Our Year in Moombahton – Washington City Paper Front Page Feature!

I was blessed with the opportunity to be interviewed alongside moombahton inventor Dave Nada, noted hard edged Dutch moombahton producer Munchi and U Street Music Hall co-founder Jesse Tittsworth for the lead story in the 2010 Music In Review issue of the Washington City Paper available on newsstands now. TGRI believes moombahton is a genre that on a multitude of levels speaks directly to the core of the progression of the international underground into a new generation, as well as the place of Washington, DC at the forefront of said movement, so I was honored to add my two cents. On the strength of moombahton’s rapid spread alongside a rapidly maturing production style that has risen him through the ranks of notale underground DJs and producers, Dave Nada was TGRI’s 2010 DC Artist of the Year, and we expect his contributions to grow and increase exponentially alongside those of moombahton’s in the years to come.

ENJOY THE ARTICLE HERE

THE DROP: Introducing Joyce Muniz!

Joyce Muniz is an excellent Brazillian MC, vocalist and DJ based in Vienna, Austria. Alongside Shanti Roots, she has begun to forge a career as a vocalist after starting a career as a teenage female DJ to much fanfare. As a vocalist, she released an EP alongside Shanti Roots in 2008, with such names as old school legend Dorfmeister (of Kruder and Dorfmeister fame) as remixers.

You want to be aware of Muniz because she’s featured on the Dave Nada and DJ Sabo Sol Selectas moombahton EP alongside collaborator the aforementioned Shanti Roots on Sabo’s “Cumbia Lifestyle,” given a smooth moombahton edit by Dave Nada on the release.

 Cumbia Nightlife (Dave Nada Moombahton Edit) by SolSelectas 

As a producer in her own right, Muniz has been busy blending elements of Afrobeat, Chicago house and electro for quite some time, and releases her latest track, “Party over here, party over there” on Exploited Records on November 12th. The video for the track, which has been cosigned by the likes of rising South African house head Spoek Mathambo, Crookers, Skream, Azari & III and a plethora of other major hitmakers, was released last week, and is now here for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.youtube.com/v/dRPdRO7RNbM?fs=1&hl=en_US

As the moombahton movement grows, one of the most thrilling parts of the evolution will be noting how existing dance progressions in existing Latin sounds, much like the explorations of those like Sabo, Joyce Muniz and a plethora more are adjusted by or incorporated into the moombahton juggernaut. 

Enjoy!

Marcus Dowling’s 2010 TGRIOnline Year End Awards – DC Artist/Performer of the Year

Yes, it’s that time of the year again, where true to our name, True Genius Requires Insanity starts crowning the best of the year about 30 days before everyone else starts thinking about such things. The point is, in thinking about these things so early, we want to a) beat people to the punch, b) we have some opinions we’d like to get off our chest and c) we’d like to not have them get lost in the shuffle. Enjoy, comment and begin thinking about what you enjoyed most in 2010.

DC Artist/Performer of the Year – Dave Nada

Other Nominees:
Tabi Bonney
Nouveau Riche (Gavin Holland, Nacey, Steve Starks)
Matthew Hemerlein
Diamond District
Will Eastman
 
2010 was the year that DC reascended to the head of the class for being a leading locale for the East coast underground. The onus for this starts on March 17, 2010, the date that the U Street Music Hall had its grand opening. The venue provides a centralized location for both seeing and hearing the most important music rising through the underground locally, nationally and internationally, be it Wale’s go go infused hip hop, Trouble and Bass’ dubstep explorations, Will Eastman and MicahVellian’s sexy sexy disco, Bluebrain’s excellent alternative pop, ad infinitum. Having a proper showcasing venue that attracts top acts and as a balance hosts dominant local acts is ultra important and a key identifier to the re-development of DC as an underground center.
 
