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raggabreaks dubcore speedbeats genreblends wreckstep soundclashes beatresearch mashups rewinds basshits boomsounds |
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Hype: taken from
mp3: DJ C & JONNY P seaga face and pj body (yousendit) mp3: DJ C & ZULU ransom the senator (myspace download) mp3: DJ C crazy baldheads (mashit version) mp3: ZULU VS JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE spread the sexy word i’ve written about jake trussel aka dj c twice before (here and here), but i make no excuse for keeping the bandwagon bumping and thumping. dj c blends ragga, breakcore, dancehall, dub and throws it in a turbo-changed blender with a few tablespoons of his own secret ingredient (which is oft referred to as ‘boston bounce’) . his label, mashit, has brought us a collection of some of the finest examples of this bastard genre - all of which are available for download at mashit.com. take time to digest the entire catalogue - each release is of premium quality so it’s almost impossible to single anything out. start with ‘crazy baldheads’ (above) and keep going from there. you have to admire the generous nature of the label - in giving so much away for free, i would hazard a guess that we’re more likely to purchase a release when it next comes on sale, or go and see these artists when they’re next playing in town. it’s an old argument that i’m not going to re-run, but you get the idea. as an aside, you know the story of downloads killing music? in the six months to june 2006, the australian recording industry association reported a growth in physical cd sales of 17%; total growth including downloads was 5.8%. (source) aside no.2: much like the prospect of going ‘carbon neutral’ (e.g. putting something back into the environment for every particle that you pollute), maybe we should go ‘music neutral’? for every track we grab for free, we restore the balance with a purchase. just a thought… we can certainly return the favour to dj c and friends right now - there’s four (count ‘em) releases out now which i urge you to track down and open your wallet for. first up, there’s a collaboration with jamaican mc jonny p (get a time-limited download of one the versions above) on shockout’s latest release ’seaga face and pj body’ - with jonny p having a swipe at women who bleach their face for a purely cosmetic rationale. on the flip is a version featuring kid606. more info at tigerbeat6.com, or buy at boomkat. there’s two collaborations with chicago ragga-vocalist zulu; the ‘animal attraction’ 7″ on community library, and the excellent ‘ransom the senator’ four tracker on death$ucker (myspace download link above). zulu is a talent to keep our eyes skinned for, check out his own blend of an original track (’spread the word’) with timberlake’s ’sexy back’ above. finally, there’s a digital-only 6 track ep available on cozy music entitled ‘traced milk’. in a break from what we’ve come to expect, this collection apparently presents a more downtempo dj c, “a series of short beat poems” and “chilled out goodies”. release info at cozymusic.org, download details at mashit.com/djc. ------------------------------- The Fader Magazine,
issue 33, Oct/Nov, 2005
Jake Trussell and Antony Flackett met in a grad school class at the Massachusetts College of Art's Studio for Interrelated Media. "I was trying to build a MIDI controlled sampler out of Hallmark cards -- you know, the ones that you could record a message onto, and when the recipient opens it , the message plays back," Trussell recalls. "I was super impressed," adds Flackett, who promptly used the idea in one of his video collages. The men otherwise known as DJ C and DJ Flack have spent the ten years since performing as the beatboxing/laptopping/turntabling/video-projecting combo DuoTone, and have also dropped a number of vinyl and CD releases of "experimental party music" on the self-owned Mashit label. But at Trussell and Flackett's weekly Beat Research party, all those theoretical jamz get put to the ultimate test: making people dance. Held every Monday at Cambridge's Enormous Room, Beat Research has played host to guests ranging from Montreal dancehall deconstructivist Ghislain Poirier to students from Flackett's class at MassArt, where he is now a professor. "I like to emphasize how art that comes from a club or party can be just as important