dubstep is still awesome

fuck the haters...


dubstep is awesome part 2!
i'm just gonna keep giving away my favorite dubstep deejay tricks.
.zipped up on mediafire

(mp3) the widdler - "same way" HUGE BEAUTIFUL BANGeR!!!!
(mp3) babylon system - "hyphy" (feat. candy vox) - goofy intro track
(mp3) eleven8 - "this is risk" - dark shit with nice synth programming...
(mp3) starkey - "gutter music" feat. durrty goodz - been waiting for this one!
(mp3) jazzsteppa - "big swing sound" - AWESOME jazzy low-swingin' vocal track
(mp3) kromestar vs. hatcha - "bruce and the biscuits" - love these guys together...
(mp3) 2000f & j kamata - "you don't know what love is" - big 80's style vocoder
(mp3) 501 - "mind control" - i don't know anything about this artist... evil shit.

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global beats & gypsy social

buddha beats night for spring global beats!
i'll be spinning dubstep, bhangra & other global beats.
carla will spin her usual mix of brazilian, colombian & dancehall
$5 10pm-2am saturday march 28th @ ava lounge 124 s. highland avenue

global beats on facebook


i'll preview my new mix "tower of babel" at the gypsy social after vibe
late saturday night (sunday morning!) april 4th 1am-5am
$12 gets you in and all you can drink... food is extra
i'm playing the realest of the real bass action!

gypsy social on facebook

come out and play, pittsburghers!

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drum n rai

carlos sent over this hilarous yet awesome algerian music video by cheb mami. i'd bang this at the club for sure. what's hilarious to me is the suit and non-chalant nature of male arab singers in their videos. reminds me of the omar souleyman video i posted a while back. it's like, "yeah, this music's hot, but i'm in formal wear just doin my thing..."

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a quick link dump via the huffington post.

thought these stories we're good today...

Teens Capture Amazing Space Photos With Just Balloon And Camera...

One Congolese Woman Uses Radio As A Weapon Against Rape

The DJ Who Has Become Africa's Youngest President

A Religious War Heats Up Within Israel's Army

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arabic calligrams

calligram (image made from calligraphy) by the awesome sudanese artist hassan musa.  many more here.

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spectacular jellyfish

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chain of transmission

ustad allah rakha, father/teacher of zakir hussain, who in turn taught rohan singh bhogal. first video is 8 min, second 4 min, last one 1 min. all of them are awesome... in different ways. evolution, yeah?

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anti-racist swastika activism

i was reminded today of one of the weirdest people on the planet, manwoman. i originally heard of him the research's excellent book "modern primitives". he makes some art, writes poetry, but weirdest of all he is dedicated to saving the "swastika". for those who don't know, the swastika as a symbol goes back to neolithic times, with many beautiful meanings. the nazis really ruined it for everyone... hear's the nutty fellow explaining all the different historical uses for you... the swastika stuff starts about a minute in after his explanation of the third eye...

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dubstep is awesome

photo of me at lazer crunk by ryan sigesmund

i've really enjoyed working on my new mix ("tower of babel"!) in ableton live. great software. I've found it extremely useful for blending music that isn't perfectly grid-based (say, flamenco or dub reggae) with music that is. unfortunately, my pirated version of ableton just caught me out today, so i can't work on it until i can find some money or get another version. I don't like buying software unless i'm sure i'm gonna use it, but ableton's pretty sweet, so i'd definitely through some dough at them if i had it... in the meantime here is a huge collection of dubstep tunes that have been blowing out my speakers recently... most are in my mix. i've been tempted to hoard them, but i'd have never gotten to where i am if people hadn't shared with me, so...

lot's of flavours here... mostly beastly and heavy, but there are some 2step joints, a latin tinged tune and some old-school rave leanings. don't bother playing these if your speakers don't have bass response. it would be pointless. all .zipped up on mediafire for you.

