Ghetto Palms 76: Soca! / Soca! / Soca! / Exclusive Poirier Blend!
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Andrew Dosunmu (F43)
Yes, soca. And with those two little syllables, an oversight bordering on criminal negligence has been rectified. Please find below 25 minutes of road mix madness to compensate for a year and half with barely a Jus Bus refix to show for all my carnival talk. You might not think at first that Montreal would be the place to look for soca redemption, but let me remind you of a dude named Poirier who would beg to differ.
Restless People Soundtrack Your Next Birthday or Wedding
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
Please do not take it as a diss when we say that Professor Murder had the potential to be an incredible wedding band. Now in a new iteration known as Restless People, they’ve put a bunch of new demos up on their MySpace page, and hanging out over there for ten minutes is like going to a kid’s incredible and vaguely soca-themed birthday party. So maybe they’re now an awesome band that’s appropriate for kids and adults? Crossing borders left and right! This is Machel Montano-level party music, as you can tell by the real life photo of our office having an intense party while listening to Restless People.
Audio: New Restless People songs
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posted on Jul 9, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS, MUSIC tags Machel Montano, Professor Murder, Restless People, soca
Double L & LP, “Home For Carnival 5″ Mixtape
There are about seven months til Trini Carnival 2010, and two months before the gigantor Carnival parade takes over Brooklyn, so that gives you enough time to absorb any songs you might not recognize on this super-comprehensive mix of 55 summer soca tracks dropped over the past year from every island in the Caribbean. G13 Sound International, aka Double L & LP, were pretty thorough in putting this together, spanning perennial faves like Machel Montano and Destra Garcia to slightly less renowned but equally terrific performers like Zoelah. (Full tracklist here.) This mixtape is the most seasonally appropriate thing we’ve heard since maybe Saturday at least, let’s get excited!
Download: Double L & LP, “Home for Carnival 5″ Mixtape
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posted on Jul 6, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS tags caribbean, Destra Garcia, Double L, LP, Machel Montano, mixtape, soca
Live: Machel Montano at Radio City Music Hall
- story THE FADER
A little over a year ago we sent FADER soca correspondent Aliya Best to cover Machel Montano at Madison Square Garden, there were dudes on stilts and little kids going nuts on stage. This year she caught his performance at Radio City Music Hall, which also included kids, only this time they wore gold suits and actually performed. Check out her rundown after the jump.
Diplo Goes Literally Bananas for Carnival
- story THE FADER
Diplo, aka the Anthony Bourdain of DJs (as opposed to the Charles Lindbergh of DJs), recently returned from what appears to be an epic trip to Trini for Carnival. It was so epic, in fact, that he began speaking in tongues, characterizing his trip as a “fete.jouvet.mas.mas.death march.” I mean we understand what you are saying but yo Wesley that is like five languages right there. In the spirit of the daring, dashing Bourdain, Diplo witnessed a freak winding accident, got drunk and hollered at by a local, stayed in a home run by a man wearing an umbrella hat, and was forced to eat only bananas. Um, what? Investigate his full journey, and definitely soundtrack it with the excellent soca tracks he posted by Machel Montano and Destro Destra Garcia. Whoa, we totally just caught ourselves in a subconscious empathy wine.
Correction: In re: “soundtrack it with the excellent soca tracks he posted by Machel Montano and Destro Garcia” – The soca musician is actually “Destra Garcia” and not Destro,. She happens to have one of the biggest tracks for this year “Bacchanal” which Diplo didn’t include. While the Machel song and “obsessive” wining are both great road march contenders (this year Trinidad didn’t produce EXCELLENT soca songs as they’ve done in the last 3 years) the favorite is definitely Destra’s “Bacchanal.”
Thanks Safs!
Freeload: Busy Signal, “Nah Ansa” + Machel Montano Remix
- story THE FADER
How many times are we going to say Busy Signal just made our new favorite song? A lot apparently. After dubbing his “Cool Baby” minimal dancehall, we’re not even sure what to say about “Nah Ansa” which is built on table taps and cell phone vibrations. We are in the process of making it our ringtone now. Busy also recently jumped on a remix for fellow FADER coverstar Machel Montano which you should play while vicariously celebrating T&T Carnival at the end of February.
Download: Busy Signal, “Nah Ansa”
Download: Machel Montano f. Busy Signal, “Push Bumper (Remix)”
Freeload: Machel Montano ft Pitbull & Lil Jon, “Floor On Fire”
- story THE FADER
For those of us who fondly remember the sweat gland funk induced by this trio with “The Anthem” remix, “Floor On Fire” is like heinous chemical warfare on our deodorant. That all three of them are unsigned at the moment somehow makes this even better, probably because we are now imagining Pitbull, Machel and Lil Jon sharing an apartment in Miami making booty jams just for fun.
Download: Machel Montano ft Pitbull & Lil Jon, “Floor On Fire”
Machel Montano Plays On A Float
- story THE FADER
Starting tonight, F43 cover star Machel Montano is running through a bunch of probably definitely over the top dates in New York. The first, tonight at S.O.B’s, is kind of a puzzler though. Can the venue contain Machel Montano? How will he levitate? How will all his backup dancers fit in the room? HOW WILL THE MEN ON STILTS GET THROUGH THE DOOR? We can’t answer any of these questions, so we’re assuming that the show might be a little more low-key, and by low-key we actually mean bajonkers instead of like, certifiably bajonkers. Following tonight’s S.O.B’s date, dude will hit up Cipriani’s on Wall Street on Saturday, a Hot 97 in-studio party on Sunday, and most promising: The Hot 97 Labor Day Float on Monday. To get you excited for all that, here’s our favorite quote from the story:
“This year I need to levitate, disappear, because we did everything else already. We brought in the rocket man, the guy with the backpack who flew for Michael Jackson. It was $25,000 a pop, but we needed him. We needed him to fly the message of love.”
And he said that in 07! At this point we expect Machel to jump from Monday’s float onto the back of a jet driven by an elephant. Worst comes to worst though, we’d settle for some dudes on stilts. Stay tuned to thefader.com for video.
Video : Pitbull f. Machel Montano & Lil Jon, “The Anthem Remix (Defense)”
- story THE FADER
The original version of “The Anthem” has been crunktifying quinceañeras for months now, but it took Machel Montano jumping on the refix to bring it to the bashments. We’re not sure what either of them did for someone to throw some actual paper down for a video, but when you fuck with both artists as hard as we do, you’re geeked for any visuals, let alone the two haunting the freaky abyss of their own video set as willy-bouncing ghosts.
Freeload: Busta Rhymes f. Machel Montano, “Let Me See”
- story THE FADER
Some things we pictured while listening to this song:
1)Busta Rhymes and Machel Montano hiking on the rolling hills of Lord of the Rings-style New Zealand.
2)Elephants walking in a row
3)Elephants playing flutes
4)Elephants stomping on a giant piano like in Big except it makes synth noises instead of boring regular piano noises
5)Elephants hitting giant gongs that make synth noises with their trunks
6)Elephants blowing money out of their trunks and raining it down on Busta Rhymes and Machel Montano as they perform in front of 96,000 people playing drums.
OH SHIT BONUS BEAT: Here’s a song that will probably be on Busta’s new album produced by producer of the summer Bangladesh. It sounds like an orchestra of bees.
Download: Busta Rhymes f. Machel Montano, “Let Me See”
