Peace Out Google

While I never received any DMCA notices due to this blog being pretty off the radar, I imagine they would come soon. I lean more towards the side of anti-copyright and don't feel like getting into any legal issues with huge corporations whatsoever. While I don't think all blogs follow this pattern, (and we have all stolen plenty of music from the ones that upload full albums, discographies, ect) my intentions have always been to spread music and discuss it with like-minded heads and to link up, trade, and take over the world. Most of what I've posted is out of print, hard to find, or from the artists/labels. There are plenty of others who have the same intentions and this is the healthiest thing that could happen to music in the age of the internet. Unfortunately Google doesn't realize this, and it's time to move on. I thank all of my readers and listeners, and hope that you will still continue to follow this blog at another location.

Please update your links, RSS feeds, and bookmarks to the new location http://davequam.wordpress.com/

Still working on making it look better, although this site was never pretty. All posts and mp3s have been moved over to Wordpress and I hope to get all of my links moved over and functioning by the end of the weekend. Sorry for the inconvenience, but expect big things in the very new future!

-DAVE QUAM

Bubbling Cause Trouble

Cola Y Su Grupo Di Tambu - Mi Moreno (from Musica Crioyo di Corsow)

The first Afro-Curacaoan song and dance is of as much importance to bubbling's creation as turntables and raggamuffin. DJs such as Moortje cite tambu as the backbone of the rhythm, though it differs from reggaeton's Dem Bow. The music can be both secular or religious, and went on to become a huge part of the island's culture after the abolition of Dutch slavery. Much like the fuss going on in the Netherlands in the 90s, its sound was influenced by other Caribbean music and there are actually other forms of tambu elsewhere in places where "Marooned" communities existed (or still exist). I have documents from Jamaica, Trinidad, and the other ABC Islands that prove this, but your are most likely to still hear tambu to this day at celebrations in Willemstad. I didn't immediately hear the connection between the two, but upon matching the tempos you can clearly tell how embedded it is. Unfortunately the recording industry isn't really pressed to document this stuff, and there isn't even much in the grant money pimpin' libraries of Smithsonian Folkways, Ocora ect. Luckily there are some nice record collectors out there that like to share their finds with us, one of which was nice enough to rip these amazing Cola y Su Grupo tracks. There is actually a fair amount of videos on Youtube as well.

A very in depth article on tambu can be found here, with all the information you might ever need.

In This Bitch

De Schuurman ft Jandro - Nu Ga je Danse

Trance bubbling in under three minutes from one of my favorite underage DJs in the Netherlands. I'm gonna go ahead and side with this stuff over most "Dutch house". What can I say, I love these drums, and this is still as ravey as Moombah but way scarier.

320 for all you DJ dorks too.

Father of Footwork

RP Boo - The Isleys

RP Boo was basically the godfather of footwork as a genre of music, taking juke from a 4-on-the-floor house pattern to the bent bass that not only changed the sound forever, but I'm sure changed dancing as well. One of his pivotal moments was when he butchered the pitch of a now deceased Wu Tang member's voice into an even more staggering utterance on Baby Come On and invented what most people think is a Nateism. Truth is Nate was in like kindergarten at the time and due to pre-Youtube era most people outside of Chicago don't know much, if anything about RP. He was also part of House - O - Matics along with several other DJs back in the mid 90s, one of the OG footwork crews. Never really receiving the credit he is due, it is essential that he be included on this blog.

Battle Groundz

I'm psyched to see that these videos are making their rounds on the interwebs. Battle Groundz is a great community of footworkers, DJs, and friends that do the damn thing regardless of struggle for a permanent space. Some of the best dancers in the city can be found "there", media coverage or not, and the spirit of competition meshing with kids just hanging out defines what goes on. Luckily my homie Neema tapes these on the regular, and has thrown a bunch of mind blowing videos up on youtube which you can see here. If you think this culture is dead in Chicago it's most likely because your showing up at Smart Bar expecting NOT to hear the same mixes people make for the internet. You can chalk some of that that up to the extraordinary segregation that on takes place in this city, but your still kind of lazy.

Special Dance

Young Ace ft Lon Don - Juke N Pimp 2005

There's a certain single that's popular with the Kid Cudi crowd right now that may or may not have taken a few hints from this popular street single from five years ago. Maybe the group I'm talking about never even heard this, but as hard as they rep Chicago it would be questionable if they hadn't. Make judgments of authenticity on your own time, but simply put I would much rather listen to this on any given day. I'm not really a purist but the process of making juke "accessible" hasn't really worked out so well to these ears. Baltimore club's range of popularity makes sense because of its tempo, but why is it that whenever somebody tries to make an "internet hit" out of this stuff it results in something that sounds completely sucked dry of the energy that permeates the local phenomenon? Can we at least get a Watagatapitusberry? I sense the force in plenty of European records, but a few miles from it's birthplace it completely misses the point. The genre is by no means dead locally or elsewhere (rather the opposite), but a lot of the wrong people are at the forefront of it's success, and seem interchangeable with any other localized "ghetto genre". If it were D.C. you likely hear them talking about go go and so on. I guess kids just can't seem to shake backpack rap for whatever reason.

Trying hard not to call anybody out...just saying.

