Dirty Elegance

Dirty Elegance: Feeding Your Mind

Published: Monday - July 2, 2007
Words by Bear Frazer (additional reporting by Vanessa Hamblin)


Dirty Elegance
Photo: DirtyEleganceNYC.com
Dirty Elegance is somewhat of an international man of mystery: he doesn't reveal too much about himself, but makes just enough commotion to leave people yearning for more. For example, Dirty Elegance can willingly (and gladly) speak for hours about issues plaguing society, but he's more mum (and sarcastic) when disposing smaller details pertaining to his hometown and age. "Born in the west, reside in the east, old enough to vote, young enough to know better," he says. "With much training within the walls of the hard knocks, I will never divulge my deep bag of secrets."

Fortunately, Dirty Elegance shows more feeling in his debut, Finding Beauty In The Wretched (released April 2007). The album mostly consists of emotional instrumentals that seem like diverse hip-hop beats with an electronica edge. Some choose to label it "Trip-Hop," as a result. Nevertheless, every track truly has its own identity, something which isn't too common nowadays.

But Dirty Elegance is more than just an artist making fresh music. This international man of mystery has strong beliefs. Aside from talking about his music in this dirty Ballerstatus.com exclusive, he sounds off on censorship in hip-hop, Don Imus and the War in Iraq.

Ballerstatus.com: You've been tagged as "Trip-Hop," but what would you classify your music?

Dirty Elegance: This is kind of funny. I wrote this album [Finding Beauty In The Wretched], as I write most my music, with genre awareness being almost obsolete. It's been labeled Trip-Hop, IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), Down Tempo Electronica, etc. I guess I've incoherently incorporated these genres, along with elements of live instrumentation and the occasional hip-hop styled verse. It's a very eclectic sound. I'm really into vocal production and am going to have more lyrically styled tracks on my next album. I'm planning on doing a collaboration with Tre Hardson and possibly a couple other emcees.

Ballerstatus.com: You seem to be a pretty motivated individual. What inspires you to make music?

Dirty Elegance: Life encourages me. Death influences me. We have such a short amount of time to touch others, to create and to inspire ... to try and understand, and to learn.

Ballerstatus.com: So how exactly did you get involved into music?

Dirty Elegance: I've always been a big fan of music. Little can stir such extreme, immediate emotional response. As a child, I played piano and picked up the sax in the 6th grade. After intensely studying jazz for about 12 years, I realized that wasn't the road I wanted to travel anymore. I packed a couple bags, moved to NYC; without a job, hardly any money, no place to live, and not knowing a soul. Circumstance lead to my first internship at a music studio where I started composing and producing, what would later become Dirty Elegance, long story short.

Ballerstatus.com: Finding Beauty In The Wretched seemed mostly instrumental. Was that a conscious decision?

Dirty Elegance: This was a conscious decision. I wanted to reach people all over the world, without any boundaries. Language was not something I wanted associated with Dirty Elegance in the beginning. I'll be browsing the net and find reviews from Slovakia, Peru, France, etc. It's reaching my intended fan base, worldwide. Also, a lot can be said for purely instrumental music -- Davis, Mingus, Coltrane, Bird, Getz, Gillespie. They never had to mutter a word to be heard, and placed into society's collection of brilliant and timeless music.

Ballerstatus.com: Can God help one find Beauty in the Wretched?

Dirty Elegance: God has helped me to find Beauty In The Wretched. I have been blessed with such opportunity and creative energy. Now, when I speak of God, I do not speak of the church. I speak from a spiritual standpoint. The church is a very controlling, confining, and manipulative institute in our society. Taking advantage of our fears, and creating such illusions. If you don't go to church, you will burn in hell for all of eternity. Now, please give as much as you can, pray for your evil, filthy sins, and be on your way. See you next Sunday. Hey, wait a minute. Weren't we supposed to make Saturday our holy day? This box stunts our spiritual growth.

Ballerstatus.com: What is your opinion on Russell Simmon's call to action (censorship)? How does capitalism play into this issue?

