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From the back cover... "In Annual 2, grab your popcorn & seats because 'Sneak Attack' - the 1st ANIMATED SKRATCH MUSIC VIDEO [QBert's Wave Twisters] and one of many chapters to complete the Wave Twisters movie is installed in this video for your viewing enjoyment. Learn how to perform test tones with DJ World Champion 8-Ball. Sneak inside another World Champion skratch practice session with Vinroc, Craze, Develope, and Babu. Tips and Secrets from DJ Swamp, Lamb Chop, and Butchwax! A frightening Halloween! Magic tricks! Cage dancing! The heckling Masked Skratcher! Mardi Gras! A shark attack! Skratchy Seal tours the NAMM show! Toenail Man! Beautiful women! Unbelieveable performances by QBert, Revolution and the Scratch Perverts! All this and much more from the No. 1 DJ video series in the world, TURNTABLE TV!!!"
Over the last several years Jazzman has become one of our favorite labels, reissuing some of the richest deep grooves and finest obscure soul and spiritual jazz, stuff that never got the due it deserved in its day (Nathan Davis, Lloyd Miller, regional funk burners from Florida, the Carolinas, and more!), as well as putting out new sounds from modern day spiritual funk makers like The Natural Yogurt Band.
So there's no doubt that the music in the Jazzman vaults would be a crate digger and DJ's Shangri-la. That's exactly what J-Rocc got to do on this totally smoking, flowing and immaculate mix. Digging deep into those Jazzman archives, J-Rocc has created a nonstop soulfunk jazzjam that exquisitely brings the worlds of deep soul, spiritual jazz, funk and beyond into a seamless mix that keeps the tempo up but always holds on to the underlying core and soul of the songs. You can tell how much love and respect J-Rocc has for the artists he's bringing new life to, this is not one of those cheesy and offensive Verve remix like projects. J-Rocc proves that if you do have the skill, true love and respect for sounds of the past, you can inject a new energy into them without making them some flavor of the day, all 'hip' and 'modern' and ready for a slick Volvo commercial. J-Rocc has been around the block, with roots reaching back to the '80s Hip-Hop/Boogie scene and then his seminal work in The Beat Junkies as one of the pioneers of turntableism along side folks like Cut Chemist, DJ Shadow, Z-Trip and Q-Bert.
This is one of those mixes that anyone who has DJed just has to drop their jaw in appreciation and envy as this is a master showing how it's done. And whether you're a DJ or just want a stream of amazing sounds blasting through your speakers when you want the energy to be high, and soak up sounds full of soul then it just doesn't get any better than this!
AQ-fave turntablist DJ Jester, the Filipino Fist out of Texas, has released a second dance party mix of hilarious and fun samples taken from records we all know and love -- Devo, Bjork, Cybotron, Carpenters, Suzanne Vega, JJ Fad, Bowie, Duran Duran, Blondie... the list is endless. Jester's appeal lies in his ability to make you go "Whoa, I never woulda thought to scratch *that*," which you end up thinking basically every coupla minutes with this record. Funky, happy, kinda inspiring, and just plain weird! Taken from a live performance on the amazing WFMU. You should hear what he does to WFMU's mascot song "Speeding Motorcycle" as performed by Yo La Tengo (hint, it's the second audio clip below.)