Before There Were Whores

Farley Jackmaster Funk - Jack The Dick (S.M.M.F.D.) (from Jack The Bass 12" 1985)

There are definitely records on Trax that I would rather listen to, but for historical purposes here is the first ghetto house track ever. Well sort of, the first house track I know of that curses at least, predating Whores in This House and such by almost 10 years. While a lot of DJs cite early records like this as an inspiration to express naughty language, guys aren't so excited about being able to say "bitch" on tracks anymore. One individual even mentioned subconsciously stopping this practice to some degree. I think that's enough proof that it's not just "mindless club music" as I've seen it referred to, and the strong experimental nature involved is a lot more risky in the booth than bedroom genres often labeled "conscious".

Juke This

DOWNLOAD

Shanty Tech Ceremonies

Samo Sound Boy - The Bandit (from The Bandit EP 2010)

Begging for a late pass on this monster, and what the fuck is in the water out in L.A. these days? Or rather, what the fuck are they blowing on out there? I think the California supply got tainted by an error in the space program because the smoke clouds are ultraviolet. This brings together the three elements of successful music to me. Weird, banging, and beautiful and it can't make up it's own damn mind. Like a shortwave recording of all the best stations at once. The Bandit EP brings precision splicing on the world heat club DNA: gold teeth picking up the signal on some vacant, glassed-in mesa, sound systems spilling drinks, gargling sirens, tentacle couture. I fully agree.

Se Me Mimi Meme

Flexman - Dill Dill Dill

Limb By Limb is one of the staple dancehall tracks of early bubbling along with anything on the Bam Bam, Murder She Wrote, or Fever Pitch riddims. It's shown up on like every 90s mixtape I've heard and the words Dill Dill Dill are littered throughout battle tracks. It chops up so nicely, almost tailor-made for the genre. I guess Cutty came through to a DJ Moortje show in Rotterdam back in the day only to get mad at the DJ for playing his song too fast. Pitching things up can be risky territory so it's understandable, but this is still a classic. If your not an audiophile this is a good transition from dancehall chunes to getting the dance floor weird, but unfortunately for those of you who are I only have this at a lower bit rate. Since it's such a straight forward remix it really wouldn't be too complicated to make your own version anyways.

Proto-House Vol 1

Frankie Knuckles - Live @ The Warehouse 1977

I don't really see the point in posting much old house or disco since you can find that elsewhere, but I'm a huge Chicago history buff. I also love hearing early DJ sets, and this one sits between the time when the dancefloor had to wait between songs and variable pitch control. This gives a good idea of what went down at the Warehouse during the house music boiling pot era, and if you feel like your still missing out put a bunch of streamers up in your apartment and snort some blow. The club was located at 206 S Jefferson St, which was considered the South Side in 1977. Now occupied by office space in Oprah's West Loop, reminding me of a lot of other inner city boundary lines being pushed outward much like Harlem and elsewhere.

La Nouvelle Danse

Dakar Gucci - Instru Logobi Zinzin 2009

In light of Spoek showing us that African kids in France have the craziest hair, here's some Logobi that sounds like an amusement park ride.

And rest in peace Guru.

5:00 AM Music

Margot Hotus Salinas - E Tu'u Maheke te Ariki Nui (from Akave Heke: Holy Music from the Easter Island 1999)

I have this stupid obsession of collecting music from small islands with sparse populations that might be the case of lame exoticism or obscurity fetishism that I just can't help. Being a poorly traveled city person I think it's hard not to be interested in these places, and there are incredibly beautiful things going on in these parts of the world. Which is why I was psyched to find something from a place that's mysterious on its own. I put this one on for the first time while pulling all-nighter after my ears were shot from too much bass, generally the perfect time for something like this. Music from far off Archipelagos tends to be the perfect to watch the sun come out. The best moment to be absolutely floored by music.

I hear that modern music there is a hybrid of folk from the island and sounds from Chile. If anybody has some of that, holler at me.

Cyberiname

Sabakoe - So so da gwe (from Internet 2002)

Not really getting the concept of this kaseko band calling their album Internet. Generally I'm a lot more drawn towards other forms of music from Suriname, and tend to skip most heavy-jazz influenced genres out there but these guys are great. All of their album covers are as weird as this one too. It's not a bubbling club remix, but it sure is a nice warm weather tune.

Footwork Flicks

I took some shots of the Sunday night Battlegroundz crew that you can check out on my flickr "Footwork" set. It translates pretty poorly to photos, but I tried. Not having a good flash doesn't make it much easier either. Keep checking it for more attempts in the future.

Suriname In Ebony

Buku, a huge archive of books, articles, photographs, and paintings that relate to the history of Suriname has made it impossible for me to get anything done lately. The above is a 1967 issue of Ebony about the racial diversity of the country that remains even after half the population moved to the Netherlands soon after 1975.

"Why come here for a story?" queried the sixth 'Black Dutchman' I met.
"Isn't Suriname a multiracial country?" I asked. Don't all of the people live together in harmony?" "Yes."

