Posted by: Jay

As many of you know, I’m living down here in Bolivia these days.  Being a big fan of music and dancing, whenever I’m in a new place I love to check out there night clubs.  You can learn a lot about a society from their nightclub culture; things like what kind of music they listen to, what time the club gets full, how long the peeps stay out, the interaction between the sexes, the type of dancing, the clothes, etc… These all give you hints into the culture as a whole.

Bolivia is a poor country (the second poorest in Latin America after Haiti) so the clubs are not extravagant, but they’re not hella ghetto either.  What they lack in flash they make up for in energy and musical variety  I don’t know if I’ve ever heard such a crazy range of music played than I do at the clubs out here!  It’s nuts, they’ll go from Latin pop, to reggaeton, to US pop, to hip hop, to traditional Bolivian music to house in the span of the night.  And somehow the DJs manage to blend all of these styles smoothly.  I am continually impressed!

Music, photos, videos and impressions from a trip out to “Club Lujos” in Cochabamba after the jump.

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Posted by: Jay

So I see you’re not at Burning Man.  Yeah, me neither.  Extra tough for me this year as my camp, Pancake Playhouse, is having a sort of renaissance.  Well whatever, we have each other rite??  You know what, I’m making this the official non-Burning Man party spot!  I’ll bring you something every day so that we might make it through the week together.  And you leave some comments or some stars to let me know that at least some of you are “not at Burning Man” with me.  Deal??

So, in our First 100 Days of Beats pool everyone who voted wanted to hear more breaks.  I am a loyal servant of you brilliant readers so here you go, three hot new breaks tracks!  And to complete the BM experience I’ve included some photos and instructions.

Here’s what we’re gonna do:

1. Go get some dirt, the dryer the better, and mix with flower.  Get half naked and cover yourself in it.
2. Get really drunk/high (You know, if getting high were legal).
3. Sit in the direct sun/under a heat lamp.
4. Listen to this music really loud, look at the photos and pretend we’re at Burning Man… roaming aimlessly from dance camp to dance camp, hopping art cars and running from animal control and dirty hippies.   Ohh no, a shirt cocker!  You got any extra glow?

Our first track comes thanks to brilliant reader “b” who turned us on to the Stanton Warriors official unofficial blog Boomtown.  It’s the Warriors remix of LCD Soundsystems’s “DiscoInfiltrator” and it’s fucking sick:

“DiscoInfiltrator” - LCD Soundsystem - StantonWarriors Remix

Next up a hot little joint I fond on Beatport the other day.  Viro, Rob Analyze  or FarAce teamed up for a pretty sweet breaks/indie dace breaks track here.  “Stop that! You don’t even know me like that.”

“Time &  Time” - Viro & Rob Analyze - FarAce Remix

Buy this track and more from FarAce, Rob Analyze, and Viro

Finally a funky breaks track from newcomer Justin Mason.  Hey, Cor hasn’t cornered the entire funky breaks market around here, OK*?  Love the voice sample! * And he’s at Burning Man anyway, so he’ll never know!  Bwaaahahahahaha!

“Backdoor Kicker” - Justin Mason

Buy it on beatport.

So whatdayathink?  Which track is your fav?  Are you bumbed about not going to Burning Man or are you over it/have no interest?  Here are the photos, view using “PicLens” to listen and view photos at the same time.  Clicking on the photos will close the music player.  Enjoy!

[View with PicLens]

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Posted by: Jay

We’ve been bringing you a healthy dose of bangin beats here on The Beatery recently, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to take it down a notch… like I was a bizarro anti-Emeril.

I’m always paying visual attention to my surroundings, light in particular. There are these times of day, one hour before sunset and one hour after sunrise, where the world looks just a little bit different. The shadows are longer, colors are softer, warmer, and the world just seems to glow with this beautiful radiance not seen at any other time. Photographers call it “the golden hour”. For this podcast I’ve compiled a set of songs that give the world a similar beauty when I listen to them. Listening to songs like these I can be anywhere, on a bus, on BART, watching paint dry, whatever, and the world seems to have that same glowing sheen; like everything is going to be alright, no matter what. I hope they have the same effect on you, enjoy! Tracklist, discussions and more photos after the jump:

Right click and “Save as…” to download.

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