Since that night in March, everything has pretty much been a blur. In 2010, dominant sounds flooded out of the city into the national and international consciousness at a dizzying pace. Tabi Bonney may have accrued more travel miles of significance between Manhattan and DC than any rising emcee in recent memory. The Nouveau Riche crew’s Steve Starks and Nacey put out two great EPs on Tittsworth and Ayres’ T & A label, and fairly soon, there should be a Tabi Bonney remix by yes, Nacey. Matthew Hemerlein’s Brightest Young Things sponsored Family Hemerlein music and comedy gatheirngs at the Gibson Guitar Showcase evolved from quaint, kitschy hipster socials to one of the legitimate hot tickets on the DC social and musical calendar. When his album drops, the slow rise to glory for Hemerlein starts in earnest, and if you’ve listened to the man for any particular period of time, you know he’s going to succeed. The Diamond District represent DC hip hop and dominant underground overseas quite well, and continue to succeed as an underground act that is consistently underrated on their home turf, but with excellent branding and marketing strategy have made a commodity out of being backpacker celebrities.
 
But nobody is Dave Nada. Dave’s 2010 body of work is unbelievable. If we judged the man by Nadastrom remixes alone, he would have been awfully close, but he wouldn’t have won. That’s not to say those aren’t great, but he has evolved past them. The combination with Matt Nordstrom is still unbelievably incredible, but is not the full definition of the man. It’s in the nature of inventing moombahton, something that draws so specifically from so many influences in his already storied musical career that makes him the winner.

We’ve discussed his musical acumen at length on this site this year. However, it’s oft ignored Nada the box office draw that I’ll discuss instead. Often, you’ll find people in underground scenes that are highly territorial. Some people will unequivocally love one band or DJ above all others, and vehemently disagree when someone else states a different opinion. That sort of strife really doesn’t exist in DC, but, I will say this. DC’s underground scene is filled with more regularly spinning DJs and performers per capita than probably any other underground scene in the country. On any given night, to fill a room with people these days is awfully difficult as, well, a solid 50 people who would probably want to attend your event are DJing somewhere else in the city, often on the exact same block as you are. Dave Nada is one of the few guys who supersedes other people’s DJ nights, and is the one DJ that every other DJ in the city would give up the opportunity to play and make money at a weekly gig to come and see. That means a lot. The sell out attendance for Will Eastman’s Bliss or Nouveau Riche, definitely not so many professionals in the crowd. That’s wonderful too, because it shows the penetration of their marketing and the gravitational pull of U Street Music Hall on DC’s underground scene. But to be so great that other great DJs would forsake the opportunity to ply their craft to hear what you’re dropping, how you drop it, and show appreciation? That’s truly amazing.

As well, Nada has enlivened every other venue he has played at this year, namely Velvet Lounge. Velvet is a dive bar. Wait. That’s being really nice. Velvet is a hole. But it’s OUR hole, and we love it. Velvet and newcomer Dodge City on the not so clean side of U Street come off feeling like CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City for DC’s underground these days. Speakeasy bars that host critically acclaimed but not very well known to the mainstream musical events. Nada’s “Moombahton Mondays” events at Velvet made that bar easily one of the highest money grossers in the city on a weekly basis for an entire summer, and made the hottest dance floor in the city a 5 x 7 space in front of a 2 x 2 DJ space. There weren’t 40,000 watts of sound, but there was a good dude, a humble DJ spinning music that you knew he believed in with every fiber of his soul. I’ve never seen a DJ happier than Dave Nada spinning Moombahton in his home town on a muggy July evening with all of his friends, family and supporters dancing on. Certainly it wasn’t Jay-Z at Madison Square Garden, but DC is 1/7 the size of NYC, so an intimate gathering with a lot of tequila and Coronas feels more our pace anyway.

DC’s changing. Being that we’re the capital city of a country that oppressed African-Americans for 400 years that then elected an African-American to govern itself, we’re at the epicenter of the universe moreso than ever. With that spotlight, those who were ready for it have taken the ball, run and scored touchdowns. Each of the nominees showed and proved under the local expectations, national spotlight and international surprise at the depth and quality of DC’s music scene. Dave Nada, in unwittingly being a galvanizing force for DC, shone brighter than them all, so brightly that, now the lights that shine on the Hollywood sign, shine down on him. Imbued with determination and support of an entire city that he supported as much as we support him, he’s going to win. For us, and for himself.

Dale DC!
Dale Nadastrom!
Dale Moombahton!
Dale Dave Nada!

