http://www.brooklynbodega.com/2010/04/25/x-factor-monsta-x-mixtape-review/#comments

And the video for his debut single, “Goin’ In” :

Mobius Collective, every Thursday at Rose Live Music in Williamsburg, BK

Mobius Collective celebrates their 3rd anniversary at Rose Live Music this Thursday.

Saxophonist/director Troy Simms, along with staple cipher Omar Little (trumpet), Borahm Lee (keys), and David Bailis (guitar), the Collective features guest DJ’s and musicians each session. Last week amidst the snow storm, the house was packed full of folks ready to go on a trip. Guest DJ–brilliant selector–Deejay Obah–filled in the blanks between sets, seamlessly taking us from a recording of Fela’s “Yellow Fever” into the band’s supersonic rendition of it. Keyboardist Borahm Lee brings it full force, slapping at his keyboard, mapping out intricate solos,  infusing the tune with an echo here, a reverb there–he’s a vision to witness in action. Jazz to warm you up in the beginning, dub to settle the whiskey in your bones (it’s cold outside, y’all), flowing into Afrobeat and Hiphop to get the people dancing.

There’s something to the venue too. The abuela wallpaper and jazz club stage has an old-timers vibe, a subtly complementary addition to the listening experience.

Mobius Collective, courtesy of the band's Myspace

Note about their name, “Mobius Collective,” it’s a reference to the Mobius Strip, a one-sided, single edged surface that has no beginning or end. This metaphor comes alive during their performance–the musicians contribute to the soundscape by carefully listening, evoking the continuity between them, between the genres they journey across in a few hours’ time.

Check it @ Rose Live Music, every Thursday!

What: 3rd Anniversary Party of Mobius Collective’s “Brooklyn Freestyle Sessions

Where: Rose Live Music, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on 345 Grand St. @ Marcy

When: 10 PM to 3AM

You can see how thinking about music moves into mysticism–Kwami Coleman

This Sunday, I talked to my friend, musician & musicologist, Kwami Coleman, who resides in San Francisco, about modality in music.  I was listening to Miles Davis’  ”Blue in Green”, a highly textured musical composition, from his record Kind of Blue, which is very modal. Now, I’ve studied music, namely violin, but still have lots of questions regarding the theories.  At first, Kwami broke down the basics of my questions, but then it soon delved into the relationship between music & tonality & its (unknowable) effects on human psyche.

When we hear a piece of music, it elicits a response from us. Whether we listen to Miles Davis, to get into a heady, reflective, sober condition or the energetic, multilayered, orchestrated spontaneity of Fela Kuti—there is an emotional response drawn out of us. We attribute emotions—longing, misery, whimsy, joy—to the melodies we hear. We all know this.  And we know that the reason for this will never be fully understood, there’s value in understanding what certain tones provoke in the listener.

To read the Dialog Box interview, click the title of this post.

Another thread to this series: The highlighted links will lead you along a random Wikipedia trail. Now, this may seem like a way to make something random boringly structured, but I hope it invites you to veer off the set track onto your own Wikipedia trails. Sort of like those Choose Your Adventure books. Anything to distract or inspire you.

I hope to continue this exchange with Kwami in future installments of Dialog Box.

me: what is modality?

kwamicoleman: instead of the chord built on “do” as the beginning & end of a piece (do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do) a chord built on another note, let’s say “re” begins & ends the piece. So it reads: (re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do-re). ”do” still sounds relatively strong & stable, yet not as the beginning/ending/most important note/chord of the piece

me: hmmm i just sang that out loud it’s like you end in a “higher place”…it sounds very different to me

kwamicoleman: yes different, but it only sounds higher if you look at it in relation to “do”. ”do” is no longer the centerpiece that it used to be

me:i wonder if there’s a philosophical significance to utilizing a certain modeover another or does that just happen organically?

kwamicoleman: theorists/composers/musicians/philosophers pondered the significance of different modes for centuries now

me: since the greeks or some shit?

kwamicoleman: we don’t know what the Greek modes sounded likewe just appropriated their language gave our modern modes Greek names there’s a sound/color of each mode this has to do with the relationship between each of the notes

me: what is the “reason” for the system of modes? is it just coincidental? purposeful?