Not only does DJ Jester currently drive the East Coast Boca Burger-mobile (he applied for the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile but alas got the veggie version instead), he's also found time to make what is easily the best turntablist record we've come across since
Finally! Here it is, a new DJ Jester record! Those of you who have been following along at home, know that we at AQ dig pretty much everything Jester's done so far. And this new one is no different. Well, it's no different in that we totally dig it, but sonically it's WAY different. Jester's previous records have been fun and funny, playful and clever, a lot like Kid Koala, but Jester was also a master at deftly mixing Willie Nelson, Aerosmith, Charles Manson or even Pavement with hip hop beats, and of course crazy scratching. This one takes a whole other approach. According to the liner notes, Table For One is the soundtrack to the breakups and relationship problems of Jester and all his pals. And it sounds like it. Dark and mealancholy, minor key and sort of rainy day sounding. This is definitely way more of a rock record than any of his previous records, in fact Quad Rod is a friend of Jester's who crafts beautifully downer indie/post rock much in the same vein of bands like Bedhead, Low, The New Year and all that sort of mope rock we love. Jester adds some scratching, some turntable warble and some snippets of conversation, from movies, answering machines and the like. Very dark and pretty dour. It's a testament to Jester's skills that his input -seems- minimal, very tasteful and perfectly complimenting the downer mood rather than scratching all over the place. Jester fans will obviously dig this, but so might you indie mope-rockers. As long as you can handle a little scratching chocolate in your indierock peanut butter. Artwork by AQ pal Dale Flattum (Steel Pole Bathtub).
It's been a while since this 'Jester entertained the courtyard with his brand of turntable merriment, but he's back! The good time equation this time around is: DJ Jester + non-stop '80s-heavy guilty pleasures = Secret Love! A little more fluffy that 2004's Table For One, his gleeful turntable jugglin' act keeps aloft a bodacious array of pop culture touchstones from the past coupla decades. Chunks of tunes from Wang Chung, Prince, Foreigner, Neneh Cherry, and Yes bounce right out and bop you on the nose. The one criticism we have with Secret Love is that he often lets a piece of already over-milked music go on a bit long without any audible manipulation nor any augmentation. We've come to expect a bit more from the man than a 'riding of coattails' of the original song's greatness and/or kitsch factor. C'mon Mr. Jester, we REALLY didn't need to hear THAT MUCH of Foreigner's "Waiting For A Girl Like You". Nooooooo. Nonetheless, this is quite a truckload of fun... particularly if you're harboring a fondness for some kick ass '80s pop music!
DJ Spinna and MC Kriminul are together the duo Jigmastas, and they make a straight up deeply heavy style of hip hop with guests such as Sadat X from Brand Nubian and even Vernon Reid (Living Color) on guitar. This isn't strictly a super underground release since Spinna has worked with the likes of De La Soul and Mary J Blige, but nonetheless blink and you might miss this. Comes with a
Los Angeles' best-loved old school singalong hip hop outfit breaks out with a new album on a major label. (let's hope they get paid, not screwed, what with the major label deal and the crazy low price) Jurassic 5 blend righteous, funny rhymes with Cut Chemist's bright turntablist tricks. Not heavy, not gangsta, not fronting... these are down home guys keeping a positive outlook for the future. You've seen them play the Future Primitive Soundsession shows so many times, now here's your chance to hear them while taking a shower or something.
It's been ages since we last heard from turntablist Kid Koala, who by now is most definitely not a kid anymore, but whose early records were huge hits around aQ, heck, he even did an instore way back when that was incredible! Those Kid Koala records were/are fantastically fun, funky collaged mash ups of unlikely pop culture ephemera, deftly juggled into beats and grooves, and easily some of the most playful hip hop / turntablism we'd ever heard. One of Kid Koala's 'trademarks', was when he would play solos on the turntables, one turntable spinning some old blues record, while he would scratch out a crazy trumpet solo on the other, transforming this classic blues sound into something warped and woozy. So it only makes sense, that he would do a whole album of blues jams, and like those moments on past records and live shows, the result is pretty amazing. The samples seemingly all classic blues tracks, but all jumbled up, looped and layered. Even the simplest grooves, stutter and shimmy, the speeds constantly changing, the pitch too, sometimes mixing in some wild hip hop scratching, but more often, subtly manipulating the music, adding extra beats, wrapping layers of bass buzz around bluesy grooves, the best moments of course where he manipulates single elements, a vocal line that suddenly gets all tangled up, a warped wild croon, blasts of chaotic drum freakout, manipulated solos, woozy and warbly, it's really exactly what you'd want an all blues hip hop DJ set to sound like, that is if you had ever actually thought of someone making a hip hop DJ blues set, but it works, and is incredible.
