Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Femme Fatale

Aloe Blacc covers Femme Fatale (Velvet Undergound) - grab it for free from Stonesthrow.




Added - hat tip to Quentin for this one. Aloe Blacc and band doing Billie Jean, tribute to the late, great, Michael Jackson.

Off the record


Just spied this cool blog, Off The Record, from my fellow BaseFM homie Dan Paine. He's got a wicked radio show of the same name too. Go take a look at his blog.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Snap! CTI covers

Pete Turner was the photographer responsible for the beautifully distinctive covers of the CTI Records label. Read an interview with him here.  I've been researching LP cover art for a talk I'm doing at the Design Assembly, this Wednesday evening at AUT.




"When bassist Ron Carter and I spoke a few weeks ago about his work for CTI Records in the 1970s, we both remarked how stunning the covers were. "That's Pete Turner," Ron said. "Give him a call." So I did. Like all great jazz album photographers, Pete is as much a part of the music's evolution and the jazz culture as the musicians themselves...

"JW: When did you get a call from record producer Creed Taylor?
PT: I didn’t. On the weekends, when I was in the army, I used to go into Manhattan. I’d take photographs for my portfolio and then go to record stores and look through the bins. I thought record covers were pretty interesting.





"Each time I’d run through the albums I’d see head shot after head shot on the covers. But every so often, an album cover would stand out. When I’d turn the album over to see what was going on, the album had Creed Taylor’s name on the back. I said to myself, “Gee I’d love to meet this guy. But he’d probably never want to meet me.” So on a lark, I called him up at ABC Paramount in late 1958 or early 1959. In those days, you could still get powerful people on the phone. We spoke, and I made an appointment to see him.


"When Creed and I met, I showed him my portfolio, and he liked what he saw. I had been working on weekends on a theme, “The Mood of New York at Dawn.” They were photos of quiet New York, in the snow and things like that. The photo series was for my portfolio. "






Monday, June 28, 2010

Miles


Reid Miles is the man behind many of the classic album covers on the Blue Note label. He designed over 500 LP covers for Blue Note through the 1950′s and 60′s.

There's a great profile of his work, over at Retinart. I've been researching LP cover art for a talk I'm doing at the Design Assembly, this Wednesday evening at AUT.



On a similar theme... Covers inspired by Bluenote with detailed analysis of the fonts used and their accuracy or lack thereof... ah, font nerds. Love it.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Make It Reggae! At the Conch Sunday Grill




Just a wee reminder... This Sunday evening at the Ponsonby Social Club from 5pm, The Chaplin, Selecto, Mikey Sampson, Megan and Peter Mac play the music that Big Matt loved. Come join us and the Conch Records crew and celebrate the music and memories of the big guy.

Ponsonby Social Club (152 Ponsonby Rd), Sunday June 27 from 5.30 pm-11.30 pm, free entry.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Mr H drops knowledge

New post from Kirk Harding, head honcho at local hiphop label MTC Records, over at their blog - his opinions are always worth checking.  MTC are now free of their distribution deal with Universal Australia as that deal has now expired, interesting times...  Kirk also mentions that Dawn Raid and Dirty Management are working together on some projects...

"... I just recently learnt that my dudes from Dawn Raid have clicked up with Dirty Management for a few projects and they are looking at several options here in the US and at home in NZ together! I didn't see that one coming. But that union can only be a positive thing for all, and best believe that they are working on some positive things together.

I told Andy Murnane [Dawn Raid] last night that i truly believe that our scene is as good as any one State in the U.S in terms of depth of talent and the quality of the music that is being produced, and i mean that."

Check P-Money's blog for a wee bit more on the Dawn Raid/Dirty hook-up...

Mayfield meets Staple Singers




I found this record a few weeks ago in Real Groovy, has some great songs written and produced by Curtis Mayfield, for the Staple Singers. It's just popped up at Soul-sides, as part of their (US) Summer Songs collection of posts. Mayfield's most popular soundtrack was of course Superfly, but he did a ton of them, many that are worth investigating - check out Sparkle OST (Aretha Franklin) or Claudine, with Gladys Knight and the Pips.




From Soul-sides: “Let’s Do It Again” opens the film’s soundtrack, but for me, it nicely closes out summer. This 1975 Bill Cosby / Sidney Poitier film, the second of which to pair both stars, also matched music icons, Curtis Mayfield and The Staple Singers, for its soundtrack. Add to that the awesome cover art (by Sandy Kossin) and the whole production is top notch. Aesthetically, the sunny bassline ushers the song along easily. Mavis Staples’ breathy vocals are so warm. And enough can’t be said about Mayfield’s songwriting. His use of strings and harmonies flesh out so many moments throughout. The entire thing sounds like one lush interlude and really has that ‘7pm mid-July’ feeling of summer. In fact, the common adjective used to describe it has been ‘summer-ry’.

The title track was a single that boosted the film and earned the Staple Singers #1 spots on the pop and r&b charts. It was used on this John Legend/Kanye number and even earlier by Wrecks-N-Effect (which they made a video for!) . Interestingly, it’s also said that Biggie lifted the moniker from Calvin Lockhart’s character in the film, ‘Biggie Smalls’.

“Let’s Do It Again” couldn’t be more fitting when it comes to summer and what it evokes. When August unwinds and summer closes, catch me thinking ‘let’s do it again’.  (Editor’s p.s.: Let’s also not forget one of my favorite uses of this track: Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day” remix).

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Conch Sunday Grill say Make It Reggae!



This Sunday evening at the Ponsonby Social Club from 5pm, The Chaplin, Selecto, Mikey Sampson, Megan and Peter Mac play the music that Big Matt loved. Come join us and the Conch Records crew and celebrate the music and memories of the big guy.

Ponsonby Social Club (152 Ponsonby Rd), Sunday June 27 from 5.30 pm-11.30 pm, free entry.

Secondhand Sureshots film screening tonight

 On tonight at the Khuja Lounge, Auckland - 8.30pm doors – 9pm screening – $5. More info at Thisculture.com.

