Techno-Prosthetic Romantic FuturismIdentity is your Mother's Record CollectionAsk any DJ. Where does music come from? From records, stupid. Your parent's records. [1] All that sound stockpiled in your closet or home entertainment center. You wanna make some music? Sample some beats. Drop and scratch. Get two turntables and a fader, man. What you make when you make that music--that's yours, that's your thing, that's who you are. Identity is your mother's record collection. If you want a new one, you gotta get sampling. [2] Olauda Equiano did. You can too. [3] Notes1. See David Pray's wonderful documentary Scratch (2001). 2. The great progenitor of this effect is, of course, Grandmaster Flash. See or rather hear TheAdventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel (Sugar Hill, 1981). 3. See Paul Youngquist, "The Afro-Futurism of DJ Vassa," European Romantic Review 16 (2005): 181-92. Navigation |