"Wouldn't you call that unique in a world torn by racial strife?"
"Perhaps so," mused the man who takes his way of life for granted.
Forty-five of the next 50 people I interviewed agreed that they live in a peaceful coexistence under a flag made up of five stars representing the five races of mankind; that in Suriname, East meets West and the twain is an elliptical orbit on the flag joining the stars together. The dissenting five are not so sure. With the coming election, Surinam's racial paradise is threatened by a power struggle between the two dominant groups: the Creoles, mixed blood (no matter how dark) descendants of African slaves who head that bauxite-rich nation, and Hindustanis, the east Indian descendants of contract laborers who have passed the Creoles economically, are catching up with them educationally and overtaking them numerically.

Read the full article here.

(Found via Afro-Europe)

...And Jump

DJ Daycard - Hole Up And Jump

Lift Up Yuh Leg And Trample on the Mars Antilles.

Wooo

DJ Pat Man - Wooo

Strangely enough, I have about 5 footwork tracks with the same title, all of which use a different sample but sound almost the same. Similarly looking into phonetics like the broad range of there's some ____ in this house, if you see em point em out, or When/my ____ , I______, __ ___ ___ and get excited, and other patterns in the ghetto house spectrum. Except with naivety of composition that results in the playful nature some of us tend to lean towards. If you liked the Killa E track I posted before, this is lush like the kind of sounds that get shoegazer bands wet.

Turn Up The Bass (pt 2)

Silvio Ecomo & DJ Chuckie - Moobah (Afrojack remix) (Starfoxxx juke remix 2010)

A remix of a remix of that Dutch house track that's been getting a lot of attention lately, this time around by Chicago's own Starfoxxx. The degrees of separation between music are disappearing faster than I ever thought imaginable. I joked about dreams of kids in Suriname making juke a few months back, but that Anti-G track I posted made that one pretty much come true. And on the opposite end we have this. The only thing is that club promoters and drunk dance patrons basically gave up here, so don't expect it to be played locally. However it's already been spun by France's Booty Call Crew, so kudos to all you out in Europe once again.

Jitterbugs

The roots of footwork go back to the early 1900s in Detroit and Chicago, but obviously you can go on forever connecting the dots back the beginning of time. However, it's probably more interesting to take it one step at a time because while I like to believe music is all caveman grunts in the end, that label cloud on the right makes it hard to back up my theory. We are lucky to have some video proof of the existence of older dance crews available to us, this particular individual being Freaky Will who was important to the new wave of footwork dating back to the late 80s jit scene that rode the ghettotech wave.

For a deeper reading into Detroit history, go here.

I'm Ready

DJ Assault - I'm Ready vs Footwork (from Straight Up Detroit Shit vol 4 2000)

Don't be fooled because this isn't exactly straight up Detroit shit. This is straight up classic italo matched to Waxmasters footwork anthem, possibly requiring more than just sliding up the pitch control. Back before laptops but during the rise of ghettotech it's rumored that DJs would actually break open their Technics and solder in more powerful potentiometers to speed slower records up faster than the turntables could handle. I believe I even heard a story about somebody using a power drill to get the plates to spin faster or something ridiculous, but I can't seem to find my sources at the moment. In general these Assault mixtapes are good, with lots of surprises such as this one. I can't help but think about old Jeff Mills sets, done a bit faster.

Chicago Tribal

DJ Ken - Sept 2006 Chicago Latino Festival Set

An old tribal set from the annual Latino Music Festival. I don't know who this DJ Ken fellow is, but I definitely want to know more about this stuff being played in Chicago. My experience with that is limited to hearing some blaring out of cars but that is all. While I don't imagine it's that big a deal here, I imagine I'm probably just not invited to the right raves. This mix isn't exactly mind blowing, but I don't think tribal house in any format really is to begin with. It certainly can be (hi DJ Mouse), but I think in most cases it's just a lot of fun. This is for those that want to hear what was going on almost half a decade ago with Latin tribal, which from what this example shows was pretty different than what's happening in Monterrey, ect today.

Tracklist:

01 - George kranz - Din daa daa
02 - DJ Dero - Electrica Salsa
03 - DJ Javier Bazan - Tumba y Marimba
04 - Joy Marquez - Mexican Raices (Tribal Dark Mix - b1)
05 - Daddy Yanke - Limpia Parabrisas (Dj Javier Dee Remix Version 2.0)
06 - Dj Javier Dee Feat Barbie - Te Kiero (ricardo reyna rmx + Jakal)
07 - Match and Daddy - Pasame la botella - Dj Tribo Caliente Tribal Mix
08 - La tumba babata ( remix )
09 - Javier Morales v.S DJ Topo - Wara Wepa - Culebritika
10 - Acapulco tropical - Cangrejito playero
11 - DJ Lucho presents La Cubanita - Toca Me
12 - The Rumbar - Tocasamba (Kortezman Extended Mix)
13 - DJ Ninote Y 1260 Boys - El Ritmo De La Matraca
14 - DJ Sobrino - Tamales OaxaqueÒos_Tribal Mx
15 - La Montze - Guitarrero 2006 ( Dj Tribo Electro Tribal Mix)
16 - Global Deejays - The Sound Of San Francisco (Clubhouse Extended Mix)
17 - Dj sobrino - La Marimba_klubb tribal remix liquid beat
18 - Dj Javier Dee Feat Barbie - Te Kiero (ricardo reyna rmx + Jakal)
19 - DJ Sobrino - Banda El Recodo - Pena Tras Pena (Rmx Tribal Mix 3)
20 - DJ Antena - La Danza De Los Monjes (Remix Mark Alvarado 2006)
21 - DJ Sobrino - Step duranguense_tribal mix
22 - DJ Sobrino - Arboles de la Barranca

Major Taser

Anti-G - Full Up 2008

This dude did EVERYTHING wrong. He's like the Antichrist of Dutch House. Fuck your rave music for a moment and sink into this sinister son of a bitch the same way you would a Wiley beat and clap along like your in Chicago. It's unfortunately hard to come across much in the vein of ghetto bubbeling grime house but this is the centerpiece of it. I have a bit of trouble believing this is over two years old, because it fits right in with 2011. No lasers, just smoke machines and dance floor beat downs that end in somebody getting shanked with a broken bottle.

