Is scratching making you itch ?

In principle scratching is absolutely fantastic, but like so many revolutionary instruments it's been de-valued - using it as a contemporary dressing on tired material, or the other extreme - ego- wank-virtuosity we saw with Fusion/Metal.

I can't follow the 'great' turntablist material, it's like watching kids TV, so many ideas, so fast, and ultimately I don't connect with anything, just an empty technical appreciation. The sheer density/speed doesn't equate with intensity.

Although, scratching still works, there's still directions : when it's slow and elegant(Portishead), or punctuating a raw mix - (Booty Bass). Like vocoder's I like it sparingly, it's the icing on the cake.

Hmm. Last night I caught some show on Fox, I believe, at around 2 am that feature a violinist and a DJ. The offset of her playing with his simple, repetitive scratching underneath sounded really interesting and was actually a very intricate playing off each other. This would be a sound difficult to produce otherwise, unless she simply played to a preprogrammed track a la some of Zappa's instrumental pseudo-live improvs. Some scratching is really cool. For instance, www.skinny.com has some interesting live DJ radio shows that often impress the hell out of me. However, the insane over-scratch is similar to supposed guitar virtuosity.

i like the scratching on 'mmmbop'.

This stuff was meant to be seen live. Kind of like Kodo drummers, the physicality of scratching is what's so captivating. Seeing good beat juggling live is a transcendant experience. I probably have 10 or so scratch DJ-type records, and I enjoy them, but none compare to the best moments of seeing it in person.

If you're so inclined, check out the first two Future Primitive releases, which are live recordings made in San Francisco. The first has Cut Chemist from J5 with Shortkut from I.S.P., the second has Z- Trip and Radar from Phoenix. Both are great because they have a healthy respect for the groove. Z-Trip and Radar are especially cool for how they incoporate classic rock into their sets, and make it extremely funky.