Artist: DJ Spooky
Date Released: June 22, 2004
Label: Thirsty Ear
Produced By: DJ Spooky
Tracklisting: Disc 1
- Stellar (remix)
- CD: Dir>Gesture> (remix)
- Travelogue 1: NYC to Hawaii
- Lingua Ex Machina (remix)
- Nommos Ascending (remix)
- Maldoror's Gambit (remix)
- Not in Our Name feat. Saul Williams
- Bass Pressure
- Anansi's Gambit (remix)
- Ibid/Asphalt -- Otikon (remix)
- Shining Through
Review:
Following the current trend of re-constructing old jazz songs with hip-hop undertones (which is my all-time favorite trend so far), the always eclectic DJ Spooky puts his name on the 13th entry in the Blue Note Catalog. On this disc, he tears apart the entire Blue Note Series and mashes them back together into 11 surreal and cerebral songs teasing the line between jazz and hip-hop. The album starts off slow, but picks up in the later half with an excellent re-working of El-P and Matthew Shipp’s Sunrise Over Brklyn (also found on El-P’s High Water). Spooky takes on an ecclectic array of artists from Charlie Parker to Lee "Scratch" Perry to Mike Ladd to Meat Beat Manifesto. Disc 1 is the remixes in singular form, disc 2 is a continuous mix. Michael Ardaiolo