Juke This

DOWNLOAD (datpiff link)

Originally, this was going to be part of the "Weird Mixtapes" focus, not due to the sounds it contains but due to the fact that it's really the only juke tape on Datpiff. The only one worth hearing at least and believe me, it's well worth hearing.

Beatz is a rapidly upcoming producer from Englewood and this tape is sort of like the demo version of his actual Juke That vol 1 mixtape dropping on the 23rd of this month. Instead of picking a side, he's taken the club aspect of juke and brought it up at a footworkers anonymous meeting. Ass poppin with adrenaline levels off the charts. A few words from the man himself:

"WHAT GOOD CHICAGO.....IM GOING TO TAKE JUKE ,FOOTWORK ,AND HOUSE MUSIC TO THE NEXT LEVEL!!! MAINSTREAM!!! ITS UP TO US (DJ FROM CHICAGO) TO KEEP JUKE,FOOTWORK,HOUSE MUSIC ALIVE FOR THE NEXT GEN... IN CHICAGO AND THAT'S COMING UP IN THE WORLD!!!! TO MY LADIES(SEXY SEXY LADIES).. 2 THINGS WHEN U SEE ME GIVE .....ME A HUG!!!!! AND TO THE TIME I WANT TO SEE U POP THEM BOOTIES...JUKE THAT VOL 1!!!!! IS FULL OF BANGERS....OLD AND NEW JUKE,,FOOTWORK MADE BY YOURS TRUELY ALL ON 1 CD...(MIXTAPE PARTY DATE AND LOCATION WILL BE ANNOUNCED).. TO THE TIME IM HAPPY THAT I WAS BIRTHED IN CHICAGO ... WHICH IM ABLE TO MAKE THIS TYPE OF MUSIC!!!! CHICAGO IS NEXT UP!!!!!

Preview his upcoming tape here.

Slackk - Eski House Mix

DOWNLOAD (archive.org link)

Fantastic mix detailing Wiley synth stabs making babies with Caribbean drumming, conceived to the sweet tones of Ginuwine. I've never been able to keep up with England, the place where music nerds actually seem to be the same people that actually care. It's really exciting to me how much bubbling exists within, for it makes my obsession with it feel like one that actually might be relevant after all.

Another bomb dropped on me by the club terrorists over at Lower End Spasm.

Genealogy of Cuban Music

Click picture to enlarge. I must do one of these for Chicago now.

Teachers

Now for the record, Daft Punk sort of drive me up the walls. Not their own music, but the millions of annoying kids that find it necessary to pretend to be them. As a group who has had utmost respect for their own musical influences, a lot of their fans seem to have almost no respect and in general are the equivalent of a Grateful Dead cover band in terms of music I give a shit about. I'm naming no names, and no disrespect towards Ed Banger. Now enough of my rant, because this post is about my favorite gesture Daft Punk ever made.

Teachers was directly modeled after shout out tracks that hold the last spot on the b-side to many ghetto house records, especially those on Dance Mania. Instead of naming off the various neighborhoods or fellow DJs in Chicago, they put together their own calling to their influences from the Windy City with intentions to reach out to their mentors. The existence of their homage triggered some attention to stir up across the Atlantic that you might recall reading from my talk with DJ Slugo last spring. "People kept telling us 'ya'll on this record teachers'. I was like we some neighborhood cats we don't know what no damn teachers is". Funny enough during our afternoon together someone in the room even referred to him as 'Slewgo', mocking the mispronunciation of his name that the Frenchies made. Daft Punk got in contact with Ray Barney and had lunch when they came to town with Slugo and Deeon, and on their return home put out their paean to the work of local legends. They put their own style into the same context that shout out tracks were originally done in the city of their heroes, and the results caused smiles out here and over there.

"Still to this day people are like, 'How did ya’ll get that shout out on that record?' We didn’t get them to do that shit; they did that shit on their own. I love them because they respected us for what we’ve done. When they came to Chicago they saw what we were making our tracks on and they were trippin’ like, 'Are you serious? Ya’ll are making those records on this stuff?' We ain’t got those big ass studios and all that shit."

-DJ Slugo, Sept 2008 Demencha interview.

In My Lamborghini

Z Factor - Fast Cars 1983

Beat Electric dropped some serious Chicago history yesterday, and that was this lovely little gem that even predates On & On, the record that many claim to be the first true house record. Jesse Saunders is known throughout the world for his many accomplishments, but Mayor Daley never gave him Dance Mania Founders Day as a holiday like he did Jesse Saunders and the Pioneers of House Music Day (July 17th). Pretty shocking that the later really happened ether, but talking out about Illinois government could get my internet shut off.

