This month marks the annual Red Bull Music Academy Festival New York, and with a series of events coming up, RBMA is also premiering a new documentary series, beat:repeat NYC, which will celebrate a number of New York City anthems, and the drum machines responsible for them. The eight-episode long series will feature a ton of artists who will introduce the beat, the story behind it and the inspiration behind the classic anthem.
RBMA is also hosting a drum machine exhibition at Red Bull Studios New York with author and collector Joe Mansfield, which is open to the public on Wednesdays through Sundays throughout the month of May from 12-7pm, starting May 3rd.
By the late ’70s, disco had become too big for its bell-bottoms. Its true believers went underground, to places like Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage. In 1981, the Peech Boys arrived on the scene via Larry Levan's Paradise Garage. After a year, the band's first hit, "Don't Make Me Wait," utilized the phenomenal sounds of the LinnDrum. RBMA traveled to Albany to meet with Michael de Benedictus of Peech Boys for the first episode of beat:repeat NYC.
They sit down one-on-one in the first episode of RBMA's documentary series, beat:repeat NYC, in which de Benedictus explains his creative process with Larry Levan, and plays the Peech Boys hit single, “Don’t Make Me Wait,” on a church organ.
This Saturday, the Larry Levan Street Party goes down on King Street, between Varick and Hudson Street in Manhattan. There's more info on RBMA's site right now.
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