Turntalbism - where's it going? who are the current masters etc.

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up popped DJ Swamp's 'scratchalude' from one of Beck's 'midnite vultures' gigs in the States on my Winamp playlist - i still love listening to it. spookily it had been preceded by Mixmaster Mike's 'Audio Mass' featuring equally great scratching...so these two were perhaps two of the five finest scratch DJs in the world at least 5 years ago. who's come thru since then to be held in similarly high esteem in the scratching/turntablism community

one thing that struck me is whether interest in this field has dipped because its hard to see how you could expand or improve on what Mixmaster Mike or DJ Swamp or Roc Raida were doing at that point 5 years ago - scratching as fast as possible, 'playing' classic riffs like 'Louie Louie' or 'Smoke On The Water' or 'Eye Of The Tiger' by actually moving the record and adjusting the pitch rather than just playing it etc. - so where else could it go if anywhere?

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I find all to often it becomes merely a display event, rather than the musical form it so desperately wants to be recognized as.
I think there's a lot of room for it to take off, but the ppl at the forefront seem to be more interested in Malmsteen-esque histrionics and tech. achievement rather than actually, y'know, making MUSIC.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Check out DJ Disk on the Tabla Beat Science live album from last year; ten-minute electro-ethno-dubjam with Disk's scratcho continuo as the underpinning of everything. Very great use of turntablist as jazz musician. DJ Logic just did a project of George Clinton songs with Clyde Stubblefield and a bunch of Cali funksters that sounds like it's kinda the same thing.

Still, though, it's a solo art music, innit? And therefore it's okay to be somewhat histrionic. If it got too ambient, they'd just be playing the records.

― Neudonym, Friday, 2 May 2003 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Three masters of the whole tweaking-the-record-to-create-"riffs"-and-even-melodic-lines style of turntablism = DJ Disk (aka phonopsychographDISK), Kid Koala, and DJ Logic. All three of which do loads of performing-with-groups/instrumentalists (DJ Disk with Spearhead, Primus, Buckethead, etc...Kid Koala with, um, I fuckin forgot SHOOT ME...DJ Logic with his own Project Logic, Medeski Martin and Wood, hella jam bands).

DJ Disk has a more tweaked approach, but I've seen him & Buckethead do a call-and-response where he and BH mimicked each other's riffery to the tee. He's mindblowing/numbing to see do it in concert.

Kid Koala is a great deal more subtle, but the way he uses his decks is absurdly musical, like the way he'll cut on an organ sample and drop the speed (which = pitch) and again and so forth until he's playing a chord progression off of that original cut. Coupled with the fact that his scratching is fuckin INTENSE, he's definitely a worthy turntablist to check.

DJ Logic is a very organic-styled and creative turntablist, and is very versatile with his cuts & scratches. He's rhythmically SOLID, has great ear and ideas, a great sense of adventure and humor, and he's always pushing shit forward. He's also the only TTist I've ever seen sitting in with Bela Fleck, for whatever you want to make of that.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

(of course, I'm one of those evil fuckers that believes 'turntablists-in-bands' > 'turntablists-on-their-own'.)

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:16 (twenty-two years ago)

(of course, I'm one of those evil fuckers that believes 'turntablists-in-bands' > 'turntablists-on-their-own'.)

me too. Kid Koala > Bullfrog being an exception

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Kid Koala is a great deal more subtle, but the way he uses his decks is absurdly musical

Totally. I saw him live before Carpal Tunnel Syndrome was out. He did the 'drunken trumpet' song or whatever--constructed a whole trumpet solo just from one tone. Had the crowd in awe, one of the most amazing things I've seen in person. I was disappointed when the album came out cuz the recorded track was NOTHING like the live version. (Nick, were you trying to think of Bullfrog?)

Mr. Dibbs is pretty damn good, too. Check out 'Turntable Scientifics' for a good ol' fashion set from several years back. It never becomes too academic and he throws in a lot of good tracks. Everything from DYWM?!?!?-era Roots to blues songs (very famous one, forget which) to Star Wars space-bar theme.

― buttch (Oops), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:26 (twenty-two years ago)

when i could scratch and my fingers were more nimble i was in awe of what the dj could do, i pawed over the perverts moves (strictly uk) but now my limbs cant do what they used to do and i tend to think of it all as fret wank. Except for Koala as he is highly enjoyable, saw him open for coldcut and i thought his trumpet thing was great. Oh and swamps "death march" at the DMC champs. Oh and q-bits "rock the bells" thing

ahh memories like the corners of mymymymymyweedyeye m m mmmmmmmm mind

― james (james), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

ahh memories like the corners of mymymymymyweedyeye mind

― james (james), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

i like Disk and Koala (although i was a bit disappointed with the very hyped Carpel Tunnel Syndrome), but d-styles last album is the best turntabalist album i've heard in a long long time.

― s>c>, Friday, 2 May 2003 14:54 (twenty-two years ago)

okay, i saw koala on his book tour and i saw him dj with a phonograph and one of those tiny plastic record (the square ones) players they make for kids. i'd seen him live before, but that one blew my mind.

― dyson (dyson), Friday, 2 May 2003 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)

The Yohimbe Brothers (DJ Logic and Vernon Reid) album was one of my favorites of last year - practically every song it feels like they're inventing a new genre on the spot - they get some very interesting guitar/turntable textures - and it's not just experimental wank but real songs.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 2 May 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh I forgot all about that Yohimbe Brothers record! Hooboy, that's one of those "so what the hell is that noise!?" sorta rekkids, yet, as o. nate says, with "real songs". That's one of my favorite things about Logic (and Vernon Reid, too), is that he tempers his experimentalness with groove & what-might-even-be-called "catchy" bits, making the music equally challenging and listenable.

And yes BULLFROG!!! When I heard their CD, I was like WOAH, and about halfway I had this sneaking suspicion it was Koala on it, but I didn't wanna be the guy that can't name-that-DJ, and finally I was just like "can I see the case for this?". Koala...sho nuff.

One thing I find really appealing about turntablists these days is that they're beginning to have very definitely-their-own styles; kinda like listening to jazz hornblowers, picking out the individual through their approach. Koala's got that far-out unbelievable k-realism going on, Mixmaster Mike has that schizo-on-crack freakout pop-culture sample-dropping thing, DJ Swamp does the Beavis-and-Butthead guitar riffery, etc. Modern turntablism & the experimentality of it seems very reminiscent of the bebop movement; defining personal style within the context of the currently hip, trying lots of new things (many of which aren't exactly ear-candy), and just sorta pushing into places not really reached before.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 2 May 2003 16:23 (twenty-two years ago)

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