That Which Cannot Be Bought Or Sold Or Destroyed

I was excited to find in my inbox today a link to a brand new LP by one of my favorite artists from whom I hadn’t heard much in a while: the mighty Mutamassik! It’s called That Which Death Cannot Destroy and the liner notes very plainly state that it “cannot be bought or sold.” My man Brian Coleman framed it as follows:

I guess she’s just completely fed-up with the music industry so doesn’t even bother trying to sell stuff, just offers it out and lets the karmic wheel spin. So definitely pass the word along to anyone and everyone you know who would be down with what she’s doing – personally I think it’s amazing stuff.

I do too, and I’m happy to help with the karmaloop. Consider the word passed along; the link too—

>> Mutamassik, That Which Death Cannot Destroy

Before the sounds of the Middle East became de rigueur sampling materials for hip-hop, Mutamassik was exploring ways of fusing various sounds and styles into a compelling, challenging whole, shards a-flying all the while. It’s no surprise that she and /Rupture got together for some un?(w)holy matrimony.

Let’s celebrate Mutamassik’s ongoing industry and willingness to share by enjoying and spreading her music, “motivated by funk and apocalypse” (click to enlarge) —

everything

Tags: album, hip-hop, industry, middleeast, sampling, traxx

9 thoughts on “That Which Cannot Be Bought Or Sold Or Destroyed”

DJ Flack says:

February 18, 2010 at 12:38 pm

Thank you for this gift Mutamassik, your music has always been an inspiration and this new record is awesome! – Keep fighting the power… with your original style and sick experimental beats!

Ahsan says:

February 19, 2010 at 1:24 pm

Wow, listening to it now, this is awesome! parts of it conjure a more elaborate muslimgauze. I was wondering if u know how I might get a hold of a copy at a higher bit rate than 160 kbps?

wayneandwax says:

February 19, 2010 at 1:47 pm

I’m not sure, Ahsan, though it’s a good question. Given your interest/response, it seems like Mutamassik could maybe offer ppl like you the opportunity to pay for higher-qual files. I’m gonna do my best to investigate.

Meanwhile, I’m gonna go ahead and append a nice bit of text from Maga Bo’s FB. His description of Mutamassik’s sound goes well beyond mine, and I’m glad he articulated so nicely what makes her and her music so special —

I was pretty much beside myself when I read on Wayne&Wax that Mutamassik had a new (”not to be bought or sold”) album out – download it. I, like Wayne, am a huge fan of her work. Although we have many friends (and even releases on the same label – Soot Records) and colleagues in common, I’ve never actually met her…..I’ve only heard things like, “oh, she left NYC…she’s in Cairo now. or Dubai. Or she said, fuck all of this, I’m not working in this business anymore.” I suppose part of that, at least, is true. According to her website, she has indeed, left Brooklyn and ventured off to Cairo and now to a cave in Tuscany.

I’ve been hugely inspired by her visceral organic sounds that are cut up and manipulated like only digital audio can be. Cut up and reconstructed, respectful to the source, but utterly destroying it at the same time. Einstuerzende Neubauten. Collapsing new buildings. Destroy to create again. Rhythms that trick you into thinking that you understand it and can predict it and then just totally flips it on you. Thick yet minimal textures describing new and unknown (or not so unkown) sonic spaces. This is not the latest “yebo” track from Jozi or Lagos Town or wherever. There is no remix competition. Nor does it have anything to do with being a heavy dance-floor slammer or big, bad banger. Sit up. This is some seriously fucking heavy Transnational Bass.

Canyon Cody says:

February 22, 2010 at 4:48 pm

this is great headphone music. ornate and grimy.

Lowdjo says:

March 5, 2010 at 9:44 am

Wow! didn’t know she was still active, thx for this!

unsoundbwoy says:

March 8, 2010 at 8:05 pm

heavy rotation for the last few weeks.

