I feel like a lot of folks don’t “get” Reggae, but I really believe that it is one of the most compelling musical forms to hit planet Earth in the last century. It is a unique amalgam of Caribbean, African, and European rhythms and melodies. When listening to Reggae one can hear the musicians summoning the whole of those various musical cultures and melding them together so succinctly. On top of that, and this is the kicker, you had hundreds of musicians in on this tiny little island (4,444 square miles to be exact) in the 60’s and 70’s who had all mastered that melding. That melding became the baseline – the standard. So, then they did something truly magnificent and somehow collectively pushed each other even further. And as if that wasn’t enough, then you had the genesis of the entire DJ culture and the fascinating advent of “studio as musician” with the introduction of technology to capture and more importantly manipulate sound. Perhaps it’s easy to take all that for granted if your under fifty or for it to go over your head if your over fifty, but I can’t stress enough how significant this movement was/is to human’s relationship to music and sound.

So yeah, I hope you’ll come out if you live in NYC or Dallas. Dance a little bit and rejoice in that revolution in sound. Although if nobody shows up to Matt’s night in Dallas that will just be one more arrow in my quiver proving that he should move to NYC.

Foundation Rockers Soundclash
DJ Franco Nero & The Diamond Age
@ The Doublewide
3510 Commerce Street
Dallas, TX
Tuesday, July 27th 2010
10-2 *Free*

More info here: http://thediamondage1.blogspot.com/2010/07/foundation-rockers-diamond-age-mix.html

And then on Thursday, I’m going to be continuing my DJ residency at The Counting Room with one of the guys who really turned me on to the whole of Reggae, Jon Bless.

DJ sets by Jon Bless & Brad Loving
@ The Counting Room
44 Berry Street
Brooklyn, NY
Thursday, July 29th 2010
9-2 *Free*

Diamond Age – JAMAICAN RECORDs 2:

1. Sir Lord Comic, Skatalites – Four Seasons
2. Upsetters – Night Doctor
3. Eric Frater – Venus
4. Roy Shirley – Dance Arena
5. Larry Marshall – Run Babylon
6. The Revolutionaries – M.P.L.A.
7. Toyan – Spar with Me
8. Mikey Murta – Rude Rock Dubplate Mix
9. Big Youth – Screaming Target Version
10. Barry Brown -
11. General Echo – Follow Fashion
12. Shinehead – Billy Jean
13. Leroy Wallace & The New Establishment – Far Beyond
14. Jackie Mittoo – Juice Box
15. White Mice – Tallawah
16. Prince Jazzbo – Pepper Rock
17. Ranking – Chatty Chatty People
18. The Gladiators – Tallawah

I included a track from my forthcoming Lobisomem LP, Onze Pedras, on the mix. Have a listen and please let me know what you think. I’m geeked about that LP. I’ve been listening to it on the train a lot. I think that’s my favorite context. It’s going to be coming out some time this summer. A bunch of really good people were involved in making the music come together. I think you’ll be into it.

Speaking of Lobisomem and summer, I’m going to be playing some shows opening up for Bear in Heaven next month! How cool is that? If you know some people in the following towns, please send them our way. Big shout to out to Peter at Panash and Shannin at Billions for helping to bring that together.

June 24 – Portland, Maine @ Space
June 25 – Winooski, Vermont @ Monkey House
June 26 – Buffalo, New York @ Sound Lab
June 27 – Hamden, Connecticut @ The Space

I’ve been working intensely on the recordings I made of my dear friends Jah Youssouf & Bintou Coulibaly last May in Mali. I’m really proud of the recordings. It’s such a wonderful sensation to listen back to the music. I feel very lucky to be able to tap back into that state of mind. It almost feels like a different life. I have my fingers crossed that the music will speak to others as well, and a label will pick it up. If you know of anyone who releases traditional African music and might like to help me put the music out, please get in touch.

I have two DJ gigs at Zebulon on the horizon. One on the 16th of May in support of Warm Ghost. I’m doing a short early slot for that one (I think I’ll get started around 9pm). Then again on the 21st of May in support of the French group, Dièse 3. I’ll be doing my normal long late night slot for that one. Probably get started around midnight and go till 3 or 4. Please come through.

