Let’s Get CVLT, Let’s Get TGTHR

Got two great gigs in the next couple weeks that I want to make a little bit of a big deal about! First up, next Monday (May 6) at Middlesex, I’m excited to take a turn as a guest at CVLT, Cambridge / Boston’s semimonthly source for “Electronic Death Music” (as they put it) — […]

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Thank You, Dr. King! (No Thanks, CPS)

Our 5yo brought this home from school this month. I don’t know where to begin. I mean, obviously the last one takes the cake, but I’m also tickled by the first choice students are given: an airplaine vs. a picture of Martin Luther King talking. Hmmm, which one? Admittedly, I’m finding it tricky to introduce […]

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The Kind of Drones We Like

Hard to believe the fall semester is already coming to a close, but we’re going out with a bang in Technomusicology (see & hear some of our projects here and there): Thursday’s final class session will feature a visit from none other than Jace Clayton, aka DJ /Rupture, globe-trotting artist, writer, label honcho, three-turntable magician, […]

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I’m Not a Harvard Man, I’m a Harvard, Man

I’m very pleased to report that I’ll be teaching full-time in the Music Department at Harvard this year, filling the big shoes of two ethnomusicolleagues on leave, Ingrid Monson & Richard Wolf. This is an honor and a pleasure, and even as a one-year non-renewable gig, it sure beats the adjunct beat I was walking […]

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Good Giggity! (Early Summer Edition)

Summer vibes really on lock all a sudden, eh? Boston tropical and ting! (In fact, the main reason I’m finally getting around to writing this post — best intentions notwithstanding — is on account of IT IS TOO HOT TO SLEEP.) The dog daze arrived just in time, tho, for I’m delighted to report that […]

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How To Wreck a Nice Book

This Thursday at MIT, Dave Tompkins will be giving a talk based around his book, How To Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder From World War II To Hip-Hop. I’ve not given the book a full treatment on the blog, but I’ve been recommending it to anyone I talk to about music or technology or […]

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& Found! (But Still a Little Lost)

Not long after my last post went public, a savvy searcher quickly proved that what I thought was fairly ungooglable (at least without knowing Arabic) was, in fact, waiting for me on eBay. And beyond simply locating & IDing the music/CD in question, this kind commenter hit Arabkidsmusic paydirt. First, I want to take back […]

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And the Beat Goes On…

Beat Research is sad to announce that after 7.5 years of hosting our experimental party music, the Enormous Room is closing its doors. DJ Flack and I were pretty surprised when the rumors started circulating last Tuesday that this past weekend would be the club’s last, but we felt like we went out with a […]

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Beat Research, Humungo Edition!

Mungo’s Sound (which will not, alas, be in attendance this Monday) Permit me to dub the description of my partner Beat Research, the estimable Mr.Flackett — Yes the heavy heavy sounds of Mungo’s Hi Fi will be coming through BR for a special last minute stop while on tour from Scotland. The world-renowned producer is […]

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Brinksmanship

2nite at Beat Research! Somerville DJ Brinkley Sound makes his club debut after a long tenure spinning both punk and disco shows on left of the dial radio station WHRB, and making noise with local bands including The Sinister Turns and Hedge Fund. In homage to his namesake, John R. Brinkley, founder of the nation’s […]

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Upradical Research

So, suffice to say that we’re absolutely Cavendish about our guest for this Monday’s Beat Research — If you haven’t been getting down to the mixes and remixes of Uproot Andy over the last few years, we’re not sure what sort of dank hole you’re living in. From his perch in multiculti Brooklyn, Andy has […]

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Incoming / Outgoing

Despite my relative silence here this summer — about which, more soon — big tings a gwaan, especially as the fall semester rolls around. First up, I’m thrilled to report that I leave today for Rotterdam, my first visit to Holland / the Netherlands! I’m fortunate to have been invited to participate in a conference […]

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El Freaky Research

This Monday at Beat Research we’ve got a midsummernight’s dream of a bill — and how’s that for a flyer! (thx, fatsuggardaddy) El Freaky is a renowned DJ/VJ collective hailing from Bogotá. They’re up in these parts on part of a tour which brought them to NYC this past week for the LAMC, where, based […]

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Wayne b/w “Actual” Wax

I’m happy to announce that tonight I’ll be playing some records — yes, honest-to-goodness slabs of vinyl — alongside Tim of A Stack of Dusty Records, at an old and fave haunt: River Gods — the spot where I used to host Wicked Wicked Thursdays back in my pre-BR days and, yes, the place where […]

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April Is the Cruelest Month

What is it with early April? Two days ago we mark the assassination of MLK, yesterday is the day we lost both Layne and Cobain (some years apart) — I don’t talk much about my grunge years here, but rest assured I sported mad plaid in the mid-90s — and today was the day the […]

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Some Boston Beats (and Rhymes) This Week

Tonight at Enormous Room, Beat Research is delighted to welcome Zuzana Husárová, a Slovakian scholar currently in residence at MIT. In her own words, Zuzana is into: electronic literature, inter/transmedial narrative, digital art, interdisciplinary literary theory, theory of fictional worlds, multilinear writing, techno-aesthetics, performativity of digital sign, playful aspects of culture, etc. She also takes […]

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7 Years of Beats Researched

Tonight marks an amazing 7 years of warped records, self-destructing mp3s, and other mutant musical tricknologies at our modest but massive Monday institution, Beat Research! #swag To celebrate, we’ll be ringing the anniversary alarm with two of our favorite purveyors of bassculture-bred dance musics from the wide, wired world: erstwhile Bostonian DJ Ripley and Boston’s […]

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