real riot porn

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awesome bark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_deglupta
looks like acrylic worked with a palette knife if you ask me... gorgeous... imagine growing this into a living space, like espalier but more three dimensional... even as an outdoor space it could be beautiful, especially closed off in portions with passion fruit vines or some such... but alas, the rainbow eucalyptus doesn't grow in pittsburgh due to the freeze, but it could work indoors...

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a choice eight (and some 2009 awards)

it's been a while since i posted any hot music. pardon that. life, and all... here's all the tracks below .zipped up on mediafire... but read! learn! click! (and when you can, find these artists and get them some money...)

first off, the best track of 2009 for me was undoubtedly James Blake's "Air & Lack Thereof". i'd think the tune had been hyped enough, but both DJ Ripley & DJ/rupture were unaware of it, so clearly it needs more props... besides having an excellent title, the tune is massive. and beautiful. and abstract. and melodic. and poised. it has great negative space, indecipherable voices and unbelievable humming bass. do it the favor of listening to it on your deepest system... better yet hand it to the deejay at a club with a look that says: "right fucking now".

James Blake "Air & Lack Thereof" mp3 320kbps (mediafire)

He's been off in a few more directions, made a hot remix of an untold track (that while annoying at times, is amazing in sets), pop remixes under an alias, a new tinkery solo release that diplo and others have taken notice of, and an e.p. with airhead that contains this far out gem:

James Blake & Airhead "Pembroke" mp3 320kbps (mediafire)

For me, the producer of the year for 2009 was Eskmo (Shackleton for 2nd place? 2562 for 3rd?) Watery, squishy bass, trudging along with humor, power & a sense of play. I've had a lot of fun going back into his early catalogue, with techy tracks like "process" & "willow grail" and the pots and pans freakout of "san fransisco: the rhythm". Late in 2009 he dropped this next tune, which combines a lot of these elements with a touch of his occasionally ascendant sonic drama. Wait for the late drop when the music box has been wound enough to spring:

Eskmo "Let Them Sing" mp3 320kbps (mediafire)

I don't have a ton to say about this next tune other than it has mined the vein that rustie opened up to new levels of 8 bit deviance. the tune "goulash" from the same e.p. is probably the better tune overall, but the opening is so alienating i didn't want to punish anyone with it. De-quantized to the max:

Slugabed "Ultra Heat-treated" mp3 320kbps (mediafire)

In a somewhat similar vein, though much smoother, is this one-off piece of brilliance from the diverse (and prolific) musical mind of mark pritchard. while pritchard has cranked out funky afrobeat sampling house jams, this 8 bit piece of swagger is a whole different animal. the vocal makes it a detroit booty tune, but luckily the sexual drama it plays out is very equal opportunity and dance-floor-centric. wind your butt! BIG TUNE at my parties...

Mark Pritchard & Om'Mas Keith "Wind it Up" mp3 320kbps (mediafire)

This next one is the farthest off my normal playlist... at 120 bpm, it's the only tune on this list out of the (holy!) 130-140 bpm range. it's synth filled and a touch cluttered, but it's got a sense of funk and groove that's infectious, walking & somehow restrained. Tune worked great at a recent fashion show i did... Don't know much about Mono/Poly, but i also like their tune "Beatles Bitch". A tad repetitive by the end, maybe, but they're working it slick.

Mono/Poly "The George Machine" mp3 320kbps (mediafire)

What's left? Monster bass. Another not to insult with your puny laptop speakers, this widdler tune (like almost all widdler tunes) features great sound design, a darkness flecked with tongue-in-cheek mood-lightening moments and cataclysmic sub-bass movement. Another artist I was a touch shocked Ripley & Rupture hadn't encountered. Big producer, in my opinion, just pure dubstep. The second drop in this one is the real prize. Squicky. Icky. Sicky.

The Widdler "Go Ask Alice" mp3 320kbps (mediafire)

All right... last one. This tune has so much going for it... Kuduro-influenced rhythmic structure, bright African guitar samples, Bassline house bottom end, great vocal cut-ups, and a tight, fast-paced phrasing that makes it a banger on every dance-floor. hell, i played this at all three of my last gigs to great effect, including the fancy wedding. Débruit. Get hip. One of my blog-crushes, Wizards are Better, have a nice little primer on the man with a ton more mpfrees...

Débruit "Nigeria What?" mp3 320kbps (mediafire)

that's all for now... someday i'll have to post some of the not-dubstep-at-all music i've been listening to, but i know i have to satisfy those bass fiends out there first... yinz get twitchy! I don't know how I'd get through the cravings without torrentech... i'd guess i'd just have to spend a lot more money at boomkat.

