MASTERS AT WORK, the most powerful unit ever created by Louie Vega, a Grammy Award winner with a background in salsa and Latin music, and Kenny Dope, who has a strong street following with his hip-hop and reggae sounds, is coming to Japan for the first time in 10 years. MASTERS AT WORK will be coming to Japan for the first time in 10 years. Before the event, Kenichi Aono, director of BEAMS RECORDS, who also participates in the event as a DJ, wrote about his thoughts on MASTERS AT WORK here.
When I looked through their discography to see when I was first exposed to the music of MASTERS AT WORK ("MAW"), I found their 1991 12-inch single "Justa "Lil" Dope / Our Mute Horn" (Cutting Records), a bottom-heavy hip-hop track with a reggae flavor on the A-side, and "Mute Horn" (Cutting Records) on the B-side. The A-side, named DOPE SIDE, was a bottom-heavy hip-hop track with reggae flavors, while the B-side, MADD SIDE, featured a muted trumpet solo (on the label side). The B-side MADD SIDE is a house track featuring a muted trumpet solo (the label side says "Mute Horn Solo by Ray Vega is Dedicated in Memory of Miles Davis"). I remember getting the 12-inch "KENNY 'DOPE' presents POWERHOUSE 3" (Nu Groove Records), which came out the same year, in real time. Looking back on the dance music scene at that time, that is, in the early 90s, I had the impression that house music was spreading at an accelerated pace (although this was partly due to the fact that the scene in which I was working tended to be more so).
In Tokyo, house music was played on the main floor of the club "GOLD," which opened in Shibaura in 1989, from its opening, and "YELLOW" in Nishi-Azabu, which opened in 1991, was also a house-centered box. This is a personal story, but I started DJing in 1987. At that time, I bought records of rare groove, soul, hip-hop, house, world music, pop, etc., but when I played at clubs, I played house and garage classics (the music played at the legendary disco "Paradise Garage" in New York where the late Larry Levan was the resident DJ). Paradise Garage," a legendary disco in New York where the late Larry Levan was a resident DJ) was the main focus. Although I could not scratch well, I was comfortable listening to house music, which was layered and took time to build a groove, and I was able to immerse myself in the world of the music. I was completely captivated by house music. Incidentally, as for "Paradise Garage," I bought a copy of the past Garage hit chart (Paradise Garage closed in 1987), which was published on a whim in the "New York Hotline" Series in the jazz magazine "Ad-Lib. I had gone to a used record store with a copy of the past Garage hit chart (Paradise Garage closed in '87).
DJs and remixers who were popular in the house scene around '90 include Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, Tony Humphries, and Todd Terry. Then there are Robert Krivils & David Cole, before they called themselves C+C Music Factory.' Shep Pettibone, who has been a remixer since the 70s and has produced many masterpieces, worked on Madonna's "Vogue" around this time.'' The remixers who participated in Chaka Khan's remix album "Life Is A Dance - The Remix Project," released in 1989, are well known for their popularity at this time.
Although the music of the aforementioned DJs and remixers was popular on the dance floor, it was not possible to play only that kind of music all the time, as there were also many songs by major artists. Therefore, DJs began to incorporate more underground or lesser-known music into their sets, creating their own style. In response, a number of underground labels that supply quality dance music have emerged. Cutting Records" for "Justa "Lil" Dope / Our Mute Horn" and "KENNY 'DOPE' presents POWERHOUSE Nu Groove Records" for "Justa "Lil" Dope / Our Mute Horn" and "KENNY 'DOPE' presents POWERHOUSE 3" are labels that can be bought, along with Pal Joey's "Loop D' Loop" and others, with a high degree of reliability. I guess they probably bought these two albums thinking, "If it's on this label, I'm sure it's on this label. Anyway, the MAW 12-inch I got in this way was very fresh. The "Our Mute Horn" in particular, while sampling the garage classic "The Music Got Me" by Visual, maintains a perfect balance between the groove created by the swinging hi-hat and the trumpet that rides on top of it. The groove was unique even among house music, which was becoming more and more formalized. Early house music was often produced using drum machines, samplers, and inexpensive synths, or in other words, all material was line-recorded, giving it a kind of DIY feel, but the most important point of "Our Mute Horn" is that it features a live performance. . This feature later led to Tito Puente's "Ran Kan Kan" (Elektra/1992) and other works under the name Nuyorican Soul, as well as to Ruy Vega's Elements Of Life.