(mp3) ac slater - "hello"
(mp3) mundo - "come to me"
(mp3) hatcha - "congo therapy"
(mp3) torqux - "relentless" (16 bit remix)
(mp3) bar 9 - "murda sound" (eskmo remix)
(mp3) toasty - "the knowledge" (untold remix)
(mp3) ill.gates - "sweatshop" (antiserum remix)
(mp3) diefenbach - "up to your neck" (2000f remix)
(mp3) marco del horno - "samurai" (rusko 'safe sex' remix)


if you're looking for more, i've really enjoyed the new vibesquad album (which only has one 140 tune but it's a hot one...), filastine's "dirty bomb", pretty much everything "various production" puts out, and a couple tracks by stenchman, chase & status, reso and joker. i can't wait for the new boxcutter l.p. "arecibo message", the new martyn l.p. "great lengths" and the new starkey 12"s "creature" and "gutter music v.i.p." dubstep is endless. anyone who tells you it's ruined already isn't doing enough digital digging.

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feel good songs for tough times...

from my buddy, laurie trok, comes this gentle banger from illa j, "it's all good" (dilla's brother... who knew? not me...). i've always loved squarepusher's "port rhombus"... it's the type of tight jungle track that makes me feel i have superpowers, but it's gentle and pretty enough my ("gentle and pretty stuff"-liking) mom likes it.

and i mashed the two together, because the breaks just lined up nice... it's a quick ableton job... full bleed, no eq, but it works... the tracks are seperate mediafire links...

(mp3) illa j - "it's all good"
(mp3) squarepusher - "port rhombus"
(mp3) Illa j/squarepusher - "it's all good/port rhombus"

illa j track from "yancey boys"
squarepusher track from "big loada"
illa j/squarepusher image by yours truly.

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my toddler doing yoga

my son river, aged 20 months, does some peacock/locust, some namasté hands (his version of the sun salutation) and some downward dog/forward bend here. he does a lot more, but this is the video his grandma shot of it...



the youtube page for this is here if you have trouble viewing the video...

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kelly in kenya

my childhood/family friend kelly orr is doing some amazing work in kenya. and she blogs about it... here she is below with a flock of kids:


"The first project is collaboration with the SOTENI Local Management Committee of Kuria (a group of community leaders and elders) to build an orphanage for small children on land given to SOTENI by the Kenyan government. This project will include income-generating agriculture on about 10 of the 33 acres and will help sustain the project in perpetuity. Eventually, our hope is to also build a rescue center for girls fleeing the FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) ceremonies, which happen in Kuria every December. The land is bordered by the River Migori to the north, which makes it ideal for farming a variety of crops (we are talking about watermelon, maize, beans and eucalyptus) and has a great view of Masai Mara, which is an added bonus for our children."

"The second project involves meeting with and vetting orphans to participate in our sponsorship program. I am using the public schools as my starting point and have been asking administrators to prepare lists of the total orphans in their schools along with their performance records. The numbers of orphans in the communities here are staggering. AIDS and other poverty-related deaths have destroyed many, many families and the children are the most vulnerable to suffer. I have been all over Kehancha and surrounding towns (yesterday we were traveling by motorbike taxi because the roads were unfit for cars) meeting with children and their guardians, which are usually relatives or an especially generous teacher."

also, she notes "If you are interested in sponsoring one of SOTENI’s 12 children or another child in Kuria, please let me know!!!"

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yes we can (can!)

the band. can. (wiki) jaki leizebeit's drumming in this track is hot. guy dancing in the grocery to it is hilarious.

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palestinian hip hop

i keep hearing great palestinian hip hop on democracy now. i've been hunting for tracks i like for a while. carlos pointed me to slingshot hip hop, a documentary on the scene... the website has this large collection of artist links. hyla sent me a link to checkpoint 303 has a nice set of descriptions of their songs (with accompanying mp3 downloads) on their site.

here's the trailer to slingshot hip hop:



the torrent is here.

the female rapper featured in the preview is called arapyat... this is her myspace.

i still haven't finished my analysis post on the israel-palestine issue (cause it's COMPLICATED!), but in the meantime, here's a rap track with both hebrew and arabic lyrics, which according to one source is

"a song with politically-charged lyrics in Arabic and Hebrew, urging the Israeli and Palestinian youth to distrust their respective leaders and look towards forging a new, peaceful future together."

(mp3) balkan beat box - "ramallah tel aviv" from "nu made"

i'll update this post if i find any palestinian (or israeli) hip hop i'm in love with... in the meantime i'd love it if anyone could translate the lyrics from this track...

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