WE NEVER LEAVE THE CLUB: Quarterly Baltimore Club Music Update

Whether you like it or not, this guy had the best year in Baltimore club music. By a long shot.

As 2010 draws to a close, Baltimore club music is in an unusual place. On one hand, the music is more mainstream accessible than ever. Blaqstarr is positioned to become and underground pop icon and everything that was either directly or indirectly attached to the hipster movement from Pabst Blue Ribbon beer to Diplo is achieving a place in the mainstream. Usher’s “OMG,” a Baltimore club track disguised as a pop song was voted by MTV as the channel’s favorite pop tune of the year. Baltimore club tracks are now a staple of mainstream R & B and dance releases for the time being as well, as acts ranging from the expected Black Eyed Peas to the unexpected newcomer Miguel incorporating the sound. On one level, between that and internationally popular DJs like Trouble and Bass’ Drop the Lime and Zombies for Money, along with kuduro club smasher Munchi making waves in club music the dream has been realized. Club music is global, in a major way, and shows no apparent signs of slowing down. However, as rapper Redman once entitled an album, “Dare Iz a Darkside.”

 We No Speak Bmoreo by James Nasty

On the veteran front, Unruly’s Say Wut had another terrific year, releasing an album length mix, and with King Tutt promising a 2011 release that will venture deeper into the electro side of club music, Unruly has transferred quietly from being a leader in club music to being the genre’s most respected brand. Hearing Scottie B drop bombs at the Baltimore Bass Connection Xmas Party at Sonar wasn’t the life altering experience it normally is, instead it was met as the expectation of the DJ and the music he plays. In having harnessed the titanic strength of club music for so long, and being the brand that carried it into the mainstream, Unruly no longer needs to be a leader, but it rather can be the steward, the respected folks at the top of the game.

http://www.youtube.com/v/IK4BSndto8Y?fs=1&hl=en_US

It is important to also note that the Baltimore game has changed. When the city was widely regarded as the predominant world underground leader, club music was swept into that. Now, as Baltimore has faded back into being a weird, yet still vibrant musical enclave, still local Baltimore club needs to be, well, back in the clubs. The growth that occurred in the sound between “Watch Out for the Big Girl” and “I’m the Shit” needs to be replicated yet again. There needs to be an emphasis on not just producing, but the actual art of DJing the music. Mainstream success is always just around the corner for club music. It reflects popular culture and features intensely catchy dance breaks. Jonny Blaze is an urban legend and Benny Stixx may not be a household name, but they are DJs adept at  producing and spinning the sound and getting people moving. Philly’s DJ Sega is a prodigy and everyone is aware of that. KW Griff and DJ Booman are holding down breaking songs on the radio. Between those names and a plethora more, there needs to be work done amongst DJs who still want to advance club music. While names like Usher are toying with the sound, enormous mainstream exposure isn’t exactly possible. However, working hard in the lab and concocting where the sound can be headed in the shadows of these giants is of ultra importance.

In final, club music truly became pop music in 2010. Of course, as when anything underground goes pop, it immediately causes tension in the underground, a sea of angry emotions, hurt feelings and rash decisions borne of confusion. All of these things happened in club music this year. However, with a quick change of gears, club music can survive, and actually get stronger for the next major boom. As the King James Version states in Ecclesiastes 9:11, “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race [is] not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

EP Review: Munchi – Murda Sound

Covering music on the leading edge is hard work. Between filtering through recommendations by artbiters of culture and unearthing new sounds and styles by happenstance, there are plenty of ways to go out about it. However, it usually isn’t delivered fully-formed, swaddled like an infant on the stoop of an orphanage. But with the discovery of Munchi, that’s what it feels like.

Munchi, the Dominican in Rotterdam, nearly as synonymous with moombahton as Dave Nada, has arrived. But like TGRI’s Artist of the Year, it’s clear that Munchi is far more than a producer of one style, and his debut EP, Murda Sound, proves that beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Murda Sound is a six song EP, released today on T&A Records. Throughout, Munchi’s range of influence (hinted at on his various moombahton releases) is even more impressive than expected.

The EP kicks off with the electro-dancehall of “Shottas” (featuring Mr. Lexx) and it’s club edit, propelled by an uneven, syncopated beat and the ubiquitous toast “wake up and tell the people.”

“Toma Essa Pora” is a Baltimore club meets baile funk banger, with chopped up samples that are juke-like in their intensity and urgency. The song even includes the oft-sample “Darkest Light” by the Lafayette Afro Rock Band (ed. note: thanks to Cam Jus for identifying this).

The club fest continues on the title track, which lives up to it’s name. The song starts with the mind-shattering take on club that we’ve heard from Nadastrom and Steve Starks. But halfway through, things get much more intense, with B-more breaks and some sinister bass blasts. This is probably the darkest, most futuristic take on club since Dave Nada’s “Apocalypse Theme.”

The back-end of the EP finds Munchi flexing his mellow side. “Hope” is a down-tempo R&B groove that devolves into smoothbahton, again, with a vocal sample reminiscent of juke. “Madre, no llores” is some purple dubstep that might actually bring a tear to your eye.