Dirty Elegance: I think Russell Simmons is on to something. We should censor "nigger," "bitch" and "hoe!" But, we should continue throwing millions of dollars to our crème de le crème: Where would we be without: "I pop shots hot glocks shoot through vans too / Oh boo bop blew ban boo move / And I'm fo really with this milly yo / Leave many hoes like the cereal cheerios / You into funny money / I'm raking the silly dough." - (Lyrics to "Back Again" by Juelz Santana)

Take the "hoes" out and we have some quality thought, with inspiring insight. Censorship's not the issue. It's who we place into the spotlight. If we continue glorifying sh--, then sh-- will continue. We don't need to ban anything. We need to think twice about who truly deserves, and has the right, to speak to our masses. We don't hire crack dealers to teach in our schools. Why do we allow them to teach our children through their music, and label it art? I have a very close friend who's addicted to heroin and he worships the ground Santana walks on, even going as far as to venture in "the danger zone," willingly, with hopes of not only scoring his next dosage of dope, but paying homage to his "favorite" MC's images created from bullsh-- lyrics. Plus, if we start allowing censorship now, where will it end? Whitey, wapanese, roundeye, honky, coon, crow, darkie, golliwog, flapdragon, fritz, dago, ginzo, szwab, ruskie, wop? What about slut, chicken head, skank, dime, jizz bag and promiscuous cunt? Once the censorship nutsack begins a rollin', who's to say it will ever stop. There are too many chins in the way for that to ever happen.

Ballerstatus.com: What is your take on hip-hop's accountability in the recent Don Imus debacle?

Dirty Elegance: As for Imus, he f---ed up. You can't say that sh-- in our society. Too many people with too many chips, everywhere you look. Black, white, brown, yellow, tan ...

Ballerstatus.com: What are your political views on the War in Iraq and our Administration?

Dirty Elegance: I'm a conspiracy theorist. The war in Iraq is ultimately over oil control + money = ultimate power. Our world is rolling downhill and our current administration is doing little to prevent anything negative, and everything to aid in our downward spiral. The world's climate is off kilter, icebergs floating, ice sheets breaking, more ice melting, floating away, there's over 1,065,070,607 people in India alone and that's from a July 2004 census -- it's probably closer to 10 billion by now. Species are dying, ecosystems are changing, 400,000 deaths in Darfur, 32 dead at Virginia Tech, ozone deteriorating and nuclear concerns in Korea. How many minutes do we have until doomsday? Two? It's such a shame because the world is a really beautiful place, if you just stop to gaze at it. All the life, all it's glory. It boggles my mind to try and contemplate how every living entity of this planet is essential for all life, as we know it. And when we start chopping certain pieces out of our perfectly balanced pyramid, everything else will fall. F--- Chevron, f--- Exxon, f--- Texaco, f--- Shell, f--- Nicholas Cugnot for inventing the car and f--- Henry Ford for exploiting his invention. What's the difference between a car and a nuclear weapon? I guess it's the same as a cigarette to a needle full of stupid (heroin). One will kill you faster than the other, but they will both get the job done, sooner or later.

Ballerstatus.com: You desire to inspire art and passion, and your poetry encourages awareness and self-definition. In what context or space would one normally be introduced to your music?

Dirty Elegance: I think my music can be, and is being introduced through today's standard mediums; radio, TV, and a ton of digital distribution all over the world. I'm in the process of developing my stage performance now. I would like to begin my European tour in a couple months. I'm not sure if there is one ideal setting for the listener to be introduced to my music. Life goggles uniquely very from person to person, and everybody's sense of reality is different.

Ballerstatus.com: What else will you be looking to do different this time around?

Dirty Elegance: Right now, I'm planning on releasing a double disc. One half being strictly instrumental, they other being strictly vocal. Ever evolving and weaving between genres. I'm planning on releasing this next spring, in coordination with our debut Dirty Elegance spring clothing line.

Ballerstatus.com: Is it hard being Dirty Elegance?

Dirty Elegance: It's hard to live, period. It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, life is challenging. But it's also beautiful, if you allow it to be so.

