Gone Troppo

Now see this: Bananaland, a freshly tightened up video mashup by my VJ alter-ego Ghostleg.

This piece is a new edit of a much longer, more club-visual friendly version that was originally commissioned by Geko Jones of Dutty Artz for their New York Tropical parties. Uproot Andy & Geko Jones are hosting the Que Bajo?! dance party EVERY WEEK at Santo’s Party House in Lower Manhattan. That earlier mix was about 35 minutes long and silent, built to be played as an accompaniment with DJs for dancefloor/lounging consumption. This is what I’m considering the web edit, paired with tropical bass anthem La Vida Vale la Pena which features heavy sampling from a track by Petrona Martinez, remix by Uproot Andy.

All images are drawn from 3 sources:

1. Journey to Bananaland (1950)
2. Chiquita Banana (1947)
3. Cantinflas y Sus Amigos aka Amigo and Friends (ep. “Cantinflas Meets Simon Bolivar“) (1969?)

Dedicated to the countless people across the Americas killed and enslaved by Chiquita Brands, formerly known as the United Fruit Company.

Special thanks to Rodrigo “Pollo” Martinez for translation/interpretation.

Journey to Banana Land

The New York Tropical sound continues to push forward with a bold disregard for borders on maps or between genres. Geko Jones and Uproot Andy are squarely at the intersections of an absurdly wide range of bass-anchored dance music from the equator and elsewhere. New York is blessed to have innovators like this in the mix to keep the sounds properly cross-pollinated.

Geko gives a sample of what it sounds like and where he’s coming from on his Dutty Artz brethren DJ /rupture‘s radio show, Mudd Up! on WFMU.

Uproot Andy’s got a side on the new 12″ on the Bersa Discos imprint that is on high rotation in my living room. A cumbia skeleton draped in a junglist’s skin. Looking forward to hearing that on a bigger sound system.

I’m super-stoked to be putting together some visuals for Geko for an upcoming show in this series. Not sure at this stage if it will be a pre-recorded mix or a live VJ thing. Content-wise the brief is NY Tropical, so expect dancing bananas and fighting cocks, cartoon Cantinflas and chopped and flipped neo-colonial propaganda films in a video mash-up style. Just a taste (NB: CLIP IS SILENT – watch with your favourite tropical-flavoured track):

I’ll be at Que Bajo?! early for a short while on Tuesday. You should check it out.

Spasm Hazard

Filastine‘s got the ill visuals on this new video for Desordenador.

Vodpod videos no longer available.