A Year of Mixtapes

I've been meaning to say something about this great project put together by Chicago's own Chrissy Murderbot, and the recent juke edition of the series reminded me to do so. A genre-specific mix every week for a year, compiling the tracks that made them tick in the first place. Often dealing with very foreign subjects to most, things you might not think you'd be interested in at all. He saves you the trouble of putting any effort into exploring scary territories like happy hardcore, Quebecois disco, and other stuff that might even be cringe inducing. Every volume is put together with care and obsession, no matter what the theme of the week might be. A wonderful observation of dance music that takes more than just a huge music collection, but self discipline as well.

Trip The Fuck Out

El General - Te Ves Buena (DJ Nano Batuque Remix) 2009

I made my neighbor "trip the fuck out" the other night after playing him a bunch of older dancehall and reggaeton from the stash that made him reminisce about 15 years back when El General came to Chicago. He assumed that dude "turned into a fuckin' crackhead" but last I heard he was reading the bible. Coincidentally I found this great remix of my favorite track of his the same night. Your ass is likely to fall off shaking it in speed with this one.

Drumbalaya

Top Cat - Molten Metal (From Red Zone 12" 1997)
Top Cat - Drumbalaya (from Red Zone 12" 1997)

Right off the bat I'd like to apologize for how poor the quality is on this rip, it's one I haven't been able to obtain physically yet and I don't want to pay 50$ for it on Ebay. The amount of money I make selling vinyl outweighs the amount I spend these days, not because I want to but because food is a basic need for survival. Personally I'd rather be able to hear these old Dance Mania 12"s in any form than wait for them to be put into "print" again. The later of which will most likely never happen if they aren't Deeon, Slugo, or Funk records.

Top Cat remains a mystery to me. Discogs links him to Patrick Prins, a Dutch producer who released a bunch of stuff in the 90s which I doubt is correct. Especially considering there are no records in Dance Mania's core catalog that aren't made by Chicagoans. Not that I know of at least, even Detroit is absent maybe due to Assault's Fuckadancemania. Plenty of the roster appears on European labels but there was no room for outsiders even within the span of almost 300 12"s. What a bunch of snobs! This release contains some great skeletal snare heavy ghetto house tracks (Drumbalaya) and congested synths (Molten Metal) that look good stacked up against some of the weirder, exploratory records released during this era. My favorite ones, that is.

Oohhhhooooohhhohohhhoooaaaaaaaaoohhh

DJ Killa E - Track 6

Melodramatic dreamy footwork at its best, almost shoegaze romanticism. Reflections of high school daze and even a bit of a downer. Not so danceable, this is some loner shit.

As I mentioned on Twitter after a few beers, I have hundreds of footwork tracks that I've found throughout the last year or so rummaging through weird websites and ripping iMeem and Youtube videos, as well as some mixtapes. I'd like to share them, for that's the reason I started this blog in the first place. Communication and taking advantage of technology when used right creates good musical dialog. Living in the same city as these kids gives you the chance to see kids on the streets and at showcases busting moves, but age barriers and neighborhood squabbles can prevent contact. These kids are less interested in being part of some "study" and more interested at this point of their lives in being broadcast on local radio, making some money, and well, dancing. You can watch Walacam videos and see how obvious it is that they don't need blogs to promote themselves, they have the media in their own hands. Not to say I haven't been trying, and have been a bit more successful lately now that the kids are getting older and have moved on from Myspace to Facebook. An underground that still exists with the internet that still remains fully physical.

Zouglou Dance

Magic System - Zouglou Dance (DJ Honaldo Extended Mix)

I don't have a huge understanding of Ivorian music yet, but if there's one thing I do know it's that in terms of popular music this track was important. Honaldo's version is ready to go off in the club, with no disrespect for the original. Really housey with Magic Systems intentions still intact.

Coming 2020

My new hobby is making fake dream book covers.

Chicago Tomorrow (Sat March 27th)

If your in Chicago and can make it, head down to East Pilsen tomorrow for food, art selling, music, and beer. The art fair and food goes from 1-7pm, music starts sometime after that. I'll be DJing in between the first and second bands probably around 9. I'll be playing It's After the End of the World stuff, so it will probably start slow with some Cumbia but might reach speeds up to 160 BPMs towards the end. We will see what I can get away with. I wanna play some Normal Nada but I dunno. Come get drunk with yer boy! Should be a lot of fun.

1816 S Racine.

Nederreggeton

It's often hard to find something so lyrically driven as hip-hop interesting when you don't speak the language, but Immorales found solutions. Comprised of six rappers and producers part of the Dutch Antilles diaspora who's music could be accurately described as Nederreggaeton, they are by all means unashamed of where they come from and you could say they "put it on for their cities". Performances taking place during frequent trips to Curacao on family visits are spoken in Papiamento, while the Netherlands rap game is Dutch. Their love for reggaeton results in songs sung in Spanish as "Los Immorales" when the audience is right, in part due to member I $ Ki's maternal Venezuelan roots. Talk about reading the crowd, these guys will speak to you in your mother tongue and even change their name to make you feel comfortable. Similar to the K-Liber bubbling in a rub-a-dub style philosophy, these guys pull together all aspects of culture within their scattered diaspora to form a comprehensible international hip-hop group. "People here can not relate to this music because they have not grown up with it" says member Pimpi, but we know that this is nether fact or fiction around these parts.