Moombahton Massive – U Street Music Hall – 10/27/10

http://www.youtube.com/v/wqPRdzrjWpU?fs=1&hl=en_US

The easiest point of comparison for last night’s epic Moombahton Massive at U Street Music Hall is the legendary 1988 Slam Dunk Competition at the Chicago All-Star Weekend. The finalists were Michael “Air” Jordan of the hometown Chicago Bulls and “The Human Highlight Film” Dominique Wilkins of the Atlanta Hawks. Both earned their nicknames and a place in the hearts of basketball fanatics and popular culture because they could dunk. It wasn’t even so much that they could dunk, it was that in the expression of slamming a basketball through a hoop, they were creative visionaries who had the ability to capture imaginations in the simplest of tasks.

Literallly every major producer of the gestating genre of moombahton was waiting for tonight with bated breath. This was indeed the All-Star Game for the genre. Much like the All-Star Games were in the image rehabbing and rising in popularity 1980s of the NBA, this was a joyous events behind the scenes as regional, national and international stars could meet. However, when tip-off occurred it was an exposition of the grace, energy and power of something exciting, different and on the rise.

Calgary’s A-Mac opened and ran through a retinue of his own lighter yet still tremendous pop fare, which as moombahton started seven months ago was seen as cutting edge, forward thnking and really fun. His edit of A-Trak’s remix of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Heads Will Roll” and Modjo’s “Lady” are still fantastic, but now sounds like Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” as compared with MARRS’ “Pump Up the Volume.” Both were #1 hits in 1987, and both have merit, but are horses of a different color and breed.

Turntable Lab representer and Bersas Discos Records founder DJ Sabo was up next, and altered the landscape of moombahton forever. Let’s call it “moombahstep,” and let’s talk about his giant edit of Bob and Earl’s “Harlem Shuffle,” aka the horns responsible for the opening of House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” The sound is an iconic call to preparing to mosh and jump, and moombahton went from just being a sexy, Dutch house, cumbia and reggaeton related two stepper to having explosive depth and and harder tone. Sabo is also the man responsible for introducing house, alternative pop and bhangra elements to the genre as well, as he has taken favor to Cam Jus’ remix of MIA’s “Boyz” to great benefit in that area. Sabo’s set cast a wide net and returned more fruitful than ever before.

The Netherlands’ Munchi, the best producer of any genre under the age of 25 in the universe committed felony assault on a crowd with basslines last night. In his US debut, the man who has been making beats since he was roughly 11 years old ran through his string of inventive instant classics, namely his and frequent collaborator David Heartbreak’s reworkings of Big Pun’s “100%” and The Beatnuts’ “Off th Books” bringing lilting woodwind melodies to the party, extending into new tracks from his forthcoming debut EP for T & A Recordings invoking the theme to iconic 80s 8-bit Nintendo game Tetris. Munchi is to moombahton as DJ Sega is to club music. We took a brief detour from moombahton into Munchi’s kuduro flavored club music, his remix of Steve Starks’ “Git Em” sounding like a DJ Sega track with tribal drums being danced to by a herd of elephants. The set was completely insane, and as Sega’s club music does, re-sets all previous notions of wild and bizarre directions where elctronic dance music is headed.

In Dave Nada’s headlining farewell to DC set, the pater familias of moombahton ascended to new levels of terrific. We’re all completely aware of Dave’s talents as a producer, and they were on display here. From the now iconic tracks that started it all to his latest work in his Sol Selectas tandem with DJ Sabo, he was magnificent. However, it was his skill in masterfully DJing a set that icorporated every single element by pretty much every single producer of what has made his seven month journey into manhood as a professional possible that was inspiring on this night. Dave Nada created moombahton. Somewhere along the way, because what he created is so great, he’s been blessed to have been touched by a team of creative sources that may likely be greater than he is at what he invented. But in syntheszing those elements and nurturing the genre by makng the jagged edges smooth, or in honing directions the movement makes, he’s the leader moombahton needs to succeed. Like Deep Dish, Tittsworth, Scottie B, Toy Selectah and a likely plethora of others (who we could never likely entirely name in full, even if we tried) who have all in ways we’ll likely never understand influenced Nada and shown him how to be a steward of dance, his set showed a conscientiousness along with the typical punk inspired face smashing and heart melting side of the top selector and producer. It was a magical moment and another point of arrival of a humble man destined to be a superstar.