Some of the tracks sound almost untouched, and only close listening reveals the subtle manipulations at play, others are all twisted up, some of the best moments though are the most subtle, like when things stripped way down, and slowed to a drowsy drag, infusing slo-mo blues dirges with subtle sonic flourishes, adding texture, rhythmic alterations, we almost wish the whole record had been made up of those dark moody drifts, haunting and totally gorgeous.
The packaging is totally over the top, with an actual cut out turntable you can build yourself, as well as a little mini flexi disc 'battle record'!!!
Yay! This is Kid Koala doing what Kid Koala does best, taking recognizable genre musics and just tweaking them enough to add a woozy modern effect, a li'l bit of scartching here, some pretty glitching there. This is a song taken from his forthcoming album, and is a New Orleans style jazz number made even more poignant and sweet with his signature touches AND it comes with a fantastic video you can play on your computer. The video, made by Monkmus, features an animated funeral procession that turns into an unlikely street celebration with a surprise ending. The other track, which presumably won't be on the album, is called "Vacation Island" and features the Kid doing that magic again, this time to an old Martin-Denny-ish tropical exotica, but with beats. So cute and nice. Not many left either...
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Finally Montreal's Eric San releases his debut full length. You've probably all heard the story of how Kid Koala got signed to Ninjatune -- Eric picked up the Ninjatune guys for a Montreal show, played his legendary Scratchcratchratchatch tape in the van all sneaky-like, and everyone was blown away. (This tape, which Aquarius was the only store in the world to sell, is now long out of print but you can hear a similar set at betalounge.com.) Kid Koala is a turntablist with more than his share of storytelling, songwriting abilities, so the pieces are so much better than your everyday series of tricks. He and DJ Z-Trip are the ones who will be making the turntablist record that will bring the world together like a Coca Cola commerical. I'd like to teach the world to scratch. Or something. If you're already into turntablist stuff, you already know you should get this album, and if you're new to the genre, this is one of the best places to start. Honestly. The cd comes with a cd-rom video game (a vinyl version of Asteroids) and a supercute comic book. While supplies last, get a free Kid Koala sticker with purchase. Highly recommended!
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Finally on vinyl, this is the first track from Kid Koala's famous "Scratchcratchratchatch" tape (that will never be officially released due to all the presumably expensive samples.) Video game samples, music from David Byrne's soundtrack to the Last Emperor, an unerring sense of melody rarely found with turntablists, plus 3 non album tracks (in fact none of these tracks are from Kid K's recent full length Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) -- this 10" has got it all. If you've never heard Koala before, this is the place to start. You will be super happy with it!
Not one, but three DJ's spinning together live. And not just any DJ's but AQ faves Kid Koala and DJ Jester along with P-Love. 16 minutes of scratching and juggling as the trio scores a live soundtrack to animated short by Monkmus. Included on this disc from their set are "Stompin' At Le Savoi", "Page 275" (from the comic book), the always enjoyable "Drunk Trumpet", "Skanky Panky" and "Page 298". Recorded at Lock 17 in London in November of 2003. Also included is a DVD of video shot of Kid Koala performing live in concert.
A plaintive minor key melody runs throughout the 16 minute soundtrack to Nufonia Must Fall, a comic book written by Kid Koala. Emphasis on the "book", cos this is over 300 pages long! The story, written and drawn by the Kid, tells a love story between a lonely office girl and a robot. It's poignant and sorta sweetly heartbreaking, in the same way that the music is simple and unhurried. Don't expect a full on hip hop crazy quilt of sounds like Koala's past projects, though. This is much simpler sonically. A collector's item.
