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[ September 16, 2007 / bookmark ]

field notes / Tangents (Lucier, Sims, boots)

News, Quick Links, Good Reads: (1) An illustrator has taken the concept behind Alvin Lucier’s “I Am Sitting in a Room” and applied it to his daily self-portraits (snooks.livejournal.com). … (2) The Wild Beast is the name of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) new music pavilion. It was designed by the Los Angeles-based [...]

[ September 11, 2007 / bookmark ]

downstream / Tortoise’s Post-Rock I-Hop MP3

The song “Tryplmeade Gorsmatch” comes close to the end of the self-titled album by Bumps, released a few months back earlier on Stones Throw. That’s a record label properly known best for hip-hop, especially of the producer-heavy, soul-inflected, headphone-pleasing vibe that usually gets filed under the phrase “old school.”
Well, the scholars who comprise Bumps are [...]

[ September 3, 2007 / bookmark ]

field notes / Tangents (Shuffle, Cage, plasma)

Quote of the Week: “They do not need to be correct because they are symbols; they stand for the essence of music, not specific notes. Their unconventionality also reminds me of the graphic scores of experimental music; they are their kitschy cousins.” That’s Christian Marclay, as quoted on the back of his new box-as-book collection, [...]

[ August 23, 2007 / bookmark ]

downstream / Savory Madlib I-Hop MP3

Esteemed and prolific hip-hop producer Madlib’s string of releases continues with the full-length collection Beat Konducta in India, a percussion-heavy mash of Bollywood score snippets. Think of it as rap exotica. To promote the album, its label, Stones Throw, has posted for free download a piece titled “Masala” — at eight seconds over a minute, [...]

[ August 5, 2007 / bookmark ]

field notes / Tangents (Ludwig, Cage, Primo)

Quote of the Week: Osamu Tezuka is the subject of a retrospective exhibit, Marvel of Manga, at the Asia Art Museum (asianart.org) in San Francisco. (Full disclosure: I am employed by one of the exhibit’s corporate sponsors.) Of a Beethoven manga by Tezuka, titled Ludwig B, the exhibit notes state, “Possibly because of [...]

[ February 16, 2007 / bookmark ]

downstream / Animated I-Hop MP3s

There’s nothing inherently funny about instrumental hip-hop, but that didn’t stop the Stones Throw label from hooking up with Adult Swim, the Cartoon Network block, to post a free compilation, Chrome Children 2. Amid the blaxsploitation soul and word-drunk rap are several studio concoctions, including three from Madlib, two credited to his Beat Konducta moniker, [...]

[ February 7, 2007 / bookmark ]

downstream / DJ Klock MP3s

The Ropeadope record label has long been a home for plugged-in roots music, from Kid Koala’s scraggly rock outfit Bullfrog, to the avant-groove of Medeski Martin & Wood, to the funky turntablism of DJ Logic, just to name a few. It’s now launched a download-only sublabel, ropeadope.com/digital, and among the initial seven releases is San, [...]

[ January 13, 2007 / bookmark ]

field notes / Virtual DJ’ing Tonight

In the 10 years I’ve published Disquiet.com, I’ve been asked twice to DJ, both in the past month or so. The first was for an event featuring Annie Sprinkle, and I explained that my reluctance had nothing to do with prudishness, and everything to do with not feeling up to the task of playing music [...]

[ November 24, 2006 / bookmark ]

downstream / DJ Duo MP3

Call it post-rap, call it i-hop (or instrumental hip-hop). At just 45 seconds, “A Stroll Down Sutter Ave” (MP3) is less a track than a teaser, but this collaboration between DJs Wally and Willie Ross, off their recent Mrs Millers House album, is tasty as can be, a groovy collage trinket of turntablist beats, found [...]

[ September 12, 2006 / bookmark ]

downstream / Hank Shocklee MP3

Another spoken-word entry, to complement yesterday’s. Hank Shocklee, one of the core producers of the Bomb Squad, the hip-hop studio crew that threaded noise into backing tracks for the likes of Public Enemy, Doug. E. Fresh, Son of Bazerk and other old-school rappers, spoke at length to an audience courtesy of Red Bull Music Academy [...]