dj spooky

Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid is one year older than me, studied French literature and is a turntablist, producer, philosopher and author.

Unsurprisingly, I went through a process to get to DJ Spooky. Like Alice chasing the white rabbit down a labyrinth of tunnels, my attempt at explaining, amplifying, capturing the essence of an idea I have can sometimes be circuitous.

I think my problem is that I catch the scent of an idea and it excites me and I have to follow it, even if I'm not really sure what it is that I want from it. The alternative is holding back until I know what to ask for and know that the idea is one I can take hold of. But I prefer taking you with me on the ride.

I had just been lamenting to my brother that I wanted a better sound for my music, a sound that vibrated somewhere in my chest and made my smile because of its richness and complexity, and yet also its familiarity. I'm not sure I'm explaining this right. But when you hear well produced sound through good speakers, or when you hear the otherworldly extra buzz that comes from a group of instruments or voices in tune, there's a familiarity you can't quite put your finger on because it strikes some sort of resonant chord inside. A warm feeling of things being right.

This is what I want. And yet I accept the mediocrity of mp3s from my phone playing through a dock. It's shameful. When Tony, the guy who runs Klapp Audio Visual in Windsor showed me what music could really sound like and reminded me about frequency and vibration, of course I wanted to update my woeful situation.

On Saturday night I watched a DJ deftly play records in a bar in the city. He was in control of his turntables and the sound and the feel. He knew his songs inside out. What was coming next, when to change. And (I say this naively) what to do with all the buttons and slides.

DJs have a lot of power. Faithless told us that God is a DJ and certainly the nineties and the popularity of raves and the repetitive hooks and trance-like sounds of acid house propelled DJs into some sort of deified celebrity status.

Not only is the DJ in charge of the overall mood of the bar, club, event, choosing just the right next track from boxes of vinyl, the contents of which they know by heart, they are also in charge of the drop, the break and the meta-cognitive inclusion of a well thought out sample.

Clearly, I shouldn't say much more because this is way beyond the realms of any kind of expertise I possess. And of course I want to know more.

So I did some reading. And I discovered DJ Spooky.

DJ Spooky seeks to make sense of the modern world through sound. DJ Spooky says that he "deals with the notion of the encoded gesture or the encrypted psychology of how music affects the whole framework of what the essence of 'humaness' is...To me at this point in the 21st century, the notion of the encoded sound is far more of a dynamic thing, especially when you have these kinds of infodispersion systems running, so I'm fascinated with the unconscious at this point."

I'm thinking DJ Spooky is wanting to go a whole lot deeper than I by seeking answers in Antarctica, and in the creation of art from the flow of patterns in sound and culture.

I just want to enjoy good sound and, in the absence of being able to provide that for myself, I want to celebrate those who collect and catalogue good music and whose fingers know exactly where to find that on their shelves, are happy to share that with others and present it in a way that makes me nod my head with pleasure and the feeling that I've discovered an old and very lovely friend.

Paris: DJ Cut Killer Nique la police