Moombahton has finally arrived in full. The world is not ready.

Dale!

On Nadastrom’s Rum and Coke EP, Moombahton, and the nature of learning.

 http://www.divshare.com/flash/audio_embed?data=YTo2OntzOjU6ImFwaUlkIjtpOjQ7czo2OiJmaWxlSWQiO2k6MTI1NzYxOTA7czo0OiJjb2RlIjtzOjEyOiIxMjU3NjE5MC1hMmEiO3M6NjoidXNlcklkIjtpOjEzMjcwMDg7czoxMjoiZXh0ZXJuYWxDYWxsIjtpOjE7czo0OiJ0aW1lIjtpOjEyODQ2NzM4ODk7fQ==&autoplay=

DOWNLOAD HERE

This is a summer love story.

Moombahton was the new girl in town. Pretty, foreign and voluptuous, she swept into town with a back story nobody could believe. It was couched in urban legend, the type of stuff that fairy tales are made of. Soon, everybody wanted her, and she teased everyone, flirting with danger, until everyone universally knew she was beyond gorgeous, and then the lust began. The lust of men is an amazing thing to watch, glowing eyes filled with devious plans, wanting to steal her for themselves, and take her, hold her, own her and keep her. Many came close, but all did fail. Moombahton did have but one lover, he who bore her, and when she returned back to him, he released her once more, truly unattainable to but universally appreciated by all.

In 2006, Italian duo Bot and Phra, The Crookers, unleashed a bass and synth heavy sonic assault with hard breaks and electro melodies. People who had never appreciated sounds like these were immediately drawn to it, taken aback by how new, hard and sonically fresh everything sounded. However, all the while, Bmore club producer Debonair Samir likely sat in the corner noting how eerily similar the comparisons were between his “Samir’s Theme” and a string of the Crookers’ releases. There unforunately was never a Samir/Crookers pairing, which, had it happened, would have been unbelievable and possibly advanced both club and electro music as a tandem act farther than Diplo and MIA did after they listened to KW Griff tracks.

This is comparable to moombahton. Dave Nada’s original “Moombahton” track chopped and screwed the entire EDM universe. Into a world where melodic appreciation was a bygone concept of the youth of the average hipster, 108 BPM mellow sounds with percussion, depth, scope and a 2/4 danceable melody took form. In the early months, there were nights where people stood still on dance floors and began to appreciate melody, rhythm and percussion all over again. All the while, unbeknown to a great percentage of the underground universe existed Toy Selectah and Bersas Discos records. Toy is a musical mastermind. A plethora of Latino sounds have passed through his hands and ears as an artist, DJ, producer and label executive. Five years earlier, cumbia, a percussive and undulating Latin medlody, an ever popular sound from beyond the US’ southern border, was blended with rave sounds to create “raverton,” which, surprise, is Moombahton as well. Add to that Disco Shawn, Oro 11 and the great DJ Sabo from the Bersas Discos cumbia appreciation imprint, and moombahton had roots.

What differentiates this story from the Crookers’ is what we get in the Nadastrom Rum and Coke EP from T & A Records. Nada presents to us before his escape to Los Angeles what amounts to a summer school project about Latin rhythms and melodies. In inventing moombahton, and it being a wide success, Nada has earned the right to traverse into the territory of Latin sounds, and have free reign to create. There are clear elements here of the Bersas Discos crew down to Disco Shawn’s vocals on the AMAZING “Trompaton,” and the influence of Toy Selectah, as well as his homies, the Sheeqo Beat involved 3Ball crew and their tribal house, and as always co-conspirator Matt Nordstrom involved as well expanding his already expansive musical palette.

In a culture now as defined by rapid expansion as by great songs becoming swallowed by more great songs making music constant snippets of sonic greatness in a constantly evolved state of noise, Rum and Coke is a standout. Yet again, Nada redefines, by right of education being the plug and knowledge being power that moombahton is his addition to the world of latin rhythm, and the world’s to share.

SEAL OF APPROVAL (DC) – AFROJACK & NADASTROM – 9/2/10

  MOOMBAHTON by T&ARecords

Afrojack’s remix of DJ Chuckie and Silvio Eccomo’s “Moombah,” and Dave Nada’s “Moombahton”.

