New Dada Music_March 2023

Sounds + Links from Jeff Mills, Angel Bat Dawid, King Britt, B. Cool-Aid, Yazmin Lacey, Marijus Aleksa, Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra, Saint Abdullah & Jason Nazary, Felipe Gordon x Kai Alce...

New Dada Music is an occasional (monthly?) summary of releases I am shouting about on Dada Strain’s IG Stories and Twitter, with rhythm, improvisation and community as the guiding lights. Folks have been asking me for recommendations around Bandcamp Fridays, and because many of the releases I highlight are available there directly from the artist/label, it felt like a useful piece to add to the Dada Strain feed. (Let me know if you feel otherwise.) Also included here are mixes and other musics that stood out. All texts are copy-edits, fact-checks and minor amendments to the character-limited write-ups on Elon’s hellscape. Please support the artists, labels, independent musickers, and broadcasters who struggle against the algorithm and apathy. Thanks for reading and listening.

Jeff Mills, Metropolis, Metropolis (Axis) - In February, I had the privilege to hear and experience The Wizard’s re-envisioned live score of Fritz Lang’s 1927 futurist silent-film about humanity’s struggle against the machine society — and it is a wonder. To call this music “symphonic techno” seemingly deadens it to a “beats with an orchestra” cliche; it’s much grander and more subtle than that, with long-form instrumental passages which reflect the film’s narrative scope, Mills’ Detroit/UR history and occasional utopian technologist dreams, as well as great orchestral soundtracks.

B. Cool-Aid, Leather Blvd (Lex) - The second album from the visionary producing/rapping dup of Ahwlee and Pink Siifu is a star-studded community affair. (A partial list of guests — Liv.e, Jimetta Rose, Butcher Brown, Ladybug Mecca, Melanie Charles — is reflective of the musical scope.) Resonant of classic narratives like Voodoo and To Pimp a Butterfly, its myriad funky voices and sounds tenderly sketch an immense expansive Blackness, from the block to the inner-/outer-verse.

Angel Bat Dawid, Requiem for Jazz (International Anthem) - Angel's new album is a song-suite homage to Great Black Music, where operatic and spiritual vocals exist triumphantly next to 808s, presented through a lens of music often referred to as "jazz." But what, exactly, is that? Filled with sonic and historical wisdom, this Requiem is a breath-taking answer. (Related Recommended Viewing: Requiem is inspired by the dialogue in Ed Bland's great 1959 short, "The Cry of Jazz." The score is by Sun Ra, but the discussion centers on the history of Black music (and, of course, race) in America.)

Marijus Aleksa, As They Are (Music Information Centre Lithuania) - Lithuanian jazz drummer Aleksa's fascination with mixing technology and global rhythm continues pushing him towards soundscapes of what I would call club-adjacent beats. These are not so much “tunes” or “tracks,” as massive tools for DJs who like to play jazz, in which ambience meets multi-continental drum (-machine) circles.

King Britt, Ancestor Message EP (Black Catalogue) - Professor Blacktronika’s return to techno (on Monty Luke's Black Catalogue label), is a lovingly protracted trio of tracks, a spatial machine-dance of synth layers and beats which come and go freely, but always hold the horizon in sight. The 16min title jam feels like a deep “instant classic.”

Yazmin Lacey, Voice Notes (self-released) - After years of singles and EPs, the Nottingham-based soul-jazz songbird has made a full-length debut — and it's spectacular. With executive producer oversight by the mighty Dave Okumu, it’s loaded with tunes, grooves, dub flavors, emotional insights, and all that you want out of a full musical life.

Rob Mazurek - Exploding Star Orchestra, Lightning Dreamers (International Anthem) - The trumpeter’s multi-generational, Chicago all stars-heavy orchestra — this recording includes Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Craig Taborn, Gerald Cleaver, and live samples from many others — has mutated into a mighty groove and electronic-composition ensemble. It reminds me of My Bloody Valentine if Kevin Shields led an experimental big-band. Dreamers floats and rages, with Damon Locks' words an essential, atmospheric guide.

Bantu Spaceship, Bantu Spaceship (Nyami Nyami) - The Harare-based producer Joshua Madalitso Chiundiza, vocalist/poet Ulennni Okandlovu and a large cast of South African and Zimbabwean musicians craft a spacious idea of how local sounds such as jit and chimurenga can partner with drum-machines. On this spaceship, past and future visions exquisitely intertwine.

