CHURCH! The 5th Chapter: Photos and Summary

CHURCH! kicked off 2014 with another excellent coming together of amazing artists and energies. Again, thanks as always to the wonderful crew of Seattle Community Media Lab for going ALL OUT this month with lights, soundboard recording, lasers, and haze machines, to our new wonderful officially unofficial photographer/videographer the talented Charles Conatzer, and to the good people at Black Coffee Coop. All the photos in this blog are by Charles, and there will be video up soon. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, we lost the audio from the event, but definitely be looking for that in upcoming CHURCH! events as we are certain to work through the kinks and bring you some solid coverage in the very near future. Let's run down a little replay of our features and what they brought to the table.

We opened the night with another Filthy Fingers United beatmaker K-E-L, who really set the bar high, and by reports of attendees was an impressive kick off for the evening. My co-host/organizer Diogenes said, "K-E-L brought quite the array of 404 weirdness. Apparently he's like a master on the SP-404 forums, as Wiz told me. It shows in his performance, he seemingly plays loops/sounds/what-have-you at random but there's definitely a process behind it." I also asked previous CHURCH! performers the emcee and beatmaker duo Sendai and Era what they thought. Mike Sendai wrote, "K-E-L's set really exemplified what FFU and CHURCH! is about: Timeless hip hop. His style is very progressive and innovative while still staying true to traditional production techniques and textures." Enrico Era added, "The set that K-E-L put on really had this grimy and dark vibe to it, that was pretty captivating for  the whole performance. The whole feeling was heavy and raw, even the transitions. I was pretty much vibing out to the images he was making the entire time."
 
Up next we had a super unique set from emcee Zen Seizure, a self-described stage and video game addict. When he took the mic and announced he was about to perform an entire set on the latter, I didn't quite believe him. But he did. And by the end of the set, his unique charisma and awkward charm had the crowd in stitches. This young man is truly hilarious. The set started off slow, and reached a crescendo with a track where he invited two friends to come rock with him, the chorus of which went: 

"My mage got a cute face, My archer got a nice body/ And they just wanna level up, this is my type of party/ RPG's are my hobby, I've played over 25 probably/ There's no drinking, no smoking, this is my type of party!" 

I asked my brother emcee Korvus Blackbird his thoughts on Zen. Korvus, in his typical poetic prose wrote, "His lyrics flew down from a perch to land in my dome, brought me home as kid in front the TV playing Pong and Atari."

Next up in line was thad wenachee, a beat maker I've had the pleasure of sharing a line up with in the past. In the words of Enrico Era, "his set was straight on that classic hip hop shit. Hella clean, and kept you engaged throughout. The vibe just kept my head nodding and held that feeling of vibing out throughout the performance. I just geek out on how producers are able to work live and create like that on stage." Mike Sendai added that thad brought "a classic boom bap sound. He's not jumping on any trends or flavor of the month styles like many contemporary producers." 

We topped off the night with the bold and fierce, Lady P, who's modest set of only three songs still left quite the impact. As a spitter myself, I'm definitely partial to women who come hard on the mic, and Lady P is certainly an inspiring example of this. Her hard hitting, unapologetic, but simultaneously thoughtful tracks moved the crowd and got people dancing. Korvus Blackbird the ever eloquent wrote, "I witnessed round brown close to the ground emcee. She brought power and insight to the light she shined through the mic at CHURCH! last night. I viscerally enjoyed the supreme expression of a culture." 

Afterwards, we got a little sample of a track from my brother Must I Mind, who is upping his chop game superbly. Be looking out for a feature set from him sometime this year. And then of course the cyphers were popping. To beats by Diogenes, our stars of the cypher this month were certainly Korvus Blackbird, Rico Era, Shredded Wheat and a number of CHURCH! regulars I have to apologize for being unable to shout out by name. In fact, the cyphers this month continued an hour past our sound breakdown and were still in occurence when I left to catch my bus home around 11pm. I love it. 

Please join us Feb 9th for the next CHURCH! where we will feature the talented Militant Child and Revels on the mic, and also the wonderful Vaughnilla and Nikolai Kookesh on the beats. 

Enjoy photos below from Charles Conatzer, and we should have some creatively pieced together footage from him shortly!