Read an article about them here if you can speak Dutch or use Google Translator.

Yall Ain't Got No Basics

You won't learn how to make demonic loop music pulled from shitty TV pop, but this video gives you the idea of basics, the fundamentals of footwork. Dude is apologetic about the dog barking the whole time too. So start working on your Mike & Ikes and Tom & Jerrys.

Musik Rasin

I still worry about Haiti everyday, and continue to dig through it's rich musical culture frequently. I've been reading Rara! Vodou, Power, and Performance in Haiti and Its Diaspora albeit kind of slowly and have been envisioning the existence of some kind of Vasken horn Juke hybrid along with NA from NGUZUNGUZU. I lack electronic music in my collection, but I usually like to start from the root anyways (you think I jumped on Kwaito and Kuduro without a healthy dose of Folkways, Ocora, and Fela Kuti? Hell no). One genre which I've been on the hunt for lately is Muzik Rasin, something that I've had a little trouble finding much of aside from the vast databases of Youtube videos. To put it in perspective, there are common elements sonically between Rara and Rasin, but Rara is a Lenten celebration that happens after Carnival, and continues until Easter Sunday or Monday. Rasin isn't so much traditional Vodou music, but rather a product of popular music from the states and the Caribbean meshing with political uprise. It's a bit more spacious, less chaotic on the horns tip, and shouldn't be confused with it's counterpart. Rasin stems from the 70s Duvalier dictatorship, with elements of protest and Bob Marleyesque black power "Hippiedom". Rasin means "root" in the local language, so you get the idea. It's a bit like Haiti's equivalent to Highlife, incorporating the likes of Disco, Funk, and Reggae with Vodou practice. Very popular during Carnival, and has enjoyed some commercial success thanks to bands like Boukman Eksperyans.

Don't bother clicking the link above for video, I just felt I had to pause this insane video. Watch it here. And as a bonus, here is a nice Rasin tune from Haitian pop star Carole Demesmin.

Carole Demesmin - Musik Rasin (I don't know if this is actually the right title...it probably isn't, sorry!)

Girl Unity

DOWNLOAD

"Fantasy cotton candy synths on a downhill slope leading right into the mouth of a beast traveling at one-hundred and sixty BPMs" would be my description if I was stoned with Byron Coley right now. Since I'm not, and this caters towards the club and not the acid casualties crowd I'll settle by advising you to use the track list as a road map from London to Chicago. This mix makes me happy because it proves that the US and Europe should be working together more closely to create transatlantic genres than it has lately. And I'm not talking about anybody aping anybodies style, I'm talking about making music that has no central location but existing in a space that stretches thousands of miles and isn't just the internet.

Via Palms Out

And The Kassav Song Was On

Oh man, I wish this was the Ce'cile version instead, but there is something about hearing gun shots over this that's sort of amazing. Miley claims to have never even heard a Jay-Z song before, I wonder what she'd think about this. She'd probably kill herself.

Whos Down?

???????????

Killing Yourself To Live

Traxxman - Is He Live Or Dead (Black Sabbath Footwork remix)

This one is to be used for fun ONLY. I would have preferred Sweet Leaf, especially if there was a lot emphasis on the coughing from the beginning.

Gyals, Gyals, Gyals

Gyptian - Hold Yuh 2010

All my favorite Dancehall tracks in the past year seem to have two things in common, one being that they all have YUH in the title, the other being that they are all totally wussy. In the best way though. Hell a lot of my favorite Reggae songs from the past are too, falsettos or not. We can't be Gaza thugs all day, and the bedroom is supposed to be as important as the club. Or the Couch, or inna the road, or under di garage, or under di tree...

Via The Heatwave, with whom I share the opinion that both Busy Jafrican Riddim tracks are the best Jamaican exports in the world right now.

Born By The River...

Tha Pope - Everybody Bob (from The King of Bob)

Everybody in the city knows this guy. He's the self-proclaimed "Youngest Celebrity" in Chicago and even has a shoe deal with K Swiss. Probably more famous locally than DJ Nate, but less so on the internet stalker tip. Still, outsiders might have seen his Lion King or Sam Cooke footwork tracks via Youtube, and hopefully you caught the Bob That Back Down brazenly Merengue remix I posted last year. I don't own a pair of roller skates, but he is a big deal at the rink down on 82nd street too and makes girls scream like the fantastic four in a roomful of preteens. Dude's a player that happens to make Footwork tracks, usually sounding a bit less angry at the world but dope nonetheless. Unfortunately this track is a real short snippet from a mix tape from a few years ago, but with a bit of editing it could work well as a transitional track into a maelstrom of tom toms. Don't yell at me if that gets you in trouble though, as dance patrons tend to have weak ankles.

Oh yeah, he's probably the only musician on this site that hails from the north side (he's from Rodgers Park aka "The North Pole" aka 60626 aka too far for me to spend much time in) rather than the south or west sides, which I find kind of funny. I could be wrong though, as there's a chance I shared some Curtis Mayfield once.