Munchi is a jack of all trades, and master of all. Murda Sound is the first proper look at a producer ready to make moombahton and dancehall, club and dubstep all his own. Throughout, Munchi’s trademark whistle sample announces his arrival like “The Farmer in the Dell” announced Omar on The Wire. And while Omar went after drug dealers, Munchi’s coming for other producers. My advice for them? “You come at the king, you best not miss.”

FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS.

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!

Moombahton’s latest top EP is so good it’ll make you say "Fuck H & M (Heartbreak and Munchi)!"

Charlotte, NC’s David Heartbreak and the Netherlands’ Munchi are not just moombahton producers. In discovering that they quickly understood the sonic formula necessary to make high quality moombahton edits, the duo is using their clear intellect with this sound to rise to the top of heap of new young producers of 2010. Outside of the moombahton realm, David Heartbreak just remixed Kanye West’s “Power,” giving it a disco electro feel that hints at club music but sounds like a 31st century roller skating jam. Munchi? He’s got an EP coming for T & A Records, and alongside that, his edit of Steve Starks “Git ‘Em” is possibly my favorite kuduro based track of the year, a thunderous bass explosion. Moombahton for each of these producers is simple, easy, light and fun. The drum loop will almost always be the same, and once you figure out the best melodies that can be warped into time with the hypnotic sway, fun and accessible tracks always follow. On their Fuck H & M EP, they expand moombahton into new frontiers and give the genre longevity and a future in giving it legs to expand in all musical directions.

The key to the success of the graduated sound of this EP lies squarely on one major reason. Woodwind instruments. Just like how Say Wut’s club music productions always sound so fresh because of saxophones, trumpets and tubas, Heartbreak and Munchi playing around with tracks heavily laden with flutes, piccolos and other high register woodwinds gives their tracks a brightness and color that typically in the genre has come from the blips and bleeps familiar to Dutch house. In frankly turning down the bass a bit and letting the higher register get some love, the sound is as organic as Dave Nada’s new creations are with their true cumbia and tribal base, without being as heavily tinged with those sounds.

  Arroz Con Pollo by David Heartbreak 

Tracks “Pun Ain’t Dead” and “Arroz con Pollo” take Big Pun’s classic “100%” and The Beatnuts’ “Off the Books” to their Latin roots, and in sampling those lilting flutes and piccolos, the tracks have a hot, fresh sound. The hip hop vocal samples keep the tracks based in the streets as all hip hop sampling moombahton tracks are the ones that in the vocal samples have been extremely key in sealing the deal of the sound becoming familiar to the ears of hip hop heads slow to appreciate the sound.

  Munchi – Esta Noche by Munchi 

Munchi’s “Esta Noche” sampling the chorus of Montell Jordan’s “Get It On Tonight” takes the smooth sensuality of the R & B hit and dips it in a sound even more sensuous. Depending on the room, “Esta Noche” is either the most ironic creation ever, or possibly the most mainstream ready moombahton edit since Nada’s original “Moombahton” with its spoken word entreaties to introduce you to exactly what to do with sound.

Heartbreak’s “Chhavi” advances the bhangra flavored work of Bersas Discos DJ Sabo or DC’s Cam Jus from earlier this summer with a vocal sample that wraps itself sinuously around the bassline for a solid track. Props to LA graphic designer Chippy Nonstop who’s been holding down the sound on the left coast just as we do here on the east at TGRI!

In final, Heartbeak and Munchi’s “Faceoff” is a straight up no chaser edit as obvious as the nose on your face, Major Lazer’s “Pon de Floor” gets a cumbia flavored remix. It’s the closest thing to the origination of the Moombahton sound on the EP, and a fine closer to the duo’s most forward thinking body of work to date.

“Fuck H & M?” Only if you’re the most diabolical of haters. Otherwise, the duo clearly deserve your time and respect.

THE DROP: Munchi steps up his kuduro game

Kuduro is to Angola what baile funk is to Brazil: energetic dance music born in the melting pot of local and international influences. Sidestepping a discussion of the pros and cons of globalization, it’s fair to say that these amalgamated styles are benefits of cultural exchanges. Kuduro, thanks to the influence of Portuguese musicians, is blessed with both African and Latin rhythms, along with the distinct sounds of mainstream EDM. The genre had an underground hit in 2008 when MIA teamed up with leading purveyors Buraka Som Sistema.

Munchi originals “Minigame 2000” and “Ta Maluco” are stripped down and raw: squealing chiptune melodies, non-stop beats and Angolan chants. The same can be said of the two bonus tracks, leftovers from an earlier version of the EP. However, the highlight of the promo is his remix of Steve Starks’ “Git Em.” While the original is a Miami-meets-Baltimore percussion grenade, Munchi’s version is more of a laser-tag battle. But like the original, it does just what the title says.

http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fmunchi_productions%2Fsteve-starks-git-em-munchi-kuduro-rmx&secret_url=false

Throughout history, musical genres have been created by forces much larger than the musicians themselves, be it slavery, imperialism or globalization. Adding the Internet into the mix accelerates the process without the oppression, letting a kid from Rotterdam make a name for himself with sounds that originated a world away.