A rampant world-traveler, ex–Infernal Noise Brigade
guerrilla Grey Filastine assimilates influences from his
journeys and filters them through gully aesthetics that are heavy on
low-end fetishism, which makes his association with DJ /rupture’s
Soot label logical.
The follow-up to 2006’s similarly promiscuous, beat-mongering effort
Burn It, Filastine’s Dirty Bomb (Soot/Post
World Industries) is a bounty of ethnic-music hybridizing. Thankfully,
Filastine operates several kilometers away from the Putumayo’s
domesticated style of world-music branding.
On Dirty Bomb, the sonic equation is eclecticism minus
dilettantism plus profligate rhythm collision, equaling an often
disorienting, sometimes beautiful sound-clash that speaks in a riot of
tongues. Dub, dubstep, drum ‘n’ bass, dancehall, reggaeton, and rap
commingle with Middle Eastern devotional songs and melodic contours,
lustrous orchestrations, and the wonky distortion common to leftfield,
21st-century electronic music. Snatches of radio/TV/film chatter and
street-people talk filter into the mix, mirroring the Sublime
Frequencies label’s approach to capturing raw cultural ephemera. Tracks
like “Marxa,” “Blung,” and “Bitrate Sneers” traverse the exhilarating
zone occupied by the elusive, ethnodelic sounds of Muslimgauze and late-period Meat Beat Manifesto.
Maneuvering 180 degrees away from stultifying, one-dimensional track
making, Filastine transforms the global sonic smorgasbord into
sublimely whirled music that’ll have you seeking new ways to move
yourself to it. The only victim of collateral damage from Dirty
Bomb is predictability.
Early warning: Filastine plays Chop Suey on April 11.
• • •
This month, Broken Disco‘s brain trust imports Jona from Berlin. Jona (aka Jonathan Troupin) has released on Carl
Craig’s Planet E and Get Physical, two labels that maintain
rigorous quality standards. Jona’s tracks are nocturnal, burrowing, and
sensuous, but devoid of cloying cheese. Unusual percussion touches and
subtle horn phrases enhance his productions, which come off as an
elegant truce between the techno and house genres. Jona reconfigures
Dave Brubeck Quartet’s quintuple-time jazz standard “Take Five” into a sizzling tech-house winner, with throbbing bass line and
percolating hand percussion. It’s a wholly satisfying update of a song
many probably think of as untouchable.
Jona and fellow Berlin citizen Nutownproject (Jean-Christophe
Bougnet) have collaborated on “Turning Point,” an inventive,
muted chugger with metallic percussion accents that will surely get
clubbers’ arms thrusting ceilingward. Another joint cut between these
two, “Ashes & Dust,” uses the clacking of femur bones (or so
it seems) to prod a swift, strutting, tech-house bassbin-shaker.
Unfortunately, U.S. Customs denied Nutownproject entry into the
country, and his entire North American tour has been canceled (Aurora
Diving Club will replace NP at Broken Disco). 
Broken Disco: Jona, Jacob London, Broken Disconauts, Skyler
versus Dr.Mr.M., Eddie, Mateo, Aurora Diving Club perform Fri Feb 20,
Chop Suey, 9 pm, $10 before 10 pm/$12 after, 21+.