MPEG Download: "excerpt" [/audio/kidknufonia6.mp3]
One of our fave turntable types, Canada's Kid Koala, is back with a new full-length: Some Of My Best Friends Are DJs. We dug the single that preceded it, the woozy New Orleans jazz based "Basin Street Blues" (the first track on here) and the rest of the disc is no disappointment. If you're hip to the Kid you know to expect a little whip-whip-whap scratchin', some boom-bap beats, a good ear for laid back grooves, scrambled samples, and some quirky humor. As with other recent releases from Kid Koala, his sheer adorableness extends into other media -- the cd comes with a game and both the cd and LP versions include a fat lil' comic book in the package.
If you've never heard Kid Koala before, be prepared for a seriously head spinning wild ride. Unlike most DJ's, Koala doesn't go for insane turntable pyrotechnics, or goofy classic rock / hip hop mash ups, instead he uses his nimble mixing skills to weave together elaborate journeys through sound, assembling new songs out of various scratchy vinyl fragments, or subtly tweaking old songs into warbly tripped out new ones. Rock riffs get skipped and stuttered into new groovier shapes, Koala accompanies himself on old jazz jams with various instruments "played" on another turntable, lots of soundtrack snippets and random voices get all tangled up into bizarre conversations, separate records get mixed into super psychedelic blowouts, blues jams are peppered with slippery turntable solos. The results are twisted and slightly off kilter, like viewing a turntable jam through a cracked funhouse mirror. Alternately super rocking, super groovy, crazy funky, or just chin scratchingly baffling.
The most amazing thing is that Koala does all this stuff with just turntables and a reel to reel. This isn't some nerd with a computer, meticulously piecing together bits and pieces, this is one guy, a bunch of turntables, and some seriously mad skillz.
Combining the talents of Skam's push button objects and DMC world champion DJ Craze, Ko-Wreck Technique brings funky IDM abstraction and flashy turntable wizardry together. Plaid also does a remix.
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An 8-track mini-LP of sorts from this local DJ whose smooth production carries over into the nice hip hop breaks and scratching. Certainly a great scratching record to drop in one's set.
Production, mixes, and all scratches by G-squared. New on Bomb Hip Hop!
Krush, Japan's best known (Stateside) DJ, presents a DJ set featuring cuts by himself, DJ Cam, The 45 King, Old World Disorder w/ Eminem, the Orchestra & Choir of Bulgarian Radio, Jazzanova, and many others...a nearly 70 minute mix of some of his favorite stuff.
Rumor has it that, Krush had misappropriated his sizable recording budget and instead released "some of the grimiest sub-audio committed to tape... with no vocals either." Guesting on the album are Shawn J, Mista Sinsiter (X-Ecutioners), A.S.A., DJ Sak, Jun Sawada, etc...
though it seemed doubtful that any A&R rep for Sony US would dare touch this record, and as such remain an expensive Japanese import, it has finally been released domestically for a much more reasonable price.
Japan's best DJ in his premiere American release.
The space-age sounds of Lazer Sword make us here at aQuarius recOrds feel like we are living in the kind of future where everyone has mohawks and wears plastic dresses and there is no light but flashing neon-colored spotlights. But, hey, we've been waiting for this record for what seems like years now, so we ARE living in the future, albeit one (slightly) less Blade Runner-esque. You'd never know that, though from the cover of Lazer Sword's self-titled debut, which looks like something out of Tron, or maybe Voltron (!). Former aQ employee Antaeus Roy and collaborator Bryant Rutledge have given us a record filled with beats and synths that don't so much throwback to as reinvent the '80s by chopping the hell out of them and reassembling the parts. On the surface somewhat akin to Flying Lotus or Zomby (the one with the "y", not the proggier one with the "i"), Lazer Sword's sampling is a bit more frenetic, though, and leans toward hip-hop rather than dub.
