DJ Spooky: Under the Influence

About the Artist
SYNCHRONIA "I tell a story of bodies that change." Ovid, Metamorphoses circa 1 AD "But of course, there are two kinds of people on earth. One - The people of the towns are more sensible than tortoises. Two - The wild people of the jungles are as senseless as donkeys." Amos Tutuola, The Witch-Herbalist of the Remote Town 1981 Ovid's Metamorphoses or Kafka's Metamorphosis? Amos Tutuola's freewheeling world of spirits or Tim Berners Lee's? Arthur Koestler's "Synchronicity" or Grandmaster Flash's Adventures on the Wheels of Steel? The links between all of these are sampling and flow, change and transformation. Mix tapes and mythologies, microphones and migration, text and textuality… the patterns are what make it all happen…. Synchronia – the word brings up all sorts of connotations: synchronicity, synchronism, synchronous, etc., etc. This was my working title and the guiding idea when I created this mix. The basic idea is that things happen in patterns, rhythms, intersections, convergences… And in this world of hyper-networked information, it's one of the more subtle ways of thinking about what makes all of the patterns of everyday life mesh. There are a couple of directions the word can take you in depending on what you're looking for. Rhythms and algorithms, sounds and samples, bits and beats – what I was looking to create with this mix is a statement about how much the world has moved beyond what W.E.B. Dubois called 'the color line' in America, Amiri Baraka a.k.a. Leroi Jones' 'changing same' or what someone like Frantz Fanon would have called simply 'the pathology of place' that informed so much of 20th century culture. What's that sound coming from the new crossroads of net culture? Is it human or human derived? The values, like the beats and rhythms that make up the fabric of this mix, like I always enjoy saying – are all about flow. Rhythm, depending on which angle you look at it from, is derived from the Greek 'rhythmos,' a term that meant 'measured motion' and if you think about the early references to the 'music of the spheres' dating back to Pythagoras, I guess the rhythms have become flattened – spheres become disks, become hard-drives, become networks of process forged in the underground and overground cultures of the information age. The artists I've chosen for this mix are all hybrid folks – nobody sticks to one style, and everybody here has a lot of different ways to engage the creative process. Nobody in Synchronia stays in the stagnant waters of received opinion, and nobody on this mix would want to. Anyway, that's what went through my mind as I made the mix. Music from the 4th world, music from the new beats, music for the age of information. Glitches, fragments of text, codes, ciphers (there's an on-line component to this too… Check the website) – different stories and times. Stories and storage, stories of storage – how do we recall the way we create? Think of Synchronia as a soundtrack to a world where any sound can be you. It's the residue, the moments and memories of how the sounds and songs came to be 'here' in this mix that I really want people to check out. A lot of the first really 'organized' cities were necropoli. Like the 9th century Arabic philosopher, Abu 'Abdullah Muhammad ibn Musa of Khuwarizm, whose name derived into the terms 'algorithm' and 'algebra,' I like to think of numbers as tools for the living to help organize their lives. That's what this mix is about – a celebration of life and renewal. The new crossroads make new sounds. Hip-hop, techno, ambient, illbient, drum 'n bass, dancehall reggae – these are just terms used to hold a place in our minds where we dance together. Language is the glue, and music is the free floating variable. Who would want anything else? Think of Synchronia as a soundtrack to a way of life in a world where humans have become a kind of dust drifting through the codes we made in an earlier age. It's the 21st century. It's time to synchronize.

–DJ SPOOKY That Subliminal Kid

Product Description
Rather than creating yet another mix CD based on current dancefloor hits and trends, Six Degrees sheds light on a different aspect of DJ culture with Under the Influence. In this series, the most influential contemporary mixmasters reveal their personal favorites and sources of inspiration. Under the Influence combines the top picks from famous record crates along with tracks and musical collaborations from the featured mixers themselves. The first installment of Under the Influence is a mixed set by turntable innovator DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid. Includes tracks by Moby, Future Sound of London, Ryuichi Sakamoto & Talvin Singh and Sonic Youth in addition to DJ Spooky's collaborations with Michael Franti & Spearhead, The Dub Pistols and Carl Craig.

DJ Spooky: Under the Influence,Various Artists,Six Degrees,Dance,Dance Music,Pop

Average customer rating:

Love this album

ILL

Flow...

mix?

don't know much about the genre...

