DJ FOOD, with FINK, DYNAMIC SYNCOPATION, FELIX and GANI at Reverb (619 Queen West), Saturday (January 27). $12-$15. 416-504-0744. Rating: NNNNN
it’s easy to confuse the chilled- out turntable cut-ups on DJ Food’s recent Kaleidoscope disc with the work of a live band.There are precious few audible seams in the London duo’s work. Kaleidoscope and the forthcoming Quadraplex EP make the most of the overused idea of playing the sampler as an instrument, except here the emphasis isn’t so much on what records they sample as on how the samples are arranged.
For an album made entirely out of snippets of other records, Kaleidoscope sounds incredibly live. Drum, bass, guitar, string and organ samples flow together like one big funky band.
It’s seamless, but it’s not clinical, which is important. Kaleidoscope, and to some degree the suite of water and glass samples on Quadraplex, also manages to capture the looseness that surrounds a live band in the studio. No wonder people keep asking the Food guys what their live show is like.
“There’s a school of thought that says “shitty is pretty,'” DJ Food’s Strictly Kev laughs from London. “When I heard that, I thought, “Right, that’s it.’
“We’re trying to get a sound that’s not so tight that only a machine could make it. There’s a looseness to what we’re doing now that’s closer to live music than computer music. You have to throw away a few of the rules from the program manual.
“Obviously, this music is made on computers, but we’d like the machine to be more like a drawing board than an instrument. You don’t need to see the drawing board, and the finished product doesn’t necessarily have to be all sparkling and clean.”
It’s a subtle technique other producers – see sidebar – have also begun to refine. And while sampling has always been about taking something old to make something new, and hiding your tracks as you go, the idea of using your sampler to sound as much like a real band as possible is pushing the technology to the limit.
“I think people are just becoming adept at using their computers and samplers in a more intuitive way,” Kev agrees. “The jazz thing that’s come out in the last few years in sample-based music is really a reflection of people looking to try something new and also having the technological ability to make the music they really want to make.
“I still believe, though, that it comes down to 50 per cent technique and 50 per cent selection. You can be the most technically adept person in the world, but if the material you’re using is lame, you’re never going to get there.
“It’s a bit like turntablism. Someone like Q-Bert is all technique and zero content. He scratches amazingly, but he’s never going to pull out a funk set and rock the party.”
Party-rocking, or a lack of it, is the only real problem with the sophisticated headphone music that DJ Food are currently creating. Making your samples sound like a deep jazz record from 1973 might be great for the home stereo, but it removes the beat from the equation.
Quadraplex brings a bit of a rattle back to the DJ Food name, but it’s hardly dance-floor-friendly. No wonder the hardcore DJ of the group sounds a bit uncomfortable.
“The dance floor was never a consideration in making either the album or the EP,” Kev insists. “That’s fine, but the problem comes when as a DJ you have to try to play your own record in a club.
“The next record will be a change. I’m quite ready to inject some beats back into the mix.”
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Not being able to play instruments hasn’t stopped a handful of producers from recreating the sounds of their favourite deep jazz and funk records with some intrepid work on the sampler. These records make you want to ask, is it live or is it sampled?
Cinematic OrchestraMotion (Ninja Tune) Remixes (Ninja Tune)Tribes Of Da Underground Vol 5(Infracom)United Future Organization(Talkin’ Loud)Les GammasExercices De Styles (Compost)Gotan ProjectTriptico (Ya Basta!)
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Not being able to play instruments hasn’t stopped a handful of producers from recreating the sounds of their favourite deep jazz and funk records with some intrepid work on the sampler. These records make you want to ask, is it live or is it sampled?