“Thisculture” is a new project put together to bring a taste of “worldwide beat culture” to the heart of New Zealand. We’ve got an amazing line-up of films for the series starting with:

Secondhand Sureshotshttp://dublab.com/secondhand
Secondhand Sureshots is a filmed experiment in creative sound recycling with music from Daedelus, J-Rocc, Nobody and Ras G. One for record diggers and vinyl junkies...

Trailer, plus some short excerpts...


dublab presents...SECONDHAND SURESHOTS (preview) from dublab on Vimeo.


dublab's "SECONDHAND SURESHOTS" - J.Rocc clip #2 from dublab on Vimeo.


dublab's "SECONDHAND SURESHOTS" - Ras G clip from dublab on Vimeo.

Hard headed woman

From the splendid Ms Wanda Jackson. Killer show at the Powerstation last night. Wanda played with a fine local pick-up band the Situations, with additional slide steel from John Segovia and a fella called Wayne on keys, (Wayne Mason from Formyula/Waratahs), and a horn section.

Hats off too to the opening act, Heart attack alley. Mean local three-piece featuring Karl Steven blasting away on the harmonica like a demon.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Fight the power

Josephine Cachemaille - New Work 
Check out some new works from this Nelson-based artist. Opening tonight, at Sanderson Contemporary Art Gallery, 251 Parnell Rd. Show runs til, July 4.


 Title: Fight The Power 
(wax and wick)




 Title: Tinny House
(Acrylic and gesso on board)

Sunday, June 20, 2010

More Walter G


From Pat Les Stache's blog American Athlete, a Walter Gibbons mix that's not on the Jungle Music compilation of Walter 's work, but still very cool. Luv You Madly Orchestra  - Rocket Rock (Walter Gibbons mix)

Saturday, June 19, 2010

80s divas

Nona Hendryx -Transformation, and Stephanie Mills - The Medicine song. Hat tip to PicnicLand and Chad.




Ring The Alarm, BaseFM, Sat June 19

Aim - Just passing thru
Jackie Mittoo  - Juice box
The Jay boys - I can't get next to you
Tommy McCook - Green mango
Quantic - Te pico el yaibi (version)
Fatback band - street dance (Todd Terje edit)
20th century steel band - Land of a thousand dances
Ladi6 - Walk right up - Parks remix
Bonobo - The keeper
Ian Dury - Spasticus Autisticus
Lewis McCallum  -Tales of Mingus
Orgone - Funky Nassau
Roy Ayers - Boogie back
Sharon Jones and the Dapkings - Mama don't like my man
Manasseh - Pharoah's dub

Big Matt tribute mix

Freddy Cruger - Running from dub
Sandoz - King dread
Morwell unlimited meets King Tubby  - Morpheus special - Kid Loco remix
Peuple L'herbe - Reggaematic
Yush 2K - Fade away
Million Dan - Dogz n sledgez
Kitachi - Raise it up
A-Skillz and Krafty kuts - Trickatechnology
Love grocer - Sitting on a fence
Courtney Melody - Bad boy
PD Syndicate - Ruff like me - ShyFX and T-Power remix
The Revolutionaries - Skanking
Brentford allstars - Racetrack
Ballistic bros - Prophecy reveal

Friday, June 18, 2010

Verocai in Timeless film


Arthur Verocai returns to Los Angeles this week for screenings of the concert film Timeless, which features his music, along with Mulatu, and the Suite for Ma Dukes, a tribute to the late J-Dilla. Download Dj Nuts - Verocai mix here, on the LA Times site.Plus a Verocai tune to download too.

Timeless will be screening in Auckland soon, as part of a monthly film night at Khuja Lounge. Keep your eyes peeled.

Walter Gibbons free mix


Thanks to the kind folk at Strut, here's something from the forthcoming Jungle Music compilation of the work of Walter Gibbons. I wrote an earlier post about Walter a few weeks back - see here. Bio plus track listing below...

TC James & The Fist O'Funk- Get Up On Your Feet (Walter Gibbons Mix) by Strut

TC James & The Fist O'Funk- "Get Up On Your Feet" (Walter Gibbons Mix) [mediafire]
From: Walter Gibbons- Jungle Music
Essential & Unreleased Remixes 1976-1986 (July 20th, Strut) 
Walter Gibbons remains one of the most important and unheralded DJ / remixers in New York dance music history, a pioneer of reel to reel edits and the art of the remix and a tangible link between early hip hop and disco through his quickfire turntable skills developed during the mid-‘70s.
At his famed residency at Galaxy 21 (alongside a then young percussionist, Francois Kevorkian), Gibbons perfected his turntable prowess, mixing two copies of records seamlessly at a similar time to Kool Herc’s famed block parties across town in the Bronx in 1975. He was among the first to make his own reel to reel edits of tracks, extending breaks and restructuring tracks specifically for the dancefloor. As a direct result, he was the first DJ to be granted access to multi-track tapes as Ken Cayre’s Salsoul Records brought him in to re-work Double Exposure’s ‘Ten Percent’ in ‘76, a mix that would set the blueprint for disco, the 12” format and all future dance music mixes.
Gibbons would become a prolific remixer for Salsoul and developed a style his contemporaries called ‘Jungle Music’, a raw, uncompromising approach to DJ-ing and mixing which often extended tracks to 10 minutes plus with tribal percussion breaks and off-the-cuff, unexpected production touches. This compilation focuses on some of the more adventurous and ground-breaking mixes that Gibbons produced during the disco era including a freeform treatment of Dinosaur L’s ‘Go Bang’, Paradise Garage favourite ‘You Are My Love’ by Sandy Mercer and underground disco rarity, ‘I’ve Been Searching’ by Arts & Craft.
Into the ‘80s, Gibbons continued to break new ground. One of his recognised classics, ‘Set It Off’ by Strafe, fused electro, disco and New York post-punk in a genius re-work, later reprised on the proto-house version he recorded as Harlequin Fours with a young Barbara Tucker on vocals. He also worked with Arthur Russell during the mid-‘80s and became one of the only remixer / producers that Russell would trust with his work. Gibbons’ mixes of Indian Ocean’s ‘Treehouse / School Bell’ and Russell’s ‘Let’s Go Swimming’ are now acknowledged classics. We feature here the exclusive unreleased Russell track ‘See Through’, a brilliant minimal electro piece.
Walter Gibbons found religion and had stopped producing by 1986, although he continued to DJ with a much heavier slant towards gospel. He died of AIDS-related illness in 1994. This is the first multi-label compilation of his work to be released and features rare photos and a biography by Tim Lawrence, author of ‘Love Saves The Day’ and the recent Arthur Russell biography ‘Hold On To Your Dreams’.
Tracklist:

CD 1
1. JAKKI – SUN… SUN… SUN… (Walter Gibbons Original 12” Edit)
2. DOUBLE EXPOSURE – TEN PERCENT (Walter Gibbons 12“ mix)
3. TC JAMES & THE FIST O’FUNK ORCHESTRA – GET UP ON YOUR FEET (Keep On Dancin') (Walter Gibbons mix)
4. GLADYS KNIGHT – IT’S A BETTER THAN GOOD TIME (Walter Gibbons 12” mix)
5. SALSOUL ORCHESTRA – MAGIC BIRD OF FIRE (Fire Bird Suite)
6. SANDY MERCER – YOU ARE MY LOVE (12" version)
7. BETTYE LAVETTE – DOIN’ THE BEST THAT I CAN (Walter Gibbons 12“ mix)
CD 2
1. ARTHUR RUSSELL – SEE THROUGH (Walter Gibbons mix)*
2. DINOSAUR L – GO BANG (Walter Gibbons unreleased mix)
3. STRAFE – SET IT OFF (Walter Gibbons 12” mix)
4. ARTS & CRAFT – I’VE BEEN SEARCHING (Walter Gibbons 12” mix)
5. LUV YOU MADLY ORCHESTRA – MOON MAIDEN (12” mix)
6. STETSASONIC – 4 EVER MY BEAT (Beat Bongo mix)
7. HARLEQUIN FOURS – SET IT OFF (US 12" version)

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Mayer Hawthorne covers Daniel Johnson


Download it for free here, thanks to Stonesthrow. Bonus from Stonesthrow offshoot NowAgain  - fresh tune from Seu Jorge (covering Ervybody Loves the Sunshine). Check it here.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Magnificent Seven

The Clash, live - Topper's no longer on the drum seat, so must be about 1983. Wicked version.

Remembering Big Matt



Thinking of the big fella today... Matt Watson, 26-09-1964 to 15-06-2007.

Much love to his family.


We'll be celebrating his memory with some tunes on Sunday 27th of June, at the Ponsonby Social Club, with some of Matt's DJ mates on the decks  - Selecto, The Chaplin, Mikey Sampson, Megan, and myself (Peter Mac). Free entry. Come on by if you're in the neighborhood.  Lotsa reggae niceness and cool vibes. Read up on Matt's musical history here.

movie night

 On tonight.... and there's a secret film screening after the previews... if you're a Bill Withers fan, get there...

Thisculture - at the Khuja Lounge, Auckland, Tuesday June 15th: Special preview screenings.
8.30pm doors – 9pm screening – Free entry.

Special previews of Secondhand Sureshots, Timeless, Flavela on Blast, plus DJ support. More info at Thisculture.com.


“Thisculture” is a new project put together to bring a taste of “worldwide beat culture” to the heart of New Zealand. We’ve got an amazing line-up of films for the series starting with a special free evening at the Khuja Lounge where we’ll be screening previews of some of the films from the series including:


Secondhand Sureshotshttp://dublab.com/secondhand
Secondhand Sureshots is a filmed experiment in creative sound recycling with music from Daedelus, J-Rocc, Nobody and Ras G.

Timelesshttp://www.mochilla.com/timeless
Timeless: The Composer/Arranger Series is the name of a concert series that was created in homage to the composer/arrangers who have influenced hip-hop in the most literal and profound ways.

Favela On Blast - http://www.maddecent.com/blog/favela-on-blast
Favela on Blast, the directorial film debut from Grammy-nominated DJ and producer, Diplo, and his partner Leandro HBL, documents a vibrant and innovative musical subculture that has emerged in Brazil’s impoverished slums, known as favelas.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Keith Haring doco trailer

If you're interested in Keith Haring, check out this great doco that came out a few years back on him and his work. It also screened at the Film Festival here too.Available from Mighty Ape or  Amazon. I found a copy in JB Hifi.


Keith Haring - A pop life


Keith Haring is one of my art heroes. The latest issue of Juxtapoz Magazine features legendary New York artist as its cover story - "in honor of the 20th Anniversary of Keith Haring's passing, Juxtapoz celebrates the icon's artistic career and life with an exclusive interview with Haring's first exhibiting gallerist, Tony Shafrazi."

Well worth picking up a copy. I was lucky enough to talk with Tony Shafrazi for Pavement Magazine back in 1999, to coincide with a major international retrospective of Haring's work, showing in Wellington at the time (it's only stop in Australasia). I made the trip down to Wellington to see the show - it was incredible (view the works from that show here).  Here's that interview...


Keith Haring is one of the most important artists to emerge in the last twenty years. A major retrospective of his work makes it's only Australasian stop at the City Gallery, Wellington, from 13 March through to 7 June 1999. Peter McLennan looks at Haring's life and work, and talks with Tony Shafrazi, who was Haring's art dealer, representing him from 1982 through to his untimely demise from AIDS, in 1990.

Keith Haring's vibrant, sexy, comic-like imagery is some of the most exciting work ever to hit a gallery, or a badge, or a subway wall, or a nightclub, all methods which Haring employed to get his work seen as widely as possible. His work appeared on Swatch watches and the Berlin Wall.
He worked with Grace Jones and Brooke Shields, collaborated with the likes of Andy Warhol and William Burroughs, hung out with Madonna, and opened his own shops in New York and Tokyo, called the Pop Shop. He very much wanted to make his work accessible to anyone, not just the art elite. At the time of its opening, Haring said that "the main point (of them) was that we didn't want to produce things that would cheapen the art. In other words, this was still an art statement."

