MUSIC NAVbarz 2
.
A RECAP OF THE PAST FEW YEARS
In the fall of 2011 I was finishing up the first draft of my first novel, Swing That Kaddish, which is based on a song of the same name from the Prettier Than You album. That was my main obsession for a year and a half. Then Occupy Wall Street kicked in at Zuccotti Park. After checking it out for a couple of weeks I was down there most days with my surdo drum trying to put some polyrhythmic thump into the drum circle.

.

After Zuccotti was shut down I got involved with a great team producing an OWS radio show for Pacifica -- radiOWS -- A multi-media, issue-based show with news reportage, commentary, interviews, original music, satirical skits.

.

I was on the organizing team that created Occupy Guitarmy that helped make music a bigger part of street action, though drumming was my main role in the demonstrations and marches. After a couple of years it was time to move on out of the OWS movement. It seemed to have a pretty limited vision. But I worked with a bunch of really dedicated and talented people.

.

Most of the political songs I wrote and recorded during that period included playing by OWS members -- rapper, rCyn; sax offender David Intrator; singing by Daniel Baez; acoustic guitar by Goldi; singing and rapping by Chagmion Antoine; and vocals by veteran funkster visiting from France, Scott Allen. Those trax are under the name Pepper Spray Tan and are free downloads.

.

The more far-reaching personal effect of Guitarmy was to get me back into playing guitar more seriously, particularly acoustic. For the past 15 years my guitar-playing appeared occasionally in my tracks in the form of electric funk, crunch and blues licks and in a couple of acoustic tracks on Prettier Than You. The new project -- an album of Americana songs in collaboration with Lee Kotick, my old bluegrass pal -- will be acoustic guitar-based which will require some serious homework getting my chops together. Can’t rely on old tricks. I started out as a kid writing protest songs on acoustic before dropping song-form altogether in my 20s and then getting back into groove, my main love since I was little. I’ll be covering that project in detail when the new site comes up.

.

Also in there that timespan was a full-length score for Battery Dance Company -- Autobiographica ( my second full-lengther for them). And Danny Schechter asked me to co-host his radio show for PRN (Progressive Radio Network). We did that for over a year. And I won a song contest for People’s Music Network, a political songwriting organization started by Pete Seeger and others. The winning song was Plunder which was written for Danny’s documentary of the same name about the banking meltdown. It includes vocals and trombone by longtime collaborator DAV. Download the song for free..

.

P/1 releases

FREE albums

KOKO DOZO RELEASES NEW EP
ON RED STAR RECORDS

FEEL THE ZUZZ! Released on Red Star Digital Music- Label Run By Former New York Dolls Manager, A&R/ Producer Marty Thau
Critics are already raving about this Zuzztacular EP!
- "Perhaps most importantly, the songs themselves are tuneful little ear-borers, harking back to NYC clubland’s ’80s heyday—these tracks would have killed at Danceteria." - Bruce Tantum, Time Out NY

- "And that's the heart of Koko Dozo, a hodgepodge pop entity that's bathed in dance music's more glammy, grimy past and full of the early 80s excess that birthed pop music from its disco father and mother." - Jeff Meltz, The Culture of Me

- "Tunes like "Lay That Body Down" and "Bastards in Bazbador" sound amazing on the pavement of the Lower East Side.." - Peter Davis, PaperMag.com
.
==============================================
.

..P/1 has been commissioned by Lisbon's QUORUM BALLET to score a new work to premiered in the spring of 2010.

..Details to come.

...Last year P/1 scored Quorum's The Other Side, which toured Europe and The U.S. The soundtrack has been released as a digital album.
..


==============================================

.
.NEW DANNY SCHECHTER DOCUMENTARY FEATURES POLARITY/1 MUSIC

.

PLUNDER -- a new feature-length documentary about the Wall St. shenanigans that wasted the American economy -- features new and old music by Polarity/1. P/1 contributed the film's theme song, Plunder, as well as under-scoring. You might recognize recent songs like Home Sweet Home and old favorites like Speechless, Free Money, and Free Money Blues. The film will be released in fall, 2009.
.

==============================================


... AS SEEN ON TV!!
KOKO DOZO IS THE DANCING FACILITATOR OF CHOICE FOR ALIEN LESBIANS.