© BallerStatus.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without written consent.
- Baller Status

Niekoniecznie smaczne kr¹¿ki s¹ wydawane przez wytwórnie. W dobie Internetu bardzo ³atwo obejœæ wszelkie oficyny i spróbowaæ sprzedawaæ muzykê na w³asn¹ rêkê. Tak jest w przypadku nowojorskiego producenta downtempo Dirty Elegance i jego debiucie - albumie "Finding Beauty In The Wretched". Niech ³ami¹ sobie teraz zêby te wytwórnie, które nie skusi³y siê wydaæ ten materia³ (mam tu na myœli Ninja Tune, Hefty, Tru Thoughts, Breakin' Bread czy Grand Central Records). Kr¹¿kowi Dirty Elegance trudno odmówiæ finezji i powiewu œwie¿oœci.



Sam autor nie zdradza zbyt wiele o sobie. Wiadomo, ¿e jest wszechstronnie wykszta³conym jazzowym muzykiem, który wrêcz do perfekcji opanowa³ grê na pianinie i saksofonie. Formu³a tego albumu jest w pe³ni instrumentalna, bo (jak sam powiedzia³ w jednym z wywiadów):

- przez czystoœæ samego dŸwiêku mo¿na wiêcej powiedzieæ i przekazaæ ani¿eli za pomoc¹ s³owa. Tak w³aœnie robili Miles Davis czy John Coltrane, st¹d ich muzyka jest ponadczasowa.

Album nie jest robiony pod jedn¹ stopê. Sformu³owanie "downtempo" jest tutaj rozci¹gniête do granic mo¿liwoœci. A to powoduje znalezienie siê w takim gronie hiphopowo-soulowych hybryd "Aural Mist", która nieodparcie mo¿e siê kojarzyæ z hitami rodem z MTV. Jak na jazzmana przysta³o, nie zabrak³o kameralnej i swinguj¹cej "Melophobia" czy bardziej romansuj¹cych rytmów "Tailor Made". Oprócz tego Dirty Elegance uraczy³ stanowczym instrumentalnym hip hopem ("Eternal Infamy" i "Accouchement") przypominaj¹cy skrzy¿owanie Prefuse'a 73 czy Eliotem Lipp. Natomiast "Wirrok" u¿ywia album Dirty Elegance niczym dokonania Four Tet. Nie brakuje te¿ europejskich, kanapowych akcentów. "Solicitude" i "Engloutir" przypominaj¹ barwny, wiedeñski lounge. Dla fanów eklektycznej globalnoœci, "Finding Beauty in the Wretched" oferuje etniczne "Foreign Objects" oraz "Blind Eye". Natomiast "Leaves Of Autumn" zapewne nie powstydzi³ by siê Amon Tobin, a "Frozen In Time" i "Dark Pockets" - DJ Shadow.

Owy kr¹¿ek tego noworojczyka to coœ pomiêdzy Tosc¹, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Telefon Tel Aviv, Thievery Corporation, a Truby Trio, Sofa Surfers i Stereotypem.

- GWAR

Unico

Quando a alma se desagrega do corpo, eterizada, enceta uma viagem psicotrópica ás profundezas da dimensão paralela, sons, timbres e vozes irrompem. Combinados entre si estes elementos projectam-se numa hipnose giratória. Não é musica é arte.
Dirty Elegance é inspiração levada ao extremo do engenho humano, aqui o termo complexidade assume outra compreensão. A música electrónica surge-nos como um círculo, desconhece-se onde começa e como pode acabar, pelo que ouvir Finding Beauty In The Wretched, não deveria provocar qualquer perturbação. Mas inevitavelmente provoca. Aliás, afecta-nos, a beleza impressiona, a harmonia seduz, o enigma sonda o ser, levando-o ao exterior sem abstrair do seu interior.
Este disco não vive somente no trip-hop ambiente, habita algures entre Massive Attack e Portishead, encaixado bem fundo nos Sigur Rós e The Album Leaf, é, se assim se pode designar, electrónica experimental. Álbum para pessoas que questionam a existência humana a realidade envolvente, que ousam olhar além da miséria quotidiana que nos rodeia. O individuo em busca do sonho, cuja premissa é dar expressão autêntica ás suas aspirações, descobre neste disco o seu númen.
Único para seres únicos.


Momento Mágico: Wirrok
- Penso Sonor

He is by far the most enigmatic artist I have ever covered. I don't know what he looks like because he includes no cover art of himself on his debut album. He often prefers email interviews so I have yet to even hear his voice. Here's what I do know: While most up and comers in the music industry run toward the limelight, philosopher/ pariah/savior Dirty Elegance prefers to remain in the shadows, quietly observing behind a veil of anonymity. But he's still there.

