Last night in Brooklyn, Above the Auto Parts Store hosted The Rites of Spring, a benefit for Haiti, with DJ sets by Björk, Tyondai Braxton, David Longstreth, Brandon Stosuy, and, improbably, myself. I went first, before the growing crowd and rising heat demanded something more intense. I'd never DJ'd before, but I seemed to do OK, with some guidance from my experienced DJ husband (Jonathan Lisecki, director of Gayby). Some people actually attempted to dance during the Stravinsky / Lachenmann mashup, and Questlove, from the Roots, voiced approval of the Bieber Detonation.
Preliminary:
Pixinguinha, "Carinhoso"
Manuel Torres, "Siempre por los rincones"
Ruthahindurwa Lukuka, "Rwakagasha"
György Ligeti, "Fém" (arr. The Bad Plus)
Meredith Monk, "Do You Be" and "Panda Chant"
Set proper:
Stravinsky speaking about the Rite
"Augurs of Spring" from the Rite (cond. Dudamel)
"Rite" arrangements by Ricardo Romaneiro and Ryan Francis and Birdsongs of the Mesozoic
"Ritelachen" — my own mashup of "Augurs" and Helmut Lachenmann's Schwankungen am Rand, with Xenakis's Tetras and a morsel of Justin Bieber's "Baby" entering later on:
Hanns Eisler, Der heimliche Aufmarsch (excerpt)
Missy Elliott, "Wake Up"
Maulina, "I Am Maulina"
Stockhausen, Gruppen (excerpt)
Ms. Dynamite, "Dy-na-mi-tee"
The Ex, "Lied der Steinklopfer"
Brahms, Fourth Symphony (excerpt)
Ulrich Schnauss, "On My Own"
"Procession of the Sage" from the Rite
Burkina Electric, "Ca va chauffer" —an amazing track with Maï Lingani on vocals and Lukas Ligeti on percussion and electronics, from Paspanga (and it did get hot)
"Ritelachen" encore
At this point, Björk took over, and pandemonium ensued. Toward the end of the night, I contributed the Bieber Detonation (the 11/4 bar from the Rite + Bieber's "Baby" + Lachenmann + Non's "Fire in the Organism" + Cage's Williams Mix) and Major Lazer's "Keep It Goin' Louder."
When I played the "Procession of the Sage," a couple of people thought that I had created a mashup from overlapping Stravinsky loops. In fact, Stravinsky made the loops himself:
