The overall message of the concert was good,  revolution via hip hop, forward thinking trying to bring people out of poverty and all that, but it was kinda overshadowed by violent rhymes.

Technique had several speeches about current political affairs, and his beliefs on domestic abuse that seemed heartfelt and on point except that its the same rehearsed speech for each show.

Some highlights were his combinations of Spanish and English rapping, the fact that he performed old popular songs and not only his new album (which fails in comparison to Revolutionary Vol. 1 and Revolutionary Vol. 2)

just click that picture from the link

Educated Consumers is another Maryland based hip hop group. which seems to be all im finding lately.

But this style of video/animation apparently is common enough that i found another one from a song that came out a few years ago. Maybe its a program that puts them together? i dunno still pretty interesting

im not sure if everyone’s seen this before and i’ve been under a rock but i came across this video and thought it was pretty crazy.

-Reactable-

From what i understand its some sort of interactive table and each block sends a different signal to some central computer that produces audio. The signal is easily and instantaneously changed by altering the blocks position.

here are some videos describing how it works and a video of a performance from 2006.

<– Description

<— performance

I’m guessing one of these things is grossly expensive, but it would be fun to get a chance to play around with one. It seems like it would give several DJs and producers a chance to work together on a common medium rather than mixing several instruments and programs at once.

Seeing a live show would also be more entertaining than the usual turntable and laptop set up hah

As for this weeks playlist, heres a link to a free mixtape from a collection of people in the washington DC area.

http://www.foodcc.com/

Its worth the free download if you like hip hop

Also on the list for playlists, one of the artist Cubbiebear has an album coming out called “The Rape”.

‘The Rape, is not referring to sexual assault. It relates to how the music industry rapes us as artists.’(thanks Brandon) to how music is stolen now, to how I (Cubbiebear) feel i’ve had to push myself threw the clutter of polluted meaning that is ‘Hip Hop’ . from the self claimed ‘King of the City’ rappers flooding the scenes with cell phone pictures of their rhinestone or air brushed R.I.P. shirts, to mainstream artist and corporations who chose to slowly de-evolve. Or anyone affected in music, from promoters who are snakes, to said rappers, to everyday people. Our identities are gone, everyone is everything they see. you are your favorite rapper, he is you. you wear the same pants, you talk the same way, your girl acts like the girls they show. you all get to where you are being who someone else is and then escape in drugs to hide from the effect that follows it. Alot stems from music but others as well, an can be changed simply in each area. but its not, we are cavemen, For me it’s life, and my life is music, It could be called ‘The Forced’ but i think it’s worse then forced, its mocked, it’s made fun of, it’s humiliated, Its Raped.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=44721584

Is an old song from an artist i know pretty much nothing about. I saw the video on a website a long time ago and really liked the trumpet and jazz theme. Thats the only song i’ve ever heard by him and can’t really find anything else. But the drumming is simple and repetitive and there isnt a large bassline but it still makes for a really interesting beat

Teddy Faley is a maryland rapper who i dont think has made it passed the youtube/myspace scene. He’s a friend of a member of Rosetta Stoned (another maryland/D.C rap group) who i know a member of. The song is pretty simple again with simple drumming and a synth.

I’m still thinking of trying to get someones’ vocals recorded for a piece and maybe working more with samples and the EA equipment in the lab when i get more free time

I’ve been playing around getting a lot of vocal samples from a canadian rap group named “sweatshop union” i tried sampling the chorus to their song “hit the wall” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v9zzZa39Lc. But I’m having some trouble filtering out some of the underlying piano and drums. As well as a vocal bridge section in the song “try” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGwqxVv-jJs (1:58-2:14)

My next piece i think will be more of a mash-up/remix than a song created from garageband loops and a vocal sample.

I also want to have something more upbeat. I’ve been listening to A lot of Classified and Sweatshop Union as well as some more MTv-style urban rap like T.I. and a Bun B album i just got that just sounds better in my car driving around being silly

play-list:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUQYiD9RhHk <– Classified “hard to be hip hop”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_LuXzZki_Q <– Bun B & Lupe Fiasco ” Swang on ‘em”

The better of the 2 shows i saw this past weekend. Sole and the Skyrider band is an intense show. The funny part of that was i was one of maybe 25 people at the venue. Combating the 7th game of the Red Sox -Tampa series in boston was possibly a little to blame, other factors most likely include the relatively selective community who enjoys Sole’s style and the Skyrider band.

Both openers were local Massachusetts performers. Scroll was once a rapper but performed with Shortrock who is a dj. Scroll mashed up some of his songs on an mpc1000 while shortrock scratched up some samples and displayed a good example of turntablism

Sole and the skyrider band includes:
Sole using vocals and some EA machines infrequently
A live drummer with full set

A second percussionist who also uses a mpc

A electric guitar/violin/mandolin player who uses a keyboard and EA equipment.

Sole performing an older song “plutonium” off the “Selling Live Water” album (pre-skyrider days) with the skyrider band in hollywood @ the knitting factory

Scroll was probably one of my favorite openers ive seen in a long time. One of my favorite things to see live is a producer and dj working together. One of my favorite examples was seeing Dj Signify and Blockhead do live remixes of songs at a show. Scroll isnt well known enough to have youtube videos but his myspace (www.myspace.com/scrollmpc) has a few of his songs and a video of him making one which is fun to watch.

The other show i saw was Atmosphere’s Paint the Nation tour at “The Station” in Portland, on Friday night. It was enjoyable alot larger of a venue and crowd. Atmosphere being a lot more popular had a larger following obviously.

The Atmosphere performance was well done, had a female vocalist with him to do most of the samples he usually uses in his music

Currently listening to: Scroll- Singing Songs from Nowhere

I agree with his comments on the female singer being using a “theremin” (at the time i had no idea wat it was) to make an interesting noise. I saw them live because they were an opener for Aesop Rock at a small club show in Cambridge.  They got a mixed reaction, being very different in genre from what the headliner was, and also being somewhat overbearing.  I saw a few people decide that their hour segment was a good time for a cigarette break or to go get a few drinks and other people creep much closer to the stage.  I was pretty indifferent to their style, I’m not a huge fan of electric guitar riffs and they had a punk-y feel which im also not a terribly big fan of, but i did enjoy the ambient unknown sounds that the female singer produced as well as some of her keyboarding

Chantal’s review of Ratatat

The only thing ive really heard before reading her review was a quick verse a rapper named Despot did over a ratatat beat. So i guess i can relate to her reasons for liking ratatat, the ability for vocals to be mixed in with their songs easily.