and valid as what ends up in a gallery, if not more so," Flackett says. One regular guest is fellow beatmaker/academic Wayne Marshall. Along with teaching electronic music courses at Brown and Harvard Extension School, ethnomusicologist Marshall records and DJs as Wayne&Wax; his solo album Boston Jerk juxtaposes original, pull up-worthy dancehall cuts with found-sound spoken word interludes and a version of the Diwali riddim made from samples of dogs barking. Recently, the three were among the artists featured on the (((Re:Sounnd))) compilation, coinciding with a gallery exhibition that studied the links between outlaw soundsystems and the creation of indigenous electronic music scenes from Jamaica to detroit to the UK. That comp was the debut of "Boston Bounce" -- think Baltimore club with a triplet swing beat thrown in -- created by Trussell as Boston's own local contribution to that pantheon. While the Enormous Room isn't quite an "outlaw soundsystem," it does represent a massive two-step away from the ivory tower, and perfectly illustrates how Trussell, Flackett and Marshall have found individual ways to turn academic philosophies into actual, living art. If the people losing their shit to Boston Bounce tracks at Beat research are any indication, maybe all those posters of Garfield reading a book were right, and learnin really can be fun. ------------------------------- URB Magazine, November 2005 One of the most forward-looking [US] labels (if you like your electronics mashed up) finally releases this version of the Shinehead original, which was a corking reggae version of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." If you ever need a record to get a party started and you've forgotten your copy of "blue Monday," whack this on. ------------------------------- Grooves Magazine, September, 2005
Over a decade since jungle's infectious combination of double-time breakbeats, throbbing half-time dub bass lines, and vocal samples of Jamaican patois first exploded out of London's dance music underground, the music has found new life an ocean away in America on labels like Shockout, Rewind, and Jake Trussell's Boston-based Mashit Records. While Kid 606's Shockout may have a higher profile, Trussell's Mashit has been unleasing its equally devastating blend of raggaphonic junglistic sounds by artists like Aaron Spectre, Murderbot, and Wayne&Wax since 2003. Trussell's own contributions to the label as DJ C have been among the label's finest, whith his blistering remix of Capleton's Conscience a Heng Dem and last year's Billy Jungle, which melds spaghetti-western whistling with a Michael Jackson-impersonating Jamaican vocalist, being particular standouts. Trussell's musical explorations began at an early age, playing in bands covering classic rock, metal, and Prince songs (later delving into John Zorn and downtown NYC jazz, electreic Miles Davis, and James Brown) but it was his parents who planted the musical seeds in him that continue to bear fruit today. "[They] got me into reggae in the first place, durring the early '80s, listening to all that rub-a-dub, and rockers stuff," he says. After receiving a Technics 1200 turntable as a high-school-graduation gift, Trussell used it to incorporate samples into his four-track recordings, but didn't try his hand at DJing until a few years later. "DJ C was born in "92 or '93," he says. "I actually released a series of cassettes under the name Cee, and then just C. They weren't DJ mixes, though. They were my early experiments with electronic music, using analog synths, drum machines, and my four-track." In the mid- to late '90s Trussell released two albums of electronic-tinged jungle and post-Orb dub as Electro Organic Sound System while also helping to curate a series of experimental electronic music events with DJ /rupture and others as part of the Toneburst collective. "One of the reasons it started was that a bunch of us like-minded experimentalists couldn't get gigs in the clubs—so we had to create our own venues," says Trussell. "Toneburst was always about doing events in alternative spaces. We did one at the Boston Children's Museum that was great: We had live electronic acts playing in a giant tea cup, analong synth experiments in 'Grandma's Attic,' and people dancing all over the place to hip-hop and jungle beats." While Toneburst is now defunct, its spirit lives on through Trussell