Return of the Chief

Just a quick post to let you know that Beat Research will be leaping into 2010 tonight with a special guest appearance by Chief Boima. We’ve been lucky to host Boima’s distinctive blends of the best dance music on the planet — with a heavy slant toward African and Afrodiasporic jams — a couple times […]

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Too Much Informatics

BIG NIGHT TONIGHT! First, I’ll be making another radio appearance — this time far briefer — via Benjamen Walker’s new show on WFMU, Too Much Information. Friends and longtime readers know that I’ve been a fan of Ben Walker’s programs for some time now. For those who aren’t familiar, Benjamen has been making some of […]

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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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Reppin Da Bean

Tonight at Beat Research we’ve got a special session in store: our main man, Pacey Foster, will be teaming up with heavyweight hip-hop scribe Brian Coleman to celebrate Boston hip-hop. Yeah, you read that right. And what? We rep da bean, knamean ;) The occasion is the publication of an essay by Pace on the […]

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Mmagicc Kkingdomm

img by photog_friend (cc) Tonight at Beat Research, we’re happy to play host to one of our favorite producers/DJs of the moment, Kingdom! Have you heard his recent mix for Discobelle? You really should. It’s so many different colors of awesome, I can’t even tell you. I’ve been digging Ezra’s approach for a couple years […]

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Follow Ups

For those out-of-towners who were wondering (and I’m flattered, really), it turns out that last week’s talk at MIT, “Skinny Jeans and Fruity Loops,” was recorded after all. That said, it’s audio-only whereas my talk was fairly visual-centric at times, so it’s a little weird to not be able to see the accompanying videos, photos, […]

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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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Dig This: Vote Beat Research

I’m happy to report that our modest Monday throwdown, Beat Research, has been nominated for best Monday Night club thing in the Weekly Dig‘s 2009 Dig This Awards. We’re honored & flattered to be considered for this, as we do our best to hold it down for “experimental party music” here in the Bean each […]

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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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Dub Research

Late notice on this, but if you’re inna di Cambridge area, some dubwise research a gwaan this pm — Michael Veal, professor of ethnomusicology at Yale, bassist, and the author of two interesting and informed books, Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon and Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae* […]

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Hungry Hosts

photo by Max Shay for The Hoot Nettle’s residency at Brandeis — a series of revelations for yrs truly — is now over, but we’re not done hosting geography-defying beatbreakery just yet. Tonight at Beat Research, we’re celebrating our 5th anniversary (!) with the help of Grey Filastine, pictured above playing percussion with Nettle, who’ll […]

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Clap Yr Hands

Tonight at Beat Research, we’re happy to host Boston techno mainstays Soul Clap! The Soul Clappers are a vibrant part of this city’s music/dance scene, playing nearly non-stop, blogging and prolifically podcasting, keeping the flame aloft for (weekly) techno in Boston/Cambridge (including some great parties on the Charles when the weather’s right), supporting a broad […]

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Tonight at Beat Research: DJ Pace

via the Beat Research webpage — Friend, Party Rocker, Bassaholic DJ Pace (aka Pacey Foster) is a multi-instrumentalist with deep hip-hop roots, he was the turntablist in the Franc Graham Band and the experimental live electronic act Elk which included members of Count Zero/Think Tree. He has performed as a club and party DJ for […]

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Atenção!

Cabide DJ has landed. He’s here in Massachusetts. Met the man last night, who blessed me with a couple of those lovely shrink-wrapped CD-Rs so common in Rio. Don’t know bout you, but i CAN”T WAIT FOR SOME LIVE MPC COM NARIZ ACTION!!!11!!1 As Gregzinho details, you can catch Cabide at all sorts of venues […]

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