mudd up!

My latest essay, on the slowed-down tempos of screw + its influence on contemporary bands, has been published in this month’s Frieze and is available online. It begins with DJ Screw and ends with interview observations from Romanian programmer Paul Nasca, responsible for the Bieber stretch algorithm.

Ten years ago this month, one of the great, lazy American geniuses died, at the age of 29, from drinking too much cough syrup. His name was Robert Earl Davis Jr., and I believe he stole the technique that made him famous from the Mexicans. . .

I am up to my ears in non-blog writing, which means that I haven’t had time to feed the internet with my buzzing thoughts on cumbia; nueva cumbia; Lacanian cumbia trolls; why nobody talks about Super Grupo Colombia even when they come to play a heavily promoted New York City show; the subgenres I keep noticing –  like ‘songs about being drunk in the morning’ and ‘songs about cumbia reaching cities like Philadelphia and Miami’; and much much more. For cumbia is nothing if not generous.

I have a folder containing tribal guarachero tunes that sample Hossam Ramzy and I have another one with the tribal remix + cumbia original done up as nice little pairs, and I will share these things, but before we get to that, we need to do our homework.

CUMBIA EN MONTERREY.   

This 2002 article, Cumbia Sobre El Rio: Celso Piña exports Monterrey’s new Cumbia Dub , goes deep. Required reading.

Here’s a high quality gift — a ‘Monterrey cumbia’ with a guy singing in English about the black man playing his drum. Songs like this were made for me. “The black man plays his drum and the women begin to shout / I want to dance la cumbia de Monterrey”

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Parranderos – Cumbia Monterrey

Los Reyes Vallenatos run things in Monterrey. This band played at the ArcoIris tribal party I covered in the Fader article (Erick Rincon pointed out that most of the bandmembers were in their teens!). Pablo Lescano and Damas Gratis have recorded with them as well. This cumbia gets a lot creepier if you live, like I do, a few blocks away from bars where these dollar dances happen.  

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Los Reyes Vallenatos – La Cosita

and the man himself, Celso Piña — given the slo-mo scraper remix, sonidero melt, CUMBIA POWER. Can’t turn it off!

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Celso Pina – Cumbia Poder (rebajada con guaracha)

Montreal’s Godspeed You! Black Emperor is back. And they’re kicking things off by curating the December 3–5 UK edition of All Tomorrow’s Parties. I’ll be DJing there, along with Parasite, Shitmat, and Awesome Tapes From Africa. Brooklyn, Bristol, Brighton, Brooklyn. Along with us DJs they invited many bands. The lineup is exciting. Not to mention heavy. 

In addition to visiting friends I haven’t seen in awhile, I’m looking forward — with equal parts anticipation and dread — to the singularly British ‘holiday centre’ experience. Which eloquent friend Joe Ruckus described to me as:

“1950s ‘holiday camps’ – a bit like army barracks on otherwise non-touristic seaside towns, they’re concrete townships of small chalets for self-contained entertainment… Call it a holiday – many do, unmasochistically at that.”

The GY!BE ATP is already super sold out, but they seem to periodically release small batches of tickets for sale.

I wouldn’t ordinarily post promotional videos from Warp Records. But Brian blows this “interview” out of the water. I’d say more but I’ve signed a nondisclosure agreement.

Via Geeta, who wrote the 33 1/3 series book on him. 

Ok. I’m in a flood-the-market mode right now.

Fader just upped my Luísa Maita “Lero Lero” remix. You can grab it here.

“The song stays sweet, he just kicks it along, quadrupling the drums, sneaking in garage bass wobble. You think it’s one thing then it reverbs out, guitars aren’t guitars anymore, chimes rain in and you burned the broccoli.

Luísa performs tonight at SOB’s in Manhattan. You can’t sleep on voices this gorgeous.

& this Monday’s radio show is streamable:

tracklist

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Throw the jam in the molasses, kid. If you love me, throw it in!

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Nicole Wray – Make It Hot (chopped & screwed)

Bury the guitar in the jam in the molasses, girl. Flow extra slow.

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Sade – Flow (chopped & screwed) 

A divergent and passionate take on Aaliyah’s “If Your Girl Only Knew,” from the United Kingdom, a country that once taxed our tea.

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Forest Swords – If Your Girl     It’s from the album/ep Dagger Paths. Except for the titles, it’s an excellent listen: well-produced minimal GGD-inflected Americana as manufactured in Liverpool. Plus or minus a Joy Division dubstep remix.

Luísa Maita comes from São Paulo. She sings with a magic voice. Her recent single ‘Lero Lero’ is “a deconstructed samba about two friends from a ghetto on the outskirts of São Paulo who have each other’s backs whenever trouble arises.” Generally speaking, I don’t like samba. But I love this. You can download it for free.

I reworked ‘Lero Lero’ for the Maita Remixed CD, out next week. It’s a pleasure to step inside songs which are so well-built to begin with. You can stream and pre-order the results.

Radio tonight! WFMU 91.1fm 7-8pm EST. I don’t actually DJ during my WFMU slot. But sometimes I do on other people’s: check this 20minute mix I just dropped on Tom Ravenscroft’s BBC show.

Then mark yr calendar-devices and alert yr social networks: next Monday, November 8th, I’ll be joined by guests Julianne Escobedo Shepherd and Dapwell (“the funniest Das Racist”). Brilliant writer and editor Julianne will be discussing her taste in current DANCE MUSIC & divas via special selection of tunes. As for Dapwell – call him the skeptic. Gonna be good! The October show with Victor and Himanshu of Das Racist was real nice…

Last Monday’s radio show: Monday October 25th – Rumors. A few Gregory Isaacs tribute songs, neo retro Peruvian chicha alongside vintage reissue Peruvian chicha, some ethereal Glasser, British people remixing each other, 16-ton cumbias rebajadas, and more…

Subscribe to the Mudd Up! podcast if you prefer downloadable versions, issued a week after FM broadcast: , Mudd Up! RSS. And don’t forget WFMU’s free iPhone app.

tracklist

Gregory Isaacs – Rumors
DJ Nate – Fade Da Black
Wiley – It’s Wiley
Gregory Isaacs - Gone A Jail (DJ C remix)
Los Chapillacs - La Cumbia Delincuencial
Chacalon y la Nueva Crema - A Trabajar
Rita Indiana y Los Misterios – Da Pa Lo Do
Mordant Music – Where Can You Scream?
Jamie Woon – Night Air (Ramadanman refix)
Los Vlamers – 16 Toneladas (rebajda)
Glasser – Home
Emsikta – autotune (Gulls edit)
Lamin Fofana – What Elijah Said
Glasser – Tremel
Orquesta Santa Martha – Amores de Mayo (rebajada)