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dance your asses off...

Well... so much dancing & fun... DJ Ripley & DJ/rupture both played my monthly D.J. night (awesome, the both of em...), checked out the Tomb Crew with my favorite local deejays, and i've been going nuts on the resurgence of tribal percussion in dance music... but it was seeing a Chicago juke video that reminded me of my promise to Olivia of Zafira Dance Company to write a post about my the influences on my dancing... While i can't do all of these moves, i can do a lot of em, and i try to combine them into a fusion that reacts to the diversity in a great deejay set. note: the music in these videos is somewhat secondary... i picked 'em for the movement primarily...

first, wicked fast juke dancers to set the mood. pure gold.



so the club is packed, you have to move, but how? here's some kuduro dancers, which interest me because they dance at 140+ b.p.m., a tempo range that's very au courant...



the guy at 1:59 in that kuduro video blows my mind... love that walking in place shit... anyway, speaking of kuduro... get some legwork tips from this one... swing those knees!



there is some arm and hand miming in that one, but really no hand and arm work is complete without peeping the master himself, flattop...



here's another with terrible audio, but a bit longer... he's really the best popper/locker/strober i know of... very flexible, too... does some yoga-like stalls...



that movement is really all about isolation... working different sections of your body without moving the others... something any tribal style bellydancer knows all about... Mel here kind of does what i'm talking about... though a bit more fluid obviously than a pop-locker... i've seen her perform with her partner from Kassar some way slower shit than this, which is my real fave.



here's another... it's again similar to (but not as good as) the utter badass slowness one might have seen from the mid 2000s Zafira girls... I'm sure they still rock that style occasionally, though it's been more raucus and balkan from them lately. Note: if you're looking for great bellydance troupes and links, start nowhere but this collection (right at the top are the women of Zafira, our local tribal style geniuses...)



while it's a bit more ass-centric, the dutty wine is another of these isolation-based dances. based in dancehall culture, it's a farily sexualized dance, that non-the less gets some real props in my book from a skill level. humorously, the wiki cautions that "Some doctors have warned against performing the Dutty Wine, claiming it may cause serious muscle trauma, and ligament damage." this white boy is unafraid.



to me this all starts to get combined in liquid dance, or basic rave dancing... before going too deep into the liquid stuff... let's start with a fairly clubby version of breakdance one finds at the better, more cosmopolitan dancing events. I saw this woman at DEMF 2007, and she's still great on youtube.



but yeah... liquid... often made fun of, but pretty fucking cool anyway... it's an adaptation of tai chi, and is all about continuous, fluid movements, often very arm & hand oriented... he's doing tiny bits of "tutting" here, too...



this guy's a bit stiff and isn't moving the rest of his body much, but this is a great example of the basic hand movements of classic rave dancing. i swear this evolved because of the tightly packed
dancefloors that don't allow for wild arm movements...



there are two dancers in this next one, and while they incorporate a ton of pop-locking and other breakdance styles, there is a liquidity here that's great... especially the second dancer. don't be fooled by how much of a dork he seems at first... mad skills!



no post about dancing would be complete without crip-walking... especially the transcendant foot-work at 2:39.



ok... some details. my dancing also contains some small details i think make a big difference... i take a cue from kathakali dancing in terms of face control...



hands: tiny fluttering movements that complete the tighter areas of the body's natural spiral... the belly dance name for it is "lotus hands" i can't find any better examples of this, but she basically does it. I'd like to think my version of this is cooler... a lot more cascading individual finger movement...



fingers: this guy does some finger tutting, which is really fun... i use tiny bits of these actions...



directions: the dancer has a lot of axes to work with... in this clip from james brown's pilot t.v. episode, future shock, this guy at 3:15 is dealing with time in a mostly 90 degree way, but with a ton of moxie and funk...



feet: while we're with james brown, he does some great sliding footwork in this video early on...



feet: of course, there's always michael's footwork...



someone has adapted the moonwalk to the breakdancing style "gliding"...



i do a think where i glide in a circle with my feet basically never leaving first position, but i can't find anyone else doing that. i realize i'll have to step up at some point and upload a video... it will take goading... anyway, interms of other dancingthen there's the stuff that i don't even pretend to incorporate, but i find terribly inspiring... there's the lindy hop:



and of course really bad ass breakdancers... my buddy jubz had some videos of aerialists that youtube has never bested, but here's an amazing windmill compilation i found:



even further there is the not-exactly dance movement that rocks my world, like capoeria:



sometimes the music makes me move slowly, like in tai chi:



and sometimes it's all about spirit... "duende", as flamenco would call it. maybe it takes just being goofy, just being energetic or whatever, but you have to feel it. here are some Rajasthani dancers (who feel it!) from the spectacular film, Latcho Drom:



P.S. (i'm sure i forgot some AWESOME dancing that I love... and some that isn't even my thing but still rules... so feel free to leave some more tips in the comments... i'll update this post if anything is really crucial!)

