Returns

O Cabidão caught an overnight flight to Rio on Saturday, rather gladly saying farewell to the U.S. and returning to "a minha terra, o meu Brasil!" Too cold, volume too low, clubs too small (and my basement not the nicest place to live either, granted). After three weeks as the ad-hoc tour manager of the first non-Marlboro DJ to play for American audiences, I now have a more realistic perspective on the viability of bridging the divide between global ghettotechnicians and their northern fans, at least in the case of funk carioca, really completing the circle from wide-eyed onlooker to direct intervener.

I don't want to declare the tour a failure. There were plenty of highlights: Global Frequency, MoFo Radio, Invasores do Baixo, Mudd Up!, TTL in-store, Batida do Funk. And the tour really brought out the best of some fine folks like wayne&wax, Lone Wolf, DJ Ghostdad, and DJ Comrade, all of whom put their time/money/effort/talent into collaborating. Kosta of Bananas even used his west coast contacts to score a show in Seattle on three days notice.

Still, a tour remains an economic proposition, and one that fell fairly flat. It seems that playing the Brazuca circuit (Hyannis, Newark, Bridgeport, Boston, etc.) pays for the plane ticket and is a prerequisite to being able to afford other shows for the knowing gringos. Unfortunately, this means Brazuca crowds will also be driving who gets brought up. Most are not carioca, but from other, poorer states in Brazil, and get their funkeiro fandom from the web, where heartthrobs like Mulher Melancia (the Watermelon Lady) are the top draw. Cabide, in fact, was a relative unknown, so he didn't bring out the Brazilians en masse in New England.

While this tour was a half-and-half proposition, in the future I expect funk DJs and MCs to mostly play for the brasileiros and then, if possible, an interested party like myself, the Boston Bouncers, Xão Productions, or Masala (who had expressed interest, but we had some visa issues) will cobble something together.

The "Batida do Funk" party by Xão at S.O.B.'s was, admittedly, my favorite of the tour. To trot out an old cliche, in the melting pot of New York we were able to find the mixture of gringos in the know, global music aficionados, and plain old Brazilians to make the show a real crossover audience. The addition of Brazilian dancers and a baile funk slideshow by Vincent Rosenblatt of Agência Olhares made for an odd refraction.


Dancers juxtaposed with the image of dancers. A baile funk americano (Cabide repeatedly referred to shows as "bailes") juxtaposed with a baile funk carioca. We were both interviewed for the upcoming film Beyond Ipanema, about Brazilian music in the U.S., whose directors were in the audience. I was unable to tell who was Brazilian and who was American. It's difficult math when a club that serves $10 caipirinhas can't pay the DJ as much as a favela in Rio can, but that's the strange inversion for you. Who mediates, who performs, who speaks (Cabide was mute without English and I was left to translate for film, radio, conversation). He opened for Diplo on the penultimate show of the Mad Decent tour, playing the first set even before some indie band from Brooklyn came on. The headliner later worked in a tamborzão, but he was temporally separated as much as possible from the real performer. Worried about being upstaged the next night, cutting the volume, sucking the life out of the music. Metaphor and fact. Who controls and who performs. The tours are over, but the film will linger.

Nova Iorque

The other direction on I-95 tonight & tomorrow -- Cabide DJ live in-store at Turntable Lab and then a Saturday midnight show at S.O.B.'s.

Cabide Tour Update

Update: The shows in Framingham (Old Station Steakhouse) and Bridgeport, CT are canceled. The rest of the tour is for the non-Brazuca crowd as follows:

10/30 Philadelphia, PA - Medusa w/ DJ Gregzinho, Chip and Becky Soundsystem
11/03 Philadelphia, PA - "Jang House" at The Barbary
11/06 Baltimore, MD - "Bananas" at Bedrock w/ Donkey Bits
11/08 New York, NY - "Batida do Funk" at S.O.B.'s w/ DJ Comrade, MC Zuzuka Poderosa, Supervixen
11/13 Baltimore, MD - Sonar w/Diplo, Boy 8-Bit, Blaqstarr

First show in Philly is coming up fast . . .



And parabéns to Lone Wolf for putting together um ótimo vidéo of Cabide at WMBR.

Blue Monday

Asian markets tumble to historic lows? The blues still got a stranglehold on the Dow? DJ-cum-financial guru Balagan has the solution: Bear Market Beats.



It's going to be a Red Tuesday tomorrow, however, once the Phils put it away tonight. And for full coverage of Cabide DJ in Philadelphia, check Philly's finest nightlife/music/art/fashion blog, FiftyOne:FiftyOne. What it do, indeed. It begins tomorrow with a 1-3 pm appearance on WKDU's Rhythms N' Time.

Try Try Again

There's Cabide DJ holding a copy of the Volt Mix along with one of DJ Ghostdad's old school funk records. Ghostdad is in the background prepping for tonight's appearance on MoFo Radio -- tune in on WZBC 90.3 FM from 10 pm to 1 am.

Cabide is going to talk about the transition from Miami bass to funk, with plenty of vinyl examples. He dragged a suitcase full of records onto the plane, so expect a serious history lesson, with the Miami bass originals followed by the Rio tracks that sampled them.

On the sample tip, I noticed something that Cabide has in common with Euro-African collabo The Very Best. Check out this longie-but-goodie from 2006, an extended montage of "Comunidades," basically a roll call of favelas from across Rio.

Cabide DJ - Megamix das Comunidades by gregzinho

Now compare with The Very Best's "Sister Betina," one of the slower jams on this hyped up (but unmixed) mixtape.

The Very Best (Radio Clit + Esau Mwamawaya) - Sister Betina by gregzinho

Both sampled & sped up (although a higher bpm on Cabide's tune) Aaliyah's smash hit "Try Again."

Aaliyah - Try Again by gregzinho

Curious, although I (mostly) doubt direct inspiration. Timbaland's beats are fertile for all.

JP Party Line

You heard the man. Call now!

And tune in tonight for Cabide DJ on air from 7-8 pm: WMBR 88.1 FM in greater Boston or streaming live on the web

Tomorrow night, MoFo Radio from 10 pm - 1 am: WZBC 90.3 FM in greater Boston or again live sobre o Internet

Cabide DJ Landing Stateside

Pancadão do Morro was just the first step in establishing better international connections between funkeiros brasileiros and americanos. Now, we've got one of the best DJs from the record on U.S. tour. Funk originator Cabide DJ, who I blogged about way back in '06, touched down the day before yesterday and made it through customs & immigration with no problems (graças a deus).

Cabide is not the first DJ or MC from Rio to come up. In fact, the Brazilian expat organizing the tour had MC Biju (who did "Aviãozinho," which appears on Favela on Blast) and Mulher Melancia (an ex-dancer of MC Créu who launched her own career on the strength of a bestselling Playboy Brazil appearance) playing shows here just last month. The catch is that they only play for the Brazilian immigrant community, covering the east coast Brazuca circuit of Boston, Framingham, Hyannis, Danbury, Bridgeport, and Newark.

Fortunately, I got wind of this tour ahead of time, and I'm proud to announce that the forbidding world of international travel worked out and for the first time -- excluding DJ Marlboro, who has always been in a league of his own anyway -- a funk artist is going to perform for crossover crowds, and ideally beginning to bridge that gap between global ghettotechnicians and their not-so-ghettoized fans in the global norte.



There's the man at work in Rio. Now let's see what he an do to the East Coast, where he already played Club Lido in Revere on Friday night, Made in Brazil in Queens last night, and Tuxedo Junction in Danbury, CT tonight. Check XLR8R for a tour-opening boost as well as an mp3 exclusivo.

He follows with Global Frequencies on WMBR this Tuesday, Mofo Radio on Wednesday at WZBC, and then an Invasores do Baixo massive on Thursday with an excellent cast of local characters.


Full tour schedule below, but I'll be making regular updates with flyers for the shows that I organized.

10/17 Boston, MA - Club Lido
10/18 Queens, NY - Made in Brazil
10/19 Danbury, CT - Tuxedo Junction
10/23 Boston, MA - "Bass Invaders" at Milky Way w/ DJ Ghostdad, Nick Yoder, DJ Gregzinho, Philomena, wayne&wax, DJ Flack
10/25 Hyannis, MA - Pufferbellies
10/26 Boston, MA - Taboo
10/30 Philadelphia, PA - Medusa w/ DJ Gregzinho, Chip and Becky Soundsystem
11/03 Philadelphia, PA - "Jang House" at The Barbary
11/06 Baltimore, MD - "Bananas" at Bedrock w/ Donkey Bits
11/08 New York, NY - "Batida do Funk" at S.O.B.'s w/ DJ Comrade, MC Zuzuka Poderosa, Supervixen
11/13 Baltimore, MD - Sonar w/Diplo, Boy 8-Bit, Blaqstarr

Brazilian Rhythms: Distrito de Columbia

Join me and DJ Neville C, proprietor of Som Records, a crate digger's mecca, for a night of, well, Brazilian rhythms. Expect samba & variations, tropicalia, MPB of all stripes, batucada, hip-hop brasileiro, and of course funk carioca.

Cafe Saint-Ex is at 14th and T Streets, D.C. No cover, so vem todo mundo.

[p.s. Post #100!]

DJ Showcase Latinoamericano

This week is the Latin Alternative Music Confernece in el Manzana Grande. As part of it, global music purveyor S.O.B.'s is hosting a DJ showcase of Latin America's musica digital-bass-club-mashup on Thursday night. I'll be holding it down for the Brazilianists with plenty of funk and hip-hop brasileiro, but the rest are a strictly castellano affair -- Mexico, Chile, and Argentina.

The Zizek boys and their cumbia digital should be a big draw, especially on the heels of their monster write-up in Urb. Toy Selectah also has been mining the urban/rural frontiers for many years now and has hopefully cooked up something special for the evening.

Meanwhile, Refusenik and I keep wondering how a couple of white Jews of Eastern European descent (or birth, in his case) ended up on the bill . . . until I discovered my secret identity c/o TimeOut New York. Apparently I'm now from Sao Paulo! All the reason to rep Rio even harder.

In all seriousness, I understand it's going to be the party of LAMC, so if you're in Nova/Nueva York, stop on by.

DJ Showcase Latinoamericano
S.O.B.'s at 204 Varick St.
$10, 21+
Doors at 8:30 pm, show at 9:30 pm

Who Says Vinyl is Dead?

Vinyl sales are up. Cycling is up. Public transit ridership is up. Nothing but good news today.

I've dusted off lots of vintage Chicago house and Detroit techno records for my farewell party tonight. Come by if life is thriving in the good life.

A Farewell to Boston, Beat Research Style

Just as the fine New England summer is settling in, I'm passing through the crimson gates of the Big H (which some might mistake for the Potterish big H on commencement day) and out into the wild blue yonder.

Looking forward, though, to saying farewell tomorrow night at the place that has most exemplified -- and nurtured -- my socio-musical sensibility: Beat Research at The Enormous Room.


If you're in the Bean, and not too busy chanting "Beat L.A." (although the first Celtics-Lakers showdown since, well, the year I was born isn't till Thursday), come by for the always ear-opening beats of wayne&wax and DJ Flack, alongside Gregzinho as special guest.

Call it a goodbye block party, neighborhood style.

The Enormous Room
569 Mass Ave. in Central Square
Monday, June 2
9 pm - 1 am, no cover

MoFo Radio / Invasores do Baixo

Just got back from plying the airwaves over at WZBC, a venerable local college station, for DJ Ghostdad's MoFo Radio. I realize that doesn't do you much good to listen in, since it's now over, but he will be posting the audio in due time.

We talked a lot about funk and of course listened to many tunes from the Volt Mix, tamborzão, and pós-baile funk eras. All of it was promo, to some extent, for a chance to hear the bass heavy beats live!


Bass Invaders is going brasileiro this week. If you'll be in the area, come down to the Milky Way for beats, booze, and bowling (candlepin, of course).

Bass Invaders/Invasores do Baixo
DJs Ghostdad, Nick Yoder, and Gregzinho
Milky Way Lounge & Lanes in Jamaica Plain
Thursday, April 24, 9 pm - 1 am, 21+

Cumbia Is Not a Crime

"Vos tiene de reggaeton?"
"No, disculpa, y na verdad, no hablo español."

An inauspicious start. You mean they want reggaeton here? Oh, right, I'm in that other part of Latin America, the one that speaks Spanish. I've been living off the fat of the DRCLAS, even hoping to append a certificate that I know a thing or two about Latin America to my diploma, but damn if I don't know any español. It's been a quirky point of pride not to speak it, a very Brazilian attitude, really, that one can be immersed in Latin America and have nothing to do with what the rest of the world considers its lingua franca (the number of times I've been asked how my Spanish is when I tell people I'm going to Brazil . . .). Goes right up there with the plucky Brazilian claim that indigenous peoples are not "pre-Columbian civilizations" but "pré-Cabralino", which is in the same vein as theories that the Portuguese discovered the New World.

But I'm not about to arbitrate partisan claims about what's really Latin America, so it was with simple linguistic confusion that I portunhol-ed my way through Buenos Aires. After observing some castellano, at least the Argentine variety, it just took a little foresight to switch my eu for yo, my é for es, my um for uno, and anything ending in -ção for -ión. Which worked surprisingly well when it came to ordering food, asking for directions, and taking cabs. But it meant there wasn't a lick of reggaeton in the digital crates, because what good is it if you don't speak the lingo, gringo (via /rupture). A bit of concern, then, on last Wednesday night, showtime at Zizek, supposedly the hottest party –– at least the hottest billing itself as an "urban beats club" –– in la ciudad federal.


Fortunately, Villa Diamante had my back on that front. And the all-Portuguese funk set went over surprisingly well. I'm glad, however, that Refusenik, a recent Boston-Buenos Aires transplant who set me up with the gig, gave me a heads up on the porteño style. Namely, they'll start swingin' hips as soon as they arrive to just about anything (even experimental breakcore, he claims), but they nurse a couple cervezas all night long and rarely go wild. So it wasn't my fault if rowdy Baltimore club and tamborzão didn't have popuzadas dropping to the floor. They all liked it enough, I was told afterwards, and over the night I got many inquisitive/incredulous questions about the Rocinha t-shirt. Gotta rep the hood, knamean? Generally, the party held true to Refusenik's description as a "clubbier Beat Research." NIM opened with a lot of dubstep, grime, and his latest fave, instrumental grime. In turn, I was followed up by a couple hours of jungle and d'n'b c/o Loder, supposedly the city's hottest junglist. Then Villa D closed it down en español.


The real attraction of the night for me after I stepped out of the DJ role and retreated into the audience, was ¡cumbia! Once the telltale shaker began that ch-ch-ch-ch rattle, I know the DJ had slipped some of Buenos Aires' trademark onto the decks. Of course, I'm out of my league on permutations of pan-Latino music, but I'll hone it down: Zizek is into cumbia villeira, or cumbia coming from Argentina's rough equivalent of favelas, the villas miserias. They mix acoustic (flute & shaker on blast) and electronic production, drop rhymes about typical gangster business, are generally the bane of the middle- and upper-classes.

It's like funk's long-lost cousin from the other side of the Rio de la Plata, if you wanna set-up sketchy analogies like samba:tango::funk:cumbia. But there you have it, another major Latin American city that plays up its image on the back of one music (I swear you can't go two blocks without seeing a tango souvenir), while down on the streets they're swaying to a different beat (of course this isn't a perfect comparison, since samba is just as much favela music as funk is, even if they don't have funk MCs performing for tourists on the train up Corcovado to see Cristo Redentor).

Granted, Zizek was in chic-ish Palermo, a far cry from the villas. And no, I didn't make it to any villas, other than peering out from the overpass onto a cluster of shacks as I headed to the airport, the scene unfortunately reminiscent of passing by the Complexo da Maré on the way in/out of Galeão in Rio. That's the rub on vacation vs. vocation, passing through vs. putting down a few roots. But Zizek isn't just using a cumbia bandwagon to success; rather, it seems to be a nexus of DJs and producers who wanna slice it into the global mess of dubs and steps and dancehalls and grime. I already mentioned Villa D (whose latest album is available for free download off that site), but don't sleep on Oro11 and El Remolón too.