Anatomy of a movement, and the key development points for superstars!

Afrojack appears tonight at Lima for Panorama Productions. Check http://www.clubglow.com
Nadastrom are at U Street Music Hall for their residency.

Real talk, if Afrojack never would’ve remixed DJ Chuckie and Silvio Eccomo’s “Moombah,” this summer would’ve been nowhere near as entertaining. When the Dave Nada half of Nadastrom took that remix’s hypnotic, thumping bassline, and slowed it to 108 BPM, and meshed it with Sidney Samson’s “Riverside,” summer got screwed up, and became amazing. “Moombahton,” the Dutch House meets cumbia meets reggaeton development that has turned the underground on it’s ear also couldn’t have ever happened unless Nada started producing tracks with Matt Nordstrom. Nordstrom, a Grammy nominated house producer with a legacy that makes him a heavy hitter even without having ever playing with Dave. Nordstrom’s more measured simmer to a boil then back again method of production took Dave from the subtle build to massive explosion style he learned from being a punk rock kid who spun Bmore club to a brand new place as a producer, a place that has Nadastrom hot on the lips of everyone on the underground from U Street Music Hall to Eighteenth Street Lounge to all of the top names in the underground world, to yes, rappers like, amazingly enough, Lil B the Based God, and given they produced a track on the Jersey Shore Soundtrack, MTV buzzing about them too.

Just as Afrojack has leveled up and is now producing remixes with David Guetta (“Louder than Words”), Nada and Nordstrom leave at the end of September to Los Angeles to be closer to their Dubsided Records label chief David “Switch” Taylor, of Major Lazer and generally unique and dope productions fame. However, whereas a ton of people local to DC and Baltimore are acting like this is an enormous “farewell tour,” it really isn’t. If Nadastrom are going to continue to be dominant forces on the underground, then it would stand to reason that as their legend grows, selling out 9:30 Club, U Hall and Sonar will be as much a part of that legacy as pretty much anything else. And given that they’re from here, they’re going to have to bring it, and bring it massively. We’re not going to cry and moan about Nadastrom leaving town, in fact, we’re not even going to acknowledge it. We at TGRI are going to sit here and watch Twitter and wait for the first time Dave Nada calls some fool out in LA a “bama” on Twitter, or when a Nadastrom track is strongly influenced by a Bad Brains or Fugazi song, or something they learned from Scottie B or KW Griff, and we’ll know. You can take the boys out of DC, but you can’t take DC out of the boys. Well actually, they’re men now. Handling business like that too. And we’re proud. If you can, check both Nadastrom and Afrojack tonight. In VERY short order, they’ll be on the exact same level of eyes around the world. We know that amongst themselves, they already are on each other’s level, and that’s a victory in itself. Game recognize game, and we do too.

Top tier performers make tonight a top tier night.

KEEPIN’ THE FAITH an enormous success and the best DC DJ night of 2010.

http://www.divshare.com/flash/audio_embed?data=YTo2OntzOjU6ImFwaUlkIjtpOjQ7czo2OiJmaWxlSWQiO2k6MTIxOTQ3MDM7czo0OiJjb2RlIjtzOjEyOiIxMjE5NDcwMy1iZWYiO3M6NjoidXNlcklkIjtpOjEzMjcwMDg7czoxMjoiZXh0ZXJuYWxDYWxsIjtpOjE7czo0OiJ0aW1lIjtpOjEyODEwMjkxNTI7fQ==&autoplay=

Government Issue – Plain to See (Stereo Faith Intro) Trevor Martin’s HUGE night closer!

There are indeed occasions where words cannot effectively cover how massive something was. Many say the key to journalism is to efficiently use wordplay to be able to conjure images that make actions come to life. I don’t think those words exist to describe last night. If you gave of yourself entirely, gave in to the concussive impact of the U Street Music Hall Soundsystem, and found the cause for the event right and just, then you literally felt every emotion music allows humanity to feel. In six hours, kingpin selectors ALL played sets that were ethereal, sublime and completely and undeniably the best of their kind heard in the city all year. When asking every single DJ to a man what propelled this destructive blast of soulsonic force out of them? They all had the same answer: “I had to go in for Steve.” Stone, deadfaced serious each and every time. The delirium caused by the level of excellence of these sets proved an undeniable fact to be true. Steven McPherson, aka DJ Stereo Faith is maybe one of the best dudes ever in underground music. If we harness the force of sound and human energy contained in U Street Music Hall last night, there’s no doubt that not only will Stereo Faith overcome his brain tumor, but he will come back renewed, with a vigor and excellence never before seen or heard.

