DJ /rupture + Matt Shadetek
Solar Life Raft (The Agriculture)

With the release of Solar Life Raft, DJ /rupture and Matt Shadetek emerge from the shores of Brooklyn bearing gifts from the future. A rich blend of bass, beats, and space, rocked by a tropical wind out of the west, Solar Life Raft is an arresting testament to the fruit that grows at the margins, free from genre orthodoxy and pulsing with gentle mutant energy. The liner notes allude to a strange future, where youthful optimism and solar panels survive alongside dolphins in a drowned New York.

American musician DJ /rupture is back in Brooklyn after living most of the '00s in Barcelona. Rupture, aka Jace Clayton, began DJing internationally with Wax Poetic, a band featuring Norah Jones, but went off on his own after the 2001 release of his highly influential Gold Teeth Thief mix CD. This game-changing mixtape, recorded live on three turntables, brought together Missy Elliot, drum&bass, arty noise, and dancehall, providing inspiration for countless DJs and mashuppers to come. He spent a year touring with then-labelmate, Kid606. DJ /rupture's technically adept party-rocking has brought him to over 30 countries, including appearances at major festivals: SONAR (Spain), Transmediale (Berlin), Pitchfork Music Festival (US). Last year he released his fourth official mix CD, Uproot, as well as a live album, Patches, from a duo project with guitarist Andy Moor of Dutch post-punk band The Ex. Rupture hosts a weekly radio show on independent radio stronghold WFMU. His show is re-broadcast on a half-dozen similar stations throughout Europe. This summer he collaborated with filmmaker Jem Cohen and Fugazi's Guy Picciotto on a live soundtrack. Laser-focused, rather than 'eclectic', these various projects are an organic result of his nonstop musical curiosity, so it's no surprise that BBC1 legend John Peel invited DJ /rupture to perform (twice!) on his live Peel Sessions.

Producer Matt Shadetek is a lifelong New Yorker. Albums Burnerism and Pale Fire won him fans across Europe and America, making him one of the few U.S. producers to record on the U.K.'s Warp Records. He has released instrumental hip hop, dancehall, dubstep and many things in the cracks between. His recent turn to dance production foregrounding Caribbean and African influences has won him support from the ultra-competitive Brooklyn teen dancehall scene, as well as from trendsetting DJs like Skerrit Bwoy, Diplo and Green Lantern. Shadetek's "Brooklyn Anthem" became a viral hit, landing on dozens of mixtapes and spawning 100+ D.I.Y. youtube videos of local kids one-upping each other with crazy dance moves to Matt's banging beat. During his time living in Berlin, Matt Shadetek shared a studio with Modeselektor and co-produced two tracks for their album, Hello Mom!

When touring in Europe, Rupture and Shadetek discovered they shared a love and appreciation for engaging with streetwise dance music from a ground-up, participatory perspective, as well as more experimental sounds. Upon returning to NYC, the duo began making beats together. While the pair produced vocalist Jahdan Blakkamoore's debut album Buzzrock Warrior (out Sept 14th on !K7), Solar Life Raft is their first extended project together.

Solar Life Raft features 25 tracks blended on three decks into a complete hypnotic and gripping narrative. Rupture's response to the recession was to stay local and work with nearby friends and collaborators. He invited Shadetek to co-produce the mix CD. Shadetek's dubstep anthem "Strength in Numbers" is the first beat to drop on Solar Life Raft, and sums up their outlook. They reached out to fellow Brooklynites Gang Gang Dance, Telepathe, and Jahdan Blakkamoore, offering their skills as remixers. To these remixes they added a half-dozen original productions, and a fascinating selection of other tracks. One of Rupture's several collaborations with poet Elizabeth Alexander, who spoke at Obama's Inauguration, finds a place here, as does entrancing multilingual poet Caroline Bergvall. Ghostly voices from classical wunderkind Nico Muhly’s Mothertongue (another New Yorker) flow into an exclusive beat from London's leading female grime producer, Mizz Beats. French musique concrete and avant-garde legend Luc Ferrari rubs up against the latest wave of U.S. dubstep. Indeed, while others focus on the U.K. sounds, Rupture & Shadetek make a convincing argument for the creativity and excitement of stateside dubstep and electronica. Solar Life Raft was recorded over the course of two days at Rupture's home studio in Brooklyn, although the pair spent months before building tunes for it and crafting the remixes. At times the narrative flow is delicately smooth, at others the duo use the first-take recordings to capture the energy and freshness of a live mix. The inclusion of sounds and artists from outside of electronic dance music move Solar Life Raft into a territory all its own. This is an album with lasting emotional resonance that can still make the car trunks rattle.

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