For more información en inglês: Mad Decent is on to something (or at least the comments are) and Ruptureradio had a recent showcase. There's also a little cumbia on the español summer soundtrack of '07: La Ola de Calor, by the incomparable (& original) big bad jugglin' machine. And focusing on the Colombian roots, this comp looks pretty good.

I was also able to stock up on some music despite the short stay in BsAs. Zizek has it all laid out: dude selling CDs in the back, replete with charming touches like track lists skipping some numbers and the actual having way more songs than it claims. It's got that pirate feel, but the mp3 quality is thankfully much better.

So in honor of my inability to habla español, here's a little morsel whose title is self-evident enough and goes well with what I had for breakfast.


Sidestepper - Mas Papaya (from Bosquiman vs. Vampiros -- "Dinamita batatera")

¡zizek!

Having ducked out of Rocinha under cover of bullets (ok, a gross exaggeration, but last Thursday was fucked up regardless), I've taken a temporary reprieve from Rio, trying to do some of the travel I never made it around to last summer. This week finds me in Buenos Aires, where I'll be dropping some beats at the behest of everyone's favorite Slovenian philosopher, which is also an NY Times-approved rager.

Niceto Club
Niceto Vega 5510, Palermo
24 hs.
Entrada: $10 de 00 a 02hs, después $15

El 8 de Agosto
DJs Residentes: Villa Diamante -- NIM -- G-Love
VJ Residente: Lucas DM
DJs Convidados: Scruggs aka Gregzinho -- Loder

LES no estilo FUNK CARIOCA

Sporadic event announcement appear to be Beat Diaspora's life support strategy as of late. Not a very thrilling one, I admit, but a good a time as any to announce that the tickets have been booked and I'll be back in Rio for round two during July and August. With another South American winter criss-crossing the fair green hills of Rio, I promise some serious eyes&ears to the ground. Hold tight, hold tight.

and if you're in the big NYC, drop by the LES for some FUNK. wednesday night, supposedly sweet little spot called Baraza. the night's called Liberation Sound and the rez DJ is a big fan of Brasil-JA connections. I told him to cop MPC's baile-dancehall mixtape and you should too (big ups to Maga Bo for spreading the Rio love worldwide). honestly, we should probably just put that on repeat and call it a night. but expect some Brasil riddims to keep the hip-hop paulista sounding fresh and dub out the harsher ends of the booty bass spectrum.


p.s. debuting "GRS-One" after several other failed iterations. clever or just as bad as what elvis did to chuck berry?

beat research: the francophone connection

french electro, banlieue hip-hop, parisian disco, maghrebi raï, african rap, antillean jazz, and found sounds from anywhere else the French military surrendered.

Beat Research @ The Enormous Room
Monday, February 26
9 pm - 1 am

The Francophone Connection, Bmore Edition

french electro, banlieue hip-hop, parisian disco, maghrebi raï, african rap, antillean jazz, and found sounds from anywhere else the French military surrendered.

If you can't read the fine print, it's:
TaxLo @ Sonar
407 E. Saratoga St. Baltimore, MD
Friday January 26, 9 pm - 2 am

expect more on the modern tick to keep the cool kids happy, but I may slip a biguine track or two in.

Brasil-Beantown Connection

Round two of two in the post-Brasil stateside beat barrage: this time at the Enormous Room for Monday's Beat Research, where far-flung party jams are always welcome.


Also, surprise post-BR event with secret guest DJs. Let's just say it will be RAPTURous.

Beat Research @ The Enormous Room
567 Mass Ave. above Central Kitchen
Central Square, Cambridge, MA

Brasil-Bmore Connection

I'm back. I'm still going to be weeks behind on events from Rio. But, the world doesn't stop for me to catch up, that's for sure. And so, a quick heads up:
Fresh Brasil beats live, as I open for Bmore club DJ extraordinare Dave Nada.

If you can't read the fine print, it's:
TaxLo @ Sonar
407 E. Saratoga St. Baltimore, MD
Friday September 1, 9 pm - 2 am