For the Sake of Art - This Wednesday and Thursday @ 8 PM!

One of the greatest things about an arts school is the amount of talent contained on campus. From Visual Arts to Dance, Film to Music, SUNY Purchase seems to have a myriad of artistic capability. A goal/dream of mine has been to participate or be involved in a large-scale multimedia event that features artists from all mediums collaborating on a project.

This week will be a realization of this aspiration.

For the Sake of Art was conceived by dancer Theo Boguszewski and made possible by a grant from the state of New York.

Alex Mackinnon (aka Doc Brown) and I have been working on a beat for a choreographed dance number. It's a dubstep track that features Spencer Murphy reading a TS Eliot poem. We cut up some Iannis Xenakis samples, as well as some King Tubby drums and some live clips of Bot Jiz!

Rachel Pazdan did an excellent write-up on the event that you can read here:

Motion Manifesto - For the Sake of Art

Remember to come to the Dance Theater Laboratory on Wednesday and Thursday at 8 pm. This is a show you definitely do NOT want to miss!

Facebook event here:

For the Sake of Art

RIP Nujabes

I'm extremely saddened to report that one of my favorite contemporary hip-hop producers, Nujabes, has died. His death was made public yesterday, but apparently he died from a car accident on February 26th.

To me, Nujabes was one of the more tasteful sampling artists out there. I always respected his choices of jazz to sample, and his beats were never overproduced. He stayed true to the original samples, while still managing to transform them into his own phrasing and expression. Here are two of my favorite tunes of his:

Aneurhythmic

Fellow zaDaza bandmate Zach Marks and I have been working on some electronic music as of late. This idea came from a sketch that Zach wrote for the band and we expanded from there. Enjoy, and remember to turn your bass UP!

Charlie Phillips enters the beat realm

Charlie Phillips is a name to remember.

I've known him since freshman year and I must say that the musical direction that he has traveled in these past 4 years is remarkable. I had the pleasure of playing on Charlie's debut cd, as well as playing in his current live band. For you those who are new to his music, imagine the combined sounds of D'Angelo, Hendrix, Prince, and Jeff Buckley as interpreted by an individual with his own direction in mind.

Yesterday, he put out a new song called "Sweat/Make it My World", a digitized whirlwind of echoes and cowbells. If Fela Kuti was into Joy Division and Radiohead, the outcome would be a bit like this song. It remains both energetic and chilled, layered yet melodic. Definitely give it a listen, you won't regret it.

Download Here

You can also follow him at his blog:

Blog by Charlie Phillips