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wayneandwax says:

April 26, 2010 at 11:25 am

I want to append to this post some text that Mutamassik recently circulated about the making of this album; like the music, it’s some provocative, thoughtful stuff:

The making of “That Which Death Cannot Destroy”: a studio tour into
stabbing strings, thundering drums, howling conviction

Going from a predominantly raw urban experience (see: childbirth on
Medicaid in Brooklyn, many etcs.) to a raw, rough, rugged rural
experience has taught me many things.

Let me give props where props are due: A decade plus+ in the streets of
New York City and Cairo cut my teeth; half that time in Nature, however,
has kicked my ass. Not just once, but continuously. This has been a
boot camp. If inner city life made me hard, Nature made me harder.

During the making of my latest record, I was mostly wearing a parka,
long johns, 2 pairs of socks, 2 sweatshirts, pants and a hat and every
time I exhaled a condensed pulmonary fog clung to the air
undisputed-by-modern-science measuring the harshness of the situation
(I’d take the parka and hat off when I got sweaty on drums and cello).
I have to frequently cuddle my DAT which I record my masters onto to get
it’s digi-electronic guts warm enough to function. Couldn’t an electric
space heater solve the problem? No. The excess wattage makes the old,
faulty electrical circuit jump. {The American gear (which 99% of our
gear is, brought over from N.Y. on a ship with the entire $5,000 given
to us by the U.S. government for being hard-working, poor and with
child) is converted and stabilized by voltage transformers used by the
U.S. military in the hairiest parts of Afghanistan–not proud, just
real}. There is no central heating. We go deep into the forest to
collect firewood, chop trees, burn burn burn. We make fires to stay
warm (9 months out of 12). CAVEmen-style. We hike 4 miles up the
mountain 5 days a week, bringing empty bottles to fill up at the
mountain spring–whatever we can carry, our daily drinking water. Since
the local water has been privatized it’s chlorinated vapors (which we
have to pay handsomely for) are best avoided. We’ve learned to cement
up falling ceilings, maximize a piece of dirt to grow food (picking up
some ripe sheep shit on the way to the mountain spring to make the
vegetables pop), make a 3-month supply of fuel for heating water last 1
year by only having 15 minutes of hot water every other day–no matter
how harsh the winter– and feed 3 people on a buck. Our only form of
transportation has been our son’s stroller which we used well after he
started walking to haul up large tanks of cooking gas. From it’s
beginnings on Atlantic Avenue, and after many brutal years of
international service as person, baggage, tank, garbage rickshaw, it has
once again been recycled as a safe home for cats. {Note: None of this
new or harsh to anyone but us city
slickers/urbanites/suburbanites/industrialites}.

We have a relationship to Nature that is mostly not Soft, Ethereal,
Romantic as somehow propagated by Dabbling-Vegan-Hallmark-Hippies, but
rather Tense, Negotiating, Respectful…Intense. There aren’t many
affectations here: When I bark and howl on ‘Future Ancient Ruins’ and
many other tracks, it’s a reflection of what I hear around me. Just as
unaffected as the helicopter blades that incessantly circled my
apartment in Brooklyn in 2002 (scanning the Atlantic Ave
Falafel/Atlantic Seaboard/East River circuit just after 911?) and found
their way on my tracks while I was making the ‘High Alert’ Ep.

I’m telling you this, a bell’100th of it all, because maybe you don’t
give a damn, maybe you like my music and are curious, maybe you’re
bored/anxious with your way of life and the world’s-at-large…I’m
telling you because this has made me confront many things, including
accountability/consumption…

But the sparkling gem has been the molecular realization that
Resourcefulness makes you funky. Being able to make ‘Something’ useful
and/or inspiring out of what most people call ‘Nothing’ is a gift
usually bestowed upon the meek. <<>> and/or when Life slips the comfort
right out from under your feet.

Which leads to my upcoming P.E.I. theory….more later.

P.s./disclaimer: I’m not a luddite. Neither am I a glassy-eyed
naturalist who proposes everyone ‘drop out’ to swing naked on vines.

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Wayne & Wax

9 thoughts on “That Which Cannot Be Bought Or Sold Or Destroyed”