Back from the Dead!

We're BACK! What a summer! The Mighty Mosart moved to Rochester, NY, so Boston's loss is upstate NY's gain. Mrs. Mantis got pregnant with twins, so my whole world has been turned upside down and inside out, in a good way. Summer seemed like one long rainstorm between spring and autumn, now the leaves are falling, and the wind is picking up, and the La MoDa collective is recommitting to hunker down and get back to slangin' them beats!

While we haven't been posting much on the blog (or, for that matter, in our podcast feedburner), both Mo and I have been busy all summer making mixes, cooking up reedits, and dipping our toes in the world of original production, and we'll be sharing the fruits of those labors in the coming weeks and months. We'll probably do a quick round of housekeeping soon, and get some of our better mixes onto the blog and into the podcast feeders, so fear not, fans and followers. This long hiatus will not be for naught!

I'm going to start things off with my favorite breakbeat mix of the summer. Tracklist and direct link to the mp3 is below, flash player embedded for your immediate listening pleasure, and instructions for signing up for the podcast are located at the top right of this page. Hit us up with feedback if you feel inclined!

Mantisounds - keep marching by Mantisounds

1. NAPT - Heart of Stone

2. ILS - Hate is an Illness (NAPT Remix)

3. Drumattic Twins - Crazy Love (Peo De Pitte Remix)

4. Bird Peterson - Bird Goes Off

5. Tittsworth - WTF ft. Kid Sister & Pase Rock (Deekline & Tim Healy Remix)

6. Splitloop - Party People (Adsorb Remix)

7. BreakZhead - Going On (Jurassik Remix)

8. Future Funk Squad - Blow ft. Mojo

9. Brothers Bud - The Sting

10. Chemical Brothers - (Saturate (Stanton Warriors Remix)

11. BSD - Get Hype on This

12. Ed Solo & Skool of Thought - When I Was a Yout (Krafty Kuts Remix)

13. The Arsonist - Gimme My (Slim Blue Mix)

14. Si Begg - The Bleeps

15. LCD Soundsystem - Disco Infiltrator (Stanton Warriors Remix)

16. Kid Digital - It's True

17. A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray (Stanton Warriors Remix)

direct link to mp3

My first "real" review! and a "new" mixtape!

direct download

Hey hey hey, wass happenin?!
Here is a double dose of good shit. First up is my review of the "Goose Bumps 3.0" compilation. The hugely successful series is homegrown in Maine and spans the globe in terms of talent. This one is a keeper! Scroll down after the review for info on how you can cop the album. Next up we have a "new" mixtape. not really actually new since some jerk named "mo nunez" leaked that shit on the faceboob "networking" site. asshole. this mix is off the heazy for reezy my ninjas and ninjarettes. as they say in the hood, it is "offishal" i think they still say that; they still say that right? will one of my two black friends get back to me and let me know if they still say that in the hood? word. and yes that is "facts of life" right at the start, my neezies!

Review Of Goose Bumps 3.0

Memo to Nas, hip hop aint dead and neither is good music

by moises nunez

The first thing that stands out when you listen to Milled Pavement’s new triple disc extravaganza, Goose Bumps 3.0, is the production. This is not “oh yeah, me and my boy have a label… yeah we put out records…” this is something we have not heard from the majors, and dare I say it, the indies as well; Goose Bumps 3.0 will redefine "top quality" after the first listen. The beats alone make the album a 2009 stand out. They are rich but not overdone. The layering on downtempo gems like, Idepth’s “pt.2 continuity of dawn” is not overdone, something that is symptomatic with today’s crop of electroblog, bedroom producers. Old school beats, bordering on trip-hop darkness, and employing some great samples, keep the instrumentals on the album from becoming 4 minutes of boredom. They remind me of when downtempo was first coming on the scene here in the states, after it had its way with Europe, and groups like Portishead, Tricky, and Massive Attack, made us nod our heads and contemplate their sadness at the same time. DJ Pain 1’s “every raindrop” with the beautifully dramatic hook, and XNDL’s “Mila Maria” are a return to form. Goose Bumps 3.0 doesn’t dive into the ambient pool just to swim with the synth waves, and the hold the sustain button on their midi controllers, no my friend, they stretch the boundaries of ambient, and keep challenging your understanding of “beat music”; tracks like, “4^th Dimension Contact” by Marcelo Martins aka mars 78, and “Everyone Is A Part Of Me” by Fraud Fix, offer new pieces of audio information for you to contemplate with each spin.

