The art of turntablism has come a long way, from the baby scratch days of Grandmaster DST/Flash to the introduction of beat juggling by Steve Dee at the 1990 DMC’s, innovation and progression has been core with turntablism. However, as the art form progresses and the level of jaw dropping gawping amazement increases, something seems to have been seriously lost in this journey of continual improvement…the music (cue string intro to some bio-pic on the History channel).
Now don’t get me wrong, taking a song and totally rewriting it live by juggling the shit out of it is something rather special. This really reinforces that the turntable is being played as an instrument, and not just a variable speed listening device. Nevertheless, the fact that a musical instrument can technically be played to a level that is something out of this world doesn’t negate the fact that the musicality aspect always needs to remain. Sounds simple, but an easy point that can be lost due to one of the simple facts that musical ability isn’t something you can necessarily learn, but you just have. (Cut to Hallmark channel commercial break of a ‘Polaris World’ holiday villa in the south of Spain).
Watching the UK DMC Final’s of 2009 at the Islington Academy (9 July 2009), this brought home the point that times have really changed. The quality of candidate was somewhat rather low, from the perspective of a somewhat wannabe party DJ (who dabbles in scratch). This could have been as a result of the way vinyl has been put back since the rise of the CD-J, and the introduction of other technologies (such as Ableton DJ Software, Korg Koas pad’s) into a DJs set up. This could result in just the reliance of two tables and a mixer at the DMC setting may cap a potential of a more creative DJ who needs to use various technologies. Though, some could counter that and say that Serato may have bridged the gap of the hands on turntablist feel and progressive technology. Maybe we can blame it on the credit crunch whilst we’re at it, but with all this hypothesising aside it was a little disappointing to see that level of calibre fighting out to play at the world finals.
With a big trend of ‘repping da UK sound’ there was a plethora of dropping dubstep and drum bass into a lot of peoples sets. The whole hip hop thing was brushed aside and despite that not being a real problem, it almost seemed like a fashion thing was stepping in over just mashed up good solid tunes. As the night goes on DJ Rasp comes on and performs what I thought was the winning set. Cutting up a mixture of good hip hop tracks, complex but rhythmically tight musical sound juggles and heavy scratching mashed amongst a few northern classics (Stone Roses, Oasis) it sounded like this is what I wanted to see at the DMC’s. He also showed a lot of enthusiasm and confidence, which really helped to bring out his set.
Unfortunately when the judging came (after a bout of other competitors which were of mixed quality), he placed fourth. DJ Jeppa won, who I personally thought had a loose set where he also played more dubstep than was really necessary. This just made me seriously think about where turntablism has gone.
The judges obviously look at it from a different perspective from what your average punter looks at, and Jeppa probably played a really technical set, or at least had the potential to take it to the finals. Looking at it from my perspective and from maybe a set in my ways wannabe basic scratch DJ, it sounded like a bag of spanners. The art form itself has evolved and it seems that the musicality aspect of turntablism, even the rhythm aspect has been left behind with some insane techniques that I cannot begin to understand that probably take months to learn let alone master.
The thing with such a highly skilled and ever evolving and highly competitive scene, I guess things will always move to a level which may sound like inaudible noise, but could be outstanding from a technical point of view. It’s a scene which always needs to better itself and cannot get stuck in its ways. I guess for a bit of a simpler Jazzy Jeff kind of guy as myself, it’s something that may not suit me, but I do believe in any form of musical progression so I do have to get behind it. Simply put, we have to move with the times, but there will always be party DJs knocking about, as there will also be turntable innovators out there trying to bend the possibilities of what you can do with two turntables and a mixer.
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