The show that is coming here includes a Pop Shop booth, featuring t-shirts, caps, badges and more paraphernalia. He had no desire to end up stuck in the art ghetto, preaching to the converted. He essentially established himself as an artist without following the traditional route, of seeking the critical approval of the art world, which didn't make him very popular with them, funnily enough.

This show, curated by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, is the first major retrospective of Haring's work to tour prestigious international art museums, which is somewhat surprising, given his huge popularity generated by his all too brief career. Shafrazi has said that he felt the reason the art museums were so slow to pick up on Haring's work is that they resist artists who already have an audience, as they would rather help create that audience. "Any work that addresses and reflects a more populist culture will be disdained by the art establishment."

Haring's work draws on the great heaving beast that is popular culture, borrowing from sources such as comic books, Disney cartoons, and the graffiti art styles that he saw in New York. Haring also drew on hip hop culture in other ways; if you look closely at his paintings, often you will see the dancing figures are performing breakdancing moves, one of the dance styles that grew up around hip hop. He was also influenced by his study of semiotics, and the writing and cut-up techniques of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin.

Haring first rose to fame when he started drawing on empty poster spaces on subway platforms, with chalk in 1981, a practise which would later end up getting him arrested by the Police. When he became successful he was forced to give up this practise, as people used to follow him around the subway and rip down the panels, and try and sneak them past the subway guards, hidden between sheets of plywood.

His first one man show, at Shafrazi's gallery, was a huge success. "The police had to block off the street", recalls Shafrazi, on the phone from New York. "You couldn't even move in the gallery, there was three thousand people there. The art crowd was there, the graffiti crowd was there, Warhol was there, so was Roy Lichenstein, Rauschenberg, Clemente. They were all flabbergasted, by the sheer energy he had. It was like a carnival. Because, already, within a year, he'd had numerous shows left and right, and he had a following.



"His premise was the faster he moved, the more people followed him, basically. He was doing drawings all over the place, like in the subway. And we became close friends, he was like a little brother. To know him, even then, was instantly attractive, because there was this buzz about this guy. So, you were immediately fascinated by what he was up to, not that he talked too much; he was exceptionally polite, but he was always doing something.

"Most artists, most of the time they spend in a state of normal life, or reflection, or preparation, and occasionally they go and work behind closed doors. With him, he was working constantly, morning, noon and night. He'd wake up in the morning, he'd jump into his jacket and running shoes, and whatever crazy outfit that he wore, and put a couple of boxes of chalks in his pockets. I'd say 'Where are you going?' He'd say 'Come with me, if you want', and I'd accompany him to the subway, and we'd go from station to station. Instead of doing graffiti, he was using the empty ad poster spaces to draw on. I think he was surprised that no one else had done it, really. So it became a sketching ground.

"They were very clear, distinct images. It was like some Martian, out of this world language was being communicated to the city, and it was electric, and it was happening daily. It was a very simple, animated language, that appealed to the child in all of us.

"Most artists will draw in a certain way where they draw a little with pencil, then use an eraser. With Keith, you have to realise, he never used an eraser. He'd already made up his mind, the manner in which he was going to be. He used iconography; if you look at the cartoon alphabet he invented, he made them all move around.

"To do that efficiently, all he did was use a single line, like an animated, electric line. So that whenever he came to do a drawing or a painting, he knew exactly what he was doing. He would start at one end and finish at the other without making any mistakes. He was very interested in the automatic, unconscious, Zen state. If you are in that fearful state, of 'What am I going to do?', if you trust yourself, let yourself go, then you will never make a mistake. He always operated from that place."

Shafrazi first met Haring in 1979, when he was a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Haring started working for him at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery, as a gallery assistant.

"He was quite lanky, very tall, and he worked for me for quite a while. My first impressions of him were that he was an immaculate worker, I was very impressed with him right away, because I had been an artist for many years myself, in England. If you are a professional, if you are good at what you do, you have a certain work ethic, which is meticulous, and his was extraordinary. His versatility, his body language, his energy was like a gymnast, moving left and right constantly, without stopping. He was never one for sitting round, going 'what do I do now?'

"Most of us, especially when we are at that age, 18, 19, up until our thirties, sometimes later, go through our lives in a state of searching, fighting demons, fighting ideas, trying to find our way. With Keith, it was totally the opposite. From the word 'Go', he knew exactly what he was doing. It was very surprising in someone so young, and that was of course very attractive.



"The first thing I remember is he handed me a card, to come to his shows. And I was taken aback that he was so organised. He'd come and work at my gallery, he wouldn't say a word to me, and then hand me this invitation to come to his show. Obviously he'd seen how I was doing my opening cards, and he'd hand drawn one of his famous little figures on it. It was for a show that he put together at PS122, which was a school where they were using the rooms as studios.

"He did a couple of shows like this. When I went to the show, I saw his work, these ink on paper drawings he'd done. My first impressions of his cartoon-like drawings were that they were a little crude, a little shocking. They were all different sizes, some small some huge, and they were mounted all over the walls, from floor to ceiling. They told a very disjointed, animated story.

"There was a disrupted narrative going on. And I thought it was extraordinary. You couldn't help but do a double take, it was a little shocking, but the sheer energy of it, the animation of the figures immediately caught my attention, and I talked to him about doing something, and he was in no rush. He didn't need my help, so I had to chase him for a year or two before I got him.

"By this stage he was no longer working for me, he was doing shows all over the place, with Jean Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, all those people. After the famous PS1 show, he had every gallery in the world after him. It was mainly from knowing that I was an artist, he got on very well with me, and he respected the way I handled artists, that he decided to show with us."

Shafrazi gained his own notoriety, for defacing Picasso's famous anti war painting 'Guernica' in the mid Seventies. He spray painted 'Kill all lies' on the work, an act which Haring had some difficulty in accepting. He loved Picasso, and saw it as an assault. This happened during the time of Vietnam War. Shafrazi felt the painting had lost it's original intention, of acting as a symbol for the horrors of war. Of course, his action immediately thrust the painting back into the news.

