FUSICOLOGY – Events, News, Music & Media

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 4TH

Thinkbeat Radio & Thirdspace Productions Presents
lightweight HEAVYWEIGHT

with special guests:
DJ CENTER (NYC/ Push the Fader) &
GE-OLOGY (NYC/ I love Vinyl)

& resident
WONWAY POSIBUL (D2S/Latin Soul Brothers/Thinkbeat Radio)

spinning
classic & future soul, funk, house, reggae, & latin sounds

at the brand new
ROCKSTEADY
1745 San Pablo Ave @ 18th St.
(next to Hibiscus & New Parish)
Oakland, CA

FREE before 11pm, $5 after
21+




ABOUT DJ CENTER:
www.twitter.com/pushthefader

Whether at the turntables, or in studio behind the boards, DJ Center soul-travels, navigating audiences with a crate of musical goods from around the globe, while echoing a New York state of mind.

The Romanian-Born, New York-bred, tastemaker’s environment gave inspiration for an insatiable palate of Hip Hop & Jazz, Hard-Bop & Boom-Bap with a global outlook and immigrant roots. “I came out of New... York City DJ culture, cutting my teeth on ‘90s Hip Hop, but my mentor was a Jazz musician. With that foundation, I never separated music (by genre). My influences were and still are wide open,” states Center, reflecting on his musical upbringings.

Always aiming to break new tunes and celebrate forgotten gems, a Center set is synonymous with the finest of selections whether he is doing Music Supervision for Gucci, recording radio sessions for Giant Step, or keeping NYC parties on their feet until the wee hours.

Live, Center has brought together artists like Talib Kweli, Rob Swift, ?uestlove, Pete Rock, Grandmaster Flash, J.Rawls and Eric Roberson to take crowds higher at his classic sessions.

The year 2010 marked DJ Center’s debut as producer, with the critically acclaimed LP, “Everything in Time“- a ride across multiple genres, woven by lush piano chords, warm bass lines, boom-bap drum patterns, flying tambourines and soaring horns.

The record has been championed by the likes of The Huffington Post, Okayplayer.com, Bobbito, DJ Vadim and Nickodemus and received heavy rotation on KCRW in Los Angeles.


ABOUT GE-OLOGY:
www.twitter.com/geology365

To ask an artist with the dynamic range of talents that Ge-ology possesses, the simple question, “so, what do you do...?” is likely to cause him to stop and think for a minute. It would almost be easier to ask what hasn’t he done rather than list his profusion of achievements thus far or the highlights he’s been noted for throughout his simultaneous careers. This highly imagin...ative DJ, prolific music producer and equally gifted visual artist is one of our culture’s best-kept secrets, even though internationally he’s been acclaimed and well respected close to two decades.

Since first appearing on the scene in the early 90's as co-founder of Dooable Arts with the late, Matt Reid aka "Matt Doo," Ge-ology, known then under the alias “G-Young,” has been making moves globally. The talented NYC duo quickly made their mark designing T-shirts, painting & producing iconic hip-hop cover art, providing editorial illustrations & covers for magazines, and a variety of visuals for record labels and music artists. Yet in a few surprising short years, Dooable Arts would disband, choosing to pursue individual creative paths. From there, Ge-ology swiftly picked up where “G-Young” left off and exploded into the next exciting phase of his artistic and musical career. Perhaps one of the most famous of Ge-ology’s artworks is the 1990’s classic "Body Rock" cover for Rawkus Records, featuring Mos Def (Blackstar), Q-Tip (A Tribe Called Quest) and Tash (Tha Alkaholiks), which has been featured in Andrew Emery's "The Book of Hip Hop Cover Art" and listed as #3 in "EgoTrip's Book of Rap Lists" 25 Great EP, 12" & CD Single Covers. But when it comes to his music, “most famous” becomes a far more layered discussion due to the range of artists he has worked with and the variety of platforms his music has reached.

Most recently, his music appeared in the Oscar nominated film, “The Kids Are All Right”, directed by Lisa Cholodenko (from “Wendy & Lisa” fame, key members of Prince’s infamous band; The Revolution). But you’re bound to have heard Ge-ology’s music almost anywhere in the world: in a nightclub or lounge, in upscale department stores, playing from a giant outdoor LCD video screen in Tokyo’s Harajuku district, in a commercial on Budapest television, in a music video on MTV, on Last FM or Pandora as well as traditional, satellite and college radio stations, on major primetime American TV shows, performed live on late- night talk shows, and even on Oprah!