After opening the record with three mostly instrumental tracks, Lazer Sword brings in a bit of help from Turf Talk on "I'm Gone." The strange rhythm samples provide a perfect background for the catchy pitch-shifted hook: "Pass me that control / I'm in a fucking zone / I'm on my spaceship / I'm outta here I'm gone!" Just when you think the track is going to stay hot the whole way through, Lazer Sword takes it down a notch and drops the drums, leaving you floating in space for a minute and a half. The four or so tracks where Lazer Sword bring in outside guests (including Myka 9) to do vocals stand out, but not as much as you'd think because of the way LS incorporates sampled vocals into the layers of sound. This is a record that definitely requires either a dancefloor, a blunt, or quite possibly both.
San Francisco's fantastic live improv hiphop/jazz/turntablism trio, featuring the skills of DJ Quest of the Space Travellers/Bullet Proof Scratch Hamsters, as well drum kit and double bass. Everybody loved their FatCat/Hip Hop Slam record "Monostereosis", and this is more of the same. Kinda like a more advanced version of the instrumental tracks on the last few Beastie Boys records, actually. Good stuff.
Live Human's previous albums never really did it for me, so this great album is a revelation. Here the groundbreaking trio of standup bass, drums, and turntables is *live*, recorded right here in their hometown of San Francisco at the Great American Music
Live Human mixes warmly organic bass lines that are funky but not overly so, with percussion that is as breakbeat "funky drummer" style as it is carefully shuffling, staccato and delicate. The third equal element is hiphop DJ Quest's visionary turntablist style. While he does his fair share of athletic, textural scratching here (he even plays with the tense sound of a skipping cd, of all things), it isn't overdone, nor boring, nor predictable. He brings in just enough outside elements like women's voices, snippets of old hip hop classics, James Brown's "heuh!", etc., to prevent the "jazz" from imploding self-indulgently into itself, yet not so much that it becomes a sample-heavy smorgasbord. It is incredible how perfect Quest's instincts are for what is too much and/or not enough. I have to say that the turntablist skills demonstrated here are so seamlessly integrated with the bass and the drums that I can't help but think this is one of THE FINEST examples of turntablism I have ever heard -- he knows that the way to us listeners' hearts is not to showboat his virtuosic skills, but instead to bow to the demands of the music itself.
This is an awesome record that is completely worth your money. As if that wasn't enough, it is purposely being sold directly from the label to retailers for the express purpose of keeping the price down and, according to the liner notes, "cutting out many of the redundant music-industry middle-men that traditionally add nothing to the art but are happy to pocket more than their fair share of the profit (biiiiaaaatch!)."
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These popular local artists' album was previously only available as an import, now finally it's available as a domestic release! What we had to say about the import still applies: San Franciscans Kushin, Mathias, and Quest (DJ that is) come up with a kick ass 'new jazz'/turntablism/hip hop hybrid for their debut album. A couple of the tracks from their previous singles on Fat Cat pop up on the album which is loaded with wykked scratching, sikk beats, and phhat bass. Excellent!
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The second single on Fat Cat from Live Human, a San Francisco trio with turntablist DJ Quest scratching over a mellow funk of skittering jazzy percussion and stand up bass. A really good American version of Red Snapper!
Three veteran SF DJs B-Love, Doc Fu and Romanowski deliver one solid mix a piece. Doesn't Doc Fu's description pique yer interest and yer appetite!? "A Lumpia, Menudo, Irish stew megamix throwndown" Yo, check it!
Madlib, the beat conductor of the title, has produced records for Lootpack, Quasimoto etc and here he issues four sides of funky breakbeats, heavy dub beats, and hip hop tracks. Instrumental. Useful for DJs, surely! On Stones Throw, Peanut Butter Wolf's label.
Madlib's and J-Rocc's tribute suite to the late great J Dilla offers 42 instrumental hip-hop tracks of stony, wobbly and loping tape edits. It's testimony to the power of J Dilla's uncanny ability to wring the golden essence of perhaps an inessential soul side, that even the best hip hop producer in the biz can't quite capture the same magic as the incomparable Donuts. But this wasn't done to outshine the master, only to make his star shine brighter, and with a new Dilla anthology on the way, we're realizing more and more what a huge talent we lost.
