Monday, April 6, 2009

Poplock Boogaloo


(pic: nubry)

Remember that scene in Beat Street when the Beat Street Breakers battle the Bronx Rockers? And it's actually all the dope dancers from Rock Steady Crew throwing down on the floor at the Roxy in 1984? Remember skinny Kay Slay (with a lisp) rapping at the writer's bench?  Totally not surprised by this footage of Jean Claude Van Damme enjoying a breakin' circle on Venice Beach?  If you know what I'm talking about, this mix is for you.  The mix finishes with an electro flare, but for the most part this is the sound of fat laces and fat caps, Kangols and end to end burners, popping and locking and uprocking.  Enjoy...    



1. bronx dogs - mixed blood (mambo roc radio edit)
2. dj junk - damaged brain
3. bronx dogs - 212 (reprise)
4. jadell - come and get some
5. deadly avenger - live at the capri
6. hydroponic soundsystem ft. furious - breakneck speed
7. clockwork voodoo freaks- dead mick's throwdown
8. sugarhill gang - eighth wonder (pressure drop remix)
9. beatbox allstars - livin beat
10. bassbin twins - ESW
11. dee patten - who is the badman
12. osmosis - junglefreak (skeewiff remix)
13. soul of man - gonna keep on (ben chapman remix)
14. criminal element orchestra - put the needle on the record (drumattic twins vs. lee coombs remix)
15. hal9000 - blow 'em out
16. freestylers - don't stop
17. eurythmics - sweet dreams (dj infinity remix)

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Get Hip To: Amadou & Miriam

Amadou & Miriam malimixdown

hey hey hey , its Phat Mobert, bringing you the latest in off the charts, off the beaten path, unknown, but-should-be-known-hottttness. In our first installment of “La MoDa presents:” we bring to you Amadou & Miriam, the dynamic, blind, husband and wife, geniuses, from Mali. Rumor has it that Manu Chao, who can do no wrong, in 20 different languages, and a hundred different styles, discovered the husband and wife musicians, playing some small club, or maybe right on the curb, or an abandoned warehouse in Mali. Its not true, but either way it don’t matter much, cause he did the right thing, and introduced us to them. and we are better for it. Amadou and Miriam have been around since the late 80’s/early 90's but didn’t really get going, in terms of world wide popularity (aka US chart success) until Manu Chao intervened. Their sound is a mixture of traditional instrumentation, mixed with rock, and electronica. They have been messing around in the studio as of late with Damon Albarn, the madman behind Blur, and Gorillaz, and The Good The Bad and The Queen. The mix ends with the new single, Sabali, which the super group put together. here is the track list along with the album the songs are on. enjoy!


track list:
Beaux Dimanche – Dimanche a Bamako
Coulibaly - Dimanche a Bamako (bonus track version)
Je Pense A Toi / Mon Amour Ma Cherie – Sou ni tile
Senegal Fast Food (ft. Manu Chao) – Summer Tour EP
Dounia – Sou ni tile
Kirikou – Youssou N’Dour ft. Amadou and Miriam
Booka Mutoto – (if you know what album this is on, challah atcha boys!!!)
Sabali – Welcome To Mali

track list said and done....

Friday, April 3, 2009

Housekeeping: Independent Radio Part 2

[It has come to our attention that the podcasting service we use only picks up one podcast per post, and thus has deprived you all of the genius that is the "several beers later" mix posted earlier this week. We are therefore reposting the second half of that post to allow for more seamless podcast automation. Management here at La MoDa regrets the oversight, and we vow to you, our loyal readers and listeners, NEVER to confuse your iTunes again.]



After a couple of more beers.... we kick the tempo up, and we start to experiment. mantis feels a particular groove, in this case he was feeling that "conscious rap"/ "backpacker rap"/west coast/ "independent" artists type vibe. He plays some great songs at the end of this here mix...the crowd on this particular night, a week after st.-lets-get-drunk-and-call-ourselves-irish-day was small, but receptive. thats all you want right? we'll take love over numbers anyday.



