Take Me Home

Oh, it's Pride in NYC this weekend.
Penelope Edmund
"Hey (DJ Trident & Sister Mantos Remix)"

sintalentos: summer 2010

Summer is the one season that doesn't represent change. In terms of everything from the literal (like the weather) or the abstract (like moods), the other three seasons often feel like transition periods. Fall begets Winter which begets Spring = the life-death-life cycle. But summer? Summer is not the jump-off to Fall, it just is.

Maybe that's why the best summer music is often so simple. Like an act free of premeditation, it represents pure nowness, the core essence of just being. S'why there's incessant pogoing with Posner. S'why there's manic jangle from those Swedish Brasileiras--or is it the other way around?

Ironically, s'why there's probably also the shamelessly ignorant: what do you get when you stir R. Kelly + "chocolate?" Or the shamelessly repetitive (even N.E.R.D.s know to get to the hook within 15 seconds).

Admittedly, for being such an in-the-moment season my subconscious seems to be on constant nostalgia watch. Bands called Delorean. Zola Jesus with her big beat side project. There's even a cumbia-fied Re-return Of The Mack. And my favorite cut? The surprisingly reflective "All I Want."

Enough chatter: enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

Drake: Fireworks (Feat. Alicia Keys)
Killer Mike: Ready Set Go (Feat. T.I.)
Kurupt: Bounce, Rock, Skate (Kurupted Mix) (Feat. DJ Drama, Snoop Dogg, Terrace Martin & DJ Quik)
El Hijo de la Cumbia: Cumbia Dale Maradona (Remix)
Nika+Rory: Do You Wanna Be?
White Flight: Panther
Mark Morrison: Return Of The Mack (SDP Remix)
Lil' Jon: Ms. Chocolate (Feat. R.Kelly & Mario)
Delorean: Simple Graces
N.E.R.D.: Hot & Fun (Feat. Nelly Furtado)
Gyptian: Hold Yuh (Major Lazer Remix)
Big Boi: Lookin 4 Ya (Feat. Sleepy Brown & Andre 3000)
Christina Aguilera: Elastic Love (Feat. M.I.A.)
Zuzuka Poderosa: Anel (Bonde do Zombinhos Remix)
Martin Brothers: Duck Face
Mike Posner: Cooler Than Me (Gigamesh Remix Final Version)
Garotas Suecas: Codinome Dinamite
LCD Soundsystem: All I Want
Rusko: Woo Boost
Usher / Trey Songz: Lil' Freak

Both Sides Now

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sintalentos: day 1

When I tell people I DJ, I usually get one of two responses: the first is a casual "Oh...," the type that trails off towards an ambiguous path of exhausted familiarity or plain disinterest; the second is the slightly more engaged, "What do you like to spin?"

If I had it BK, it'd be transitions between Geto Boys and Bebel Gilberto.

Fleetwood Mac: Albatross
The Beatles: Sun King
Jorge Ben: Minha Teimosia, Uma Arma Pra Te Conquistar
Charlie Parker Sextet: My Little Suede Shoes
Chico Hamilton Quintet: The Morning After
Miles Davis: Venus De Milo
Thelonious Monk: Green Chimneys (Previously Unissued)
Jackie Mittoo & Ernest Ranglin: A Big Car
Dwele: A.N.G.E.L.
Geto Boys: Mind Playing Tricks On Me (Instrumental)
Bebel Gilberto: River Song
Serge Gainsbourg: Couleur Cafe
Wes Montgomery: Come Rain Or Come Shine (Take 2)
Herbie Hancock: Fat Mama
Cal Tjader & Eddie Palmieri: Guajira En Azul
Madeleine Peyroux: (Getting Some) Fun Out Of Life
Les McCann Ltd.: Falling in Love With Love
Mulatu Astatke: The Way To Nice
+2 Moreno, Domenico & Kassin: Quebrando Um Galho

Back at home for a minute. Man, it's good out here: eating blueberries fresh from the front yard and scoring $1 copies of a Tendaberry.

Travel time for me still means fun time for you. Here's one of several blends for my beautiful friends Laura e Mario. Mario is one of the good folks behind an awesome new Neapolitan restaurant opening soon in the UES Tiella. Which means this blend is on the sip-don't-slurp, nibble-don't-burp relaxation tip. I.e., please indulge heavily this weekend.

Boomin' In Your Jeep

sintalentos: jeep beats

One of the best things about catching the occasional ride home with Eborn after our weekly work-out is the chance to chop it up about beats and to let his system boom. The summer stick is already thick in the air, so an open window and Boot Camp will surely be our coolants for the next few months.

Coupled with my summer annual wisp of nostalgia, I now have jeeps on the brain. Remember how cats used to talk about jeep beats? I think I understood the term broadly: low end + kicking drums + sporty vehicle with a completely exposed frame = hot fun in the summertime. I never really thought too deeply on it, probably because my generation was more interested in lex, coups, beamaz and benz (as I stared blankly out of the yellow bus, RTD or Josh's Volvo).

Oh Word covered the overlooked jeep beat gem Da King & I's Contemporary Jeep Music a while back. But there hasn't been too much recent coverage on jeep beats as a style or trope. I put this blend together to get the wheels turning. Funny how most meta songs -- in this case, the ones that specifically talk about jeep music or jeep this and that -- rarely capture the essence of what they are trying to be meta about. If anything, the joints that don't address jeepness -- KRS & Primo, EPMD, Nas & Extra P -- seem to capture the spirit more succinctly.

Nothing more to add for now because I don't know where this is going.

Da King & I: Contemporary Jeep Music
The Funke Natives: Urban Contemporary Jeep Music (Vocal)
Masta Ace Incorporated: Jeep Ass Niguh / Jeep Ass Niguh (Dusted Mix)
Kenny Dope: Boomin' In Ya Jeep (Feat. Screechy Dan) (LP Version)
Madonna: Erotica (Jeep Beats)
Tha 9-X Cru: Smoked Hickory (Jeep Version)
Terminator X: Homey Don't Play Dat (Feat. Bonnie 'N' Clyde)
KRS-One: Outta Here
EPMD: Total Kaos
NaS: Halftime
Big L: Put It On
Tragedy: Da Funk Mode (Feat. Havoc)
Domino: Getto Jam [West Coast Jeep Dub]
LL Cool J: Back Seat
Lost Boyz: Jeeps, Lex Coups, Bimaz & Benz
A Tribe Called Quest: Jazz (We've Got)
Black Moon: How Many Emcee's (Must Get Dissed) (Bushwick Jeep Mix)
Terminator X: Can't Take My Style (Instrumental)