i came across the agriculture label some time ago when searching the interwebhighway for anything related to barcelona-based producer and dj par-excllence dj rupture (his nettle project surfaced on the label some time back). i promised many earth moons ago that i’d post some tunes from agriculture, so here’s a sampler. for more on the label, and to hear tracks via their radio player, head over to theagriculture.com.
LADYMAN [ISRAEL]
infomercia mp3
lady killa mp3
ladyman is raz mesinai, perhaps better known to the world as badawi and as part of the israeli dub-duo, sub dub. born in jerusalem, now based in new york, raz released his first record at eighteen and has been working as a producer, composer and DJ ever since. among his back catalouge, i love the sound of ‘string quartet for four turntables’ which was commissioned by ny’s lincoln center in 2000. much like rupture or the late muslimgauze, raz draws on a long tradition of eastern sounds and contorts them into a sound that’s typically idiosyncratic. this is a galaxy away from the uninspired ‘4-4 meets eastern sample’ that so many other producers fall for, the kind of tunes that end up littering low-quality compilations the world over. this is a genuine and considered approach, an intelligent and alternative take on eastern musical traditions. that said, his obvious love of jamaican dub also shines through on these two tracks (taken from the album ‘viagra opus’). if you enjoy these, there’s an album’s worth of free mp3s at raz’s site.
DJ OLIVE [U.S.]
crossunder mp3
round fire strut mp3
two tracks from brooklyn’s dj olive, who co-indicentally was doing the dj rounds right here in sydney last weekend. his resume is impressive, littered with some of the greats of contemporary experimental music – e.g. kim gordon from sonic youth, bill laswell and john zorn to name but a few. ‘bodega’, from which these mp3s are taken, is his first full-length album, released through agriculture. the label likens them to ‘ass shaking tracks that sound like they were scraped off old funk and dub 7″s’. ’round fire strut’ is defiantly dub, however my favourite of the two is ‘crossunder’ which opens with some eastern percussion, before dropping into a downtempo funk-break with liberal slices of buddy rich‘s ‘the beat goes on’ thrown in for good measure.
LUNCHBOX [SWITZERLAND/ U.S.]
brown bag mp3
beats, acoustic guitar, percussion, glitch and cut-up vocal samples all come together in this smart piece of downbeat from lunchbox. the trio consists of martin baumgartner, bruno amstad and dj olive. the album ‘anyways’ carries the lunchbox theme to it’s logical conclusion – track include ‘bento box’, ‘peanut butter & jelly’, and ‘little fruit juice’.