When Haring departed his hometown of Kutztown, Pennsylvania and came to New York in 1978, to attend the School of Visual Arts, he was immediately taken with hip hop culture; the music, the style, the dancing, and particularly the graffiti art. "He immediately spotted the electric element that existed in the young graffiti writers at the time", says Shafrazi.

"He started to recognise each signature, each character, and then he got to know them. He found a very interesting recognition there. After all, his boyfriend was black, he loved black culture. If anything, what he introduced was the element of the drum of black music into white culture. It was partly with his help and encouragement that Basquiat started to be recognised.

"Keith was very ethical. He was the one in New York who introduced us to the idea that street graffiti (and he wasn't really a graffiti artist) was something that was predominantly done by kids from the ages of 8, 10, all the way to 18. It was a way for them to talk together, communicate together. The very famous ones, they built their own sense of notoriety, their own sense of fame, and some of them were far better than others. And it was always a puzzlement to most of these kids how this guy came to do the things he did, the way he did. So, they started to recognise each others styles, that's why they had the graffiti wars. But Keith was the one who deciphered all of this, and he bought it into recognition.



"He hooked up with one young kid, his name was Angel Ortiz, and his tag was LA II, for Little Angel. He invited LA II to come and work with him, and Angel was only 15 years old at the time. There are a number of pieces you will see in the show where LA II's work is incorporated into Keith's work. As he started to sell pieces in the early eighties, Keith would split the money, give half of it to LA II."

The first time Keith gave Angel half the money from a sale, he took it home. Next day Angel called up Keith, asking him to come over and see his mother, to explain to her where the $700 had came from, so that she knew for certain her son hadn't got it from selling drugs and the like.

Shafrazi remembers that time, in the early Eighties as a very vibrant time.
"I went with Keith to Madonna's first performance. She was a friend of his. I first met her, hanging out at his loft. The performance was extraordinary. It was at a gay, black club called Paradise Garage, which had the best dance music in the world. Madonna came onto the stage in a bed, which was tilted slightly towards the audience, singing 'Like a Virgin'. At that time in New York, there were lots of underground clubs opening, like the Mudd Club, which Keith was very involved in. He used to curate one day exhibitions, with one hundred artists, for example."

Haring never restricted himself to the flat surface, the traditional canvas. "He used anything, whether it was a cheap vase he bought somewhere, or a subway wall. Industrial tarpaulin was his answer to canvas, which is used on the back of trucks, to tie down the goods so they don't blow away. He hunted around and found a particular paint that adhered to it very well. And it didn't matter what the surface was, or whether it was very big or very small.

"He did a backdrop for a very famous ballet company, the Roland Petit company, in Marseilles France. Roland Petit had gotten many famous artists to do his backdrops, like Picasso, Chagall, Leger, and so on. The backdrop measured something like sixty feet by thirty feet or there abouts, and he had to do it in an aircraft hanger. This was laid out on the floor, and all the stagehands, who had worked with all these famous artists, when they caught sight of this young kid in jeans, tags and emblems all over his jacket, sneakers with the laces undone - he made that famous, more than any black athlete. He used to have about forty pairs of sneakers, covered in paint. He was the hottest character Nike ever had, and then of course you have the famous basketball players, who came along in the nineties.

"Anyway, these stage hands looked at this skinny, kooky kid, and were not very impressed. They were really uptight about working with this kid. It was an insult to them, they'd worked with great artists. They didn't trust his manner, because he didn't have a sketch, he didn't ask them to blow up the sketch, project it and trace it out for him. this guy arrives with nothing, doesn't even have a drawing.

"Then he starts to draw, with ink, and he continues to work for a day and a half, without a single pencil mark. Imagine you are standing in the middle of a canvas, and it's 30 feet in front of you, and 60 feet to your left and right. It's like, if you try and draw parallel lines on a big piece of paper in front of you, it's impossible, you can't get the scale right. He did the whole drawing from that position. Occasionally he would go up on the scaffold to check it. When he finished it, the stage hands had gone off, had lunch, and come back to see the end of it, and they all stood around and they applauded, and asked him to make little drawings for them. That is how he worked."



Do you miss Keith?

"Oh yes, enormously, every day. I have been in the centre of the art scene in England since 1961, I knew all the famous artists; I've been in the centre of the art scene in America since 1965 and 68, when I first got to know Warhol, all the pop artists and all the West Coast artists; as well as having a solid knowledge of all the artists in Germany and France. I've never, ever, ever met a person so full of life as he, and so full of loving, and thoughtful and considerate, and so much cool. He was really the coolest of the cool that I've met. It's a peculiar thing to try and define what is cool, but he was that, in all ways".

www.haring.com the official Keith Haring site. All images are copyright - Keith Haring
Originally published in Pavement Magazine, February/March1999.

New Quantic sounds


Will Holland aka Quantic, dropped an album as Quantic presenta Flowering Inferno back in mid 2008, called Death of a revolution. It's a lovely swaying latin take on reggae, and the followup album drops July 19 on Tru Thoughts. It's called Dog with a rope, and the first single off it is floating round the internets, listen to it here.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Kode9 interview


Kode9 interview with Blackdown, talking about his forthcoming DJKicks mixcd. Read it here.

" K9: I don't know about you but I'm drowning in podcasts and radio rips. Most of them are are great, but I do lose them on my computer, forget about them or move on quickly to the next one. I was happy to do a mix CD because I've only done one before and I enjoy having a physical object with packaging, artwork and so on. I also hope it increases the likelihood a little bit that it might get played outside the little, tinny world of laptop speakers and i-pod headphones."

Man Maschine

"It's basically hardware that talks to software..." - DJ Nu-Mark (ex Jurassic 5) talks about working with Maschine from Native Instruments, and how it similar to MPC etc. Was talking with a mate last weekend about Maschine - he was sold on using it, so it' s cool to see a little about what makes it a good music making tool.  Via Crate Kings.

