On the left:
DJ Technics, an originator in the bmore club game. On the right:
Sany DJ, an originator in the Rio funk game. A similar enough stature in their respective genres, and a remarkably similar recent trend: taking the music places it hasn't been before.
A little over a month ago, Technics alerted the Hollerboard to
some golden new remixes -- still available for d/l on his site -- to much acclaim. Mostly recent hip-hop: quick fixes on Beyonce (w/ and w/out Jay-Z), the new Ciara single, Rick Ross gets tweaked another go around, dusts off an old 2Pac track. But one sticks out like a sore thumb.
Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place (DJ Technics Remix)It's gotten mostly rave reviews
, cropping up in mixes all over the place, and Technics himself affirms that it's among his favorites of his recent tracks. But at first glance, it seems like something you'd expect from a dude who spends too much time on music blogs, knows his way around a copy of Reason, and likes the irony of applying an aesthetic from black Baltimore to white indie kid music.
Technics explains in the thread, "
i'm trying to breath new air into the style of track making....ya know messin wit shit that folks wouldnt even touch." And in the initial post writes, "I BEEN BUSY TAKING MY SHIP BACK."
The sound definitely is something new -- it's much sparser and more minimal, even a little slower (it's Radiohead after all) than the club music I'm used to hearing -- as is the source material. I certainly can't fault the originator for originating, but it still strikes me as a noteworthy phenomenon. To overtake the upstarts, whose West Baltimore roots don't go quite as deep (and for whom the grab bag of other sounds comes more easily), you've gotta branch out.
Then again, the roots of it have been
in the works for awhile, as the
Baltimore City Paper reported earlier this year. As far back as 2003, club DJs were invited to play parties in NYC and
Hollertronix helped blow it up via live gigs and white labels. So slowly the local crews got a clue.
Scottie B: "I didn’t have any idea. We knew they were into it in Philly, in the black crowds, but we didn’t know anything about any white crowds
anywhere."
And with a new audience you've gotta appeal to them, right?
Sany DJ rolled through Europe last month. Not the first Rio DJ to do that, but one of the few certainly. I saw him at
Favela Chic (a questionable name, but a critical mass of Brazilians work there [including the owner] and they bring in some legit Brasileiros to play from time to time. then again, would I feel comfortable opening a bar called Ghetto Chic abroad?), where he dropped the Madonna "Hung Up" remix
I commented on over the summer and
posted more recently.
While funk has been celebrated for its blender-like aesthetic, from my experience it's less wide-ranging than we think. A lot of folks were hyped up on hearing The Smiths or The Clash with Portuguese rapping overtop, or the
more general formulation "punk rock + new wave samples + little kids screaming + miami bass + outsider music industry = most exciting thing going on right now". Call it the unintended Radiohead remix.
But I've listened to a
ton of funk this year, and the punk/new wave sound is definitely in the minority. From what I can tell, it had its hey-day in the late '90s, the era of the Bondes ('crews', roughly, like Bonde do Vinho, who did the "Rock the Casbah" cover). In the present day, however, DJs and MCs are a lot more cognizant of who they're imitating and what they're sampling. "Hip-Hop Radio Traxx" was one of the most popular pirated CDs available in Rio, carrying the most recent commercial rap. Nobody was interested in if I knew who The Strokes were, they were more keen on my knowledge of 50 Cent (or "Cinquenta Centavos"). Indie rock had its place --
A Maldita ["The Damned"] at
Casa de Matriz was very much au courant -- but in an environment far removed (culturally) from the baile funk.
So did Sany remix Madonna with an eye toward the world beyond Rio? Probably. But is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. I've highlighted before his new, more avant-garde style, which he can't play at traditional bailes becuase the crowd's not ready for it yet.
I can't speak as knowledgably about Technics & Bmore, even if I do have the Maryland connection that the City Paper vaunts (but don't give me &
Roxy -- Columbia, Howard County raised -- too much cred: Naymond and Mike, city kids in
The Wire, argue this season whether the KKK exists in HoCo). Sonically, at least, compare the recent cuts to
/rupture's archieved piece from '96 and you'll hear the difference. The newer stuff is, I think, more cerebral, especially the killer choice of the 2Pac vox-cum-manifesto. Maybe the new audience is liberating for some creative ideas that were thus far suppressed. Ditto for Sany. The ass gets tired of shaking and the head wants to enjoy it some more. Of course the music's going to evolve -- none of these sounds are or ever were static -- but the question is with an influence from where and toward what?
Am I hinting at a certain disapproval of these styles being plucked out of their "natural habitat" (or "local scene", for a less objectifying terminology), a process that I myself am implicated in (like I said, don't give us suburbanites too much cred -- Bmore club was news to me too)? Maybe just some caution.
"The only people that are concerned about outsiders are the real outsiders," Aaron LaCrate comments in the City Paper piece.
In club, perhaps it's less of a concern. It's not too hard to get a Bmore DJ or MC up to NYC for a show and have him or her return to Charm City with some extra scratch. The long-time players are playing out, selling records, getting press, and obviously don't mind sharing the trade secrets: Fork out for
Technics' Club Tools and let's hear your remix. But Mr Catra, the biggest MC in Rio, doesn't think he can get a visa to play in the U.S., so we end up with a
Bonde do Role tour instead.
I've avoided the 'a' word -- authenticity -- thus far, but man those kids just don't have it. The sound simply doesn't come natural to art school students from middle-class Curitiba, nowhere near Rio. It's self-aware enough to appeal to Americans and European -- and hey, they're Brazilian, that's enough caché for an unaware audience up North -- but doubtful any bailes in the carioca hills. To bring it full circle: It's the equivalent of me starting a Baltmore club crew.
Yet Sany loves Mariana's vocals and isn't he the best judge? Muito complicado, muito.
