Dj/Rupture & Matt Shadetek: Solar Life Raft
As the perilous future of the album format hangs in the balance, there are a few who have (for a while) been working to deconstruct that format. Many of us in the blog world are responsible for such deconstruction, creating musical palettes everyday, ultimately allowing readers to assemble the barrage themselves. But those few that are changing the album with, yes, albums, are drawing on the mixtape format instead, DJ’s (essentially) interested in complicating matters of cohesion, artistry, and dynamism. One of these experiments was named as one of the best albums of 2002 by WIRE Magazine, DJ/Rupture’s Minesweeper Suite, thrust into the critical world as both an album and a mix. Beginning with the prescient “Gold Teeth Thief Mix,” Rupture is interested in discomfort; sonic, political, and even racial. Fusing breakcore, ambient, and classical may look dubious on the tracklist, another important experience in the relationship with the mix, but look for intersection and fluidity you may find. But if not, that’s okay too, as mixes like these act as a series of questions to the listener. “Do you recognize this Missy Elliot track? Oh yeah? How about something from Larbi Lamtougi?” Or, “Why are these songs here? Why do you like this one, if not the other? What IS a pleasurable sound?”
Posing the same questions in a collaborative effort with Dutty Artz co-owner Matt Shadetek, Rupture and Matt are asking each other questions before they ask you. Entitled Solar Life Raft, and out now on The Agriculture, Rupture follows his Pitchfork Bested “Uproot” with a challenge to work with a close friend as well as a musical confidante. Matt Shadetek, whose own pre-eminence comes from being one half of the production duo Team Shadetek, America’s earliest contributers to Western Europe’s Grime scene, Shadetek provides a somewhat more grounded aesthetic. Having worked with MC’s and Dancehall deejays, Matt is a studio wiz whose pragmatism affords a sense of stick when Rupture is busy creating splinters. The result is equal parts hard-hitting and disorienting to its listener, offering a mid-air flight through body-rocking bass as well as a more existential ambiance, drawing from non-western artists as well as Rupture/Shadetek reworkings of local Brooklynites like Gang Gang Dance and Telepathe.
And now for your free listening merriment is a stunning and bright original tune from Matt Shadetek called “Strength In Numbers” and he and Rupture’s reinvention of Gang Gang Dance’s “Bebey.” If merely aural entertainment isn’t enough, you will also find a visual stunner in the form of a gorgeous (and haunting) promotional video featuring a medley of tunes off the album. The album in it’s full, living, breathing entirety is available now iTunes, Beatport, Boomkat, and Amazon. You’ve been had.
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Matt Shadetek – Strength In Numbers
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Gang Gang Dance – Bebey (DJ/rupture & Matt Shadetek Remix)
Video directed by: Sara Taigher