This natural marriage as a visual artist and musician has been a consistent theme throughout his life. Ge-ology’s work as a painter and illustrator has gone hand-in-hand with his quality- driven music production, collaborations and remixes. He has worked with renowned recording artists such as Mos Def & Talib Kweli (Blackstar), Jill Scott, De La Soul, Yukimi Nagano (from Little Dragon / Koop), Sadat X (Brand Nubian), Pharoahe Monch (Organized Konfusion), Vinia Mojica, Bahamadia, Res, Consequence (Kanye West /A Tribe Called Quest), Dabo (JAPAN / Nitro Microphone Underground) and DJ Spinna’s hip hop group, The Jigmastas just to name a few. He has also provided remixes for J-Dilla & Platinum Pied Pipers, Pete Rock & Grand Agent, etc. But what stretched people’s perception of how diverse Ge-ology’s sound could be was evident in the 3 chart-toping songs he produced for Welsh songstress Jem. Her debut album, “Finally Woken” went platinum in the UK, including the Ge-ology produced top 10 hit “They,” which reached #6 on the Billboard Music Chart. Interesting enough, his first music production leads back to his high-school days at the Baltimore School for the Arts, in which he was the DJ and beat-maker in a four member group, “Born Busy”, including fellow student and good friend, the legendary Tupac Shakur (known then as MC New York). Ge-ology (under the moniker, DJ Plain Terror) is credited for producing the very first demo/song Tupac had ever recorded his vocals on.

Since his early days, His commitment to pushing the envelope has brought forth unique creative opportunities along the way. He has collaborated with brands worldwide to create specialized visual art projects that inject music, fashion and lifestyle into a larger cultural fabric. This includes a two-day live outdoor painting experience on Miami’s South Beach for Hennessy cognac to a month-long Chivas Studio branding series in Thailand that featured him as a visual artist and DJ. He would later participate in a similar multi-night extravaganza in Hong Kong, in which he DJ’ed consecutively each night after painting live, custom-made formal gowns worn by fashion models. Each dress was designed & created from an interpretation of Ge-ology’s concept and applied to the making of the wearable canvases.
As the jumpstart to these types of international travels, Ge-ology credits his Barnstormers crew in providing his first opportunity to paint abroad when they traveled to Osaka, Japan in the year 2000. The Barnstormers (founded by David Ellis) are an international group of artists who’s pilgrimage to rural North Carolina to paint street murals on old tobacco barns began their famed career as a collective. Eventually, the Swedish apparel brand H&M teamed up with a handful of the original Barnstormer artists for a major advertising campaign, which also included painting the full exterior of a California home, as well as featuring the artists in national ads & billboards. H&M would also release a 6 song promotional CD of Ge-ology’s original music as part of the campaign, giving him a chance to highlight both his visual and musical talents alike. The campaign culminated with a Soho gallery exhibition.

Much like his ability to paint and create music, his DJ gigs have also taken him around the world and across the US numerous times. He has played everywhere from boat parties in Lyon, France on the Rhône river to Styrbord Babord docked in Gothenburg, Sweden, to Tromso in the deep freeze of Norway’s Arctic to the hot and sweaty Q-Bar in Bangkok, Thailand. His DJ sets have rocked dance floors from London to Paris, Berlin to Tokyo, Amsterdam to Oslo, Barcelona to Vienna, Stockholm to Helsinki, Madrid to Montreal, as well as up and down the island of Japan, from Kumamoto to Morioka, the volcanic land of Reykjavík, Iceland to Aarau, Switzerland located at the southern foot of the Jaru mountains, the industrial Stuttgart, Germany to the small town of Deventer, Holland and so much more. He is well known for taking crowds on musical journeys that can encompass a range of genres from Funk-Jazz, Soul, Disco Classics, Break Beats, Latin, Afro-Beat, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian Samba & Bossa Nova, Deep & Classic House, Detroit Techno, Classic Hip Hop, and any timeless underground music for the dance floor.

From America’s MTV News “You Hear It First” to MTV Thailand, on the pages of print publications around the world to guest appearances on the BBC’s Gilles Peterson’s “Worldwide” and Benji B’s “Deviation” London-based radio shows, his animation work appearing on the Comedy Central network or his songs included on motion picture soundtracks, Ge-ology’s name, art, sound and likeness are ubiquitous, defying ge-ographical borders, genre, media arena or preconceived boundaries. So as expected when it comes to Ge-ology, digging deeper is always a requirement.


ABOUT WONWAY:
www.twitter.com/wonway

Wonway is a creative hiphop doitall: MC Freestyle Champion, DJ, radio host of ThinkBeat Radio (All Day Play and KPFA) and co-architect of the legendary San Francisco Wednesday Night Sessions with The Park. In his short time returning to being a full time DJ, he has already played with Afrika Bambaataa, Tony Touch, Bobbito, Garth Trinidad, Neil Armstrong, and Quantic just to name a few.

His afrolatin hiphop jump, Makossa has grown in popularity to spawn the incredible monthlies in SF, Makossa West, and most recently New York, with the Makossa BK Cookout. His style is soulful party hiphop fused with Latin, Afrobeat and the occasional slap. His “Makossa Classics" mix series is crack for dancing fiends and a must have for music heads, receiving accolades from people such as Erykah Badu and feautured on numerous influential websites including Okayplayer and Remezcla.