’cause we closed up. We were just having some tech issues, but we’re back up and running full steam ahead now. Our apologies for any inconvenience.
Wicked ragga vocalist Zulu comes together with dance-floor dominator DJ C to activate a next level blend of dancehall, dubstep, club and all around party music.
The album also features Montreal bounce-maestro, and Ninja Tune recording artist Ghislain Poirier’s remix of Darling, along with a slammin’ juke version of Body Work by Chrissy Murderbot of Chicago’s Sleazetone records. In addition, Freestyle Fellowship founder Aceyalone, and dancehall deejay Jah Orah provide guest vocals on the album. And topping the whole package off is the brilliant cover illustration by Bartek Karas.
[The album is] a heavy slap of blazing ragga bashment - Zulu’s Panamanian lyrical flow is very much to the fore, with the eagle-eared amongst us spotting both some new DJ C rhythms and a couple of gems unearthed from the vaults and given a shiny new rub. It’s fast, mean and easy, and a guaranteed fire-starter - throw in remixes from Ghislain Poirier and Chrissy Murderbot and it’s an undeniably solid package. - Fat Planet
Previews
Exhibition Virtues (Hardcore Tonight Remix)
Dear John
Gods & Robots
Soundgun Emergency (DJ C Mix, ft. Aceyalone & Jah Orah)
BOUNCEMENT: David Last & MC Zulu rcrd rls prty! + Chris Widman, DJ C. Tonight in Chicago. Gorgeous out. Time to dance! http://ow.ly/fWryTwitter ->2009/06/26
MJ remix from the vaults #2: DJ C Ft. Jackson 5, Steven Marley, Naughty By Nature "The ABC Traffic Jam" MP3 Link: http://ow.ly/fW1aTwitter ->2009/06/26
MJ Inspired remix from the vaults: DJ C "Billy Jungle" ft. Shinehead. MP3 link: http://ow.ly/fUTETwitter ->2009/06/26
Now who owns the Beatles publishing rights? Twitter ->2009/06/26
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