NPR shouts out our latest release: DJ /Rupture "Uproot"

NPR showing the love on our latest release, DJ /Rupture "Uproot."
Cool radio podcast for your listening pleasure.

All Songs Considered on NPR.

Each summer, the Pitchfork Music Festival draws thousands of fans to Chicago to hear three day's worth of performances, by more than 40 bands. It's a mix of some of the best new and largely unknown, independent bands of the year. On this episode of All Songs Considered, host Bob Boilen talks with freelance reporter Jacob Ganz about some of the music Ganz discovered while covering this year's festival, which ended July 19.

Here's the link.

DJ /Rupture Interview at the Pitchfork Festival on NPR

Photo and Interview bu Jacob Ganz

Last year, Pitchfork called Jace Clayton's newest mix under the name DJ /rupture one of the 10 best records of 2008. Uproot is a dark and throbbing mix of alien sounds; hardly the kind of thing you'd expect to hear at an outdoor dance party in front of thousands.

The Brooklyn-based DJ/blogger/journalist knows how to make unfamiliar sounds alluring, but Clayton told me he felt like the odd man out at the festival. We talked behind one of the festival's main stages after The Walkmen played and as M83 was warming up, and he told me he wasn't familiar with either group. After our interview, he bolted the festival grounds to track down some of Chicago's cumbia record shops.


Dancing to /Rupture at the Pitchfork Festival


You told me earlier that you've played a bunch of festivals abroad, but that this was your first in the U.S. Did you change anything from your usual festival set?

JC: I'm the only DJ at this festival. Three days of music, I'm the only solo DJ on a stage mixing records. That's never happened to me before. So that's the main difference. The lean here is toward "indie" guitar music and away from electronic or club music, which are the circles I usually play in. I have two types of sets. One is a more dancefloor-oriented, kinetic, "let's get bodies moving," "from the ear to the waist" type of thing. And then I also do experimental sets with a guitarist, Andy Moor from The Ex. That's improvised turntables and guitar.




When you're putting together a set for the radio show, you know you've got a dedicated audience on the radio or web. Do you have to do anything different here to hold the audience's attention?

What I do on the radio has nothing to do with what I do on stage. When I DJ, I use a mixer with effects built in and three turntables, and I'm deeply immersed in the music. On the radio show, I play one song after the other. I talk between songs; it's more of a forum for sharing things I find interesting.

There is an element of that in your DJ sets, though.

But on the radio, I can play 10 minutes of very quiet electro-acoustic music from Tehran and get on and talk about it after. I can't do that on stage.

Wait, how exactly do you go about finding electro-acoustic music from Tehran?



[Laughs] Open ears. I'm very curious about a lot of music, and I spent a lot of time scouring CD and vinyl shops when I was growing up. That's happening less these days, but when I travel, I always try to go and see what's new. Electro-acoustic music from Tehran is easy. That's on Sub Rosa, a medium to small European experimental label. Finding music in 2009 is a real mix of going somewhere and talking to people face to face, and then of course the online stuff.

Tell me about a couple of songs in your set that you know will get a reaction -- something that will get people moving, or really shock them.




I like to mix shocking songs in, but I have a good feeling about what will get people moving. A DJ has to be quite sensitive to issues of context. I played a cumbia remix with an Ol' Dirty Bastard sample. You can dip into these moments of recognition with a sample or well-known song, but what I like to do when I DJ is take that energy when people have those moments and pull them into something totally unfamiliar. From my point of view, a lot of being a good DJ is that give-and-take relationship with the audience. You don't want to alienate them, but at the same time, it's quite boring if you're only playing Madonna remixes with a Baltimore break underneath. Which many DJs can tour the world doing, but to me, that's just stagnant and uninteresting. It's okay, but only if you're using that familiarity as an entrance to go deeper. The most exciting thing is, when you can, you get 5,000 people dancing to something they've never, ever heard before.

I heard some music from your most recent record, Uproot, during your set. It's a slow, moody record. Will your next record be similar?

This November, I'm putting out a follow-up that's maybe a little more rough around the edges. Uproot was my most emotionally and sonically focused record. And part of that was that it was 100 percent legally licensed. So I couldn't put in the mainstream stuff. But I certainly keep moving. If you had caught me DJing five years ago, I would have sounded radically different.

People can hear some of the mixes you made online, right?

I did a mixtape called Gold Teeth Thief in 2001 that had a lot more mainstream stuff. That's still online for free. I did another one called Minesweeper Suite that's noisy drum-and-bass. But genres rise and fall, so I try to go for a dynamic that's beyond that. I think my fans understand that I'm a moving target, and they like that. Today's set was a show to get people moving in a park. Uproot was a headphone record or a car record. A subwoofer record.

Tell me a little bit about making Uproot. Where did you find the music on it, and did you try to keep to a specific tone?