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videomg

via boingboing


via masala


via pure moxie

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brian francis

bug me if you don't see a poem here by sunday night march 14th...

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Awesome.

this the story of how karl rove got beat up by a 9 year old girl. she saw a nixon sticker on his bicycle and gave him a black eye. gawker thinks we should make this young child a folk hero. money quote:

"The little girl knew not what she did, that her fists would launch a thousand campaigns and a war in Iraq. All she knew was that Karl Rove was a snot-nosed punk and she could take him down with one hand tied behind her pigtails."

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two animal abstractions

a mostly meh collection of cartoonish adobe illustrator drawings yields these two gems of abstraction involving animals...

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stay strong.

things are awesome.
i've got a new daughter, violet ember gyre.
two of my all-time favorite deejays are coming into town soon...
i 'm fixing up a 95 year old house on an acre of woods within pittsburgh city limits.
replaced nearly all the utilities, removed lead & asbestos hazards
can now cook, clean, wash & sleep there...
play with the children.

also dojo. carpe noctem. u know who u r.

i'm going to try to use the internet less so i can blog more,
so look for more action soon at the event blog & here...
i owe the back catalogue of that veiled gazelle retagging...
i have tons of mp3s to post, and the sister mix to d.d.d.
.pdfs, book reviews, recipes, photos of the house, theory....

in the meantime you can join me on facebook.
note: my facebook links feed in here up top...

MORE MUSIC! MORE ART! MORE LOVE!










stay strong.

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james gyre - "don't don't dance" a mix @ 130 b.p.m.

james gyre - "don't don't dance"

recorded live 11/11/09

turntables/traktor

1. wAgAwAgA - maytime daytime sun
2. Mochipet - Get Your Whistle Wet (DJ Sep & Jason Short Dub Mix Feat. Juakali)
3. Von Magnet - Mostar Angels
4. madera limpia - la lenta (schlachthofbronx remix)
5. Tony Allen - Awa Nare (Bonde Do Role remix)
6. Busy Signal - Da style deh (Douster Dagga remix)
7. Malente, Dex - Gipsy Kings feat. Analogik
8. Stereotyp Meets Al-Haca - Nu Styling (feat. DJ Collage)
9. Com.a - Ghetto Magic
10. Guns N' Bombs - Riddle Of Steel (Original Mix)
11. Workidz - Work It (Glitch remix)
12. DJ Sega - Paper Planes (Philly Club remix)
13. DJ DEEKLEIN - Dont Smoke Da Reefer (Twocker's Superskunk Re-Rub)
14. DJ Quest & Eskmo - Speakers Corner
15. DJ Blaqstarr - Shake It To The Ground (Claude von stroke remix)
16. Bounce Camp - Big Dancin
17. Zero DB - Bongos, Bleeps & Basslines
18. Toadally Krossed Out! - Toads Theme
19. Dorian Concept - Color Sexist
20. A-Trak - Say Whoa (Boys Noize remix)
21. Jack Beats - What (Foamo Edit)
22. Bok Bok - Nntf09
23. dj tameil - get silly
24. DJ tim dolla - We Are Ur Friends
25. Hot City - Head Work
26. Akufen - Deck the house (Herbert stops like this mix)
27. BRACKLES - Sutorîto Faitâ
28. Gucci Vump - Sha, Shtil!
29. Wiley - Eyes Of The Lord (Prod. By Nathan Retro)
30. Horsepower Productions - special 131
31. 2562 - Flashback
32. Faltydl - Bravery
33. Illyah & Ltd. Candy - Fight the Formation

it's a fun, summery mix for mid-winter. clean your house. dance out of your clothes. it's 130 b.p.m. but not without bass-weight. one oldie, but mostly instant hipster classics.

props to and inspiration from dj ripley's "to the party members" mix, dj rupture in general, mad decent and cutups and keeb$ of lazercrunk! thanks to masala and wizards are better.

also, thanks to the party liberation front podcast / rva magazine for requesting the mix in the first place... sorry it took so long, and it's only pt.1! pt.2 will take it up a notch (10!) to 140 b.p.m...

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flux

big deejay shows, and big changes:

new house (really soon)
new baby (soon)
other ish, 2.

updating eventually! in the meantime:

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