Still worthy to burn a tree or two to, and be fully satisfied!!
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I'll try to not be a cynical bastard and talk about the fact that the last two critically acclaimed Madlib records have been nothing but mixtapes. Partially because they just happen to seriously kick ass mixtapes. This time around, Madlib plunders the Trojan catalog and comes up with a dangerously wicked 65 minute mega mix. Byram was less than impressed, but I'm way more of a neophyte when it comes to reggae, and find myself listening to this all the time. Features David Isaacs, King Stitt, I-Roy, Lee Perry, Dillinger, King Tubby, Gregory Isaacs, Barrington Levy, the Aggrovators, the Ethiopians, Mikey Dread, the Upsetters, the Skatalites, Roland Alphonso, Prince Jazzbo and loads more. Mixing and scratching is kept to a minimum letting these classic tracks speak for themselves.
Listening to all these great mixes Madlib has been self releasing lately is sort of like the audio equivalent of reading Wax Poetics, one of our favorite magazines. You pretty much just get totally schooled in different eras of soul, funk, and jazz. This time out Madlib takes us on an upbeat adventure in the early '80s landscape of post-disco, boogie delights. Sounds that really bridged the gap between the disco era and electro-funk. In fact we could see folks like Dam-Funk and Hot Chip blasting this backstage at their shows and at after-hours parties 'til the break of dawn. All kinds of fun!
Madlib's last Medicine Show compilation, High Jazz, was a collection of recordings by Lib's modern jazz outfits, doing their best to simulate classic jazz, and as we mentioned in that review, had we not known better, we definitely might have been fooled. But THIS is the one we've been waiting for. ADVANCED jazz, as in REAL jazz records from the past 40 years, funky, soulful, hard bop, free, big band, all stripes and flavors, woven into an insanely kick ass DJ mix, and separated into movements, titled appropriately enough: Miles, Ornette, Pharoah, Herbie, Mingus, Ra, Dolphy, Ranelin, Deodato and Coltrane. The cover art too has been jazz-ed up, the painting of Washington and crew crossing the Delaware, updated to include various jazz greats, even Herbie Hancock's Headhunter can be seen across the water in another boat. And that's the vibe of the whole record, a definite reverence for the music and the artists, but mixed playfully, all sorts of random snippets interspersed between killer jazz jams, interviews and recording of various jazz greats, hilarious impressions of Miles Davis, spoken word jazz poetry, a stretch of wacky drug conversations and what sounds like an anti marijuana PSA, blaxploitation trailers, commercials, a hilarious Herbie Hancock anti-drug PSA (specifically "skag and downers"!), and while those segues are pretty funny, they're just interludes between some of the most amazing jazz ever, c'mon, a DJ like Madlib with a handful of classic jazz lps? Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out it's gonna rule, and RULE it does, although some folks here found the snippets and samples a bit distracting, but taken as a whole, Advanced Jazz, is a dizzying trip back in time, not just music, but sounds, voices, vibe, it's like strapping on some sort of temporal time travel helmet, and having 40 years of jazz and jazz-related culture flash by in 70 minutes. So awesome. Maybe the best Medicine Show yet!
Two excellent DJs offer side-long excursions of cut up voices, breakbeats, wonky scratching and tons of groove. Very very fun, along the lines of Z-trip, DJ Quest, and of course Cut Chemist's other solo work. For Future Primitive Soundsession regulars and
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The flood of Bill Laswell-related material continues, and as a result it's hard for us to keep up and get even some of it on this list...so, better late than never, here's the newest disc from Bill's long-running and generally-interesting band/project Material. The title of "Intonarumori" refers to Italian Futurism, a more relevant title might have been "The Guest MC Record", featuring as it does the likes of Kool Keith, Flavor Flav, Scotty Hard, Killah Priest. Other participants include Material-alum Lori Carson, Bernie Worrell, Ted Parsons, Mr. Ken, Eddie Def, DJ Disc, DXT...a cast of thousands, actually, too many to name. Anyway, this is a pretty cool hip hop album. Fans of any of the above names, as well as Wordsound/Crooklyn Dub stuff in general, should check this out.