Like April and May

I'm not really championing this new Juve track as being something great, but there are some nice benefits to the video. Namely the Mardi Gras Indians/Jazz Funeral band, his absurdly shiny fake diamond t-shirt, and the fact that he's holding what looks like a King Cobra 40oz in one shot. My broke-ass poison of choice. Dude is on some serious grown man shit in a few shots too, looking like Common or something. This one provided a little relief after watching the new Devandra Banhart video in which he has a newly aquired Zappa stache. Two of my least favorite people combined.

Normal My Ass

Normal Nada - Batida Afro (from Kuduro Kolekta 2009)

This one is just ridiculous, even for Normal standards. You might be familiar with his homegrown Kizomba rendered too awkward to fuck to, but this one takes Bubbling back to Africa with a few stops in Chicago and Portugal. He went TOO FAR. Very little evidence of Kuduro, don't be fooled. I have nothing else to say, words don't do it justice.

3/21/2010

Go to the Portage Theatre on the northside this Sunday for the footworkers and DJs awards. A great chance to check out some dancing, meet some of the local DJs, and hang out with a bunch of high school kids. It should be a lot of fun, doors open at 3pm, 12$ advance, 15$ at the door.

The Missing Link To The Missing Genre

DJ Deeon - Much Respect (from Funk City 12" 1994)

Deeon made a straight up Reggaeton beat on this really early 12" and I'm curious if the title is actually a nod to the Puerto Ricans on the north side of town. I don't imagine he got many requests for anything Dem Bow related back in the day, so I'm even more puzzled why this exists. It wouldn't captivate House fans and it wouldn't make it on Latin radio ether, so why the hell did he make it? I don't think we will ever find out, but it's nice to know that there is a precursor to the Violator Juke Squad presence at the Humboldt Park festival. Now I only wish that there was a more prevalent meeting between the two genres that resulted in something interesting, because I've sorta played this song out.

Who?

Nazarene Congregational Church Choir Of Brooklyn - Who'll Join This Union (from VA - How Can I Keep From Singing? vol 1 rec late 20s, released 1996)

Beautiful ghost howls from the grave and to the pulpit. A real scratchy one from the late 20s from a great compilation on Yazoo records. So much of my gospel collection is rather obvious and available but this one seems to have gone out of print, maybe a while ago. I guess I tend to enjoy the more possessed end of Jesus music where I question my own heathen self, but great things can happen when the human voice is the only weapon of prayer.

No Cocaine

Hard to believe this thing is 25 years old now. I think I remember having trouble breathing when I first heard it. Made me less afraid to dive into Dancehall at the time when I swore by The Heart of the Congos. I still do swear by that record (it's basically my favorite of all time, or something) but I also swear by Smith and Jammy trying to remake an Eddie Cochran song on a Casio. They failed pretty miserably at that, but I'm grateful for them paving the way for digital riddims a quarter of a century later. Happy birthday Sleng Teng Riddim.

(FYI the exact date that this tune was first dropped was February 23rd 1985 by Jammy at a soundclash on Waltham Park Road in Kingston. I just felt like giving it some love no matter how late I might be.)

Moombahton

Dave Nada Moombahton Edits

I'm into these. While the description of them doesn't seem to mention the word Bubbling, they definitely are about 70% "Dutch House" anyways. I'm psyched that somebody is having fun with pitch control like this 20 years later. Especially since it happened as a risk taken in the moment at a party almost the same way reggae accidentally got sped up. Sort of like the inside-out version of the Curacao variety. And I love this story:

I probably shouldn’t tell this story, but here goes. Lo ciento Tia Sona! My little cousin Jean-Pierre is a huge Nadastrom fan and he’s about to graduate from high school. Him and his boy Mike are notorious for throwing these wild skipping parties. For those that don’t know, “skipping parties” are when you throw a house party mid school day and you tell all your friends that morning, and everyone who knows about the party skips school to go wild out. Word of mouth only too, no internet/paper trail. Anyhow, around their homecoming last fall they asked if I could DJ one of their skipping parties, and I, being the supportive/bad seed cousin that I am, agreed. They had a beat up system, but like 329439 speakers all over Mike’s basement so it sounded huge. They told me it would last about an hour because cops usually bust it up. The house/neighborhood was right by the woods so it was convenient to bounce and hide if need be. Anyhow, so here we are at Mike’s empty house around 11:30AM and everything is set up. Kids start pouring in around noon and the music starts. Mike and JP are dropping bachata and moving into reggaeton. This shit was getting crazy. Twenty minutes in and the place is PACKED, all Latin kids and everyone is fuuuucked up. Haha! I was gettin mad nervous (oldest dude there) and JP was like, “Yo you gotta go on soon primo!” and I’m thinking, fuck I cant play house/techno shit, I’ll get jumped. So I had the idea of slowing down some of the tropical/Dutch house stuff I had on CDs. Afrojack’s “Moombah Remix” being the biggest tune, I said fuck it and turned that shit down to 108 bpm. JP told all his people about me so bamas started cheering when I went on. And that’s when shit popped the fuck off. The minute that T-t-t-t-turn up the bass! part came in and dropped the place went insane! I played it all the way til the end and then did the same to Sidney Samson’s “Riverside” and EVERYONE is yelling the “Riverside motherfucker!” part and shit was just too much. I was losin’ it and told myself, I need to make some edits of this shit! And thus, Moombahton was born. Long story short, neighbors complained a good 15 minutes into my set and threatened to call the cops. Half the party started to bounce and then a few minutes later Mike yells, “Cops on the way!” and like clockwork this party was done. All in about an hour. I parked down the street and drove both my cousin JP and Mike back to school so they could catch the end of their classes as if nothing ever happened.

