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Issue 2.08 | Aug 1994

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The DJ is the Filter


By Hugh Gallagher

Archive Category:
Music & Sound

The first time I saw Spooky spin the Abstrakt was last fall. I was aimlessly wandering the New York City streets in the early a.m. hours when some music seeping out of a dark doorway on First Avenue drew me in. Stepping down the metal stairs and through the door, I found myself in a dark, candle-lit box of a space. In the shadows of the small chill-out lounge, people sat at tables, nodding their heads in the flickering light as the music washed over the room. In one corner, a tall young black guy with blue dreads was spinning the records: DJ Spooky, Tha Subliminal Kid.

Though I'd been to a lot of clubs, I'd never watched the DJ spin before. But at the Abstrakt Lounge, Spooky's mix commanded attention. Licking his finger, he'd slow the record down to speed, listening in on his headphones, a few grooves ahead of us, to match beats before he hit the cross fade and brought the tracks together. Flipping through his crates of records, he would expertly locate the vinyl and track it on the turntables, adjusting the levels, channeling in the effects, reaching into the spinning spiral oil spills to cut, scratch, and transform the mix as he felt it. His records spanned every genre through space and time -- the music of Mingus and the spoken word of Burroughs, the latest trance music out of London, and science fiction soundtracks of the '60s -- old school, dance hall, funk, hip hop, soul.... his hands on the tables, he would smoothly thread connections through music spanning generations and thousands of miles, weaving a seamless sonic structure of the present moment.

As the days got cooler and shorter, I became a regular at the Abstrakt Lounge and became friends with Spooky. He drew me into the DJ world, an extensive subculture on a global scale.

There are different DJs for every different music style -- techno, acid jazz, hip hop, ambient -- but all of them are essentially doing the same thing: manipulating information. Recorded music is stored information, and the best DJ has the best record collection -- the best information. This consists of the most current, updated information (recent releases); the most solid base of information (standards and classics); and the most esoteric, rare pieces of information (out-of-print records). The one who can manipulate information in the freshest style (cutting, scratching, mixing beats) is the best DJ.

In a world where information plus technology equals power, those who control the editing rooms run the show. DJs are editors of the street, using technology to structure an alternate sonic reality. They are the first musicians to turn a medium into an instrument -- a natural step for a society that spends increasing time interfacing with communications technology.

In the past, young people bought shitty guitars to learn the chords to "Crazy Train"; now they buy turntables and records to perfect cuts and blends. The DJ illustrates where innovative, progressive music is headed: realized through technology, in the studios and the clubs, the music discards classical "instruments" as we now think of them. And it discards the image of today's classical rocker, as well.

Kurt Cobain's relentlessly reported suicide wasn't so much the death of a person as the destruction of an image. Mercilessly reimagined on MTV screens and in photos for a few years, he had been transformed from a person into an image: the Rock Star. Kurt was pulled further and further away from the audience he was trying to communicate with. Even his suicide method was a final, violent rebellion: he didn't pull a gas park in the garage, or shoot a golden bullet up his arm; he blew his image to pieces.

The DJ is the anti-image musician. The setup of the equipment takes the focus off of a central place or figure, and places it onto the music. At most clubs the DJ is either out of sight or down on the floor, at the same level as the groovers. Through music emanating from surrounding speakers, performer and audience are blended together. With computers, global communication, and the decentralization of power upon us, this setup is more reflective of where we're heading. The Rock Star -- up on stage, bathed in light, inaccessible -- more and more seems like an outdated image from a defunct society.

Hugh Gallagher is a freelance writer based in New York.

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