A Tale of Two T-Shirts

As sported/spotted in Global Reggae class last week — Jury’s still out on who that guy with the dreadlocks is. My student assumed it was Bob Marley. Now he knows better.

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Downstairs Bhangra

“Downstairs Bhangra” doesn’t quite have the same ring as “Basement Bhangra,” the legendary monthly at SOB’s that DJ Rekha has been holding down since 1997, but I couldn’t be happier to warm up the crowd for her this Friday at one of Cambridge’s biggest local venues, downstairs at the Middle East. I’m looking forward to […]

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Kingdom Come Again

dude is dead serious We’re happy to welcome Kingdom back to Beat Research this coming Monday, Sept. 13. Readers of this blog need no intro to one of the dopest producers/DJs working the decks in the global bass scene these days. But if you haven’t checked his latest EP, That Mystic (Night Slugs), you need […]

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Wine & Wax

label designs by my better half, photos by moi Tomorrow at Mt. Aubury Winery we’re bottling the wines that we began last September. This is the second year that I’ve participated in a longstanding family ritual. I remember my father (re)starting the tradition back in the early 90s in our basement on Cushing Street, his […]

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Beat Research Turns Six!

Tonight at the Enormous Room, we’re celebrating six years of “experimental party music” at Beat Research. It’s a little hard to believe that it’s already been so long. I can remember when Flack and Jake started the night back in the spring of 2004, and there’ve been countless good times in the years since. For […]

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Frenchie Rhymes

This Monday, the French section of Foreign Languages & Literatures (my home at MIT) is presenting Hamé, a rapper and filmmaker from France. Some of you might know him from his work with La Rumeur. Here’s what is in store for Monday evening — In addition to a sample performance of his rap artistry and […]

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Brent Research

Tonight at Beat Research we’re happy to play host to Brent Arnold, who I had the pleasure to get to know last spring during Nettle’s residency at Brandeis. We like to keep things well mixed at BR, and bringing in a little solo cello + voice + processing is definitely par for the course, if […]

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Autumn 09 Adventures

About to turn the corner on fall/winter, so allow me to remember my favorite season of the year with some choice moments made immortal (as the Internet). Longer time since my last, so a few more flicks than usual. Got a post devoted to Mexico to follow pronto. Here, a fair amount of family fare. […]

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Se Llama Sonido

Tonight at Beat Research: the one-and-only Sonido Martines ! For those who don’t know, Sonido has been a driving force in the recent (re)surgence in cumbia interest outside of its longtime hotspots. He co-authors La Congona New Cumbia with Sñr Rupture, and he’s largely responsible — at least by my ears — for brokering the […]

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[val’er] vt+vint+vpr 1 to value, be worth

Tonight at Beat Research we’re happy to host another cosmo-bass booster from the Great North. DJ Valeo from Toronto is perhaps better known to readers here as DJ Khiasma from Montreal, also known as Guillaume, one of the bloggers and radio hosts at Masalacism. Whatever he’s calling himself at the moment, Guillaume has been one […]

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Battre la Recherche

Hot off the heels of a couple gigs in Sao Paolo, and en route to rock CMJ in NYC next week, le gran Poirier touches down in Boston this Monday to share his latest concoctions with the Beat Research massif. I never quite know what to expect from Ghis. First time I heard him play, […]

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Hip-hop Japan Man

Tonight’s guest at Beat Research is my friend & colleague at MIT, Ian Condry, author of Hip-hop Japan (Duke U Press, 2006). He’ll be joining us this eve to celebrate the translation of his book into Japanese, and he’ll do so by offering a set that traces the broad contours of Japanese hip-hop. I hope […]

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Axel: Scratch as Love

me & keith, mixing under mcgrath (photo by charles daniels) It’s a special week in W&Wland! Not once, but TWICE, I’ll be playing alongside one of my favorite local turntable heroes: DJ Axel Foley. I’ve been jamming with Keith for years now, and it’s always great fun. He provided scratches for several tracks on Boston […]

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Bo Bo Bo!

Readers of this blog need no introduction to the mighty Maga Bo, our guest at Beat Reseach TONIGHT (!), but this blurb from his website sums it up pretty nicely without using the words “ghetto” OR “global” — Maga Bo is a producer/DJ based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His work spans the breadth of […]

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Vampire Squid Beats

Tonight’s Beat Research brings to Boston the shady presence of a shadowy figure known as DJ N-RON. N-RON first caught my ear back in ’05 with his (& Leftenant’s) mix, “A Thunder Sound” (mp3), chock full of remixes and drawing together a wide range of sounds — from dancehall, grime, electro, leftfield hip-hop, ethnomusicology classics […]

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Radio Free Boston

Kevin Driscoll, whose work I mentioned at the end of the songs-as-shared post, is having me on his Todo Mundo radio show tonight on MIT’s WMBR from 12-2am EST (88.1FM or streaming here). Among other things “new, weird, and local” (sez Kev), I’ll be playing some newer versions of old but current things (Akon’s “Wanna […]

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