KD song, BOOMCHI, will be featured in a February 2009 episode of THE L WORD on Showtime.
.

==============================================


.

.

.

==============================================

.
.

POLARITY/1 OFFERS SOMETHING
FOR FREE AT THE PUMP!!

Maybe you've noticed that America's debt industry -- based on legalized loan-sharking -- has created an economic crisis that threatens to go global. On a more local level -- millions of families are facing home foreclosures and bankruptcy. And addiction to oil in the global new New Order has put permanent drama in the gas tank.

.

Danny Schechter’s documentary IN DEBT WE TRUST predicted this economic meltdown two years ago. And POLARITY/1’s songs for the film put the message to music.

As a consolation prize for what we’re being served by our United States of Debt -- Polarity/1 is now offering FREE downloads of those songs -- and more!

.. .

Go get em and give em to friends. And get MAD.

..

Check out IN DEBT WE TRUST -- the scariest movie of the century.
.

To get more information on these issues, assistance with debt problems and ways you can fight back.

.

==============================================

.

POLARITY/1 ANNOUNCES
ONE AND A HALF NEW RELEASES!

.
Our first album YANKIN' THE FOOD CHAIN has been re-issued. It's been re-mastered, a few songs have been re-mixed, a couple of songs have been dropped due to potential sampling issues, and a song has been added -- an un-released 1995 recording of BAG OF BONES.
.

Also just released is the complete soundtrack of THE OTHER SIDE (see below). The album includes FULANO DE TAL. Originally written as a song to be sung in both Portugeuse and English, the choreographers chose to use it as an instrumental. The vocal version was released on the KOKO DOZO album, ILLEGAL SPACE ALIENS. That version is included on the soundtrack album as a bonus track.

.

==============================================

.
.
..
FIRST INTERGALACTIC NEWSMAG -- SPACE ALIEN NATION!
FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR EARTHLINGS!!
.....The New York landing in Feb. 2008 of explorers from the planet KOKO DOZO is no longer news. Koko Dozo spokesperson Chamoomzeon Hepadepsig said yesterday, "Earth has welcomed the sonic emissions of Koko Dozo with enthusiastic displays of drulbuntin and generosity. To symbolize appreciation we are offering free prescriptions of SPACE ALIEN NATION. SpAN is so hot off the presses that the ink is radioactive!"

....You can read the first two issues of SPACE ALIEN NATION on the Koko Dozo website. If you click a link to subscribe you will receive every installment FREE!
....There are links to subscribe at the bottom of each SpAN page.
.....Interested in all your favorite juicy space gossip? Worried about that sector off the Nomaaangz Rim? Get the breaking events, as they break! Before they break (depending on intergalactic atmospheric conditions). Get the latest gossip and errgergle. Homesick aliens -- get news from home and words of advice from Mom.
..

.....Space Is The Face!

.

==============================================

.

Polarity/1 and our collaborations -- Koko Dozo and Audioplasm -- have been up on Number One Music's electronica chart since we signed up a year ago. But on the strength of a big propaganda blast about Quorum Ballet and Battery Dance Company and Koko Dozo's album launch party, the P/1 page got soaked and we took over the top 17 spots on the chart.

SEE WHAT'S ON THE CHART.
..

==============================================

.
.

KOKO DOZO IS LANDING!! WE JUST FINISHED OUR FIRST ALBUM -- ILLEGAL SPACE ALIENS -- AND OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED IT ON FEB. 23 AT A NACOTEQUE EVENT IN NYC.

.

==============================================

.

THE OTHER SIDE PREMIERES
IN LISBON AND NEW YORK

The New York premiere of the work was presented as part of the opening of BATTERY DANCE COMPANY's new season on February 13, 2008. Battery Dance member, Sean Scantlebury, performed the piece as part of Quorum Ballet. The show also included I'LL TAKE YOU THERE, the 2006 piece that was choreographed by Battery Dance's director, Jonathan Hollander, to four Polarity/1 tracks.

,

The Feb. 3 the work was premiered to a full house in Lisbon.

.

==============================================

.

READ THE SHOCKING UNTOLD STORY ABOUT POLARITY/1 in a recent interview with Mark Kirby.

.

==============================================

.

POLARITY/1 SCORES NEW WORK FOR
QUORUM BALLET, A LEADING DANCE COMPANY IN LISBON.