Off to the movies

“Thisculture” is a new project put together to bring a taste of “worldwide beat culture” to the heart of New Zealand. We’ve got an amazing line-up of films for the series starting with a special free evening at the Khuja Lounge where we’ll be screening previews of some of the films from the series including:


Secondhand Sureshotshttp://dublab.com/secondhand
Secondhand Sureshots is a filmed experiment in creative sound recycling with music from Daedelus, J-Rocc, Nobody and Ras G.

Timelesshttp://www.mochilla.com/timeless
Timeless: The Composer/Arranger Series is the name of a concert series that was created in homage to the composer/arrangers who have influenced hip-hop in the most literal and profound ways.

Favela On Blast - http://www.maddecent.com/blog/favela-on-blast
Favela on Blast, the directorial film debut from Grammy-nominated DJ and producer, Diplo, and his partner Leandro HBL, documents a vibrant and innovative musical subculture that has emerged in Brazil’s impoverished slums, known as favelas.

Thisculture - at the Khuja Lounge, Auckland, Tuesday June 15th: Special preview screenings.
8.30pm doors – 9pm screening – Free entry.

Special previews of Secondhand Sureshots, Timeless, Flavela on Blast, plus DJ support. More info at Thisculture.com.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, June 12

Bill Withers - You got the stuff
Crabs Corporation meets King Hammond - Bring down the birds
Roots radics - Patrolling
Cornell Campbell - Rope in
Derrick Morgan - I'm the ruler
Viceroys - Let him go
Alton Ellis - I've got a date
Paragons - Tide is high
Gregory Issacs - Mind u dis
Ariya astrobeat arkestra - Crosstown traffic
Roy Ayers - Africa, centre of the world
Quantic - I just fell in love again
Electric wire hustle - Longtime
Diplomats of solid sound - Hurt me so - Lack of afro remix
Architeq - Birds of dub - Architeq version
Blundetto - Nautilus - dub version
RSD - Kingfisher
Kode9 - You don't wash - dub mix
Doug Carns - Tropic sons
Commodores - Thumpin music
Kid Creole and the coconuts - I'm a wonderful thing baby
Gladys Knight and the Pips - Aint no sun since you've been gone
Staple singers - Funky love, Take your own time
War - Galaxy
Pilooski - AAA
M - Pop muzik - Dub Specer and Trance Hill remix
Eeek a mouse  -Wa do dem - Andres Digital Cumbia remix

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Listen: Wanda Jackson - You know I'm no good


Produced by Jack White (White Stripes, Dead Weather etc), song is by Amy Winehouse. From a forthcoming album produced by Mr White.

Wanda Jackson (the queen of Rockabilly) plays Wellington's San Francisco Bath House, Monday June 21, and plays Auckland's Kings Arms (Tuesday June 22). Listen here.
Hat tip to BlahBlahScience for pic and audio.

Shock Publishing in liquidation

From Billboard: "Powerhouse Australian independent music group Shock has closed three of its companies, including its music publishing arm.

Citing the global financial crisis, prolonged tough trading conditions and ever-changing consumer behavior, the Melbourne-based firm has placed its Shock Music Publishing arm into voluntary liquidation, with effect from June 7. Shock Publishing GM Clive Hodson is among the staff let go.

Also, Shock's One Stop Entertainment and Shock Exports.com units have been placed into voluntary administration, with effect from June 8.

In a statement, the multi-faceted music and entertainment company says, "It is business as usual for our core Shock Entertainment businesses, and we will continue in our endeavor to maintain and enhance Shock Entertainment's position as the leading independent label and distributor of music and home video in Australia and New Zealand."

Full story here

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Kode9 get rinsed

Kode9 (Hyperdub) serve up the latest editon of the DJ series DJ Kicks, out June 22. Heres a wee sneak preview, for download free.

Kode9- "You Don't Wash" (dub) (stream) (download)

Taken from his forthcoming DJ-KiCKS mix, Kode9's "You Don’t Wash" is, much like the mix CD, an amalgamation of his current influences. The track jumps with personality, the 4x4 kick drum pulse shuffling itself a touch to create a bombastic groove that is peppered with glassy hi hats and marimba. It’s not that obvious that it’s a Kode9 production until the thick chords appear around the two minute mark, careering into earshot suddenly, elevating the atmosphere and sporadic ascending bass snatches perfectly.


1. Lone - Once In A While
2. Aardvarck - Revo
3. Kode9 - Blood Orange
4. Kode9 - You Don't Wash (Dub) (DJ-KiCKS)
5. Cooly G - Phat Si
6. Ill Blu - Bellion
7. Ikonika - Heston
8. Scratcha DVA - Jelly Roll
9. Mr Mageeka - Different Lekstrix
10. Grievous Angel - Move Down Low
11. Sticky feat. Natalie Storm - Look Pon Me
12. Sticky - Jumeirah Riddim Sequel
13. Mujava - Pleaze Mugwanti
14. DVA - Natty
15. Aardvaarck - Re Spoken (Nubian Mindz Released Mix)
16. Morgan Zarate feat. Sarah Ann Webb - M.A.B.
17. Rozzi Daime - Dirty Illusions
18. Zomby - Spiralz
19. Kode9 - It
20. J*DaVeY - Mr. Mister
21. Digital Mystikz - 2 Much Chat
22. Terror Danjah - Stiff
23. Digital Mystikz - Mountain Dread March
24. Zomby - Godzilla
25. Digital Mystikz - Mountain Dread March (Reprise)
26. Addison Groove - Footcrab
27. Kode9 vs. LD - Bad
28. Maddslinky - Cargo
29. Ramadanman - Work Them
30. Terror Danjah - Bruzin (VIP)
31. The Bug - Run (feat. Flo Dan)

Monday, June 07, 2010

New video from Damian Marley and Nas

Off the album Distant Relatives, tune is As We Enter, which samples Mulatu.

Stax o wax

Mean sounding, chopped up Stax tunes, check it via Crate Kings.