On the Hip Hop side, the kids smash the line between Hip Hop and Rap by putting together an incredible lineup of hungry, creative, and most refreshing of all, genre bending mcs. The worst part of the American hip hop scene right now is how boring the whole thing is. We can easily admit that at this point in time the differences between Republicans and Democrats exists only in our preferences, well its time to say the same about the rap game. There is no divide between underground and commercial, we may wish there was, but when your “underground" mc’s are on the mic rapping about how they hate the commercial mcs, and how they “continue to keep it real”, and your commercial mcs are on the mic “rapping” about how many women they get or how they have “Arab money” or something (there’s always something!) equally as ingnant as that, where is the difference? Goose Bumps 3.0 avoids all clichés. The compilation is not content with one style of rap or one style of mc. They bring us a United Nations-like roster, which would make Nas rethink his statement, “hip hop is dead.” The standouts here standout from the entire rap game. When thinking of comparisons, off-the-beaten-path mcs and groups come to mind, like Radioinactive, Busdriver, Murs, and Plan B. On Goose Bumps 3.0 acts like Coffin Cutters, Lexington + Whatevski, Syn The Shaman, and especially the international cats, mc’s like Materpfahl, whose voice drips with the love of rhyming that was once a prerequisite for any mc, will keep your hope alive.

Goose Bumps spans 3 discs, and 44 songs making it a hefty bundle that bristles under the constraint of being put into genre’s; it blends musical lexicons, styles, and arrangements to create new head bopping, best-of-all-worlds amalgamations. Moshe & Dilly Dilly’s “Senseless” is a wonderfully complex mix of interesting downtempo/ambient beats, and hard to decipher but easy to enjoy lyrics, delivered by a beautiful voice, that begs you to figure out just what Dilly is lamenting. Speaking of beautiful voices, Miss Fairchild’s, Daddy Wrall’s, lends his young Stevie-like voice, to C Money Burn’s exquisitely produced, “Hook, Line, and Singer”; the dude may be singing the same thing over and over again for two and half minutes, but I could listen to Mr. Wrall sing about anything for as long as he wanted me to. And therein lies the genius of the Goose Bumps 3.0 compilation – its not just the hooks, or the beats, which are well above the current bar, it’s the creativity on display that makes this compilation worth copping. Sure you might say “wow, that track by sMoKey 131, kinda sounds like Daedelus,” but if it does, its only because it reminds you of the creativity and ingenuity on high display when an artist doesn’t care what label they are on, what the MTV audience will think, or what product will this song best represent. There are no ring tones on Goose Bumps 3.0. Nuff Said.

want more info? wanna buy this album? wanna be a good human and support local talent? check this out: http://www.amazon.com/Goose-Bumps-3-0-Explicit/dp/B002BCVVSA/ref=sr_f3_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1246305796&sr=103-1

and now for something completely different:

see more Funny Graphs

Feel Free To Hate On Me by lamodamixtapes

pop is king dead of the

direct link to mix

this is for the weekend, for you to get ready, get dressed, get sharp. put this on and let it put you in a funking good mood. we start off with some classics reworked and made funkier. my man j-e-l brings the noise as he usually does, in his somewhat melodic, yet off the grid type beat making style. i am a huge fan of the 3 mcs on the next track, a blend I did in real time (in one take!) to me the best thing about all 3 of them is that they seem to be in on the joke – hip hop is beyond bloviated, so lets have some fun with the machismo, bravado, and hyperbole. Donald Byrd’s trumpet makes me want to have sex. It reminds me of the scene in Brave New World, when Bernard sees a Sexaphone performance. Yeah, sexaphone. awesome. i have played the Grand Ole Party track a couple of times out and about and almost always someone asks if its some undiscovered white stripes joint. It aint. but its that good. Its also unmastered and mega dirty. I don’t usually go for “underground mcs” i think they are pretentious and despite their bgi vocabularies, are usually full of empty rhetoric, but cool calm pete, almost always delivers, and this one is one of his bests. that Deejay OM track IS off the hook. Exploiting bangrah, and bollywood culture, repackaging it for ignant amerrikans, brilliant. It all sounds funny, its irony meter is off the charts, so it must be good right? OM is followed by a tribute to king of pop remixed by the kings of hip hop beatmaking. Then its onto the best rapper alive right now. yeah I said it ad the mofo don’t even speak English. Everytime i hear residente open his mouth i wish more people spoke Spanish. he raps primarily about food and sex, but damn its like he has a phd in food and sex. The guy is nothing short of brilliant. i have to be honest about this track - i hardly ever play this track outside of my bedroom. its so full of racist stereotypes that i am always afraid people will miss the point and only “hear” the “funny” accents, but the truth is the dude is dropping some knowledge about how focusing on differences prevents you from seeing similarities. And its funny, cause its so damn ignant. Gal Costa is superb. the outro on this mix comes courtesy of “greascast” a really insane radio show from back in the days, the dj, “the grease” aka “grease” aka “grease man” is a wacko old skool type radio dj – you know in the vein of, wolfman jack and ed lover and - oh what does it matter, you don’t know what I am talking about….

The Girl Is Yours? Really? by lamodamixtapes

Green peppers (rewhipped edit) – Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Angel Eyes (Layo & Bushwacka Mix) – Ella Fitzgerald
Mislead – Jel
Eve’s Garden (mosart212’s xtra sin edit) – Peppe Tucillo/Redman/Ghostface/Ludacris
Interluding – The Warheads / mosart212
Mike Mills – Air
Summer Love – Donald Byrd & The Blackbyrds
Look Out Young Son (original demo) – Grand Ole Party
Oye Como Va – Luna Cohen
One Love Karma (ft. Cool Calm Pete) – Morcheeba
The Quiet One (rmx by Broadway Project) – Red Snapper
Hawa Dolo (mosart212’s hookah edit) – Ali Farka Toure
Joy, Oh! Oh! Oh! The Bengal Tiger! – Deejay OM
The Girl is Breakdown – mosart212/ Michael Jackson/ Paul McCartney/ Handsome Boy Modeling School
Japon – Residente Calle 13
Minha Estrela E do Oriente (Tindoro Dindinha) – Gal Costa
Lazy Bones outro – mosart212

Rain Rain Go Away Mixtape

direct link to mix

It stopped raining. i think it stopped because i made this mix to appease the Rain Gods. vengeful bastards that they are... I keep telling them it was all an accident but they wont listen, nope, kept that rain coming for almost a month straight. this mix goes out to all you office workers out there where its still actually thursday... loosen those nooses and zone out to dis one my damies, no piddy on the runnee kine, sayn...

Rain Rain Go Away Mixtape by mosart212

sorry for the delay but track list to be included laters

Shed a Tear

(pic: iri5)

As Mo has apologized profusely for our extended hiatus, I won't double up on explanations and rationalizations (plus most of you get the podcasts and probably haven't read a word we've written in MONTHS). I'll simply state that La MoDa is settling in for the summer after being in flux for a bit, and we're glad to be back. We've got some more dj dates lined up this summer (tag team and individual medley events), and I figure now is as good a time as any to promote some of those dates (and hit you off with another fresh mix).

First and foremost, Mo and I are still holding it down at the Independent in Union Square, Somerville. Friendliest staff in Boston, great food, a top notch ever-changing menu of good beer, and periodic visits by the Boston Cookie Brigade. Come see us sometime, quick, before the summer's over!

We're also trying to keep the Enormous Room monthly gig alive through the summer, though scheduling conflicts have mucked up the works a bit recently. Not sure when our July date will be, but you can count on us bombing your Facebooks and Twitter accounts with updates!