Surveys show that, like, 25 percent of Icelanders believe in elves. And we're pretty sure the other 75 percent fervently believe in post-rock. Actually, there's probably a lot of overlap there... Here's the first album from Miri, "four guys from the remote east fjords of Iceland" who play a mostly instrumental form of indie pop post-rock, with a knack for pretty melodies amidst their moody mathiness. What we weren't expecting - and what immediately grabbed us - was how the very first track is chock full of dubby attacks, everything suddenly all awesomely echo-effected out. Love that!!
Other interesting production twists exist throughout the album, courtesy of Icelandic electronica artist Curver, who similarly also added a lot of cool glitch to a disc we liked long long ago by metalcore act Minus. And in addition to the electronic studio trickery of Curver, this is graced by guest musicians, among 'em members of Mum and Benni Hemm Hemm, who expand the group's instrumentation to include harmonica, vibraphone, flute, and marimba. Also, we noticed Brooklyn's Scotty Hard (of WordSound fame) namechecked in the credits, we don't know what he had to do with this exactly (since we're not fluent in Icelandic) but were were surprised to see him there, or maybe not, what with that aforementioned dubbiness!!
Sometimes noisy yet sunshiney, mildly mathy yet melodic, often calming but also rhythmically compelling (do Icelandic elves dance to stuff like this?), Miri's Okkar is definitely a contender for post-rock record of the month. Heck, let's declare it post-rock album of the winter (it's not even winter yet, but they're from Iceland so it's appropriate... plus this will keep us warm then, with its bright, mesmeric grooves).
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An excellent breakbeat LP for DJs needing good material to scratch, all compiled by one of our fave turntablists and Mission resident DJ Quest (Live Human) and DJ Too Fresh. Funny quotes about people 'scratching', awesome human beatbox stuff (some over the theme to the Pink Panther!), interesting and nonpredictable breakbeats. Recommended for DJs. Vinyl only, naturally.
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The sexy mustachioed Invisible Skratch Pikl, and now Beastie Boys DJ, breaks out with this excellent full length. As Oliver Wang rightly points out in the SF Bay Guardian, this record is worlds apart from the recent Shiggerfragger Skratch Piklz cd, which featured multi-turntable improvisations. Anti-Theft Device is more tightly composed, never lets up for a second -- it's clear that the Mix Master worked really hard on this record... and has come up with a full on car-stereo-worthy beatbox classic. Refreshingly free of "filler", and most of us here think it is much better than the Beastie Boys record. Lastly, the CD booklet folds out into a mini-poster.
Maybe I haven't had enough coffee today or my cold is blocking these beatz from my brain, but San Francisco native Mix Master Mike (see also Invisibl Skratch Piklz; see also Beastie Boys) bringz it hard with his newest releaze, Bangzilla. MMM's technique is maztered here and with no MC diztraction, hiz mixez are of a near-vomituz rate. But iz it awezome? Indeedz.
Beastie Boys' DJ and Scratch Pikl MMM is back on wheels of steel with this four-track ep.
Beastie Boys' DJ and Scratch Pikl MMM returns with the follow-up to his cdep Eye Of The Cyclops.
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One of the very best, dynamic and exciting pieces from Mike's recent Anti Theft Device album, "Suprize Packidge" utilizes a cool sample from "The Taking of Pelham 123", and is here presented in its original form plus a remix by the ubiquitous Automator (we mean that in a nice way, Dan). Also included are three other pieces, at a very budget price for the cd format. You can't go wrong.
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3 turntablist pieces from the sexiest Skratch Pikl.
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There's a disembodied cartoon wrist on cover.