All of the folks came out. Taxlo’s Simon Phoenix and Cullen Stalin. The Brick Bandits/Mad Decent afilliates Dirty South Joe, DJ Sega and Guns Garcia. Crossfaded Bacon’s Uncle Jesse. The Nouveau Riche crew. Tabi Bonney. Representatives of every major clothing brand, venue and independent record label in the Northeast. Nobody’s a celebrity on the underground, but game recognize game and all respect all. It was an event for the ages for a man of all time.

Will Eastman opened huge with some punk rock. Jerome Baker played classic house, then Scottie B started to make things serious. Scottie plays these house sets every week at the party he curates at Bmore’s Metro Gallery with Cullen Stalin that are so great that you almost want to feel depressed that you got into the party for free. Scottie’s excellence is so understated, his style so impeccable that you lose sight of how magnificent he is at what he does because it doesn’t slam you over the head, but instead causes your feet to dance for themselves.

Speaking of, I thought Dave Nada had forgotten how to punch people in the face with bass and pistol whip them with rhythm during a set. The Nadastrom combination has in many ways smoothed out Dave’s edges and taught him how to harness his never-ending desire to cause criminal and passionate energy from playing club music. Last night, homie threw down the gloves and engaged a throng of people ready to wild out in a musical battle of Survival of the Fittest that he won. It felt like being transported back to Krunk for an hour. Dave’s club edit of the MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams” fell into classic Blaqstarr, which headbutted KW Griff and Porkchop which piledrove DJ Class and elbowed DJ Booman and Diamond K in the face. The hardcore fanatic came back out to play last night, and, yeah. When it comes to club music, Nada’s still got it.

On any other night, that set would be the star. But Jesse Tittsworth is one of the owners of the venue, and there was absolutely no way he would be upstaged. Tittsworth cut his teeth as a DJ on drum n bass and hip hop. Therefore, it goes without saying that in going back to his roots, those would be the hallmarks of his excellence for the night. Tittsworth looked like a kid at Christmas spinning the obscenely percussive music, as always engaging in an epic battle of fisticuffs with the bass register of the U Hall soundsystem. Last night was a time for mainstream club folks who have never been to U hall to get a taste of what the room has to offer, and I think that when the sound waves from the bass began to make people’s hair stand on end and skin begin to vibrate, and nothing was lost in the quality and levels of the sound, people were shocked, amazed, and kept on dancing. When the lights hit these people in a certain manner, it appeared to be a sea of psychedelic drones descending upon the DJ booth. It was proof that the sound has a possibility of truly making converts in the musical mainstream, and was utterly amazing.

Trevor Martin and Jerome Baker III stood up and became superhuman last night. Neither did anything particularly different than what they usually do, Martin holding down the mainstream spots and Baker one of the crown princes of “jiggy” posh locales around town and cruise ships as well (so serious, he just did a tour as a DJ on a cruise ship). Given the nature of the event and the hyperkinetic energy of the room, Martin and Baker proved that mainstream club style, when delivered by spinners who know what they are doing, can read a crowd, not let the energy dip, and take risks (Baker dropped Zombie Nation’s “Kernkraft 400” AND Darude’s “Sandstorm”), can make phenomenal feats of magic overwhelm a crowd.

It’s often been said in this gestation period for U Street Music Hall that the venue can’t be everything to everyone. Well, what if you’re honoring someone who already is. I guess for one night, it’s possible to make an exception to the rule.