We're also joining the Atomik fellas up in Portland at the Whiteheart on July 17. It's a Friday, not a school night, so really, you've got no excuse. Come by, drink beer, and shake butt. There's free stickers in it for you....


The Butter Brothers are playing every Thursday night at Brian Boru's in Portland until Labor Day, definitely check that out if you get a chance. Since Mo is related to one (or all?) of the Butter Brothers (by marriage AND blood, do the science), he'll be hitting a few of these Thursdays off with his buttery brethren, and we're trying to link up for a "Lightly Toasted La MoDa with extra Butter Brothers" sesh one of these Thursdays. Hopefully we'll have further details soon...


I'm also teaming up with DJ Triple A (safe to say he's a La MoDa "affiliate" and frequent partner in crime) to throw down some beat badness on June 30 at the Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge for a one-off we're calling "Test Press." It's a bit more up front and loud than me and Mo usually throw down, sticking with techno, breaks, electro, and a little house. If we can get a decent turnout (for a Tuesday in the summer when the kids are gone) we might be able to make it a regular thing, but that's all up to you folks (hint hint)...

In anticipation of Test Press at the Middlesex, I'm offering up a spanking new mix (outright bribe) for all those who may be on the fence about a Tuesday night dance party. Most of the songs are pretty new, almost all breaks, and definitely of the "that bass might blow my speakers!" variety. Please enjoy...

Shed a tear by Mantisounds

1. bruce lee - be water, my friend

2. ali kay - numb

3. electric soulside - system d

4. tim healey & marc adamo - ghetto blaster (krafty kuts remix)

5. meat katie & d ramirez - stop the revolution (bassbin twins remix)

6. rico tubbs - it gets no better (VEN)

7. general midi - the westerner

8. breakzhead - the lost (ways and means remix)

9. mr. l"apes - skunk burner

10. tayo meets elroy and piper - down under dub

11. deekline & wizard - all your love

12. ed solo & skool of thought - when I was a yout

13. drumattic twins - hyperspeed

14. black canvas - we fear not (12" mix)

15. drumattic twins - broken planet

16. deekline & wizard - dancehall thrilla

17. kouncilhouse & micky finn - shed a tear

direct link to mix

Moving units..uhm NO...

direct link to mix

hey kids. Its raining. I am a bit bummed. I thought I'd spin a quick nugget of future primitive funky hip hoppity stew for yalls. So who's hungry? We got old school meets new school and blends galore. This is a one shot deal, with minor editing, mostly in the volume control section of post-pro (thats dj talk for "bullshit"). theres a long mix between the phantom beat and that ill Idris instrumental, which i am curious to know what yalls think. i still have not manage to make a mix without some Lali Puna in there (repeat from an earlier mix, sorry). got one of my most favoritist Roots jam, getting the mosart212 blend-treatment. look for that transition where King Brit is talking about love and i transition into a track by LOVE! i end it off with the best track on that double disc from Outkast. which by the way, if it were a contest, Andres 3G blew the lid off the Big Boi disc - yes? enjoy this one as you make dinner tonight, wherever you may be.

Moving Units by lamodamixtapes

Tracklist

Bad Tune (mosart212's out to space redub) - Earth Wind & Fire
Hard To Face The Music - Idris Muhammad
Phantom - Justice
Together In Electric Dreams (mosart's beatific blend) - Lali Puna /Simian Mobile Disco
Rising Before Busting a Move - mosart212 (ft. beat by Tranquilo, lyrics by Young MC)
Here I Rock - mosart212 (ft. beat by Dj Spinna and lyrics by The Roots)
Kings On Time Mix - King Brit
Bummer In The Summer - Love
Endless Flip Flops - mosart212 (ft. beat by Orange, lyrics by Big Boi, Killer Mike, Jay-Z)

track list said and done....