I forgot to mention this previously, but I wanted to give a nod to Dominic Umile for his nice review of my EP on Pop Matters. I was kinda bummed/surprised to see how many journalists just copied and pasted the one-sheet information that we sent out with EP press kit. I felt like Dominic really spent some time with the music and took some time to look into stuff — even browsed around on old Bird & Whale. Just wanted to say thanks.

If, for whatever reason, you haven’t been paying attention to what’s going on in the Gulf Coast with the oil nightmare please do so. It’s such an atrocity on so many levels. Each new thing I read feels like I’m drinking acid. Makes that ticket I got for my riding my bike on the sidewalk two blocks from my house in Bushwick at 11:30 at night all the more insane.

Brad Loving – Bird & Whale 006

1. Nochexxx feat. Sensational – Sinbliss
2. Pens – Freddie
3. Sonny Charles – It’s Alright in the City
4. Etienne Jaumet – Mental Vortex
5. Marguerita – Woman a Come
6. Redshape – Globe
7. Micachu & The Shapes – Turn Me Well
8. King Stitt And Clancy Eccles – Fire Corner
9. Robert Loison – Jean Fouillé, Pie Fouillé
10. ONRA – Smoking Buddha
11. James Brown – There was a Time
12. Os Brazões – Tão Longe De Mim
13. Lobisomem – Zinc
14. Lucho Bermúdez – Gaita De Las Flores
15. Os Originais Do Samba – Tenha Fe Pois Amanha Um Lindo Dia Vai Nascer
16. Disrupt – Doobee Version
17. Eduardo Mateo – Amigo Lindo del Alma
18. Teebs – Untitled
19. Masai Women (Kenya) – Masai Women (Kenya)
20. Ahmed Janka Nabay – Top Sul Bah
21. Actress – Hubble
22. Techniques – It’s you I love
23. Acetone – So slow

Warm Ghost has its debut release, Claws Overhead EP,  coming out on Geographic North on May 11th.  Warm Ghost explores electronic territory which is a departure of sorts for Paul.  There’s a real freshness about it.  I’m sure my listening experience is influenced by speaking to Paul quite a bit about his music since I moved to Brooklyn, but it feels like he made some very conscious decisions about breaking from previous musical routines. It’s a nice sensation. You can hear the musical calculations, but it doesn’t feel contrived.  Just the opposite in fact: genuine and inspired.
His mixes are great as well. They have a little bit of an alien sheen to them. Hard to know whether you’re in the fishbowl looking out or vice-versa.

Warm Ghost is performing at Record Release Party at Zebulon on May 16.  It’ll be cool to see how this music manifest on stage. I’m gonna DJ a little bit too.  Should be a nice night of music.

Things have been so saturated here.  It’s insane.  Every step feels new which is both exciting and debilitating.  It’s a little bit of a cliche, but it’s difficult to step back far enough to get any perspective on what’s going on around me because things seem to be rushing forward at such a rapid rate.   On one hand, I continue to meet a lot of really cool/fascinating people and consequently see a lot of cool/fascinating shit. On the other, I’m really having a pretty difficult time making ends meet financially.   I’d like to figure out a way to turn my music obsessions into some coin.  God, I chose the wrong era to try and do that.  If anybody reading this has some suggestions how to combine music/technology/cultural studies into a living wage in NYC — please fill me in.

I’m putting the finishing touches on a new Bird & Whale mix of my own, so I’ll be posting that soon as well.  Excited about it. I’m hoping to bounce it around to a bunch of bars and get some more DJ gigs out of it.

I’m really eager to go ahead and post these mixes for a variety of reasons so I think I’ll truncate this a little bit.  Hope this finds you well and you enjoy the tunes.

Warm Ghost – A Straight Path Pleasantly Arced

Jon Hyde – Osprey
Chrisma – Rush ‘79
Solid Space – Tenth Planet
Aloa – Weisser Wal
Das Ding – Reassurance Ritual
Autechre – Laughing Quarter
Carl Craig – Landcrusing
Kraftwerk – Endless Endless
Tones On Tail – Lions
2+2=5 – Slow 4
Sudeten Creche – Are Kisses Out Of Fashion?
23 Skidoo – Ethics
Jon Hyde  - 19 Heron
Autechre – Are Y Are We
Partly Cloudy – Nice Time