The reason I started doing Uproot was that I realized I had a lot of friends doing music with a lot of bass and a lot of space, taking on these ideas of club music in the late 2000s and pushing that. First, I asked a cellist/composer I work with named Jenny Jones to write a string quartet for this mix, so that was the seed of Uproot. And the record just grew around that. I'm lucky in that I know a lot of people who send me music. The new record continues in that direction. I mixed it with my musical partner, Matt Shadetek, so we reached out to a bunch of Brooklyn people like Gang Gang Dance and Telepathe and did remixes of their songs. We have a Brooklyn vocalist called Jahdan Blakkamoore and we produced two tracks with him. I tried to pull in friends of mine. Elizabeth Alexander, who read at Obama's inauguration; she's on there, as well. So it's almost a hybrid between a mix and a producer album.



Have you seen anything here at the festival that made you excited?

Musically, I'm kind of an odd duck here, but the thing that's made me most excited is the lack of corporate sponsorship. That's really fantastic. If this were in Europe, there'd be beefy security with headsets on and this would be the X-beer company stage. That one would be the X-energy drink stage. And there would be a huge glowing soft-drink logo behind you while you DJ. Maybe not that bad, but the presence of big trans-national companies at festivals of this size. So to see this happening here in Chicago with nothing like that -- the local beer is sponsoring that -- translates to the atmosphere. It's just a day in the park.

There aren't even Pitchfork signs.

Yeah, that's kind of amazing. It's like the indie aesthetic writ large. This success story of a guy who started this in his basement which turned into a media juggernaut. But there's a DIY, you-can-do-it-too feeling. That's really encouraging.

Here the NPR piece.

DJ /Rupture at the Pitchfork Festival

Chicago July 17-19. Balance Stage. 4:30 PM Sunday.
Here's the link.

New Lloop and qpe Albums, Free MP3s, Reviews

Our friends at Textura review the new Lloop and qpe albums:



"We've been diggin' The Agriculture's choice beats for many years and so are naturally delighted that two of the Brooklyn-based label's artists, Lloop (Rich Panciera) and qpe (Kacy Wiggins) were willing to contribute Top 10s to this month's issue. Many will be familiar with the work Philadelphia native Panciera produced in the early-'90s as a key figure in New York's so-called "illbient" scene and as one-third of WE™—the other members Once 11 (Ignacio Platas) and DJ Olive (Gregor Asch)—and Liminal, a collaboration with DJ Olive and guitarist Danny Blume. Though Pancier's built up an extensive discography filled with compilation, group, and guest appearances, his solo output has been modest, with the new dubstep-influenced 60 Hertz the long-gestating follow-up to 2001's Bulbbs. Concurrent with Lloop's new release is Wiggins' own latest qpe chapter, the one true constant, which arrives three years after Gentrified. The new disc finds Wiggins further refining his "Hip Hop Nouveau" style which, in keeping with the quiet personal electronics (qpe) name, offers a soothing antidote to the excessively complex and overly dense music-making one might find elsewhere."

Free downloads of:

Lloop: "Lei-tzu"
(60 hertz, The Agriculture)

qpe: "Holographic Principle"
(the one true constant, The Agriculture)

Here's the complete review.

Lloop and Kacy also put together play lists --- check that here.

DJ /Rupture "Uproot" Reviews Recap

Pitchfork, Pitchfork's Best of 2008, Amazon, Sonic Minefield, Popmatters, Tiny Mix Tapes, Prefix, Dusted, Other Music, Resident Advisor, New York Times, Lost At Sea, URB, Inside Music, Last.fm, Trash Menagerie, Discogs, The Factual Opinion, MOG, Dubspot, Epinions, Yale Herald, Rhapsody, GBH, Austinist, FAIL, eMusic, Nialler9, Boomkat, Earplug, Textura...

Agriculture Showcase May 1 in Brooklyn

It's been a long while since we had all the fellas in one place...

Friday May 1

Beyond Booking presents
THE BUNKER

FRONT ROOM:

Jace Clayton aka DJ /Rupture has been one of our favorite DJ's
for a very long time. He played a few impressive sets at
Spinoza's Undercity event at the old Halcyon space on Smith
Street around 2000-2002. In 2001, he put out the Gold Teeth Thief
mix, which caused a global stir and really put him on the map.
Since then, he's done several mixes for Tigerbeat6 and Violent
Turd. Although best known for his mixes, Jace is also a very
talented producer who has put out amazing albums for The
Agriculture and Tigerbeat. He is also one of the most interesting
music bloggers out there, and hosts an essential weekly radio
show on the greatest radio station in the world, WFMU. 2008 was a
big year for /Rupture. His "Uproot" mix CD on The Agriculture
garnered wide critical praise, making it into Pitchfork's top 10
albums of 2008 and Resident Advisor's top 5 compilations. Jace
hasn't played at set at The Bunker since he tore the roof off of
The Bunker 4 Year Anniversary Party at subTonic (one of the
final, and best parties we ever had down there).

http://www.negrophonic.com/rupture/


Also joining us will be The Agriculture co-founder Gregor Asch
aka DJ Olive The Audio Janitor. We could go on and on and on
about his many accomplishments, but here's the short list:
founded WE and played a huge role in the Brooklyn underground art
party scene in the 90s, founded Phonomena Thursdays at subTonic
(the party that introduced us to that magical space) in 1999,
founded the Agriculture label with James Healy in 2003, showed
work at the Venice and Whitney Biennials, and recorded and toured
with a mind boggling list of notable experimental musicians.
Olive was one of the first people Spinoza met upon moving to NYC
12 years ago, and has remained a constant inspiration and good
friend ever since.