and fellow Mashit artist Antony (DJ Flack) Flackett's weekly Beat Research party—which also happens to be the name of Trussell's newest label. "The first Beat Research record, by DJ Flack, has an instrumental hip-hop remix of an indian-flavored Cul de Sac tune, a klezmer/dubstep tune, some Hawaiian-flavored beats, and a tune with Czech folk-music samples," says Trussell. "[The label] is an attempt to spread out into different areas ... When I DJ, I play all kinds of music, and I want my own work to reflect that." Indeed, head to Mashit's website (www.mashit.com) and you'll hear Trussell's live and DJ sets, which demonstrate his ability to confound strict genre boundaries by mutating jungle, hip-hop, dancehall, bhangra, techno, rock, and folk into a super-virus of mind-bending and ass-shaking sound. "Recently, the DJ C stuff has been less jungle, and more Boston bounce—a sound influenced by grime/dubstep, Baltimore club, shuffle, etc.," Trussell says. "Another project I'm excited about at the moment is the B series of DJ mixes... So far the Breakment and Boots mixes are available [online] ... Future mixes in the series will include Berlin, Bouncement, Bhang, and Boston. DJ Flack's Meet Mr. Doobie and Murderbot's Fi You 12-inches are out now on Mashit. -------------------------------- International DJ Magazine, August, 2005 Boston’s DJ C has been busy tearing up jungle tunes for his breakcore brethren with his Mashit label. Yet his reworking of Shinehead & Mr. Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ is his most potent transmission to date. A brilliant marriage of pop and noisefest, it’s dancehall carnage for reggaefied headbangers. And the crew behind London’s Heatwave nights have cannily engineered a brilliant meeting for Mr. C with ever improving dancehall MC Diamond. The result is a hyper jungle anthem that will fight it out with the current mash up of ‘Jamrock’ for subterranean dominance in the rave. Diamond’s old skool vocal style offsets the musical rollercoaster brilliantly. Wicked. -Kevin Martin -------------------------------- Grooves Magazine, September, 2005 For its latest releases, Boston's mighty Mashit calls on local riddim scientists DJ Flack and Wayne&Wax along with Kansas City's Murderbot to unleash a triple threat of raggatronic breaks from its laboratory. An academic who has taught an electronic-music history course at the Harvard Extension School and is working on his dissertation on hip-hop and reggae's symbiotic relationship, Wayne&Wax puts his theory into practice, dropping beats and rhymes with Jamaican DJs Dami D and Wasp on the bouncing mutant dancehall of 'A It Dat.' Those wanting to come up with their own alternate theories can work from the acapella and instrumentals of the track but will have a hard time matching the junglist jump-up remix by Mashit founder DJ C. With 'Meet Mr. Doobie,' DJ Flack proves that the kitschy
tiki-lounge jungle breaks pioneered by Luke Vibert on his seminal trilogy
of Plug 12-inches still sound as fun and fresh as they did when they
were released nearly a decade ago. Murderbot demonstrates just how strong
his next-generation ragga-core kung-fu skills are on "Fi You," while
also demonstrating a strong sense of musical dynamics with his ballsy
use of Jethro Tull's "Cross Eye Mary" to build up the tension
before the killer breakbeats on "Twilight Zone." -------------------------------- XLR8R Magazine, August, 2005 -------------------------------- XLR8R Magazine, January-February, 2005
DJ Flack (Antony Flackett) and DJ C (Jake Trussell) are out to give
conservative Boston a kick in the ass. As DuoTone, the two crate bombastic
beat collages with turntables, pedals, laptops, microphones and video
projectors. They also run the Beat Research night at the Enormous Room
in nearby Cambridge, where they play all manner of experimental dance
beats, from Bhangra to brock-out drum & bas; the pair is currently
starting a label of the same name. In the meantime, DJ C heads up the
Mashit imprint, which transmits hard-hitting ragga jungle throughout
the land. C's also got a cone-toasting number with Gregory Isaacs coming
out on Tigerbeat 6 subsidiary Shockout. And when they get bored (hard
to imagine, isn't it?), the pair performs as acapella beat-box-and-rap
outfit Beatboxy and Flack. Here's what they're playing now. Panjabi Hit Squad - Desi Beats - AV8/US/12 Virtuoso - Fahrenheit 9/11 - Raptivism/US/12 Krinjah - Fugees Hand Grenade - Hand Grenade/CAN/12 -------------------------------- Boston Magazine, March 2005