Independent Radio A Few Beers Later track list:

Fast Forward – Lali Puna
195 lbs. – Nightmares On wax
Sun Moon Stars – Mos Def
Talk To Me (live) – DJ Vadim
Cleopatra In New York (Zim Zam mix) – Nickodemus ft. Carol
Because – Bird and the Bee
The Tune – Wax Tailor
My Room Is White (Flying Lotus Remix) – Mia Doi Todd
On Boulevards (Kirlian mix) - Sin
Harvey Daley Mix – Stereolab & The High Llamas
(This Is For) The Better Days – The Bees
The Magicman – Bonobo
Gravitas - Little People
Recognize – Breakestra
Golden Touch (Connie Price Mix) – Blue States
Breakadawn – De La Soul
Bumpin Contraption – Latyrix
2hot 2cold 2touch – Maullem ft. Lyrics Born
Big Beat 3 – DJ Bombjack
Count and Estimate – DJ Shadow
Wildin Out (Kut Masta Kurt remix) – Mos Def & Diverse
Nostalgia – Marco Polo ft. Masta Ace
Klap Ya Hands – Das Efx
Samba Soul – N.A.S.A. ft. Del & DJ Qbert
Belshazzar (Machine Drum Remix) – Johnny Cash

direct download to pt. 2 here

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Independent Radio pts. 1 & 2


direct download to pt. 1 here
direct download to pt. 2 here

Tuesday nights… in the pantheon of DeeJaying it’s the graveyard shift. Its not the weekend. its not Monday, which in some towns, is the new Friday. Beat Research up at the Enormous Room, err Monday be doing their thing. i am glad we are not up against those professionals. its not a Wednesday, the middle of the week, humpday (what a stupid fucking term by the way) the day you most need a drink. its not Sunday, the day some people go out and get they chillax on. its Tuesday. and we love it. we love The Independent. we love the staff (major love and props to Liam and Nicole). the food is good, the beer is even better. Tuesday. when you first start dj’ing you almost always have your test run night on a Tuesday. the promoter says, come in, do your thing this Tuesday, we’ll tell you wassup. you move up from Tuesday. you don’t stay at Tuesday. if you’re good you keep moving up. sort of. there’s this myth that the dj should be working for the weekend. grinding so he can do the big party on Friday or Saturday night. she should be keeping her eye on the “big time” the “hott nights” but La MoDa, we don’t like to do things like other folks. so we don’t. Tuesdays. we’ve done the big nights, so don’t come at us like we aint good enough. we’re your girlfriend/wife’s favorite dj. we’re your favorite dj’s favorite dj. its about music. and control. come check us if you’re in boston. we do what we like. we play what we want. and people still come and enjoy it, and thank us at the end of the night. we aint packing them in. we never tried. we play in other venues, we leave town to do a gig err now and then, but we always come back to our comfortable, warm, generous, appreciative, spot. if you a dj, and you’ve left the confines of your bedroom/ “studio”, if you’ve gotten yourself something regular, like a “residency”, then you know what its like to have to put up with the bullshit, the dumb requests, the fucking bartender/promoter/owner, breathing down your neck cause you aint playing “what the people like” . Wowz. really. then there is the bullshit of the whole game itself. you play the top40 night after night, you get in. you challenge the folks, you play something they cant drunkenly dance/rape to then you’re out. so it’s a Tuesday. we aint ashamed, we aint making excuses. we’ve worked hard to do it our way. come by, check us out. you’ll like it. but if you cant….. here is what happens: we show up. we have a couple of drinks. liam regalls us with tales of quirky/weird/annoying customers. Nicole says hi! damian and i exclaim how great she is. no its not code for cute. but yes. she is cute. we set up the serato. damian sets up the monitors. we drink another drink. its 9 pm. we hit play and………


Independent Radio Intro track list:

New Light of Tomorrow (Bonobo Remix) – Husky Rescue
Kudos – Benji Boko
Unemployed in Summertime – Emiliana Torrini
Love Song – K-Os
Going Up – Lowrider
Bongo Red (Mosart212 dubbahstepah edit) – The Gladiators
Nothing Owed (Mosart212 mad ants blend) – Bonobo
Its Not The Worst I’ve Looked – Lali Puna
Stepping Into Tomorrow (Madlib remix) – Sarah Hethcoat
Drift Away (Prefuse 73 mix) – Via Tanya
Bings Bong (Delhi Shuttle Live) – Solid Ground
As The Stars Fall – Cinematic Orchestra
A Gentle Dissolve (Shawn Lee Ping Pong Orchestra Mix) – Thievery Corporation
High Time – Diesler
Hurricane – Beatphreak
Who’s Gonna Save My Soul – Gnarles Barkley
Ray Gun – Bird and the Bee
Precious – Ils


After a couple of more beers.... we kick the tempo up, and we start to experiment. mantis feels a particular groove, in this case he was feeling that "conscious rap"/ "backpacker rap"/west coast/ "independent" artists type vibe. He plays some great songs at the end of this here mix...the crowd on this particular night, a week after st.-lets-get-drunk-and-call-ourselves-irish-day was small, but receptive. thats all you want right? we'll take love over numbers anyday.