"It is quite different from other artists," he said of his approach to music. "I want my music to be accepted, enjoyed and critiqued for what it is." And that music proves to be as eclectic as its maker. Recorded in New York City in the fall and winter of 2006, Finding Beauty in the Wretched is as much a cerebral experience as it is aural. Lush, layered soundscapes rest on broken beat lines with occasions of live instrumentation and a few vocal samples thrown in for good measure.

The sum of the parts straddles the fence between intelligent dance music and trip-hop.

�
"It's pretty cross-genred (sic), which makes it accessible to a wide variety of tastes," he said "A few of my tracks are even played on smooth jazz stations." However, perhaps more interesting than the music, is its source.

Inspired by the deeper subject matter around him, he is a socially aware dynamo who pipes his observations through his music. "I see tenderness, kindness and soft kisses," he said. "And I see beauty distorted and twisted. I'm inspired by rage as I am by beauty." Hopefully, the new album will act as my key to the never-ending abyss of music, art and poetry continually transforming as I continue to grow spiritually, intellectually and artistically."

~Chris West
- Skope Magazine

Never really had a handle on Trip Hop but if this is it then I want it all. New York based Dirty Elegance are amazingly unsigned. The modern dilemma of 24/7 rubbish on the radio/charts/tv while unsigned gems like DE remain undiscovered is a tragedy of 9/11 proportions.

I hate bio's. DE have a great bio. DE's bio says everything that needs to be said about life..period:

A boy sits in his room
Laying on his bed, on his back, his eyes are closed
The room is not silent
Silence is the product of an empty mind
This boy’s mind is far from empty
He wants to inspire
He wants to spark creativity
He wants to breed thoughts
He wants to manifest into emotional energy
And fill their very souls
willing
hungry
hopeless
lost
desperately seeking some sense of higher understanding
this boy transcends into a man
somehow keeping his childlike wonder of our beautiful world
awe inspiring in every way
life
yet, tragically plagued with an overwhelmingly devastating and stifling society
where dreams are associated with moral failures
where money and monotony influence individuals down roads paved by promises of security and safety
only then, realizing, at the end of it all
if it were offered again?
This boy did transcend into a man
Who just might have something to share
With those who are ready and willing to share the experience
And to those who aren’t
I’m still on my way

These songs are painstakingly constructed, they are instrumental, they use samples but are not monotonous. They have roots in electronica like MM2 but lean maybe more towards trance and soundscapes. As an intro listen to 'The Scrivener' which combines DE's lyrical integrity and production techniques with dreamy but entrancing keyboard backing. It's a stunning piece of work which we heartily recommend.

written by Ken Foster - Strummer Magazine

(Review)

"Dirty Elegance brings it on strong with the exquiste and un-relenting ethno trip-hop sounds from their solid release "Finding Beauty in the Wretched". This solid release blends raw and edgy trip-hop beats with melodious keyboard stylings to deliver up music which will move you physically and emotionally."

Finding Beauty In the Wretched" brings together a full measure of exquisite trip-hop sprinkled with ethnic flavor and supported by some extra fat beats.

This album is packed (20 tracks strong) with music that blends raw and edgy trip-hop beats with melodious keyboard stylings to deliver up music which will move you physically and emotionally.

Although some of the tracks are certainly dark and gritty in texture there is certainly beauty to be found. After a short intro the album starts off strong with the fresh un-relenting tracks "Foreign Objects", "Solicitude" and "Wirrok". These three tracks alone are worth the price of of the CD and clearly represents originality and depth of Dirty Elegance.

There are some tracks that fall into the "just ok" category but just before things become too familiar, Dirty Elegance mixes it up with a nice twist, such as with the tracks "Tailor Made" and "Engloutir".

If you are into trip-hop or instrumental hip-hop that falls outside the commerical box you need to check this album out! - Subsonic Temple

(Translated from Russian)

I have a very fresh album; Dirty Elegance, 'Finding Beauty In The Wretched'. This is trip-hop with impurities of IDM, or IDM with impurities of trip-hop (for the more highly trained ear).