CHURCH! Bringing 2013 to a Divine End

What can I say, other than I am so grateful and appreciative of all the artists, producers, (especially my co-organizer/host Diogenes and our official beat making sponsors from the magnanimous Filthy Fingers United mega crew), family and friends new and old, and whoever else has made CHURCH! what it is. Although I am a bit behind in my updates, I wanted to share with those who didn't make it a hasty summary of what went down in November and December, and also provide a glimpse into what you can look forward to in 2014. But before that, special shouts out to Seattle Community Media Lab for taking their time to support the sound for this and many other important grassroots efforts of creative resistance and direct action all over our region. I'd like to mention that the Lab is in dire straits, and is in need of support from the community it gives so much to in order to keep their services free and available to all. Please consider making a sustainer-ship monthly donation, however big or small you can afford, to help this important all volunteer crew keep their rent paid and their doors open to all. Every little bit helps when we're running on the fuel of community self-determination.

November CHURCH!: The Black Magic Noize TAKEOVER!

In keeping it really real, our November installation of our monthly extravaganza was our most popping CHURCH! to date, thanks to our comrades from the Black Magic Noize brigade. It had to be at least 200 people deep inside and out on our corner of Capitol Hill. Black Magic Noize is an amazing collective of emcees, producers, graf writers, organizers, engineers, and whatever other hats that one could wear. They bring an incredible energy to each and every space they bless, and are tremendously genuine, humble, and talented people, so we were more than happy to hand them the reigns for our November Sunday evening at Black Coffee. In addition, we were lucky to have the talented photographer Charles Conatzer take some flicks for us, and he captured the moments beautifully. Enjoy the gallery here.

Mosh Pit Action, Black Magic Noize

We opened up this night with BMN's own Nocturnal, emcee and producer, who laced us some beats to freestyle and vibe to, and 
followed this up with a set from the vibrant and talented emcee, singer, and spiritual motivator Lovely Bringer of the Sun. After that, we were fortunate to get a solo set from Wizdumb, another producer/emcee visionary behind the monthly live producers event Pad Pushers, at Vermillion (don't miss the upcoming one of these January 19th!). Wiz's album Basementality was recently named one of the top works in 206 Hip Hop in 2013 by The Stranger weekly, so don't skip out on listening to that joint. Then started the madness. BMN's Araless, Madshroom MC, and DJ Corn Dogg took the the mic and damn near started a riot in the spot. If you don't believe me, here's the photographic evidence again. Told you. Big shouts to all of you again for making that happen. It was unbelievable.

December CHURCH!: Spyc-E, Akira Guatama, Sendai and Era, and SeanyCee

We also had an incredible line-up to wrap up our 2013 for our 4th installation of CHURCH! We were blessed to start off this evening with a short set from Si Dåko'ta Alcantara-Camacho, well known and loved Seattle poet, emcee, and organizer, who shared with us his music, and also told us about the important Our Islands Are Sacred Campaign, an effort launched in response to the U.S. military plans to expand training and testing activities in the Mariana Islands, the indigenous lands of his people. Be sure to click like on that link to stay abreast of the important activities going on in the continuous and multidimensional struggle towards decolonization. 

Dåko'ta was followed up by producers SeanyCee and Akira Gautama, bringing us both beats to vibe with and rhymes to hear out. After that we had a special treat, a set from the one and only Seattle legend, Spyc-E, who has been rockin' the mic for almost 20 years. Olisa "Spyc-E" Enrico has participated in and won emcee battles, and represents women in hip hop wherever she is. She has performed both nationally and internationally. With her son strapped to her chest, guarded by a set of ear mufflers, she blew away the crowd at Black Coffee with her powerful presence, moving vocals, and wise words. Word has it this 206 vet has a new album in the kitchen ready to be served, so be sure to stay on the look at for some new music from her in 2014! 

Finally, we wrapped up the night with the first time ever debut performance from the up and coming duo Sendai & Era. Now. We all know Seattle is potent with great music from fresh young artists, but I am not joking when I say these two truly are something to watch for in 2014. They are AMAZING. With live beats being pounded out, diverse cadences and impressive style-flipping, and

THOROUGH political content and radical wisdom beyond their years, they are sure to be making a noticeable impact on the scene very soon. When you start hearing about them, remember I told you first. Also special shouts to Raven and DoNorMal for coming and rocking a track as well to Grayskul from the legendary Oldominion crew for making a guest appearance, and to everyone that touched the mic and shared their spirit and energy in this space from day one. THANK YOU!

Be sure to join us for our New Year's edition of CHURCH! January 12th 7-10pm featuring emcees Lady P, and Zen Seizure, and beatmakers K-E-L, Thad Wenatchee, and some special features (MustIMind, and maybe more.) This is Joule Sea signing off. See ya soon, Seattle.