Independent Radio A Few Beers Later track list:
Fast Forward – Lali Puna
195 lbs. – Nightmares On wax
Sun Moon Stars – Mos Def
Talk To Me (live) – DJ Vadim
Cleopatra In New York (Zim Zam mix) – Nickodemus ft. Carol
Because – Bird and the Bee
The Tune – Wax Tailor
My Room Is White (Flying Lotus Remix) – Mia Doi Todd
On Boulevards (Kirlian mix) - Sin
Harvey Daley Mix – Stereolab & The High Llamas
(This Is For) The Better Days – The Bees
The Magicman – Bonobo
Gravitas - Little People
Recognize – Breakestra
Golden Touch (Connie Price Mix) – Blue States
Breakadawn – De La Soul
Bumpin Contraption – Latyrix
2hot 2cold 2touch – Maullem ft. Lyrics Born
Big Beat 3 – DJ Bombjack
Count and Estimate – DJ Shadow
Wildin Out (Kut Masta Kurt remix) – Mos Def & Diverse
Nostalgia – Marco Polo ft. Masta Ace
Klap Ya Hands – Das Efx
Samba Soul – N.A.S.A. ft. Del & DJ Qbert
Belshazzar (Machine Drum Remix) – Johnny Cash

parts 3 & 4 up soon! stay tuned...

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Nu Skool Slits

(pic:  Keith Eric)

Greetings everyone, it feels like forever since I last updated this blog.  Mo's been busy, pimping the site out with bells and whistles to make your La MoDa experience a pleasant and cutting edge affair, and I should take this opportunity to thank him for his efforts.

March sucks ass for me.  When Mo and I are not fighting musical crimes from deep within our secret mountain laboratory, I am a mild mannered immigration paralegal by day.  March is like tax season for immigration.  On March 31, about 130,000 applications will be sent to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service for approximately 70,000 available H-1B visas.  I won't get into how completely broken and backwards our immigration system is in this country, and I only even bring it up to excuse my blog absence in the month of March.  However, being tied to my desk for a month straight cranking out forms and support letters for people I've never met before does afford me one luxury I don't normally enjoy at work:  an opportunity to listen to music during the day in my office.  

I recently copped the new N.A.S.A. album, which is chock full of guest spots by such hipster luminaries as Santogold, Amanda Blank, M.I.A., Lykke Li, and David Byrne, as well as eminent MCs like Kanye, KRS ONE, RZA, Method Man, Chali 2na, and Del.  I highly recommend it, and will be incorporating into the La MoDa repertoire in the coming weeks. 

I've also been revisiting a lot of my mix sets from days gone by, and I thought I'd share one particular mix that has been making my ears hum over the last week or so.  It's called "Nu Skool Slits" (the name of a particular "brand" of E that was all over raveland during my P.L.U.R. heyday, if you must know).  This mix was slapped together mid-2002, but even then was programmed as a shout out to the late 90s.  There are a bunch of classic Freskanova tracks included, some classic Cassius and Basement Jaxx and Groove Armada, and Daft Punk from when they were popular the FIRST time (yes, I'm old).  The second half of this mix moves further into big room rave territory, culminating in a brutal funky breaks/warehouse stormer called "Back to 99" by the Freestylers (also off of Freskanova), followed by what can only be described as a wide-eyed backrub of a finale with Uberzone's "Dreamtime" and his remix of Sarah McLaughlin's "Sweet Surrender" (which, rumor has it, she commissioned after being less than impressed with the Rabbit in the Moon remix of "Possession").  Seriously, try to finish this mix without busting out the glow sticks....


1.  Uberzone - Beat Bionic
2.  Basement Jaxx - Crazy Girl
3.  Deejay Punkrok - My Beatbox (Les Rhythmes Digitales as de Pique Mix)
4.  Les Rhythmes Digitales - Jacques your Body
5.  Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
6.  Agent Sumo - 24 Hours
7.  Moby - Bodyrock (Boris Duglosch Discotech Remix)
8.  Cassius - U Can't Stop It
9.  Tiefschwarz - On Up
10. Groove Armada - Superstylin'
11. Basement Jaxx - Get Me Off
12. Felix da Housecat - Sequel2Sub
13. Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
14. Timo Maas - Shifter
15. Plump DJs - Electro Disco
16. Freska Allstars - Get Fresh
17. Metro LA - Boogie Star
18. Bowser - Codename Hardhat
19. Freestylers - Back 2 99
20. Uberzone - Dreamtime
21. Sarah McLaughlin - Sweet Surrender (Uberzone Remix)

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Direct Links to Podcasts YAY!