Warm Ghost – Glasssun

A Mouse Orchestra – A Lump In Your Throat Pt. 2
Arms of Someone New – Left to Right
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – 2nd thought
AFX – I’m Self Employed
Giorgio Moroder – Good Old Germany
One Gang Logic – The Stand
Chris Clark – A Laugh With Hills
Astrobotnia – Hallo
The Magnetic Fields – Crowd Of Drifters
AFX – Home Made Polysynth
Suicide – Dream Baby Dream
Gary Wilson – When You Walk Into My Dreams
Dam Funk – Silver
Arms of Someone New – St. Catherine
Wire – Ahead (Alternate Version)

Things are kind of insane around here.  Some things are kinda perfect and others are a mess.  I’ve met all these beautiful people and seen all these beautiful things.  They inspire me.  I feel alive.   But I have a crazy amount stress, and I feel like most everybody I meet has as much as me.  So it’s a pretty paradoxical existence. Sometimes I feel like I’m a minor character in this crazy play that is my life.  I just marvel at all that’s going on around me and occasionally make little asides to people that I think might listen.  Another little observation about this NYC theater is that there are a lot more extras.  I feel like I interact with about 30 new strangers everyday.  Once upon time it was rare I’d get a call from a number on my cell that wasn’t in my contacts.  Now, I’d say about a third the calls are from zip codes I don’t recognize.

There’s been a lot of cool things going on with the release of my Brightest Solids – EP.  Seems like people are into it, so that’s been fun. If you haven’t picked up a copy, please do so.  I’m 24 carat broke so it’d be rad if you bought a copy.
Along the theme of picking things up, I’d recommend reading Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson.  I’ve told a couple people it’s kinda like reading Jack Kerouac if he did a whole lot more drugs.  Beautiful language and insight into some very bleak situations.  Maybe a little like Larry Clark’s Tulsa.
Bird and Whale got a nice shout out from Filthy Beats and Treats so I thought I’d return the favor and encourage people to check out what he’s got going on. Definitely a nice collection of musical knowledge.

Sumjay – Bird & Whale Watching in Brooklyn Vol.2:

1.            0:00              –            3:19            ?

2.            3:20              –            5:18            ?

3.            5:19               –            8:10            Rattles – The Witch

4.            8:11               –            10:53            ?

5.            10:54             –            11:12            ?

6.            11:13              –            14:35            Lou Reed – Walk and Talk it

7.            14:36             –            17:26            Echo and the Bunnymen – Read it in Books

8.            17:27              –            18:59            ?

9.            19:00             –            27:45            ?

10.            27:46            –            35:13            ? – Heroin (V.U. Cover)

11.            35:14             –            39:45            Triangle – Ruido de Botas

12.            39:46            –            41:12            Bonnie Dobson – Streets of London

13.            41:13             –            43:34            ?

14.            43:35            –            49:20            산울림 – 내마음에 주단을 깔고

15.            49:21            –            50:50            ?

16.            50:51            –            56:31            ?

17.            56:32            –            60:02            Monks – I Hate You

18.            60:03           –            62:55            Pink Floyd – Ibiza Bar

19.            62:56           –            71:10            Can – Spray

20.            71:11            –            73:37            Rene Schuumans – Blij Dat Ik Leef

21.            73:38           –            78:18            ?

Next up, I’m delighted to report that I got a write up about my forthcoming Lobisomem release, Brightest Solids – EP, on XLR8R.com. I’m a huge fan of that website/magazine so it’s rad that they gave the EP a little shout out. Please take a listen to track, vote for it, and pick up the EP.
http://www.xlr8r.com/mp3/2010/02/plasma-lovers

I posted a new video. It’s for my track “Dhegiha Group” which is also on the Brightest Solids – EP. Check it!

Ok, that covers the big stuff.

Lil Hermano – All Up in Your Frame:

Van Dyke Parks – Occapella
The Ethiopians – Engine 54
Jay Dilla – The Red (instrumental)
Byetone – Plastic Star
Karen Dalton – Everytime I Think of Freedom
Michael Hurley – Sweedeedee
Dock Boggs – Cuba
Zito Righi e Seu Conjunto – Bye Bye
The Beatles – You Know My Name
João Donato – Terremoto
Bill Wells Trio – Bad Plumbing
Thes One – Hidden Gem
East of Underground – Smiling Faces Sometimes
Phyllis Dillon – Make Me Yours
Dobby Dobson – Loving Pauper
Jóhann Jóhannsson – Virðulegu Forsetar – Part 1