Most local DJs fall neatly within specific genres—house, or a mix of trance and techno. But DJ and electronic musician Jake Trussell ignores such labels by fusing a madcap panoply of styles and sounds, ranging from reggae to dubcore to computer-generated speed beats. Whether he's DJing at a club or composing sonic collages on his laptop, Trussell is an alchemist of sound, a guy with a knack for sustaining a danceable groove. Sometimes that groove may subside while a frenetic burst of breakbeat takes center stage, but it reemerges, unscathed and steady. "I get bored pretty easily if I stick with one genre," says Trussell, who is also known as DJ C. "So I think, What can I throw in? I like taking something that people are familiar with from radio and mixing it with some obscure folk song. When DJing, I do a lot of beat matching. By organizing music by tempo, I can somehow mix it together, regardless of genre." Each Monday night, DJ C along with friend and kindred spirit DJ Flack (Antony Flackett), spins experimental party music at the Enormous Room in Central Square. Dubbed "Beat Research," the weekly soiree never gets stale, thanks to C and Flack's endless vinyl configurations and a revolving cadre of guest DJs, which has recently included local beat splicer Wayne and Wax, a musician who is currently penning his doctoral dissertation on the connections between reggae and hip-hop. Two years ago, Trussell launched Mashit, an independent record label that features reggae-influenced electronic dance music make by Trussell and others. The niche label has already put out five releases, available on vinyl and as free MP3s which have been snatched up by DJs worldwide. Although the company moniker refers to the ever-popular genre of "mashups," (the conflation of two or more songs into one), the name has other connotations, too. "To 'mash up' the dance is Jamaican patois for when the DJ plays incredibly rocking stuff and people start freaking out on the dance floor," says Trussell, who is deeply inspired by Jamaican musical culture. Mashit may fall below the radar for many people in its own community, but BBC Radio 1 presenter John Peel named the Somerville-based outfit Label of the Month last October. Peel, who died that same month, has often been credited with helping launch the careers of rock titans like David Bowie and hot acts like the White Stripes, so his championing of Trussell's label is significant. This month, DJ C and DJ Flack will launch a Mashit sister label called Beat Research, which will be more laid-back and dub-heavy than typical Mashit fare. C and Flack have also started to explore creating a "Boston sound," a project thy hope will culminate with a CD on the new sister label. "There isn't a distinctive Boston sound," Trussell notes with a grin. "That's what we're reacting to. In a lot of cities, a sound naturally evolves. We're taking a different route. We're artificially creating a sound." (Monday nights. The Enormous Room, 567 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-491-5550, www.mashit.com.) -------------------------------- Pitchforkmedia, March 31, 2005 Once a month, I head over to the cyclotron with an eight-year-old to read the latest issue of ATM, the longest running drum'n'bass magazine. I need the electron microscope and the second grader to decipher the fluxed up syntax, non-existent grammar, and shit spelling, all written in two point Sanskrit. (Then I give it to her to line the cage of LTJ Bukem, the class guinea pig.) It's masochism, sure. (I'd learn more about dance music reading ye olde Rooty review on this here site, tee hee.) But I have to keep tabs on "the scene" or DJ Fresh will come to my house and steal my bike. This month featured some loafers (whenever I think of 21st century mainstream d'n'b, I'm invariably reminded of that dog chasing the little chuck wagon around the kitchen floor) offering their opinion on the "ragga-jungle" revival. While I was initially excited by the thought of DJ Hype being (re)introduced to Soundmurderer et al., it turns out they meant some biddly-biddly-boring samples over the usual contempo clownstep congaline. (Potential Bad Boy, why you gotta do me like that?) Joke's on u, fools: ragga-jungle (the real deal version) is still a crowd