kwamicoleman: it’s hard to know whether the system of tonalitycreated these relationships, or if these relationships created the system. It might be a chicken-and-egg question. You can see how thinking about musiccan move into mysticism, very quickly. the idea of different modes having different flavorsby virtue of the array of semitones adds up to a collection of frequencies provoking emotional states in the listener. If the Dorian mode elicits sadness, somberness, etc. A connection between these notes these frequencies & a state of emotionis a purely human experience, is a connection between the natural world (sound), explained by acoustics (science) & human emotion becomes fused. If you follow this line of thinking as a composer, you say to yourself: ”i want this piece to express severe longing and despair in the face of a love that proves to be impossible,” you may consider the Dorian mode & not consider the Ionian mode (do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do)

me: What are some examples of musicians utilizing the Dorian mode?

kwamicoleman: Erykah Badu’s “Didn’tcha Know” and Miles Davis’ “So What” both in Dorian mode

me: is this a choice sprung out of the artists’ mind? Spontaneously?

kwamicoleman: You know how most emcees rhyme coming out of someone like Rakim?  He’s an icon & stylistic revolutionary. There’s not an emcee today who hasn’t come away from him, even if it’s through someone else that, in turn, came from Rakim.

me: you’re brilz

kwamicoleman: haha. i’m like, “brilz?!”

And now, the glorious and glamorous Miz Badu in ‘Didn’tcha Know’:

Check out their performance at the Ports 161 Fall 2009 fashion show.

I’ll even throw in the songbird and sweetheart of Pakistan, Nazia Hassan’s  kitschy disco single “Aap Jaisa Koi,” from the film Qurbani (1980). Red Baraat covers the tune in the video (it’s the second tune, if you can tell…)

RIP Nazia Hassan  نازیہ حسن (April 3, 1965 – August 13, 2000)

The Hooper Apartment Show’s opening reception is this Saturday, January 30, at The Lenora on Hooper St. in Williamsburg. Curated by Eric Laine, of bipolart, an eclectic group of artists are participating, including my friend Andy Barrett.

His “carton marquetry” work is composed of  intricately collaged found-on-the-street cardboard. Everyday cartons are deftly translated into stories, colorful, absurd and fantastical.

Check out his portfolio at: http://www.andybarrettstudio.com/

images courtesy of artists’ website

Some of his work is at sale, including cardboard lamps, at Mc & Co @  57 North 6th St. (btwn. Wythe & Kent)

http://www.mcandco.us/

J’adore!

Now, Miss Bruno and I are kindred spirits connected, cyber-spirituelle and whatnot. For serious–creativity, spark, story, color, lineage & design–I’m taken by this collection.

The Sia Sia dress, v. 1–I love this sexy off-the-shoulder sheath dress. Made from hand-spun, handwoven cotton from Burkina Faso.

Corner Store Lily

dinky pair of black $5 gloves off the street when it’s become unbearable, as well as those faux-ushankas and poly-blend scarves.

Be done wit’ all that!

Miss Bruno New York’s My So Called Scarf Collection offers mujeres y hombres warm and fabulous neck gear.

The Artivist Scarf, model, Popular Thug, aka Sugar Aphrodite

Madame et Monsieur Bruno

The Highlife

Check them out at the 92Y Tribeca, this Friday, 1.8.10 @ 8 PM. San Francisco agency Trouble Worldwide & NYC world label Barbès have brought together a motley of bands that crisscross borders, sounds, and sensibilities!

For the band’s website: http://www.pistolera.net/

There’s something sensual about this quartet of cords, no?

I love how the vivid image of one cord pops against its blurred counterparts–as if one could pluck it right out of the picture.

I noticed my eyes struggling to focus between different parts of the image. It seems to be a matter of binocular rivalry.

“When one image is presented to one eye and a very different image is presented to the other, instead of the two images being seen superimposed, one image is seen for a few moments, then the other, then the first, and so on, randomly for as long as one cares to look.”

me:   gimme a quotable quote, waxy moustaches

los.veni.vidi: This photograph illustrates a duality between clarity and abstraction. On the one hand, depth is inferred by the use of focus on the object in the foreground the silhouettes are blurred in the background. Conversely, one could interpret the image as multiple cords in front of a depthless plane.

los.veni.vidi: If you interpret the background as a depthless plane, while still illustrating depth through the use of focus, it differs in that you can speculate what you perceive as object and shadow.

(Some pretty deep thoughts after we’d hit up The Back Room –102 Norfolk @ Delancey– sippin’ on Jameson in teacups):

lustre du sein (titty chandelier):

(I happen to have some white spot on the corner of my mouth. Hm. Don’t have the Photoshop, so here you are, here I am, unadulterated.)