The new 40-minute work, THE OTHER SIDE, was choreographed by Quorum's director Daniel Cardoso; New York's director of Battery Dance Company, Jonathan Hollander; and Virginia choreographer, Thaddeus Davis. Barry Steele designed the set and lights.

.

Initially the three choreographers chose previously recorded Polarity/1 works, LAND O' DEBBIES (from P/1's SPEECHLESS cd and ASS MAN from the HEAVY MEADOW cd. Polar scored the remainder of the work as the choreography unfolded. Also used was a re-arranged version of MANY THANKS TO YOU JACK from Heavy Meadow.

.

==============================================

.

Announcing a new Polarity/1 collaboration: KOKO DOZO -- a new band centered around singer Amy Douglas, Rubio (also half of Audioplasm) and Polar is at work on tracks for an EP release scheduled for the fall of 2007. I'll be posting rough mixes soon.

.

==============================================

.

September, 2007: Polarity/1 entered UBL.com's Ultimate Artist List at #36 and a week later has moved up to #4. UBL also designated P/1 a Featured Artist.

.

This summer the online indie music scene has taken notice of the mighty Polarity/1 sound. THE EAGLE HAS DESCENDED (from the Speechless CD) is #3 on Broadjam's Top Ten in the Electronic - ELECTRONICA category.

THE MARVIN STOMP (from the Speechless CD) made Broadjam's Top Ten in the Electronic - ELECTRONICA category and SWING THAT KADDISH (from the Prettier Than You CD) made the Unclassified Top Ten.

P/1 received a Featured Artist spot on Reverb Nation.

Both P/1 and Audioplasm have made the charts on Number One Music.

.

==============================================

.

Our favorite comment on the Polarity/1 mySpace page: "cool. you kinda sound like moby, without all the whiny bullshit and with some actual rhythm, and also if moby were good. nice work." -- Erik

.

==============================================

.

May, 2007: After a two-year layoff we recently re-hooked up with indie music site BROADJAM. And already we're back on the their charts. "NILESTONES" (from the Speechless CD) has entered their Top 10 in a number of catagories: Electronic (#2), Production - Mid Tempo, North America, USA and New York! Before our two-year vacation from recording we had placed eight Polarity/1 songs in Broadjam's Top Ten categories including Best Song-All Genres, Alternative, Electronic, Experimental Electronic. Four of those had placed #1 in their respective charts.

.

==============================================

.

Polarity/1 and Audioplasm are scoring Danny Schechter's new feature-length documentary about Ugly George, cable tv's porn pioneer. In addition to the scoring there will be two new songs featured in the film.

.

==============================================

.

Johnathan Hollander, Director of New York's Battery Dance Company has choreographed four Polarity/1 tracks -- three from the Speechless CD. The work premiered November 16 2006 at The Tribeca Performing Arts Center. It was a full circle return to composing for dance and experimental theater which is what I used to do in Boston in the 80's. Hopefully the collaboration will continue. BTW -- Speechless has been remastered and re-released. You can get it at CD Baby and soon on iTunes and other download sites.

.

That full circle thing co-incidentally got echoed a week earlier when I attended the 80th birthday of the extraordinary Harris Barron who created the Studio For Interrelated Media at Massachusetts College Art. I was part of that department in the mid-80's and produced lots of work there.

.

==============================================

.

The latest Polarity/1 CD -- Prettier Than You -- was just mastered. It will soon be available. Unlike SPEECHLESS, this one is back to songs. Also it features Polarity/1's first cover song -- Dança Da Solidão -- by Brazil's legendary singer/songwriter Paulinho Da Viola. Polar sings it in Portugeuse. The new material benefits from the appearance of Rubio who played and sang on most of the songs and made much contribution to the mixing.

.

Polar and Rubio have other projects in the works. They're working on a collection of instrumentals called HEAVY MEADOW that should be completed in the fall of 2006 and they've just launched a music production company AUDIOPLASM which will focus on music for film and video.

.

==============================================

.
Many of you didn't know that last year SPEECHLESS -- Polarity/1's all-instrumental CD was nominated for BEST ELECTRONICA CD by indie website JFP with submissions from 86 countries and awards for 60 categories.

.

==============================================

.