"The title of the album already offers us some thoughts", says music gourmands and philosophers.

Very good music! I proclaimed (three years ago) that IDM would gain momentum and join the different styles of music, taking a growing number of fans along with it. And for the first time, after having that thought, it now proves to be the case (needless to mention Thom Yorke’s solo album), which utilized straight saturated IDM ... Dirty Elegance combines such interesting areas of trip-hop, IDM, and instrumental, complementing the beauty and aesthetics of this album . A mysterious, and sometimes monotonic tone is encountered when listening, with beautiful vocals periodically interwoven amongst the superbly distorted sounds and atmospheres.

This album was just placed on my list of best albums of 2007. Generally speaking, this year is very encouraging with a surge in the trends of multiple genres. I'm certainly ready, but do not know what to expect ... If it continues at this same rate, 2007 will be the year of musical creatures! I hope you share my view and appreciate the depth and creativity of Dirty Elegance, as music without words is not the same as music without meaning!
- HYPERmedia

DIRTY ELEGANCE
Ode to Bartleby
(Dirty Elegance)

Release date: Nov. 11

In the way that DJ Shadow re-defined instrumental hip-hop or Boards of Canada re-shaped headphone IDM, Dirty Elegance’s new album, Ode to Bartleby, is so masterfully done electronica must recognize another watershed moment. Certainly there are familiar sonic landmarks: “Style Rider” ventures into the moody strings-tinged cinematic mode of Blue Sky Black Death, while “The Scrivener” smacks of DJ Krush with somber piano and mournful trumpet. And yet while other tracks’ whirrings, stuttering beats and chiming tones should get the attention of Four Tet and Amon Tobin diehards, Ode to Bartleby still emerges far, far greater than its evocative parts. Cunningly textured and extremely magical, this is the new Endtroducing, the new Music Has the Right to Children.

Grade: A
JIMMY RICHARDSON - Mean Street Magazine

"If there was one complaint on my part it was that the word count for the piece wasn't big enough to accommodate all the information Dirty Elegance sent me. I had to really pick and choose what quotes I could use because I had such a strict word count. I really think (and have recommended to my editor) that a follow-up feature be done and to make sure it is a longer feature simply because there is so much to DE that I wasn't able to include. He is a very enigmatic and charismatic figure and he brings a lot to the table (from a music journalist's stand point) and shorter features just don't do him any justice. "

Chris West
Skope Magazine
- Skope Magazine

Revelling in the pure joy that is music.

Monday, November 19, 2007

SHOWCASE: DIRTY ELEGANCE

'Is a philosophy of indifference conceivable?'

A more obscure artist, even, than last showcase, Dirty Elegance is rather intriguing and one I can only attempt to explain, or at least describe. Again, first I will let those who know what they're talking about take a crack at it; the following except is taken from his LastFM entry: 'Dark, melancholy and hauntingly epic melodies interwoven with city grit and prowess into the human easel of emotional experience, Dirty Elegance's debut, Finding Beauty In The Wretched, takes its seat at the seminal table, innovatively capturing the depth of the human condition while maintaining a non-genre specific consistency. Passionately expressing a bountiful palette of emotional experience, Dirty Elegance introduces himself to the world with seeds of timelessness and gifts of audible ecstasies... Finding Beauty In The Wretched is not to be overlooked.'

That's a pretty good place to start. These are songs based, not on lyrics, but on sound. The genre is 'trip-hop', and they definitely aren't conventional. The voice is rarely used to sing lyrics, instead used as an instrument along with the other various elements of their songs. The artist often include excerpts of other works in songs that (I believe) work thematically with what he's aiming to achieve. There's a kind of beauty in his mysterious sound, and it resonates.

I'm quickly learning that this album is much deeper than I've given it credit for, and that it will probably go against the artistic intent to post individual mp3's. I honestly think, to get a real feel for it, it should be listened as a whole, not on shuffle. However, I believe that these samples will give you a understanding of what to expect, so you can get it and try to dig into its meaning yourself.