"Such notable artists as Issac Hayes, Booker T & the MG’s, Albert King, Otis Redding, the Bar-Kays, and Rufus Thomas provided the foundation for the tracks while each producer sampled, chopped, flipped, reworked, and added some of their own soul to create something uniquely inspiring and new. The compilation, which consists of 37 tracks original tracks, was mixed by Rafferty and features original artwork by Flipa."

Saturday, June 05, 2010

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, June 5

Big thanks to one of BaseFM's listeners, Fiona, who bought me in some freshly-baked choc chip and hazelnut biscuits during my show. I love BaseFM listeners! You rule.

Phillis Dillon - Woman of the ghetto
Stone - English dub
King Tubby - Dub of rights
Shark Wilson and the basement heaters - Make it reggae
Marcia Griffiths - Feel like jumping
The Abbysinians - Mandela
Lennie Hibbert - Village soul
Crabs Corporation meets King Hammond - Bring down the birds
Lloyd and devon  - Push push (disco mix)
Born Jamericans - Boom shak a tak
Damian Marley - Welcome to Jamrock
Mos dub - History town
DJ Vadim - Hidden treasure
Tenor saw - Ring the alarm
U Brown  - Gal u so bad
Prince Buster - Sit and wonder
Norma White and the Brentford disco set - I want your love
Thievery Corporation - 38 45
Ray Charles vs Beatsy Collins - Living for the city
Hugh Masekela -Don't go lose it baby
Hopeton Lindo - Rudeboy
Bonobo - eyesdown
Fat Freddys Drop - Hope - Son sine remix
Cesaria Evora - Angola - Pepe Bradock Get Down Dub
DJ Day x Miles Bonny - Skyy can you feel me
Hypnotic brass ensemble - Spottie
Mophono's halftone society - Bumps
Devil Mcdoom - Watching sleazy UFOs passing by
Orgone - I get lifted
Plumstead radical club  -One way  - Natural Self remix
Trackheadz - Jah shall come
Chaka Demus and Pliers - Murder she wrote

Friday, June 04, 2010

Chuck D - revenge of the nerds

Chuck D talks about Silicon Valley....

"If I had to say one way or the other I'd say that most tech-related companies today are pretty arrogant. It's almost like revenge of the nerds.

"Do they see an importance in reaching out to diverse markets in this country? For me, it's like they've decided "buy it/use it or don't", it doesn't really matter that Black Americans spend millions on these gadgets and stuff and tons of time (on their social platforms). Who cares about statistics? They know we're going to buy/use these tech products, phones and more; so it seems they could care less.

"And the way it's all set up; it's encouraged to be like another appendage and (for those platforms that have a monthly invoice for usage) don't miss a payment; then it gets gangsta..."

Interesting discussion in the comments too...

Brand new Ceelo


New tune from Cee-lo Green (voice of Gnarls Barkley), called Georgia, backing band is the Menahan St Band, and it's produced by that band's guitarist and leader, Tommy Brenneck. Check it here.

Speaking of the Menahan St Band,  DJ Tommy TNT drops a tasty mixtape to celebrate Mister Curtis Mayfield's birthday. Check it out over here.

45 King - Making of Hard knock life

Jay Z and 45 King talk about the making of the song Hard Knock Life. Watch out for footage of 45 King rocking two portable turntables and a mixer. Mean. Hat tip: Analog Giant.

Lloyd Miller meets Heliocentrics



"Following their award-winning collaboration with Ethio jazz Godfather Mulatu Astatke (Mojo magazine Top 50 of the year 2009, Sunday Times World Music Album of the year), pioneering UK collective The Heliocentrics resurfaces alongside another fascinating jazz enigma, ethno-musicologist, jazz maestro and multi-instrumentalist, Lloyd Miller.

Learning various instruments and immersing himself in New Orleans jazz through his father, a professional clarinet player, Lloyd Miller first trained himself in the styles of George Lewis and Jimmy Giuffre and cut his first Dixieland jazz 78 rpm record in 1950. During the late ‘50s, his father landed a job in Iran and Miller began to develop a lifelong interest in Persian and Eastern music forms, learning to play a vast array of traditional ethnic instruments from across Asia and the Middle East.

He toured Europe heavily, basing himself in Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Germany (where he played with Eddie Harris and Don Ellis) and, most famously, in Paris where he worked with oddball bandleader Jef Gilson, a phenomenon in French jazz during the early ‘60s. Miller returned to the Middle East during the ‘70s, landing his own TV show on NIRTV in Tehran under the name Kurosh Ali Khan. His show became a national fixture and ran for seven years.

Miller has since been a vocal ambassador for preserving the traditions of many forms of Eastern music. In recent years, his mid-‘60s album Oriental Jazz has become a collector’s favourite and the UK’s Jazzman label have issued a compilation, A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz, covering work from across his career. The renewed interest in his music has spawned this new collaboration with The Heliocentrics, a freeform mix of Eastern arrangements, jazz and angular psychedelics and represents the Heliocentrics’ most accomplished work to date. Tracks include the reflective, yearning "Spirit Jazz," a new version of Miller classic "Massom" and the cinematic "Electricone."


Lloyd Miller & The Heliocentrics- S/T - out July 20th
For more information, check out:
http://www.lloydmiller-and-theheliocentrics.com
http://www.myspace.com/heliocentrics
http://www.myspace.com/drlloydmiller

Walter Gibbons- Jungle Music


I first heard about Walter Gibbons a few years ago after tracking down a tune he made famous -  a gospel record called Stand On The Word (after hearing Benji B play it at The Turnaround). It got reissued as a bootleg, which was wrongly attributed to legendary Paradise Garage DJ Larry Levan. Turns out Walter discovered the recording was by a gospel group, The Joubert Singers,  from a church near his studio. At that point in his DJ career, he'd discovered God and renounced playing all lewd, sexual dance music, which made him less than attractive to club owners of the day.

I read up on this thanks to author Tim Lawrence, (Love saves the day), who put up the liner notes he wrote for a Salsoul CD reissue of Walter's remix/re-edit work for that label - read them here.