A wild time was had at the Nantucket Film Festival by the team responsible for Danny Schechter's new film IN DEBT WE TRUST: America Before The Bubble Bursts. As the composer of most of the music in the film I joined Danny, the film's producer Steve Green, Dr. Robert Manning -- the Number One Noted Authority on the credit card industry and its abuses, and journalist Rory O'Conner in attending two sold-out screenings and the many schmoozefests that followed. The response was passionate and loud. Thankfully Steve's friend Pam introduced me to my new trusty party-pal -- pomegranate martinis which helped loosen the tongue of the recluse that I am.

.

The response to the music was amazing. I didn't expect documentary music to make people take notice. The featured song from the film -- FREE MONEY (But You Have To Pay) -- is on the upcoming Polarity/1 cd PRETTIER THAN YOU. Rubio had a hand in the scoring as well. And props to other music contributors Clifford Tasner who composes music for Billionaires For Bush, The Austin Lounge Lizards and folk singer Fred Stanton.

.

==============================================

.

There hasn't been much stuff, newswise or musicwise, posted here for a long time because of Polar's deep involvement with Battery Drumline. But now WE'RE BACK! Got a new polarity/1 CD in progress that will be called Prettier Than You. Some songs from the collection can be heard in pre-mastered form and a few are available for free downloading. 70 Virgins will be on the CD in the version posted on this site and an alternate version as well. Other songs are in the oven. Most are political, either overtly or sneakily. There's actually a song about romantic relationships in there (Love Is Hard). And one about a aging Jewish mafia hitman sometime in the late 50's (they were called schtarkers) that's loosely based on an uncle of mine who I'd met when he was old when I was a little kid. I'm working on a screenplay based on the song (Swing That Kaddish). I play guitar on some songs so the jumble of genre-defiant weirdness will be even more genre-defiant. There's even going to be a sort of country song with a Northern Brasilian groove -- a bunch of acoustic & electric guitars and a huge pile of samba drums.

.

==============================================

.

An important new element in the polarity/1 sound is RUBIO, an all-around genius who's been contributing vocal arrangements & singing and keyboard work, particularly the electric piano and B3 organ on the new songs. Our collaboration extends into his output as well and we're putting together a music production company called AUDIOPLASM for film scoring and ads for non-destructive products. He has a big role in the soundtrack for IN DEBT WE TRUST. Check out RUBIO's site.

.

==============================================

.

Soon we'll be doing a complete redesign of the site which will arouse you with images of totally average-looking people from long ago dancing naked to the newsworthy grooves of Polarity/1. The subtext will be that the music of P/1 is both timeless and has a good beat. I imagine you too dance naked to our music. Feel free to send us photos.

.

Also, Polar will continue writing his column Yankin' The Food Chain (not to be confused with the polarity/1 CD of the same name.

POLARITY/1 is scoring Danny Schechter's upcoming feature-length documentary, IN DEBT WE TRUST about our friendly loan & credit industry and America's potentially catastrophic addiction to debt. This film should be a horror classic. See it when it comes out and BE SCARED! Polar is the music supervisor on the film. You can get a free download of a song from the film, FREE MONEY.

.

==============================================

.

POLARITY/1's music is still a regular feature on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now broadcasts. Glad to be of use to the cause, Amy.

.

==============================================

.

BATTERY DRUMLINE, the all kids samba school Polar founded with drummer Curtis Watts was featured on NY1 News. Polar and Curtis were designated New Yorkers of the Week. Just a fuckin' week?? To be fair, there are lots of other pretty hot people in New York too. Check out the website and our vid clips. We're a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization so you can donate tax-free to a great cause.

.

==============================================

.

A CD full of Polarity/1 political songs and interviews called MEDIA WARS has been distributed all over Planet Earth as part of Danny Schechter's film WMD. The film was a hit everywhere except, guess where -- the U.S. of A.

.

==============================================

.

While Polar was in Brazil he had the unique honor of performing with the bateria of Mangueira, one of the most venerated samba schools in Rio (i.e.-- in the world). He also picked some Portugeuse language and has recorded his first non-English-speaking song: Paulinho Da Viola's classic DanÁa Da Solid“o. Brasileiros out there, let us know if the pronunciation is too embarrassing; suggestions welcome.