DJ Spooky: Under the Influence
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Six Degrees
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B00005O7TW
Release Date: 2001-09-18

Tracks:

Sound - Moby
Papua New Guinea (Dub Mix) - Future Sound Of London
Emergency Broadcast Network - Emergency Broadcast Network
Monster Dub - Tino
Peace In Zaire Mix (Dub Pistols Inna NYC style) - DJ Spooky Vs. The Dub Pistols
Show Stoppa (Show Case Mix) - DJ Ziggy
Live Jam - DJ Spooky Vs. Carl Craig's Innerzone Orchestra
Michelle - DJ Logic
Leave Our Planet - Paradox
The Raw Uncut - Hive
Flight IC 408 - State Of Bengal
Anger (Talvin Singh Remix) - Ryuichi Sakamoto
Music Is... - Phoenix Orion
Sycosis - Double Zero Zero - The Deckwrecka
Bade Saba (DJ Spooky Remix) - Sussan Deyhim
Laundry (DJ Spooky Remix With Of Unknown Origins' For The Love) - Anti Pop Consortium
The Bay-Bronx Bridge - Masters Of Illusion
Suprize Packidge (Automator Remix) - Mix Master Mike
Rock The Nation - Michael Franti & Spearhead/DJ Spooky
From - Get Your Snack On - Amon Tobin
Get Your Snack On - Amon Tobin
I Feel Like $100 - Mike Ladd
Hover Dub - Singe Et Verb
Twice The First Time - Saul Williams
Tremens - Sonic Youth
Sebsi Dub - After Echo

Album Description

Rather than creating yet another mix CD based on current dancefloor hits and trends, Six Degrees sheds light on a different aspect of DJ culture with Under the Influence. In this series, the most influential contemporary mixmasters reveal their personal favorites and sources of inspiration. Under the Influence combines the top picks from famous record crates along with tracks and musical collaborations from the featured mixers themselves. The first installment of Under the Influence is a mixed set by turntable innovator DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid. Includes tracks by Moby, Future Sound of London, Ryuichi Sakamoto & Talvin Singh and Sonic Youth in addition to DJ Spooky's collaborations with Michael Franti & Spearhead, The Dub Pistols and Carl Craig.

Customer Reviews:

Love this album.......2003-11-10

Great stuff here. While not as advanced as his "Modern Mantra", Spooky does a tremendous job here. He's got it. Highly recommended if you are into turntablism.

ILL.......2002-02-15

This CD is pretty tight, infact one of the tightest i have ever heard period. I got into The Deckwrecka and DJ Spooky like 2 years ago and this is my favorite cd yet. A lot of breakbeats and a nice drum'n'bass fill. The best songs in my opinion are 3:7:8 by Emergency Broadcast Network, Show Stoppa by DJ Ziggy, and Sycosis by The Deckwrecka. Mad beats and some skilled turning by paul. Nice job on this paul. Peace guys. You like hip hop or techno with a jazz-twist, then you will like it.

Flow..........2002-01-16

this is da bomb! I don't care what anybody says... when you get stuff like japanese shikahachi flutes mixed with Moby, little snippets of Redman saying "let's get ILL!" mixed with Kool Keith, or some of the weird ambient sounds at the end of the record, its just open... think Solid Steel or Krush's Code 4109, but more abstract. I've been checking Dj Spooky's stuff for a while, and Necropolis was weirder than this stuff... "Under the Infleunce" is more dance oriented... Spooky always breaks rules [....] I say good! I'm soooo sick of dj's that play the same stuff all the same way every time... the turntablism in this is subtle - weird effects underneath Saul Williams voice, Future Sound of London turned into dub, Deckwrekka (a cool underground turntablist out of London) cut into Sussan Deyhim - who sings in some weird middle eastern language... this is like what Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaata were doing back in the day... its raw, but smooth. Choice cuts: Sonic Youth's "Tremens" (weird instrumental chilled out rock), Dj Spooky's remix of Anti-Pop consortium, Paradox's mix of middle eastern sounds with drum n' bass... another subliminal classic

mix?.......2002-01-09

Spooky starts out this album strong with tracks that while varied, beg to be amplified. It's a great collection of tracks, but my main difficulty with this album is that's all it is: a collection of tracks. The term "mixed" can only be applied loosely to this album at best, as the songs rarely segue from one to the next and many transitions are bluntly abrupt. There isn't really any turntablism on this album either. This being said, I can't figure out what Spooky did other than pick the tracks, and even that falls apart towards the end of the album. Hover dub is 3 minutes of a vacuum sounds. Putting sonic youth in this mix is like trying to put the round peg in the square hole. I expected better out of Spooky.

don't know much about the genre..........2001-10-31

but this album caught my ear at a party a few weeks back. i picked it up the next day and have been listening to it ever since. (i don't own any of his other stuff, and i'm generally leery of comp mixes because you don't always know what you're getting.) i don't know what his other stuff is like, but this is a pretty catchy mix. i love it because it wanders all over the place, from ambient to indie rap. the liner notes talk about life and metamorphises and it's easy to see how dj spooky constructed that philosophy in this mix.

the best part for me is the transition from "anger" into "music is...". "anger" is the third of three trance-ish tracks that are really kind of boring. and out of that emerges phoenix orion's "music is...". it's catchy as hell, one of the best parts, and it kicks off 5 or 6 really danceable hip-hop and house tracks. and yeah, there are some tracks that are annoying/boring, but the vast majority are listenable at the very least.

and it's almost 75 minutes, so you're definitely getting your [price] worth.

Album Review: