I've seen Spooky about a dozen times. He likes to treat his events as
more along the lines of a rock show - you stare at the musician and nod
your head. You're supposed to think about the music, not bug out to it.
People who have never seen a DJ before sometimes come to see him play at
artsy-fartsy hoity-toity places like the Knitting Factory or the Kitchen
(venues which usually play stuff like virtuosic guitarists and
performance artists). Having read Spooky's liner notes or an article in
Art Forum, they want to see what this whole
"DJ-ing-is-actually-an-art-form" idea is all about. Many of them seem to
think that DJ Spooky is the first DJ to ever consider the turntables an
instrument with which to make music (actually he seems to use a great
deal more standard off-the-rack break beat disks than other
headlining/performing DJ's I've heard).
So anyway, his intention is not the same as many other DJ's: It's not to
make you get up and dance, nor is it to impress you with virtuosic
scratchin, nor are you supposed to be impressed with his vast, cool
record collection. His intention is to confront the audience with new
ideas. He over-intellectualizes the thing. He is fully capable of any of
the above three DJ duties, but chooses to avoid them in favor of making
himself look smarter than you.
The thing is, I own 2 of his CD's and I very much like to listen to them
- to me they are much better that most IDM/Ambient if only for the
reason that he often deliberately avoids formula. Unfortunately, his
boring live shows and his whole pretentious attitude prevent me from
being able to honestly say "DJ Spooky is cool". When it comes to
avoiding formula but still employing techniques and styles of
established genres, he's nothing like Squarepusher or AFX. When it comes
to lushness and texture, there's a dozen folks on Mo'Wax who have him
beat as well.
-Chris Fahey
quoted 28 lines -----Original Message-----> -----Original Message-----
> From: idm-owner@hyperreal.com [SMTP:idm-owner@hyperreal.com] On Behalf
> Of David.Seruyange@bubbs.biola.edu
> Sent: Sunday, February 23, 1997 5:03 AM
> To: idm@hyperreal.com
> Subject: (idm) Spooky & Neil Live
>
> Just saw DJ Spooky and Ben Neil live in Hollywood. The club? was a
> different experience for me; there were chairs set up like bleachers,
> on different levels of some kind of wood platform. So people just sat
> and watched...
>
> I guess this works for Spooky, who I think sometimes wants to weed the
> weak out in the beginning by playing really challenging shite, but Ben
> Neil had some really good stuff that had straight drum & bass beats.
>
> Which brings me to my question:
> Who pretends to know DJ Spooky's muzik? It took about 30 minutes, but
> after he warmed up, he played some interesting stuff-acidic high
> pitched static with far off hip hop and jungle beats, but honestly, in
> the beginning I think he wanted to make his muzik as "unfriendly" as
> possible.
>
> By the way, Ben Neil is really incredible.. not only is his
> "Tryptical"
> full length a must have, but he is incredible to watch live.
>
> -d-