Felipe Gordon, For Martha EP (Royal Oak) - When it comes to what passes for popular house music at the moment, I am a simple-ass man with simple-ass tastes: gimme a tight snapping beat, some jazz chords, and on-point instrumental playing on-top. It don’t need to be fancy, just focused. Over the past few years, Bogota DJ/producer Felipe Gordon has been serving me exactly what I want. And here — especially on a pair of Kai Alce mixes, with lovely, blue, nearly muted trumpet lines — perfection is near.

Saint Abdullah & Jason Nazary, Evicted in the Morning (Disciples) - From my myopic perspective, Evicted continues drummer-synthesist Jason Nazary's path of improvisation via organic electronics, now alongside Saint Abdullah (the Tehran-born Brooklyn-based brothers, Mohammad and Mehdi Mehrabani-Yeganeh). These are gorgeous, constantly unfolding compositions, crossing ambient-jazz and "modular shredding."

Pampidoo, Synthesizer Voice + Legowelt Remix (Rhythm Discs) - Newly remastered by perennially brilliant Dutch electro producer and studio wiz Legowelt (Danny Wolters), Jammys original 1987 digital dancehall classic sounds gorgeous. And the subtle remix pushes the vocoder and depth into potentially deeper situations. Will be a wonder to hear thru big speakers. (UPDATE: played it at Trans-Pecos last week, and it sounded AWESOME!)

Gerald Cleaver, Brandon Lopez & Hprizm, In The Wilderness (Positive Elevation) - I was at the 2019 Shapeshifter Lab gig which this drums-bass-electronics album is based on (taped at?), and even hearing it in-real-time, the music sounded like a novel digital-jazz pathway. The primary vibe is lo-fi soundscape illbience — musicians tentatively, supple-ly improvising their footing — yet occasionally it coalesces into a magnificent "if Villalobos was a live trio" laid-back dub-techno.

Ela Minus & DJ Python, ♡ (Ricardo Villalobos Remixes) (Smugglers Way) - Speaking of which… It makes all the best sense that Ricardo would bring his Latinidad techno eccentricity to a pair of epic remixes for this diaspora duo. (Last time I went to hear him DJ, I could’ve sworn he was dropping Bad Bunny vocals inside one of his crazy productions.) Of the two here, "Abril" is the ONE: originally a wispy electronic folk song, Villalobos’ version pours out for 40 repetitive, dub-informed minutes, yet always returning to Ela's voice. (And for the record, yes Dada Strain is a longtime card-holding member of the Cult of Ricardo™.)

Gem Valley MusiQ, Music Wama Colourd (PSSNGR) - An antidote to the notion that the development of amapiano has hit a wall. GVMQ is a Pretoria trio who call their version of this music "rough amapiano," scaling back most melodic content, adding percussive techno-dub chaos and vocal call-and-response to the usual smooth vibes. Massive rhythmic+melodic tension without the breakneck pace. (UPDATE: Also sounds great on a huge soundsystem.)

Anish Kumar, “Blackpool Boulevard (Anish Kumar​’​s Casino Dub)” (Technicolour) - 2021's original "Blackpool Boulevard," a collaboration between London producer Barry Can’t Swim and Cambridge's Kumar, was a nostalgic disco-house love letter to "feeling it" at one of Northern Soul’s storied clubs. Kumar’s "Casino dub" strays just far enough away from the territory, while keeping track of the familiar emotion, abstracting the strings and piano, for a deep modernization of history.

Sweater On Polo, “Live Hardware Set At CC || 2023.02.12 ||” - Mali Sweater On Polo, one of the principles behind the Signal Route events, is easily one of my favorite young “techno” beat-makers in NYC, primarily on the strength of his hardware sets. Both I've seen have been simple and divine — and this one from February doesn't disappoint. 40 minutes of no-frills, intense jack.

DJ Pete & Finn Johannsen, “2023-03-11 Live At Der Pudel Ist Eine Power, Golden Pudel Club, Hamburg” - Two of Berlin's finest selectors, all-night tag-teaming at Hamburg's seedy dance-floor mecca? Yes please, and keep it coming. 8hrs(!!!) of bass, drums and expertly chosen adjacent flavors that'll keep you going like a MF. For those who need it, there’s a DL option. (h/t Joe Muggs)