As Lawrence says in those liner notes, referring to Stand On The Word... "The song soon became a Garage, Loft and Zanzibar classic, and Tony Humphries went on to remix the record - which was attributed to the Joubert Singers, after Phyllis McKoy Joubert, who penned the song for the Celestial Choir - for Next Plateau. For many, Gibbons had lost his way but not his ear." Listen to it here.

Now Strut has compiled an impressive collection of Walter's work across numerous labels... press blurb below...


"Walter Gibbons remains one of the most important and unheralded DJ / remixers in New York dance music history, a pioneer of reel to reel edits and the art of the remix and a tangible link between early hip hop and disco through his quickfire turntable skills developed during the mid-‘70s.

At his famed residency at Galaxy 21 (alongside a then young percussionist, Francois Kevorkian), Gibbons perfected his turntable prowess, mixing two copies of records seamlessly at a similar time to Kool Herc’s famed block parties across town in the Bronx in 1975. He was among the first to make his own reel to reel edits of tracks, extending breaks and restructuring tracks specifically for the dancefloor. As a direct result, he was the first DJ to be granted access to multi-track tapes as Ken Cayre’s Salsoul Records brought him in to re-work Double Exposure’s ‘Ten Percent’ in ‘76, a mix that would set the blueprint for disco, the 12” format and all future dance music mixes.

Gibbons would become a prolific remixer for Salsoul and developed a style his contemporaries called ‘Jungle Music’, a raw, uncompromising approach to DJ-ing and mixing which often extended tracks to 10 minutes plus with tribal percussion breaks and off-the-cuff, unexpected production touches. This compilation focuses on some of the more adventurous and ground-breaking mixes that Gibbons produced during the disco era including a freeform treatment of Dinosaur L’s ‘Go Bang’, Paradise Garage favourite ‘You Are My Love’ by Sandy Mercer and underground disco rarity, ‘I’ve Been Searching’ by Arts & Craft.

Into the ‘80s, Gibbons continued to break new ground. One of his recognised classics, ‘Set It Off’ by Strafe, fused electro, disco and New York post-punk in a genius re-work, later reprised on the proto-house version he recorded as Harlequin Fours with a young Barbara Tucker on vocals. He also worked with Arthur Russell during the mid-‘80s and became one of the only remixer / producers that Russell would trust with his work. Gibbons’ mixes of Indian Ocean’s ‘Treehouse / School Bell’ and Russell’s ‘Let’s Go Swimming’ are now acknowledged classics. We feature here the exclusive unreleased Russell track ‘See Through’, a brilliant minimal electro piece.

Walter Gibbons found religion and had stopped producing by 1986, although he continued to DJ with a much heavier slant towards gospel. He died of AIDS-related illness in 1994. This is the first multi-label compilation of his work to be released and features rare photos and a biography by Tim Lawrence, author of ‘Love Saves The Day’ and the recent Arthur Russell biography ‘Hold On To Your Dreams’.

Tracklist:

CD 1
1. JAKKI – SUN… SUN… SUN… (Walter Gibbons Original 12” Edit)
2. DOUBLE EXPOSURE – TEN PERCENT (Walter Gibbons 12“ mix)
3. TC JAMES & THE FIST O’FUNK ORCHESTRA – GET UP ON YOUR FEET (Keep On Dancin') (Walter Gibbons mix)
4. GLADYS KNIGHT – IT’S A BETTER THAN GOOD TIME (Walter Gibbons 12” mix)
5. SALSOUL ORCHESTRA – MAGIC BIRD OF FIRE (Fire Bird Suite)
6. SANDY MERCER – YOU ARE MY LOVE (12" version)
7. BETTYE LAVETTE – DOIN’ THE BEST THAT I CAN (Walter Gibbons 12“ mix)

CD 2
1. ARTHUR RUSSELL – SEE THROUGH (Walter Gibbons mix)*
2. DINOSAUR L – GO BANG (Walter Gibbons unreleased mix)
3. STRAFE – SET IT OFF (Walter Gibbons 12” mix)
4. ARTS & CRAFT – I’VE BEEN SEARCHING (Walter Gibbons 12” mix)
5. LUV YOU MADLY ORCHESTRA – MOON MAIDEN (12” mix)
6. STETSASONIC – 4 EVER MY BEAT (Beat Bongo mix)
7. HARLEQUIN FOURS – SET IT OFF (US 12" version)

http://www.strut-records.com
http://waltergibbons-junglemusic.com/

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Marbecks closes several stores

Marbecks was sold to the CD and DVD Store a while back, and they subsequently rebranded themselves as Marbecks. Now a number of their stores are closing down - I've heard that their St Lukes and Vulcan Lane stores are closing, and I went to the closing down sale of their 277 Newmarket store. I've heard that their Palmerston North store has closed. (Correction - Beatties blog says Marbecks are planning to open their next concept store in Palmerston North in June.)

It will be interesting to see how they reshape the business. The CD and DVD Store currently lists 33 stores on its website, and Marbecks site lists 30 (Corrected - I misread the Marbecks site map).

In November last year, Marbecks launched a new store/bookshop/cafe in Dunedin, see photos and story on that launch here (from Inside Retailing magazine). It's worth noting that in that article Marbecks CEO Roger Harper says "he expects to open another four new-format stores this year in the main centres, with the second one to open in April; 15 are planned eventually."

EDIT: I removed some information regarding Marbecks and their bills. Unconfirmed rumour.

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Soulfinger!


Mister Murray Cammick is DJing this Thursday evening, down at Racket Bar on Custom St - it's free, kicks off 8pm. More soul and funk then you can shake a stick at! Get along.

ah, content....


From XKCD.com. Love this....

Don't go lose it baby

I recently posted a link to this mean tune from Hugh Masekela, Don't go lose it baby (dub mix) and then I went to Real Groovy a few days later and had a dig round there to find the album it's off, called Techno-Bush (1984). Third record bin I looked in, out it popped! So happy  - and only $8.

Here's the video for the song. Love it.