Brendan Rule, aka DJ Andujar, is a music evangelist. The Holyoke-born Greenfield resident is one of those guys who gets way into a certain artist or genre, then happily invites you to join the ride. Through his blog, radio show, vinyl nights, musical events and bands, he spreads the word and the love, and invites everyone to join him for a Friday the 13th extravaganza at Greenfield’s Hope and Olive.
Rule has been on a restless musical journey since discovering punk at the age of 14. A few years later it was free jazz, then Afrobeat, Latin, Middle Eastern and beyond. “[I] tired of the Beatles. Never got into Radiohead,” he says. “My mind is stretched daily by [the] amazing music of today.”
It’s not just about listening for Rule: he formed his first band, a noise outfit dubbed Squidlaunch, at 16.
“We went all out without a care in the world,” he says. “It was awesome to destroy heads—and bodies—in such fashion. I’m currently trying to unlock some percussion secrets through rumbas. I also want to learn piano if anyone can help me with that.”
Rule’s passions are literally all over the map. Lately he’s obsessed with African and Latin music. He got into the former through the likes of Fela, Art Ensemble of Chicago and James Brown.
He says his favorite Latin music tends to be fast, with sophisticated horn lines and improvisation, timbales, and cowbell “to smash your skull.” Add to that bouncy cumbias, classic charangas, funky bugal? and a splash of South American psych, and you’ve got a spicy miasma of sounds, all heard weekly on his Radio Clandestino program, which airs Monday afternoons on WMUA from 2:30 till 4:30 p.m.
“These Afro and salsa sounds—I dig the heavy polyrhythms, the hard-driving groove, screaming vocals. It becomes trance shit,” says Rule.
“When you lock in, you’re gone with it. There’s a lot of inspiration in those drums. Some of this stuff hits me in the gut the way hardcore did when I was a kid. Fast and raw, ’cause who wants to deal with middle-of-the-road bullshit?”
In addition to Radio Clandestino, Rule hosts Sweet Exorcist, a monthly vinyl night at Greenfield’s People’s Pint. Rule says the events let him “jam all kinds of funky music” with live percussion. “People dance, drink, release, enjoy, and get to know each other,” he adds.
He and George Myers (DJ Snack Attack) began the get-togethers a few years back, and regular guests have included DJ 12XU, B-COMING and Studebaker Hawk. Rule also collaborates frequently with Pablo Yglesias, aka DJ Bongohead, on a night they’ve dubbed Rumba Psicodelica, which brings together all sorts of tropical vinyl from garage and Afrobeat to dub and salsa, all backed by percussion, visuals, and “crazy poster graphics,” with the occasional live band.
Rule is also an enthusiastic promoter of Greenfield and surrounding environs. “Everybody in Franklin County has been cool. We’ve done parties in Turners at the Rendezvous, in Shelburne Falls, Greenfield,” he says. “We’re bringing the heat and people are coming out for it. Folks in Hamp don’t know what they’re missing. They should come up to Greenfield to check the pulse, because they might find that things are starting to happen up here.
“Northampton has been expecting people from up here to trek down there for shit, but they never seem to bother to come see what’s going on here. But we got good eats, good records, activists, artists, farmers, food producers.”
Sweet Exorcist: Friday, Aug. 13, Hope and Olive. For more, visit www.peaceandrhythm.com.