Dirty Elegance - Foreworld (Sendspace link)
The CD begins with a reading, one which I was not initially familiar with. Google identifies it as a cut-down version of 'The Perils of Indifference', a speech delivered at Washington DC on April 12, 1999 by Elie Wiesel, best known for Night, his memoir about his experiences at a Nazi concentration camp. The speech centres on the emotional aftermath of the traumas of war, and how they cause a sense of indifference. It's an intriguing opener, and backed with a melancholy, soul-aching tune that really nails home the essence of the reading. This, despite its oddness, is probably my favourite part of the CD, and I'm glad it steered me toward this interesting speech. This is hardly the last reference to this speech, as another track, 'Eternal Infamy', is named after the words he used to describe the particular camp his experiences occurred in, named Buchenwald; and Laurel Marty Scrapings (see below) also has brief excerpts from it.

In finally looking into these excerpts, which I admit I never felt I had reason to until now, I'm beginning to uncover a theme. for example, Jury and Hick and Engloutir both contain excerpts attributed to Charles Manson, though I can't uncover exactly where from. Here's the speech(?) in, I think, its entirety, with portions used in the songs bolded (any flaws kept from source):

"Remorse for what? You people have done everything in the world to me. Doesn't that give me equal right? I can do anything I want to you people, anytime I want to because that's what you've done to me. If you spit in my face and smack me in the mouth and throw me in solitary confinement for nothing, what do you think's gonna happen when I get out of here?

Maybe I haven't done enough; I might be ashamed of that, for not doing enough. For not giving enough, for not being more perceptive, for not being aware enough, for not understanding. For, uh, being stupid. Maybe I should of killed four or five hundred people, then I would of felt better. I would have felt like I really offered society something.

You've got it stuck in your brain that I murdered somebody. What do you wanna call me a murderer for, I've never killed anyone! I don't need to kill anyone! I think it! I have it here!

This street is my world. I don't, uh, I don't pretend to go uptown and be anything fancy. I can, but I find more real in the world that I'm in than I do the tinsel. And the real world is the one I have to deal with everyday, ya know.

Believe me, if I started murdering people, there'd be none of ya left."

- Charles Manson

Another track, Angelic Remedy, includes the quote from Malcolm X: "We love everybody who loves us. But we don't love anybody who doesn't love us."

I haven't listened to this CD as extensively as I could have, so there are most likely more excerpts of the same fashion which contribute to what I believe will be the album's overall theme. One of these days, I'm going to sit down and really listen to this, as I feel there's a lot I'm at present unaware of in this album, a lot that could be mined from it. That said, those songs with these excerpts aren't my personal choices to include here, so you'll have to uncover these tracks on your own.

Dirty Elegance - Accouchement (Sendspace link)
This song, a piano and vocally-driven song, works without the thematic excerpts, giving an interesting listen with a lot of layers. It's quite beautiful, if unusual. Honestly, give it a listen, don't rely on my words because I cannot describe this music to you in a way that could do it justice.

Dirty Elegance - Laurel Marty Scrapings (Sendspace link)
More piano with different sound effects somehow making the song instead of ruining it. This also includes brief excerpts from 'The Perils of Indifference'. Again, impossible to describe; just give it a chance.

BUY: Amazon

I'm still working my way through this album, but it's much more interesting to me now than it was even a few hours ago. Enjoy.

EDIT:

I have tracked down his official website, which had this to say:

The movement started with one Dirty Artist whose soul was touched by the Majikal Angelic One. They started down the road to Elegance together and paused long enough to find the Madman Genius from the Core. Together, with the Master Artiste, Dirty Elegance, as it stands today, was bourne.

Dirty Elegance is not music. Dirty Elegance is not art or pictures or clothing, though the emotions which comprise the movement may be reflected through these creative mediums. Dirty Elegance is an idea. An idea that beneath the soot filled superficiality lies a classic greatness. A re-instating of something that once was valued but has since been forgotten. An idea that it is still beautiful, despite is nicks, cracks, and tears. That it may be resurrected if it is truly seen. And truly loved.


"The rose which was nourished by tears, blossomed through love."~ Dirty Elegance

So, my idea of a theme wasn't far off, and it's just as mysterious and intriguing as before. Hm. This guy's use of language gives me the impression of somewhere between a mysticism- or mythology-based artist, a cultist, or a crock. Luckily, his music leads me to believe the former. - The Alden