SEAL OF APPROVAL (DC) – Dave Nada & Hip Hop Dan present WHAT’S THE SCENARIO – 9:30 Club – 7/17/10

Let’s not get things twisted. Dave Nada started off in the DJ game as a certified face smasher. His Krunk parties with DJ Tittsworth were thinly veiled threats against the stability of one’s mind when assaulted with the hardest and toughest edges of hip hop. Even further, let’s go back to his days as an undergrad at the University of Maryland, hanging out in the college radio station learning how to do this from current Neptunes touring DJ Hip Hop Dan. On Saturday night, you’ll get to see both of the now veteran spinners turn back the hands of time to their youthful days of exuberance as spinners. Yes, now Dave is not as much as a face smasher as a total DJ, someone as adept at making your pour with sweat or become one with a groove, or, when at his best, doing both at the exact same time. Dan is a certified winner, keeping things eclectic and using a set as a backdrop for truly finding the connections that allow for disparate sounds from different genres to be unified as music.

Dance parties at the 9:30 Club are ridiculous. Last summer’s Blisspop Summer Extravaganza was unbelievable. I’ve seen Deadmau5 there, and it was quite the scene. However, my favorite dance parties are when Will Eastman and Brian Billion do their No Scrubs 90s party at the venue, and it’s literally 1000 crazies going nuts. This summer, the venue’s already had Black Cat 80s night stalwart DJ Lil’E last Friday night doing a Madonna v. M.I.A. v. Lady Gaga night that was quite amazing. This one, well, I say multiply those vibes times ten.

If you want to hear the building blocks of what we know today as the underground, come out to the 9:30 Club and set yourself free. Dave Nada and Hip Hop Dan are easily two local names with international importance to much of the way the underground today both listens to and appreciates music. From humble roots sprout the trees of legend. This night will be special. From the root to the fruit, and back again.

Maybe Dan and Dave aren’t on the level of importance quite yet as the four fellow University of Maryland alums shown above. But the emotions you’ll feel when they use their talents and drop tracks like the one shown in the video below, an d you could possibly change your tune.

http://www.youtube.com/v/eiTAB7ORK8M&hl=en_US&fs=1

Go Terps.

S*** I’M DIGGING THIS WEEK: Certified Dope Summer Bangers Edition

aka avant garde musical water cooler discussion.

1. The moombahton movement continues to grow!

If you’re not at least aware of or informed as to having a favorite moombahton track these days, then you’re really doing it wrong in being any sort of “underground tastemaker.” We hate such nomenclatures here at True Genius Requires Insanity, but, if you want to be aware of and truly appreciative of the genre, you could do worse than being a follower of this site. We’ve recently proclaimed the warm, tropical sound as the soundtrack of the post-hipster generation. As if right on time with that, moombahton inventor Dave Nada started a Monday summer residency at Velvet Lounge, with last night’s event featuring all of your favorite moombahton, cumbia and tropical bass hits, and given that it was Nada’s birthday, yep, live woodwind instrumentation as a trumpet and saxophone accompanied Nada’s mixing.

What were they accompanying? Well, only the hottest sound this week in the underground smash genre, DJ Doc Adam’s mash of East Flatbush Project’s “Tried by 12” and Drop the Lime’s new summer smasher “Sex Sax.” Agreed, alongside Steve Starks’ “Lydia,” there hasn’t been a more moombahton ready track recently released, but the blend of the acapella of “Tried by 12,” and the reinterpretation of the Trouble and Bass related DJ’s “Sex Sax” works really well, and I think is the door opener to the possibility of involving freestyle with the genre, which I think is a direction that can prove to be truly fertile.

  Tried by Sex Sax (Doc Adam Moombahton Edit) by docadam

2. James Nasty is producing the Bmore club smash of the year

Some things just make natural sense. James Nasty is a Baltimore folk hero waiting to happen. If you follow his Twitter account, @jamesnasty, you’re introduced to a life which is surrounded by sex, drugs and Bmore club. As well, he appears to be perpetually surrounded by a cast of characters that say and do the most ridiculous things. Any given night can end up with accounts of party promoters assaulting DJs at Bmore’s failed Click party, a Saturday night house party gig turning into a theater of the absurd, or random musings on missed connections, random women, and the unusual nature of his life.

James has a friend that to a good percentage of the Bmore universe is known as “The Motherf***ing Thump.” Given that I spend a fair amount of time rooting about in the deep underground of Baltimore, I definitely know Thump well enough to know that he’s easily one of the more entertaining people in the city. The idea of James and Thump collaborating, while to the average person not anything remotely close to DJ Class and Jermaine Dupri on a track, is eons more important.