Read more at the Fader.

My Missed Shit 2009 #1

So I had been making a list back in November to culminate my favorites of 2009, and after it was already February of the next year I kind of gave up. I regularly post stuff I like that is congruent to the year it comes out, so what's the point? When a magazine decides to start paying me I'll start making lists, but it's been years since I've made any nerdy "favorite albums ever" lists, and to be honest I find them totally fucking pointless. I flaunt my taste enough on this here website. That said, maybe I'll post some entries from that list, starting with this one.

Alan Lomax in Haiti 1935-1936 Box Set (Harte Recordings)

Alan Lomax spent a year in Haiti documenting the sounds of the island while him and his wife were on their honeymoon in the 1930s. Now, I don't know if it's standard practice to make field recordings while on a romantic getaway, but the time not spent between the sheets was put to good use, providing us with a pretty amazing collection of music from the western half of Hispaniola. These were made after the U.S. occupancy of almost twenty years, but before the Duvalier family took over which maybe provided a bit of a comfort zone to break out the microphones and the Bolex. A nice overview of Haiti in the moment that might be difficult to hear given the countries current situation. Very early Merengue when it was spelled Meringue, great recordings of Carnival, children's music and a lot more than I'm still making my way through. The packaging (yes, packaging!) is absolutely gorgeous, up there with the Albert Ayler box in terms of liner notes and all the fun extras. Maps, Lomax's field notebook, and film footage accompany over 10 hours of music. If you only hear one disc, I'd recommend Rara: Vodou in Motion which might be the one that rings truest today.

Come To Me

Lorna - Papito Ven A Mi ( DJ Da Dream Bubbling Rmx )

My choice of picture might not be so empowering to women, but I'd rather leave that discussion up to other people better at talking about such. I just think this track bangs, which is more my area. Those ravey Bubbling House synths work just as well with Dem Bow as they do Bam Bam it seems. Reggaeton remixes are anything but rare but this one is very successful.

Jukistory

DJ Clent, DJ Slugo, and a few other OG juke legends were kind enough to scan a few hundred old Chicago flyers, CD covers and colored cassettes for those of us who are geeky enough to want to look through them. I don't know how many people that is, but I'm one of them. This is a seriously important bit of Chicago history. My favorites are DJ Milton's mix CD that says "unauthorized duplication will get your ass beat", the Playground Productionz food drive, and the above. See them all here.

Be My Hero Be My Knight

Funky S Ft.Yuki Hsu - Ding Don (Bubbling Remix)

Taiwanese pop bubbling, ya dig.

Normal Nada

Normal Nada - Bumbulunhs Vs Kizomba Vs Funana (from Batidas Produzidas pelo Normal Nada 2 2008)
Normal Nada - Excel Funa (Funana de Boca) (from Funanas Produzidas pelo Normal Nada 2008)
Normal Nada - Funana XXX (from Funanas Produzidas pelo Normal Nada 2008)

The "normal" part of this wunderproducers name is a bit misleading when you compare his work side by side with most modern African dance music. I mean the guy can get away with making Funana without Accordions, uses pitch control not-unlike that of Chicago footworkers, and I think makes up his own genres. Normal Nada was brought to my attention by his collaborations with Duda, and it was a real treat to find out that not only is he a successful pop producer, but also sort of a total weirdo. The best combination, like a really far out DJ Nays. And what's even better is that he has TONS of free tracks and mixtapes of his own on his site, where he seems to bootleg porn as well. A true renaissance man by all means.

Nobody Likes A Quitter

Esclav - Go Ghetta 2010

While musically it's a totally different world than Go Go, the way bouyon bands emulate hip-hop isn't far off. The live synths and drum machines speaking the language of a cooped up producer dragged from his solidarity and into Carnival. This almost isn't even a cover, but often is the case that the hook is the only thing borrowed leaving the empty space open for discussion more closely related to the Caribbean. It's like Soca for the more outdoorsy types.

Botswana On Youtube

The videos this guy from Botswana has uploaded on Youtube (over 100 of them) must be seen. A huge collection of great homemade videos for lack of a better work a vlog of daily life in Botswana told through music. Mind-blowing guitar music, children marimba bands, hauntingly beautiful mbira solo performances. Dig deep, I've already sunk hours of time into watching them on repeat. I promise the mbira will become as frequent on this website as accordions.

Brazilian Mix #5: The Birthday MIx

Grisha's Brazilian Mix #5 (sendspace)

Well it's been more than a year since #4. About time, I say. It's not that birthday is a theme of this one, but my good friend Doron over in Chicago has a birthday today. I'm in Tel Aviv and mine is tomorrow. this is from two days ago, and it's specially for the occasion, and it's probably my favorite of the series so far, too. Enjoy.