DJ Spooky – Riddim Come Forward (Trojan/Fuse)

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DJ Spooky has always been the intellectual turntablist . He has not only produced beats driven sets like Riddim Warfare and Modern Mantra but also remixes of Marcel Duchamp’s music composition sculptures and visual artworks. With DJ Spooky, you not only get the beats but you are often given a treatise describing the background to that particular project. You know that a lot of passionate thought has gone into everything he creates. Riddim Come Forward is no exception. Ostensibly a DJ mix created from digging the vaults at Trojan Records, Riddim Come Forward is a history lesson, an activist statement, as well as just a great listen. There is an extensive essay accompanying the disc chronicling not only the history of music in Jamaica and Trojan records relation to it but also Spooky’s criteria for the selection of many of the tracks.

DJ Spooky is intent on taking you on a journey, a journey that makes this music that mostly comes out of the 1960s and 1970s relevant to anyone listening to it in the 21st century. As he says in the accompanying notes: “Think of the album as a hypertext – click on one link and it takes you to 10 others.” Some tracks are chosen for how they were appropriated and remixed by other more contemporary musicians/DJs/performers such as Big Youth” ‘Wolf In Sheep’ Clothing’, cut up by the Beastie Boys, showing the huge influence that Jamaican music still exerts today.

Enough of the background, what about the music?

Starting with the opening riff from Mad Professor’s ‘Fast Forward Into Dub’ (obviously a favourite of Spooky’s as he used it on his ant-war compilation for Adbusters magazine), the first disc, the DJ set, races through 47 tracks, from the instantly recognisable and poppy ‘My Girl Lollipop’ by Millie to the classic dub of Augustus Pablo’s ‘King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown’ via covers of R’n’B greats like ‘Green Onions’ by Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, ‘War’ by A Darker Shade of Black and even a brilliant version of the Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ by the cryptically named Anonymously Yours. It would be easy to pick out favourites but I like how it works as a whole, throwing together beats from all eras and genres in the Trojan catalogue. It has to be stressed that the first disc is mixed as a DJ set and works brilliantly as such so if you’re coming to it from that angle you won’ be disappointed.

The second disc compliments the first with a fine selection of 27 tracks (not mixed) from the likes of well known ‘stars’ like Mutabaruka, Horace Andy, Lee Perry, Prince Far I and King Tubby as well as not so well known artists like Owen Gray, the Three Tops and Judge Winchester. I know it’s a cliché but there really is something here for everyone, from the seasoned reggae listener to the newcomer who wants an ‘in’ to this vibrant musical culture.

Michael Vandelaar

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2 Comments

  1. Hey Michael,

    I like the review, will have to check it out. Paul Miller is an interesting guy. His writing is worth pursuing for its own sake I think. I found ‘Rhythm Science’ a little frustrating at times, but worth it. His short piece ‘Algorithms: Erasures and the Art of Memory’ in the collection “Audio Culture’ is a much more concise, less biography laden articulation of some of his ideas – if anybody’ interest has been perked by this review. Sorry, I don’t know how to format italics in this.

    http://www.rhythmscience.com/

    http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Culture-Readings-Modern-Music/dp/0826416152

  2. I like this post! You know not every person could feel music like hypertext. Usually our aural perception is too superficial! But when DJ gives possibility to revalue our approach to sound, it’s looks like a miracle!