DJ Spooky

clarke b, are you slamming his music or his writing?

m.

If it is, I will luckily be unbiased by any of his writings or previous material.

" <<< multsanta has joined >>> <<< 4/28/00 7:47:09 PM >>> anechoic: hello...the chat begins in 12 minutes... Dj Spooky tha: Okay, so it's that time. I'm not that sure about how to start, so I'll give it a brief shot: Dj Spooky tha: I'm a conceptual artist and writer who uses sound to construct "narratives" based on "polyvalence" i.e. multiple formats and cultural zones. Sampling is one extension of this, and so is electro-acoustic composition..."

Shut up. You sample, okay? Whatever.

I own Songs For A Dead Dreamer but have never really given it the listens it deserves. I've never found he has much useful to say in his writings, but one track he did on some compilation or other (Swarm of Drones maybe? I forget.) was excellent, evocative ambient music (no need for the "illbient" label really).

and some of his production has been quite brilliant, actually. see: riddim warfare for example.

I understand the hate he gets, he's wildly erratic. I've seen him do outstanding things and seen him do things so appalling I have to look away.

echoing a comment by Greg Tate, his strengths are in extended DJ sets, seamlessly juxtaposing extended pieces from 20th century classical & hip hop/dance. I've seen him do this to jawdropping effect, hearing xenakis mixed over jungle in '96 sounded fantastic & self-evident. unfortunately this means what he's best at will never be released due to licensing & format issues, while many of his attempts at 'original' albums come out stilted.

also, it's not the 'academic perspective' in itself that garners hatred, it's that sometimes he'll wander to the podium or NPR-microphone sounding as if he's stoned out of his mind. there's an art to throwing out interesting concepts while deferring a tidy conclusion, and Miller's free associations often sound (to me) simply incoherent. he's almost too easy to criticize, though the critics often end up sounding just as shallow.

it wasn't always this way, search his mid-90's writings & panel discussions, he's extremely lucid and thoughtful. was hoping his book would draw from that period but haven't had the courage to check it out.

the mention of classical and dance together makes me think of arthur russell.
m.

I just bought Sound Unbound. It's a neat essay anthology and the non-Spooky stuff on the CD is cool as well, but goddamn, why are this guy's "remixes" so shitty?

mmm... I love me some academicized music.

Clarke's post starting this thread = A+

..."relevance guru"

http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/dj-spooky-spins-into-oblivion-at-the-met.html

Belated thanks for the props, Ned! Still can't stand the guy, though I can honestly say it had been probably 4 years since I'd thought about him... Until now.

Back in the 1990s, when little information was available to listeners, I was hugely disappointed at my first hearing of a DJ Spooky album, because I had thought I was buying an album by the UK dance-music producers and remixers Spooky. I wonder how many other people that happened to.

I knew what I was buying but I was still disappointed.

I bought his first album on the strength of a glowing cover story in The Wire. What a letdown that was.

Riddum Warfare is a really cool album

I just rewatched Within Our Gates (Micheaux, 1920), with DJ Spooky's score. And while it was not actively bad, it was banal and generic.