Back From The Dead.....

direct link to mix

lots has happened since we last spoke huh? La MoDa played some great shows (big ups to Heather’s Bar NYC! See you again soon) and made some big moves (Rochester here I come). we apologize profusely for keeping yalls waiting so long for new shizz. But here we are ready to start it back again. we will continue to post our “HitRecord” series and we encourage you to check out the first two if you haven’t already. we plan to do that at least once a month. Mantisounds and I have been engaged in some deeply heavy philosophical rhetoric about dj’ing, about music, about doing things for love… the next few mixes and texts we post will reflect some of what we have been thinking, and with that We present to you: “Mosart212 Back From The Dead”

Back From The Dead by mosart212

She Moves She (james joyce IS dead edit) – Fourtet /mosart212
Paris (aeroplanes remix) – Friendly Fires ft. Au Revoir Simone
Chic Cheer Chic (mosart’s shake that chic edit) – Chic / DJ Holiday
Little Kids Shaking It Up – Mosart212/ Kings Of Convinience
I Don’t Need a Woman Friend (mosart212 edit) – DJ Cam / Chromeo
Running Joke – Katherine Hepburn’s Voice
Ain’t We Funkin’ Now – Brothers Johnson
Jam On The Groove – Ralph MacDonald
Meow - Cat
Messie Bessie – Shirley Scott
Leave Me Alone – Apparat & Ellen Allien
Freeze and Explode – Cassettes Won’t Listen
Slow Down (mosart212’s Kevin HyperSpacey blend) – EPMD / Faust & Shortee
Oh Yeah! (tepr remix) – Housse De Racket
The Quest (mosart212’s J5 verses edit) – Kool Dj Dust
Groovin’ On Sunshine – Ohmega Watts


a couple of notes on this mix:

i have been practicing, i am always practicing, even if it means i mix in my headphones in the car while the wife drives us around as we look for bottles to return to the supermarket in this recession. Sell my dj gear you say? fuck you! i thought i would kick it with some of my tried and true favorites. Some under the radar stuff, and some obscure shizzle that should throw you for a loop. yes, you have heard some of these tracks before, either Mantis has played them or i have, get over it.

i love “the dead” by Joyce, and i thought it was fitting to start a mix about being in hiding with the intro to a book that is about miscommunication, misunderstandings, and in some ways depression. I have been sitting on all of those lately. i wasn’t sure if this was going to be a dancey mixtape, or a cerebral one, a journey, or a chillpill. I threw on good ol’ Kieran aka fourtet, and thought i would see where he would take me next.

Out early last year, also know as KHV, Katherine Hepburns Voice IS hot shit - here is another doosie by thems. Keep an eye out for them.

The brothers Johnson was one of the first record I bought. one of my own first vinyls. up until then all my vinyl was hand me down and/or my mother’s. she had a hot collection, don’t front. you would too if you stopped being 16 for a second and had a baby and then went right back to being 16… i got this record “downtown” and i was already opened and already scratched, but i was so psyched and so stupid/young that i didn’t actually know this till i got back home. so i tried to go back and return it. they laughed in my face. by the by, strawberry letter 23 by the BJ’s still the greatest of all the versions.



for those of you who have never heard of mr. ralph macdonald (because he is often overshadowed by his more famous cousin Ronald) please check out his site and his music. he’s an old school cat who is an incredible percussionist. he fuses jazz with ambient, even before we knew it was called ambient.

i picked up a compilation a couple of years ago called “Thai a go go” mega insane. i will try to drop some more from this compilation in future mixes. i love the tape hiss in this “meow” recording. i imagine a bunch of sweaty thai dudes sitting around a cramped and smokey studio watching this hot momma do her thing, and then asking her to do it again, and again, and again. especially the meowing part.



“leave me alone” is one of my all time favorite songs. beginning with the major crush on allien, and ending with the infatuation of that hook surrounded by those synth strings. Ugh! And of course, don’t we all know what its like to get to that point where all you want is solitude? I want to have sex with the voice on that last ohmega watts’ jam - if i am talking to you hit me up at 212-mad-love.

that “slow down” edit is one of my best.

Period. hollerate - cause we back....!