Newspaper Page Text
DO IT.
Recent stj&ec have suggested
Procrastination has a direct
re ‘jfionch p .vitr African Sleeping
Sickness, the Welsh Banana Flu
torvn ' lycanthropy
commonly referred to fcs ‘ WMS
o r Were Monkey Syndrome
film::athens
Sprockets200/
Music Video Competition
Call For Entries
April 15 ,1 v s
April 30 .
June 20 :
Juno
June 23 % .
Sprockets entry forms A rror-~- rife at spro ‘Kilts ftlmatHi o , not
• * . -..SC V
Announcing Sprockets 0tend Coffee from J>tt*ry Joe S!
FLAGPOLE
f ,j r>... vfy F> .VlvC,<S'f>
C'f>
F l H -K!f<NY
lactation*-Senwce** A.tdr.- . »
PP1 P-'O rt *5! T
irvto tiie §pa
Share a room with vour trienJ or
special someone and save $10 off
am of our Couplers Massages.
Choice ot Swedish, Therapeutic or Hot Stone
~7mmdm W M fntt
2<>.> k. mu *T- • T06.12o.M700
ww%%. foundryparklnti.com
fyaU Tested Mother AWroveJ
the year ?007, turntables seem a little... well, quaint,
to say the least. Particularly when two are placed side
by side as a vehicle for actually creating music. The
whole turntablism scene saw its star flare brightest and, unfortu
nately, briefest during the late '90s, when being into the Invisibl
Skratch Piklz and scratch battles was the cool du jour. As with
nearly every genre (even ska), turntablism's still around and thriv
ing in its nook, although these days most of its practitioners are
keeping it "old-school." Too bad but understandable due to the
thoroughly analog nature of the turntable and the ancient dust-
covered whimsy of the vinyl record. Anything now that doesn't
involve RAM might as well be ragtime jazz, it seems.
But then there are the few, the proud, those who maintain
vitality within their art, no matter what trends are en vogue.
Canada's Kid Koala is a prime example. The former child prodigy
first broke into the headphone and head-bobbing scene in 1997,
making his debut as a kid of barely 21 years on the revered Ninja
Tune label. His career has flourished since then, with consistency
and subtle reinvention marking his progress. His latest, the aptly
and awesomely titled Your Mow's Favonte DJ, is just different
enough from his past work to rule while staying the same enough
to satisfy that increasingly hard to scratch turntable itch. And
most importantly, it sounds like vintage vinyl wine while clearly
avoiding the water-treading "old-school" fallback. Eric San (as the
deejay's favorite mom calls him) kindly took a half-hour slice of a
Montreal day to share some ruminations on the new record as well
as nostalgia for those damned "good old days."
The aptness of the album's title is clear, in that San's trade
mark sense of humor and penchant for intriguing narrative frame
works in his music make for some potentially generation-bridging
tunes. My mom listens to gospel and country with only Cher to
represent the rest of music's spectrum, but I can imagine even her
tolerating Your Mom's Favorite DJ. maybe even tapping her foot to
the beat if she thought I couldn't see it. You'll find very little in
the way of tired lightning scratching, which has always been one
of the Kid's major selling points. San is not interested in wowing
you with his mad skillz. He wants to engage you, and the fact
that he's utilizing others' music in order to weave a quilt of his
own doesn't change the fact that music should be... musical, with
actual substance.
San's always been something of an outsider, and starting out
at such a young age in far-off Vancouver, British Columbia, is
certainly telling. In a big way, it was a blessing, because I didn't
have a lot of guys standing over me telling me I was scratching
incorrectly," he says. "I was never connected with anything like a
scene. There was a time when the Internet didn't exist, and I was
just on my own, a 12-year-old kid fascinated with figuring out
all these sounds." A boy's paper route had finally paid off with a
cheap set of turntables, and the prodigy never looked back.
Upon waxing wistful over that wireless-less bygone era, San re
flects upon that late-'90s boom in the art of the deejay. "I started
in '88, and outside of a bit part in the hip-hop scene, there was
never any real pretense then of it being a profession or even semi-
profession." he says. “So 10 years later, it was strange. It was coot
while it lasted, and now all those deejays might not be on maga
zine covers, but there’s still some interesting stuff being done."
CO turntables are becoming more and more common; as with
any turntablist, and rightfully so, the inevitable question of "the
purity of vinyl" comes into play. Koala puts it brilliantly when he
describes the record as an instrument: "The crackle and the skip,
that's the sound and character of a vinyl record. It's tike a finger
sliding down the fretboard of a guitar or a singer inhaling between
lines. It's not the same without that raw human element. When
you hear the finger tapping during a spinback, that's just it."
San explains the narrative arc of his records as something he
never strove for, but rather a product of being trained classically
then learning ?o compose harmonically with records. "That's not
something I was thinking about as a 12-year-old. It was more like
What crazy tricks can I dor" he says. "But it's just me trying to
figure out how to use vinyl, make all these bits and pieces of re
cords form some sort of story."
Koala's records remain vibrant today mainly due to that narra
tive aspect, the sense of listening to an honest-to-God album that
is best taken as a whole. 2003's Nufoma Must Fall took it a step
further by including a graphic novel to illustrate the record. That's
why Your Mom's Favonte DJ is divided into two lengthy suites or
acts, further focusing the scope of the music into one hearty meal
rather than mere pieces of ear candy. There's a required investment
in order to reap this great album's rewards, and that two 15-min
ute segments can in our world actually be referred to as "invest
ments" of time is sad indeed. Koala will make your most valuable
asset well spent. It's certainly leagues beyond staring at a sitcom.
It's bold for San to, within a medium too often obsessed with
technical proficiency, release music that says so much using mis
matched jigsaw puzzle pieces. The turntable has a real importance
in music stilt and it goes well past the novelty factor, the aw-
shucks sweetness of past analog years. San is entirely correct in
stating the unique irony and beauty of the turntable, a machine
that can produce such sheer fun as well as thought. If that sev
enth drooled-over Harry Potter book had been written using only
taped-together scraps of college essays, love letters and shopping
lists penned by hundreds of hands, the result might be the literary
equivalent of Kid Koala, and what he has achieved once again with
Your Mom's Favorite DJ.
Michael Wehunt
WHO: Kid Koala, Di Ganesh, DJ Killacut
WHERE: Tasty World
WHEN: Saturday, March 31
HOW MUCH: $10
V J
28 FLAGPOLE.COM • MARCH 28,2007
NEWS & FEATURES I ARTS & EVENTS I MOVIES I MUSIC I COMICS & ADVICE I CLASSIFIEDS
MCHMEMtTT