http://www.djolive.com/


Raz Mesinai aka Badawi is another key member of The Agriculture
family. He first made a splash in the mid-90s as one half of the
seminal Sub Dub duo with John Ward. Their early releases are
still very much relevant and worth digging out (in fact, The
Agriculture re-released some of their best material earlier this
decade). His many albums as Badawi are some of the best
electronic dub and just plain otherworldly unclassifiable music
we've ever heard. He's gone on to play with many of the most
notorious downtown musicians, had his original music performed at
Carnegie Hall by Kronos Quartet, and has released albums on John
Zorn's Tzadik album. He has recently been embraced by the
dubstep community, and even released a remix on the latest Skull
Disco compilation. Tonight, he treats us to a rare live dub set
as Badawi.

http://www.razmesinai.com/


Kacy Wiggins aka quiet personal electronics (qpe) is a subtly
profound composer whose reputation as a live performer and
soulful soother of the frenetic New Yorker has earned him a solid
following. His music takes off from instrumental hip-hop,
stealthily skirting the no-fly zones of excessive complexity and
over-production around much of IDM and trip hop, to land in a new
sonic terrain: Hip Hop NouveauLike the man behind the beats,
qpeís music reflects a quiet, understated, yet undeniably funky
style, one that brings out a diverse crowd, women and men of all
gentrifractions.

http://www.theagriculture.com/qpe.html



BACK ROOM:
[a]pendics.shuffle (Adjunct, Mo's Ferry, Orac, We Are | Berlin) live
Convextion aka E.R.P. (Down Low, Matrix | Dallas) live
Derek Plaslaiko (The Bunker, Spectral | Queens)
Spinoza (Beyond, The Bunker | Brooklyn)

FRONT ROOM: THE AGRICULTURE SHOWCASE -
DJ /Rupture (The Agriculture, Soot, Dutty Artz | Brooklyn)
DJ Olive (The Agriculture, room40 | Brooklyn) live
Badawi (The Agriculture, ROIR, Skull Disco| NYC) live
qpe (The Agriculture | NYC) live


Kenneth James Gibson (best known as [a]pendics.shuffle) is a man
of many personas. Keeping up with him can be a time consuming,
yet rewarding venture into sound. As soon as you think you know
him and can grasp what's going on, he puts on yet another mask
and becomes something else. Always a surprise and never a let
down, he gives us what we want but donít expect. A rare stone in
todayís musical climate, Ken is rolling and collects no moss.
Over the years, [a]pendics has released music on a ton of labels,
including his own Adjunct, Dapayk's Mo's Ferry, Caro's Orac,
Agaric's We Are, Adultnapper's Ransom Note, Matt Tolfrey's
Leftroom, and Big Bully's Mineral. Ken has a ton of new
[a]pendics.shuffle productions that will see the light of day
soon, as well as the mighty impressive Bell Gardens debut album.
Bell Gardens is Ken's new project with Brian McBride of Stars of
the Lid. We've heard the demo, and think it's safe to say that
the album will blow minds and get a ton of attention when it gets
released.

http://beyondbooking.com/artists/apendics_shuffle/


Gerard Hanson (aka Convextion) hails from the unlikely
environments of Dallas, Texas. His productions have reflections
with the Basic Channel/Chain Reaction sound, and his inspirations
include Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Stefan Robbers, Red Planet and
Carl Craig. He released his first 12" in 1995. From 1995-1997, he
released 5 ep's, and then only 2 more in the next 6 years. Tracks
from his first releases were licensed to some big mix CD's and he
never got paid, which soured him on the msuic industry. After
that, other labels approached him but just wanted more of the
same and didn't really seem to understand his sound. After a
couple years of making music that nobody got to hear, the label
Down Low convinced him to start releasing his music again. His
current live set draws material from both his deep techno
Convextion alias, and his electro-edged E.R.P. (Event Related
Potential). Gerard remained willingly anonymous from the tieme
of his debut in 1995 until his debut European Live performance
in London in April 2006. While he occasionally comes out to play
amazing events like the Labyrinth festival in Japan and Bloc
Weekend in the UK, his live performances are still quite rare,
and we are honored that he has agreed to play for us at The
Bunker.

http://www.convextion.com/


WARNING: Public Assembly has strict security at the door. No matter
how old you are or how often you come to the Bunker, please bring
government ID with you from now on to avoid conflict at the door.
You must be 21 or older to attend this event.

DJ /rupture on XLR8R TV

Since his mixtape heard 'round the world, Gold Teeth Thief, dropped in 2001, Clayton (a.k.a. DJ /rupture) has become well-known for telling us what we should be listening to. For the past couple years, he's been knee-deep in cumbia and Latin beats. Here, he teaches us about cumbia and takes us to bootleg CD shops in San Francisco's Mission District to sort the wheat from the chaff—hardly an easy feat in the world of digital piracy.