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dj spooky: spatial engineer of the invisible city by Wes Moore (alephegeis@disinfo.net) - May 31, 2001 |
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| Every culture needs a mythmaker, a storyteller from the other side who can capture the timeless essence of his generation and transmit it to future societies. In our era of hyper-capitalism, it becomes increasingly difficult to create icons of the present, as such a task would require a mercurial mind that can make sense of accelerated memetic crossovers. Enter Paul D. Miller, an urban Renaissance man with two turntables and a limitless knowledge of cultural history. Miller (who performs under the moniker DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid) is an accomplished musician, painter, sculptor, and philosopher. As a DJ, his chaotic and abstract style of spinning has given rise to "illbient", a new musical genre combining hip-hop, ambient, drum 'n bass, musique concrete, and jazz. Illbient is the urban reaction to ambient. Whereas classical ambient comes across as a tranquil convalescent home, illbient immerses the listener in the density and motion of city life: woven into the tracks are soaring subway trains, radio static, steam . . . Most of us learn to ignore the noise and chaos that saturates us daily, repressing it into the unconscious. But illbient re-creates this shadow world in dreamlike sound collages, which suffuse the listener with the dizzying hyper-culture of the urban milieu. In addition to starting a new movement in music, Miller has branched off into other realms with notable success. He's written for publications such as The Village Voice, The Source, and Raygun, and was the original editor for Artbyte: The Magazine of Digital Culture. Currently he is working on two books: Flow My Blood the DJ Said, which explores the connections between semiotics and urban DJ culture, and And Now a Message From Our Sponsors, a sci-fi novel about a DJ who gets caught in a war of genetics and technology. He also manages a fund at ®™ark that organizes anti-globalist culture jamming projects. As an artist his work is exhibited at some of the most progressive galleries in the world, including The Andy Warhol Museum. He has become a fixture in the contemporary art scene, performing at countless art festivals, like the Venice Bienniale, and earning respect as an art critic. Miller stands at the cross-currents of a wide range of musical and literary influences. He cites people like Deleuze and Guatarri, John Cage, Jacques Derrida, Sun Ra, and Grandmaster Flash as inspirations. He sometimes says he thinks he's living out a Philip K. Dick novel, and in fact his upcoming book Flow My Blood the DJ Said alludes to PKD's Flow My Tears the Policeman Said. Never one to isolate himself from the music community, Miller has collaborated with the likes of Iannis Xenakis, Yoko Ono, Kool Keith, and Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth. He's done remixes for artists as diverse as Metallica, Nick Cave, and Sublime. As the American pioneer of trip-hop, he engaged in a notorious feud with rival Tricky. All of this, and he's only been recording for five years. Assimilating multiple influences is, of course, nothing alien to Miller: it's the cornerstone of his philosophy. As a DJ and adept of the sampling machine, he sees music as an open system, circulating diverse cultural forms into a creative totality that stands on its own. Within any given song, you may hear a quote from Marshall McLuhan, or a non-linear, schizoid beat a la Autechre. Miller says, "assembly is the invisible language of our time, and DJ'ing is the forefront artform of the 20th century." By modulating the cultural infrastructure in which we are imbedded (which includes music), he acts as an architect of new visionary worlds. He creates an imaginal space within the listener that is both a unique structure in and of itself, and an empty void in which the listener can explore his own creative spirit. This is why he calls himself the "Spatial Engineer of the Invisible City." Miller is appropriately considered a shaman in the emerging cyber-tribe of the imploding digital age. DJ culture signifies a return to the tribal mentality, as it bursts from the isolationist shell of Western Civilization to establish a complex, ego-eliminating mixing of sounds and ideas. Miller sees this artistic interdependence of different cultures as crucial to the fulfillment of McLuhan's vision of a Global Village. As a multi-talented visionary who speaks for urban youth culture, DJ Spooky is a rarity, to say the least. His music may be the soundtrack for the future of the urban sprawl: a cyberpunk's vision that integrates the emblems of consumer culture. But in keeping with his trickster persona, Miller's songs are far from being a static outline of a futuristic vision. They're more like Fourrier transforms of abstract dance into fractal sound warps, simultaneously melding and fragmenting, disappearing and punching you in the face. |
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DJ Spooky Manifold Tracks Absolut DJ DJ Spooky @ Salon Audio: "Metro Mix" The European Graduate School DJ Spooky @ FusionAnomaly DJ Spooky - That Subliminal Kid DJ Spooky Gallery @ MTV.com The Frontier Fund @ ®™ark DJ Spooky Interview - Perfect Sound Forever DJ Spooky: National Public Radio Profile DJ Spooky: It's All Jazz Digital Ghost DJ SEvolve E-Zine: DJ Spooky Interview Watch That Man: The Many Phases of Paul D. Miller Expect a Spirited Show From Spooky AfroFuturism Biography @ E-Music DJ Spooky @ ArtistDirect DJ Spooky's Hangout @ Yahoo! Clubs Afrofuturism Mailing List @ Yahoo! |
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