Club music was built on original vocal samples over hard breaks. Ms. Tony and Frank Ski, Jimmy Jones and the Doo Dew Kidz, hell, even Rye Rye and Blaqstarr. The ultimate key to club music’s rise was to have unique underground voices with hungry producers who were building their legacy. The music always then remained fresh and intriguing. James Nasty and The Motherf***ing Thump? I like the sound of that. Again, some things just make natural sense.

Wanna hear this track for the first time anywhere? Come to WORLD CHAMPS this Thursday night at Wonderland Ballroom!

More to come…

Moombahton, the sound of the next generation…

Many months ago, we here at True Genius Requires Insanity proclaimed the hipster movement dead. We claimed that the values and ethos that define the movement were null, and that the key components had been absorbed deep into the mainstream, necessitating the end of the social era. On a purely musical level, the most defining music of the hipster era was Baltimore club music. The aggressive, hard breaking, deep bass, horn, hand clap, fun sample and party chant center made the music have an overwhelming good time feel. The sound was fresh, and though in no way new, as the dominant sound of the underground assisted in providing a vehicle to an informed sense of hip to the new underground order. The next underground movement has no name, but it absolutely has its defining sound, based very deeply in many of the concepts discussed above, but moving to a warmer, tropical beat. Moombahton.

All of the component parts are there. The Count of College Park, MD, Dave Nada, the creator of the sound, is imbued with the sensibilities of the most dominant underground musical forces of the past 40 years. Equal parts punk and hardcore guitarist, rave kid, student of ALL of the legendary heroes of Bmore club and hip hop enthusiast, all of those necessities make themselves truly evident in his new sound. Add in a touch of his native roots from Ecuador, makes the sound unique, personal and emotive of a new ethos and style that in many ways will come to define what is next. Nada’s development toward this point has been obvious. Noted and local legend punk and hardcore artist and scenester. College student at University of Maryland at the same time as Neptunes tour DJ Hip Hop Dan and a number of dominant local pros. Resident DJ at Baltimore’s TaxLo dance party and holding down DC’s hipster incubator party Crunk (with DJ Tittsworth), and finally, joining forces with producer extraordinaire Matt Nordstrom as Nadastrom. The tale is as legendary as it is true, and now, at the cusp of our latest generation, Nada stands as a leader moving a ready and prepared crew of others ahead into the future.

  Esa Loca Cumbia by djsabo 

Last night, Nada celebrated his birthday at U Street Music Hall. Playing alongside him was the Tormenta Tropical crew from Bersas Discos Records, a crew created by a collective of DJs most appreciative of the cumbia sound. Oro 11, Disco Shawn and rising star producer and DJ of the genre Turntable Lab’s DJ Sabo. Cumbia, bachata, salsa which are all forefathers of moombahton are all inherently based in a two step time. Bmore club is four on the floor, which while easy to dance to, this Latin invasion, MUCH easier. There were 40 year old cougars, post-teen hipsters, Chads, Beckies, hip hop cats, punk kids and businessmen in suits all finding the sound accessible. DJ Apt One’s edit of the Chemical Brothers’ “Block Rockin’ Beats,” Munchi’s Afrika Bambaataa sampling “Metele Bellaco,” Nada’s edit of Steve Starks’ “Lydia” and current grand champion of the sound Calgary’s A-Mac’s edit of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Heads Will Roll” all were victorious. After the wild, raging electro rave that was the hipster generation, we still occasionally get that, but moombahton especially moves at 108 BPM, about 30 to 60 BPMs less than what was popular before. In slowing things down and discovering the groove, moombahton defines the measured and continuous intensity and not the raging aggression that defined life just five years ago.

  Culipandeo – The Moombahton Mix by DJ A-Mac 

Across the board, sounds have gotten deeper and stronger. Dubstep and deep, classic trending house are the way and the light of 2010. Maybe it’s that all of the producers have matured. Maybe it’s that we’re all just getting old. Maybe it’s a cultural shift. At the end of the day though, moombahton, and it’s Latin progenitors are the most shining examples of the most accessible, fresh and mainstream sounds of our future.

Things done changed.

Dale Moombahton!