pleaser the world over and not conveniently shunted to the old skool tent. The truth about MJ becomes more sadly undeniable every day (as Megaphone Marc would say, the man is guilty, guilty, guilty), but DJ C takes us back to a time when he convinced the world he was an inveterate seed-spreader while seducing us into feeling sorry for him. (Which, in a much grosser way, he's still doing.) I actually think it's a new vocal or some contemporaneous lovers rock version over a heavy stepping intro (kicks holes through that light-up sidewalk) and a tear out that proves even at his slickest, our biggest public pervert was rugged never smooth. It may not have anything to do with the Tae Bo jazzercise going on at a rave near you, but I'm locking up my bike tonight just in case. -Jess Harvell --------------------------------
BBC Radio 1, John Peel Label of the Month Spotlight, October
2004 Mashit records first came to our attention with their very first release a remix of Capleton by DJ C and Aaron Spectre late last year... In 2003 DJ C started the Mashit label to release hard-hitting raggabreaks
and jungcore mashups. The first Mashit 12" (played a good few times on the
Peel Show may I add) featured rough and rugged remixes of Capleton by DJ C
and Aaron Spectre, and sold out within weeks of it's release. On the recently
released 4th Mashit 12" DJ C versioned the version with a raging remix
of Shinehead's remake of Michael Jackson's Billy Jean. DJ C runs Mashit out of his bedroom in Somerville
Massachusetts. "I
don't just sleep in my bedroom, I DJ, make tracks, and run the label
there too" he says, "I mix all kinds of music when I spin records
and I'm always looking for records that blend genres in new and fun ways.
I want Mashit to be a launch pad for new combinations of great music
into compositions that are made to move the crowd." -------------------------------- Musicalbear, September, 2004 The Mashit DJs also smashed it at our [London] warehouse party back in
July, playing alongside the Bug and setting the party off with their raging
blend of styles. There’s a mix
on the Peel site which features many of the highlights from their
rapidly growing catalogue, including the forthcoming single ‘A It
Dat’. Watch out also for DJ C’s Gregory Isaacs mashup forthcoming
on Shockout which blends a plaintive lament from the cool ruler of reggae
with some truly futuristic beats – we’re loving it. Long may
the mashups continue.” Go to check out the feature on John Peel's site here: -------------------------------- Fat Planet -------------------------------- Grooves Magazine You can't miss with anything based around "Billie Jean," and
Shinehead added a distinctive little whistle based on "The Good,
the Bad, and the Ugly" to his version. C frames the verses with those
all-so-familiar frantic breaks, but the see-saw effect of the tempo changes
gives this a bopping, almost paradoxically laid-back feel in an otherwise-manic
genre. C's versioning of the A-side strips our the lyrics, bringing focus
to the whistle and the beats – probably a more palatable trak for
the breakcore massive, but it isn't quite as much pop fun.” -------------------------------- Musicalbear -------------------------------- DJ C - Billy Jungle (Mashit 004) gets 10 stars from German magazine
future-music Auf der Flipside findet sich das ganze noch einmal als Version ohne Vocals
für alle die nicht auf Gesang können. Feine Sache das und definitiv
ein Kandidat für die Endjahrestopten 2004.” -------------------------------- EOSS – Wacko Macko is Backo (Mashit 003 12") -------------------------------- Eoss - Wacko Macko Is Backo (Mashit 003) gets 8 stars from
German magazine future-music Auf der Flipside verarbeitet Moosaka die Tatsache, das sie in ihrem Kopf
ständig Musik hört, unter Zurhilfenahme zersplitterter Hochgeschwindigkeitsbreaks,
die auch Breakcore-Liebhabern ein Lächeln ins Gesicht zaubern werden.” -------------------------------- Mashit 003 -------------------------------- DJ C – Junglist Bashment mix -------------------------------- “Mashit - A way-freaked-out diaspora of dub, dancehall,
and beat-wrecking, Amazonian-jungle insanity.” -------------------------------- DJ C featuring Capelton – Conscience a Heng Dem (Mashit
12) -------------------------------- Mashit 001 -------------------------------- Mashit 001 |
Wayne&Wax,
DJ C, and DJ Flack (photo by jessica dimmock)
DJ Flack and DJ C