Left: Louis Vega, Right: Kenny Dope
What makes MAW's music so special is the fact that Kenny Dope and Louis Vega each have different areas of their personalities that create a chemical reaction. This is due in no small part to their origins and upbringing. Louis Vega, whose father was a jazz saxophonist and whose uncle was Ector Lavaux, one of the vocalists in the salsa band Fania All Stars, was musically gifted, and Kenny, born in Brooklyn, absorbed hip-hop beats at local block parties in his early teens and then, in the late '80s, began to play with the hip-hop beat. In the late '80s, he organized a party called "Masters at Work" with Mike Delgado, where he met and became friends with Todd Terry. These two personalities ---- salsa, jazz, house and hip-hop, reggae, soul ---- were brought together through the introduction of Todd Terry, and in 1990 Louis Vega and Kenny Dope began working together as MAW. Their early work was relatively distinct between hip-hop and house as a format, but "The Nervous Track," released in '93 under the name MASTERS AT WORK present Nuyorican Soul, featured jazzy bass lines and wild breakbeats. The Nervous Track, released under the name MASTERS AT WORK present Nuyorican Soul in 1993, featured a jazzy bass line intertwined with thick breakbeats and a wild conga beat, a style that brought the two artists together. The sound was established in 1996 with the release of Nuyorican Soul's album Talkin' Loud (Giant Step Records), and their work under the name MAW and remixes of the album include a number of house-inspired four-piece productions. The massive beats of Kenny Dope's work and remixes under the MAW moniker are unmistakable.
Not only in their works, but also in their DJ sets, the MAWs create a festive space by fully displaying their individual colors. Louis Vega's DJ style is reminiscent of Larry Levan and Timmy Regisford, using isolators to make the music sound emotional. In other words, it is a DJ style directly related to Garage. Kenny Dope, on the other hand, is a more solid DJ, occasionally adding accents with his effects pedals. When I actually saw Kenny Dope play, he used two house tracks and played them like breakbeats, which I thought was very hip-hop. This difference in playing style gives their DJ sets a unique dynamism, but it goes without saying that it takes a great deal of subtlety and skill to make the different styles sound like a single DJ set.
House music is made up of a wide variety of elements. How to incorporate the essence of soul, jazz, disco, rock, new wave, hip-hop, Afro, reggae, dub, etc. into a song is a personal issue that goes far beyond the trends of the times. House music, being omnivorous in nature, is in this sense a dance music that lends itself to self-expression by the songwriters and DJs. House music is a kind of autobiography that encompasses one's own tastes and experiences, as well as one's upbringing and friendships, without stopping one's feet from dancing. The reason why DJs are so persuasive is because they transcend trends and put their own feelings into their music, and why they play long sets that last for hours. MAW is a duo with a dual role in music production and DJing, so it goes without saying that the scope of his work is expansive. What kind of story will they weave for us at ageHa this time? We can only look forward to the combination with Ariel, who will color the story of MAW with her lighting. And not only MAW, but also other DJs who are the pride of Japan in both name and reality will be performing DJ plays that only they can do. DJ Harvey once said in an interview that weekend DJ parties are 70% entertainment and 30% education, and "Masters at Work in Japan - It's Alright, I Feel It! I think "MASTERS AT WORK in JAPAN -It's Alright, I Feel It! Education is not a formal word, but rather a way of thinking through songs and performances, encounters with unknown sounds, and changes in one's own mind through musical experiences. This party is sure to be a party where you will take something home with you, along with pleasant memories. Dear all, let's meet at Shin-Kiba on November 19, 2016.
Text_Kenichi Aono
Edit_Masaki Hirano, Jun Nakada
PRIMITIVE INC. 10th Anniversary x ageHa 14th Anniversary
MASTERS AT WORK in JAPAN -It's Alright, I Feel It!
Date: Saturday, November 19, 2016
Time: START 14:00 / END 21:00
Venue: Shinkiba ageHa
Tickets: DOOR ¥5,800, ADV TICKET ¥5,300, Group Ticket ¥22,500
Featuring: Masters At Work / Ariel (writing) / DJ NORI / FORCE OF NATURE / HIROSHI WATANABE a.k.a KAITO / Yake no Hara / MONKEY TIMERS / Kaoru Inoue / Toru Takahashi / Dazzle Drums / DJ YOGURT / INNER SCIENCE / Midori Aoyama / Kenichi Aono / LO:BLOC a.k.a DJ SODEYAMA / DJ KENSEI / Shuya Okino / YOSA / DJ SHIBATA / XTAL / DJ YOKU / Toru Hashimoto / peechboy / Naohiro Ukawa
http://mawinjapan.com
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