As we’re back in town from a few crazy weeks of shows, from Hawaii to NYC to Colorado to Northern California– I figured now was as good a time as ever to share some of the wicked music that’s come our way, especially since we missed the May podcast.  Too much travel!

and thus I offer this quick jaunt through some summery vibes,starting with Pariah’s “Detroit Falls,” which has been rocking our world so much that it was time to represent; it moves into a cut from our West coast bredren Heyoka’s new record, Cosmic Boogie.  Up next is the Balkan/Cumbia/Israeli/Brooklynite jam “Balkumbia” from Balkan Beat Box, followed by our World Cup-approved (!) remix.  Grab it for free here at the website!

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Last week, Haj, Dhruva and I found ourselves in that very odd position of opening a magazine, looking at a picture of yourselves, and reading your own words back to yourself. It was all very Nabokov-esque, a bit narcissistic– but hey! Wait a minute! We’ve got work to do!

That work would be Dhruva & I dj’ing the launch party of Fader issue #66. We had a blast, lots of friends and family came out to boogie down, and we ran a host of material from the new album. check out some pix, courtesy of the fantastic Hannah Thiem.

There’s some great music highlighted in the issue; besides our current crush-du-jour Nicki Minaj, Balearic dubstep don Joy Orbison is featured as well. His tune “Hyph Mngo” was a mainstay of our sets in 2009 (making us pretty much the same as every other DJ, ever, since time began)… his new one, “So Derobe,” is mashed into our remix of Mochipet’s “Complex Players” in the podcast that accompanies the magazine issue.

“Complex Players” is one of our favorite remixes from last year… dozens and dozens of tracks of live brazilian percussion layered against zappy arpeggio’s and a funky, broken riddim. Much to our delight, it really set the room off at the release party… further proof that NYC can and will get down to fresh sounds. If you like it, you can find it here.

and of course, the free PDF of the entire issue lives here. Our little nugget on the state of Sub Swara lives on page 31 in the pdf; page 58 in the hardcopy. Thanks again to Julianne Escobedo Shepherd for making it happen.

Finally, we’re gearing up for manymanymanymanyMANY upcoming shows. Our voltronic, 3-way force converges on Austin for SxSW on 3/20 at the Barcelona, as part of the Surefire Agency’s showcase. We’re alongside Lazersword (who appeared at last year’s Sub City Sessions in NYC), our BK bredren Kotchy, Plastician, France’s Debruit, and man-of-the-hour, Eskmo. After that, we’ve got many many MANY shows across North America: we start with New Orleans, and will find ourselves in Colorado, Philadelphia, NYC, and Canada (Eastern & Western) before a very busy FESTIVAL SEASON starts– stay locked!!

Photo by Alex Welsh (Fader Issue 66)

And check the evolution– we had Hired Gun flipping vox in one of the first vids, percussion recorded in India in the 2nd, and then the 2 get put together in the 3rd. Always a blast melding new sounds into newer songs.

We’ve got a bunch of road gigs coming up in the next few weeks, including Texas for SxSW, Eastern Canada, Western Canada, and we’re developing some NYC dates as well– love the hometown See you soon!

Our friends @ thefader.com seem to believe so as well, as it’s featured on their music page. Go on, take a gander.

Video to come next week– Lots of love ’till then!

Regardless, I grabbed a bunch of my most recently-acquired faves and tossed ‘em in the mix for y’all.  While the last few podcasts have been really hype, this one’s all about the drums and the bass–funky, groovy, a bit off-kilter.  the tracklist:

Coleco: “Automatic” (dubplate)

BD1982: “Soldier” (forthcoming Seclusiasis)

XI: “000″ (forthcoming Immerse)

Mungo’s Hi-Fi: “International Roots (LD Remix)” (Dub Police)

V.I.V.E.K: “Groove On” (Dubplate)

TKR: “Soul MKIII VIP” (Dubplate)

Sharmaji feat. Juakali: “Fireworks” (Dubplate)

Badawi: “El Topo” (forthcoming Index)

Benga & Kutz: “I’ll Kut Ya” (Dubplate)

Distal: “Heaven’s Blowback (or Hell’s Mercy)” (Dubplate)

DZ: “Serenity Now”(Dubplate)

If you’re on itunes, you can grab it here–viewPodcast — or if you’re already subscribed, chances are you’ve already got it.

If you’re not an itunes person, go directly to the source!

Enjoy!

So what does a sleep-deprived Sub Swaran do on his day off? HE RECORDS!

As much as we’d like you to think that we work in a room full of training ninjas, dancehall MC’s and SWAT team members, the truth is that we often are developing ideas solo, and then bringing them to the table for collaboration. This happened last week when Dhruva brought in a nearly-done tune called “October” for a mixdown. He, Haj and I thought it could use some hype vocals, so we started coming up with names who’d be good. One stood out immediately for me: HIRED GUN!

I know HG from doing gigs with Nomadic Wax; he’s a killer rapper, poet, and one of the most intense freestylists you’ll ever see. To put it simply:

Dude is nice on the mic.

HG dropped by after teaching urban poetry to his after-school classes (!); I set up a mic/pre/compressor, let him rip, and he gave us 300% more than we were looking for in ONE take. Take heed, young musicians: that is how you do it. Couldn’t have been easier or more enjoyable.

So while we’ve got our sonic work cut out for us, fitting such a huge vocal performance into a song, HG and i sat down to listen to some less-developed ideas. I pulled up a dubstep thing i’m working on, and he just started spitting fire. I jumped to grab the flip and…. check it:

i’m like YO!!!!!!!

so in a month we’ve had Shamik, the Genie, and Hired Gun drop by to share their talents; feeling completely blessed by that.

gotta go pack but– next update from INDIA! If you’re in Delhi, i’m playing BASSFoundation’s party on 12/4 at Café Morrison– should be a blast!

From time to time, the mighty Chris Kellog over at KEXP has asked us to do one of the Mo’Glo DJ sets that air on Friday nights in NYC and Seattle.  this time, the stars aligned, and Dave was able to fire up his decks and lay down an hours worth of new tunes– some dancehall, some bashment, some uk funky-ish stuff, some dubstep and dubstep-inspired material.  lots of great tunes— and the added benefit of hearing Dave do extemely sexy, extremely-self-conscious voiceovers.

check it out!

Tracklisting:

Dhruva, Haj and I are fast-amassing song ideas for our next record; after a year of intense, post-gig conversations about direction, style, energy, sonics, etc i think we’re more than ready to get IN IT TO WIN IT . Expect the unexpected, as genres get turned on their heads, the old sounds new, and we prepare to shake the entire idea of dance music to its core.

As always, we thrive on collaboration, and were lucky enough to get both Vancouver’s Shamik and San Francisco’s own Genie in for a sessions last week. Dhruva jumped on Shamik’s offerings and quickly incorporated them into a tune he and Haj started…

and no, we’re not going to share that one with you just yet

The Genie left us with our mouths agape– you know that feeling when you’re present at something you just can’t begin to comprehend? Something so awesome that language doesn’t begin to have the tools to describe it? That’s Genie’s take on music. I plugged him into a preamp and we just let him rip. Check this out– and WATCH HIS FEET:

so yes- we are STEPPING UP THE GAME! more details to come on recording, experimenting, and divining the groove out of the Earth as the process goes along.

Love from Brooklyn!