Matt Shadetek has just announced his new album, ‘The Empire Never Ended’, coming to Dutty Artz very soon, and here’s the first cut he’s dropping as a taster with Brooklyn MC Troy Ave, whom he first heard guesting on Mr Muthafuckin’ eXquire’s mixtape. This one is a dark and melancholic track driven by deep synths, dissonant melodies and those rolling 808 snares. Buy the track here.
Chief Boima is deeply interested in African music as enjoyed by the people who created it and the context of its development. He travels to various countries there frequently and has helped artists bring their sound to the rest of the world. But as a producer and DJ himself, he often helps introduce that music to Western audiences by blending such distant styles with those more familiar to crowds in the Bay Area or Brooklyn. Hence “Decalator,” a Coupe Decale version of one of the most remixed tracks of all time, Cajmere‘s “Coffee Pot (It’s Time for the Percolator)“. He takes those bubbling synths and Chi Town sensibilities and draws parallels to the highly syncopated shuffle of the Ivorian beats. Coupe Decale was originally created by Ivorians in Paris, and then spread to Cote D’Ivoire, and subsequently to most of Francophone Africa. Maybe we’ll call this one “African in Chicago” since it comes along the same week Boima dropped his new EP for Brooklyn-based Dutty Artz, African In New York. Show some love and pick that up too.
Chief Boima – “Decalator” [Exclusive!]
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A series of drum sections on this track leapfrog one another with precision coordination, cascading along with an effortless flow. Built around a Funkyish rhythm, rolling hand drums bring a deep green coolness to the hard grey underpinnings of programmed exactness and pulsating circuitry. But a mood of gravity pervades the track, hinting that its unrelenting pace is born of necessity. Equatorial nature reclaims landscapes altered by advanced societies, while untended facilities threaten to rupture. Lamin dropped this free download earlier in the month to raise awareness for his new single on Sticks N’ Stones Recordings. The vinyl version drops today, so go cop that. (Photo by Steve Bayens.)
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Dre Skull is playing Dutty Artz’s Sweat Lodge party in New York this week and he’ll be bringing a bunch of upcoming unreleased Mixpak exclusives. RSVP and details here.
Friday July 8, 2011
Sweat Lodge @ The Cove
108 N. 6th St Brooklyn, NY
w/ Matt Shadetek, Geko Jones, Atropolis
Dubbel Dutch celebrates his forthcoming 12″ for NYC imprint Dutty Artz by releasing this cracking remix of Dexplicit’s ‘Bullacake’. The record, out tomorrow on limited white label, not only features 2 original tracks from the Austin producer, but also remixes of Ciara, Deborah Cox and R Kelly. Get it before it sells like a hot bullacake.
NYC’s Dutty Artz hooked up with Mixpak boss Dre Skull on his latest trip to Kingston to ask him about what’s coming up for the label this year and his one thousand unreleased tracks.
Chief Boima is a chief example of the world music 2.0 musical multi-tasker: in the last few years alone has put out his own EP, Techno Rumba, polished off a remix project, produced for his Afro-Latin-Carribean collective Banana Clipz, DJed all over, become part of New York’s Dutty Artz crew and the UK’s Ghetto Bassquake. He is a wholehearted supporter of new global music: from kuduro to kwaito, champeta to coupe decale. We caught up with him to talk about his new African music night, his views on vinyl digging around the world and his exciting new projects.
Could you just tell us a bit about your background and how you came to be where you are musically?
I’ve been playing music my whole life, and consider myself a musician first. When I was growing up in Wisconsin I did everything from playing Jazz and Hip Hop on the cello, to playing the bass in a Reggae band, to scratching in a Salsa-Reggae-Cumbia group. I started seriously making beats and recording after moving to the Bay Area. At that time Hyphy was really blowing up and I wanted to try and make beats for rappers cause I really dug and was inspired by that whole scene. So I linked with some friends and was making beats for them, I guess trying to break into the Bay music scene as an outsider. Around that same time, I started DJing regularly at this International club called Little Baobab where I was getting exposed to a lot of contemporary International pop, so it became a big influence in my production style. That’s when I started making African dance remixes of hip hop tunes to play at that club to try and add my own flavor. I have a multicultural background, but that always hasn’t been as accepted or welcomed as it is becoming today, so for me to mix American, African, Latin, and the international influences that are part of my background, into some art form was kind of a cathartic creative process that brought me to where I am today.
Now I mostly DJ and make beats and dance tracks, but I recorded an album with my band called Beaten By Them that’s coming out this month. I play cello on that record. So I’ve got different musical experiences.
Dutty Artz producer Matt Shadetek is about to drop a banging new EP, ‘Dutty House’, which is exactly what it says on the tin. To celebrate, he’s giving away this big remix of Black Ryno‘s ‘Nuh Tek Talk’ (which was originally on Chimney’s Death Row Riddim). The tune keeps the sweet high pitch of BR and adds some huge grimey bass. If this is a taste of the EP, then things are looking good. ‘Dutty House’ releases on Juno on December 7th; watch the Dutty Artz website for updates.