Ok the moment you have been waiting for is finally here: La MoDa Mixtapes is officially a podcast. From now on you'll be able to come here and get yo read on, and you will also recieve an "episode" update" from itunes. Your iphonies and itouchios will be very happy. when we post a new mix it will go directly to your device. yeah, even yurr crackburry. we've been conflicted for a while about doing this, mainly because we love writing about these mixes, but now that you can get yurr La MoDa mixsets sent to your umbilical organizational device, will you still come here to read our funnies? we dont know, but we will promise this, we will still be here. we will still post the humorous, scandalous, and yes scintillating witty bon mots you've grown to love. whether you come here or not. so without further ado is the first working episode of the La MoDa Mixtapes blog!


click this link to be taken directly to the feedburner podcast page. on the page, on your right hand side is an option to "subscribe with itunes", do it. you will get this mix first and then the option to get all the other ones sent to you as well. dont forget to set the preferences to UPDATE DAILY, in your itunes podcast window. if you are having trouble with any of this, please email us at lamodamixtapes@gmail.com

we hope yalls have been enjoying the work we have put into this endevor and we'll be posting goodies again soon.
peace,
La MoDa Mix Tapes mgmt.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Except For Just A Dream


Continuing on my experimental path, this mix takes the form of a dream. In this dream things are not making sense and its in this confusion that we see the narrative. Like in a dream, songs pop in and out of focus. There are multiple edits on this one, multiple sounds layered on top of each other, echoes thrashing about, songs getting sucked up into other songs, and some songs spitting up the next track. I dug deep and pulled the dust off of some of my favorites. i cant believe that “My Guru” song is by Jack Johnson. i have no idea what that even means since it doesn’t sound at all like him and his “work”, which is great but all sounds the same. This is not a song about some wayward girl, who model/surfer/singer/heart surgeon Jack Johnson feels bad for from afar, but instead of intervening decides to write a “song” about; nope, this is a kick ass beat with some serious sitar action. maybe a holdover from his backpacking/entitled exploitation days in India? I know nothing about Chimp Beams, only that they rock the shit out of all their instrumentals. every time I try to order their shit from turntable lab (i love you guys, i wish La MoDa could do an in-store sesh…?!)(seriously what would it take?) its Always sold out. So for now, i have only what i have. and what i have is so very good. Tried to play a little nerdy-sonic-guess-the-connection-test with the Yoshimi track, by introducing the song that plays before it on the album, the song that sets up the story of why robots wanna kick our ass and kill us. That Video Car track by Sporto Kantes is pure fiyah; so much fun and so fucking European. I don’t know where that sample with the little kid and the “Jamaican” guy talking is from, but man, it seals the deal. So It Is Baby! another example of Europeans taking the lead in/on the “interesting” music plane. french = good cheese, AIR, Sporto Kantes, and men wearing things bought at a woman’s department store, unironically and awesomely! yeah, me and my purse should be rocking sets in ghey paree, not here where 2/3rd of the population still wonders why La MoDa isn’t playing your Rhianna request, even tho its yurr birfday and you asked “nicely.” The answer is fuck you. stop sleepwalking baby, its time to go “dancing”….






Except for just a dream track list

Its Gotta Be The Shoes Intro – Mosart212
Paper Float – Cassettes Won’t Listen
Paper Float (Maker chill remix) – Cassettes Won’t Listen
Les Fleur – Zero 7 & 4Hero
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1 (Mosart212 prelude edit) – The Flaming Lips
Lost in Paradise – Campbell & Joe
Gold Watch – Lupe Fiasco
Mute Salvation – Chimp Beams
Fake French – Le Tigre
New York City – Gil Scott Heron
Listening Man – The Bees
Four Hills – DJ Day
Why Should I Cry (Mosart212 Crybaby edit) – Avia
Big Lost (Mosart212 Big Stuffs edit) – Diplo
Montara (Mosart212 Zapped Momma edit) – The Roots
My Guru – Jack Johnson
Video Car – Sporto Kantes
I Hear The Drummer (Mosart212 Intro edit) – Luke Vibe
I Changed My Mind (Stereo Mc’s Rattlesnake Mix) – Lyrics Born
CafĂ© De Flore – Dr. Rockit
Let’s Get Known – The Unicorns
One Bruised Step Outro – Mosart212

track list said and done...