POLARITY/1 provided much music for the soundtrack to Danny Schechter's award-winning documentary WMD about the American press' complete collapse in it's responsibilities as a professional and social institution leading up to the war in Iraq. The soundtrack includes MEDIA WARS which serves as the theme song. You can get a free download of Media Wars.

.

==============================================

.

BBC Radio has included NO MORE, Polar's collaboration with Junoon, in a radio series about cover tunes that brought new meaning to the original.

Polar has founded an all kids samba school with New York's finest drummer, Curtis Watts. It's called BATTERY DRUMLINE.

Polar Levine's collaborations with journalist Danny Schechter is the subject of cover story in the Nieman Report.

.

==============================================

.

POLARITY/1 debuts new a live band that adds more persussion.
We'll launch the new band at the GLOBAL ENTERTAINMENT AND MEDIA SUMMIT (GEMS) on the first weekend in April.

Our showcase at last year's annual GLOBAL ENTERTAINMENT AND MEDIA SUMMIT (GEMS) ROCKED THE FUCKIN' HOUSE! We played a near full house -- multi-generational and multicultural.

.

==============================================

.

READ ABOUT "SEVENTY VIRGINS"
CHECK OUT A DISCUSSION WITH POLAR ABOUT POLITICAL SONGS.

.

==============================================

.

REVIEW OF "SPEECHLESS" in TheRecordIndustry.com "Polarity/1 is the brainchild of NYC composer/producer/visual artist Polar Levine, who when not making music, is running his own little spin of web subversion, with PopCultMedia (but that is a tale for another time.) In its entirety, Polarity/1's "Speechless" immediately strikes you as a lost soundtrack to some latenight & long forgotten acid trip. An electronic soup of beats, retro, tribal, and fragmented house peppered with bits of incoherent, nanosecond splices of altered speech snipits, off-time breaks, and unrecognizable audio from way back when, in pop cultures collective consciousness. The featured track, Senhor Softee, is an example of one of the more chilled-out moments on this forthcoming release. As a sample in one of the tracks states, "If you don't the music, go out and make some of your own.", but, chances our that you will dig on this funky little electro unit. Highly recommended. Download the track and buy the damn CD already."

.

==============================================

.

September: Multi-platinum Pakistani band JUNOON just shot a video for their new song about September 11 called "No More." The lyrics are based on a poem by polarity/1's Polar Levine (click HERE for poem & lyrics). This is the first collaboration of many for Polar and JUNOON. The band has just relocated to New York from Karachi and is label hunting. The band has found itself in political hot water many times for its outspoken views on peace between Pakistan and its neighboring India.

.

==============================================

.

In the past year polarity/1 has been all over the charts at broadjam.com. Broadjam is an indy music site that rates music according to listener response rather than payola or nothing at all. In the past month "Di Hard," from YANKIN' THE FOOD CHAIN entered at #1, the Electronic Top 10. It's also in the #1 Songs Top 10, United States Top 10, Northeast Top 10, Production - Ballads Top 10, Earth Top 10, #1 New York Top 10, North America Top 10. READ A REVIEW OF "Di Hard" (Yankin' The Food Chain) in "Recording Magazine"

.
Nilestones" from the SPEECHLESS CD sits a few notches below "Di Hard" on the Electronic Top 10, #1 on the Experimental Electronic To 10, New York Top 10.

..
The new "Love Is Hard" reached the Alternative Top 10 and the Alternative Pop Top 10, Production-Ballads Top 10, the Northeast and New York Top Ten.

..

"Senhor Softee" from SPEECHLESS has been #1 Song in the Electronic and Electronica categories. "The Eagle Has Descended" has been #1 in the Experimental Electronica category and in the Electronic Top 10. "Bring On The Sudz" has been in the Experimental Electronic chart. "Blues For Chucky" appeared in the Triphop Top 10. Both "Senhor Softee" and "Bring On The Sudz" are listed in the Fan Favorites charts for the 24-36 age category.

.

==============================================

.

June 18, 2002: TheRecordingIndustry.com names polarity/1 Featured Artist

.

==============================================

.

"News Goo" from YANKIN' THE FOOD CHAIN has been getting airplay nationally since its release due to its subject matter and has been featured regularly on some of MP3.com's Trip Hop radio programs. It was named #1 song of the year on WMBR-FM's "No Censorship Radio" (MIT's station) and was featured in full on the soundtrack of Pedro Carvajal's documentary "Subvertising."