DJ Spooky - Riddim Clash

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I've never really listened to him before but a cursory search on DJ Spooky revealed a lot of hostility. Explain this, and also discuss the new album "Riddim Clash" if you like. Someone recommended to me and so far I've only heard* two tracks but they didn' really hold my attention.

*downloaded.

― djdee2005, Thursday, 1 April 2004 07:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm reading a book he wrote called 'Rhythm Science'. It's knd of a macluhan meets deleuze meets hip hop in a dark alley. Quite good.

I haven't heard Riddim clash but 'I own songs of a dead dreamer' which is very good and has an excellent essay inside the gatefold of the vinyl.

I think he gets a lot of hostility for over-intectualising what he does and how he fits it in to the world. I like that so I think he's ok.

― hmmm (hmmm), Thursday, 1 April 2004 07:31 (twenty-one years ago)

"Riddim Clash" sounds like it would contain good music...i donno about this tho.

― djdee2005, Thursday, 1 April 2004 09:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Most of his stuff is over-thought crap. Optometry is the only truly great album he's ever made. Stay far, far away from its remix version, Dubtometry, though.

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Thursday, 1 April 2004 13:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree with Phil on this one. The reason he gets so much flak is because he comes across as self-righteous and pretentious, for talking about his music like it's actually good. Songs of a Dead Dreamer and the whole "illbient" genre for that matter was just awful and now, thankfully, forgotten. I don't know what Spooky is doing these days, though.

― scott m (mcd), Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

For all the overselfanalysis, he's friggin great live.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

i found songs of a dead dreamer bit dull and sold - just sounded like trip hop to me, despite all the pretensious nonsense. BUT, i do really like that mix album he did a few years ago - the one with a silly title...

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Thursday, 1 April 2004 14:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked his Under the Influence mix from a few years back, and I'll shamefully admit to liking some of his collaborations. I remember seeing Riddim Warfare in pretty much every music store for a few years, even the ones with a handful of token albums, despite it being pretty mediocre.

He really positions himself as a postmodern thinker, writer, and musician. The majority of people you'll find him linked to tend to fall into the same categories: postmodernism, afrofuturism, deconstructivism, and science fiction. I haven't run across anyone who had outright praise for his work, but it could be because I'm in the wrong social circles. That said, I'm pretty interested in his new book and the companion album.

Also, he took "the subliminal kid" from a Burroughs book, if that helps provide some background.

― mike h. (mike h.), Thursday, 1 April 2004 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Overintellectualize is the most important work to remember with Spooky.

It just gets old after a while, and I am an academic!

― hector (hector), Friday, 2 April 2004 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I have Modern Mantra, a mix CD from a year or two. I think it's really great. I just recently took out Optometry and played it once on crappy grad lab speakers. It sounded like it had lots of great stuff on it, much of which was due to the awesome free jazzers playing with it, despite the beat poetry and rapping.

Going by his website and the snippets of his writing I read, I don't think the problem is that he's overly intellectual or academic as much as that he just comes off as so utterly full of himself.

(Just put on Optometry - wonderful unusual but catchy drumming with spacious noise. Good bassline arriving courtesy of William Parker . . . Mmm. . . Matthew Shipp floating above it. This sounds great but I don't know how much DJ Spooky had to do with it.)

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 2 April 2004 04:14 (twenty-one years ago)

". . . year or two ago."

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 2 April 2004 04:15 (twenty-one years ago)

re: what he's up to now, he just participate in a 'public dialogue' as part of this series:
http://www.timeoutny.com/nsny/
resonating frequencies
dialogues on architecture & music

other forthcoming pub. dialogues feature phil glass, laurie anderson, and...wait for it...moby

― j. pantsman (jpantsman), Friday, 2 April 2004 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

four years pass...

It's knd of a macluhan meets deleuze meets hip hop in a dark alley.

^.^

― am0n, Monday, 14 April 2008 17:51 (seventeen years ago)

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