AI-Musement Park and MONDO Vanilli’s Blockchain Busting Musical Experience “R.U. Cyber.. R.U. Against NFTs?”
Immediate release from: 03/03/2023
“AI-Musement Park comprises a cornucopia of performances / talks / happenings / documentary & discussion about AI, Intelligences, technocapitalism’s more than pressing-ongoing urgencies.” -Eleanor Dare, Cambridge University & AI-Musement Park
R.U. Cyber.. R.U. Against NFTs? An original AI-Musement Park, PlayLa.bZ & MONDO 2000 History Project human and machine learning co-creation, taking the perspective of an AI that is training itself on the R.U. Sirius & MONDO Vanilli ‘I’m Against NFT’s’ song lyrics, exploring a surreal, mind melting and multi-dimensional 360 world of paradoxes and conflicting rules.
“Mondo Vanilli was originally intended to be a virtual reality band exploding all assumptions about property and propriety in the 1990s. Today fabrication becomes de rigueur as the connection to the real is intentionally confused by the banal political tricksters of power and profitability… while storms pound our all-too-human bodies and communities. I am thrilled to finally see MONDO Vanilli in it’s appropriate context. Immersive. Come play in the simulacra one more time” -R.U. Sirius, MONDO 2000
R.U. Cyber.. R.U. Against NFTs? Is a satirical, irreverent block-chain busting commentary on the propaganda relations fueled ‘Web 3’ hype around non-fungible tokens and the broader issues that underpin our algorithmically massaged hyper-connected infinite scrolls and trolls age. Challenging our assumptions about the nature of technology, creativity, and value, reminding us that the digital world is shaped by powerful forces that determine what is valued and what is not, and a click is not always for free.
Join Us! On Spring Solstice 2023 For “R.U. Cyber? :// Mondo 2000 History Project Salon” at MozFest Virtual Plaza & Mozilla Hubs: AI-Musement Park 20th March / 8.30pm EU / GMT
About R.U.Sirius & Mondo 2000 #Mondo2000 #RUSirius
R.U. Sirius is an American writer, editor, and media pioneer. Known for being one of key psychedelic & cyberpunk movement figures. Best known as Mondo 2000 editor-in-chief and at forefront of 1990s underground cyberculture movement.
About Mozilla Festival #TrustworthyAI #AIMusementPark
Since 2010, MozFest has fueled the movement to ensure the internet benefits humanity, rather than harms it. This year, your part in the story is critical to our community’s mission: a better, healthier internet and more Trustworthy AI.
About PlayLa.bZ CIC #PlayLabZ #SpatialCadetZ
Co-founded by PsychFi, FreekMinds & Squire Studios we’re a next generation multipotentiality multi-award-winning, multi-dimensional motion arts experience design laboratory, developing DIY changemaking createch immersive experiences & software applications for social good storycraft. Supporters & Friends: Mozilla Festival, Jisc: Digifest, Beyond Games, Tate Modern, Furtherfield, Boomtown Festival, Sci-Fi-London, Ravensbourne University London, UAL, East London Dance, NESTA, Modern Panic, ArtFutura, Kimatica, National Gallery X, Kings College London, Looking Glass Factory, SubPac, Ecologi, The JUMP, BOM Labs, Mondo 2000
PR Contact: James E. Marks, Tel: 07921 523438 @: jem@playla.bz Twitter: @GoGenieMo
Fake Album Cover Infinite Gesture Unrecorded Lyrics by R.U. Sirius by Jay Cornell visit Undated Records for more great visuals
Avant God (2016)
I want an avant god Loving perversity Unlimited diversity
Optimized for your VR cabal Totally portable Sometimes snortable
Gendered or not
Maybe subject to rot
Why not?
The avant god is as real
As the knees on which they kneel
Try to keep it on an even keel
The kind of god you have to steal
The avant god is false
The kind of god you must report
The kind of god that misses court
The kind of god you know you want
I want an avant god
Loving perversity
Unlimited diversity
The Tedium Is The Message (2018)
You know it hit me in the gut
Rampaging glut of culture
Nobody needs to consume anymore
Another song — I’m just another bore
Every day with nothin’ to sing
Luxury communism the next big thing
Yeah it’s the thing that’s hot
And this new song… I guess it’s not
The tedium is the message
Go tell it on the stage
Tear down the proscenium walls
Another crack at days of rage
Old yippie act your age
Or turn in your back pages
We’ll throw them in the fire
And we’ll wear grown up attire
You know it hit me in the gut
Rampaging glut of culture
Nobody needs to consume any more
Another song I’m just another bore
Every day nothin’ to sing
Luxury communisms the next big thing
Yeah it’s the thing that’s hot
And this new song… I guess it’s not
(psychedelic breakdown musical interlude)
The tedium is the message
Culture ain’t your friend
Be all psilocybin imbibin’
Strange attractor til the end
That list of albums you never send
That last attempt to make a trend
It’s all just gonna end
Culture ain’t your friend
The tedium is the message
Go tell it on the stage
Tear down the proscenium walls
Another crack at days of rage
Old yippie act your age
Or turn in your back pages
We’ll throw them in the fire
And we’ll wear grown up attire
Flabbergasted
Well I used to be disgusted And then I tried to be amused But now I’m just plain flabbergasted At the depth of the abuse And I’m not singing ‘bout a bad date And I’m not singing ‘bout ya 2 minutes hate I’m looking at the new level of crazy With their hands wrapped around our fate
Does anybody remember the quantified life? (R. Plant voice) Does anybody remember laughter? Does anybody remember the balcony speeches? Does anyone remember bloodletting and leeches? Does anyone remember the days before then? Lugubrious meetings with remake-able men & Little Brother is watching one and other So mark your turf — Then run for cover
Our Cruel Father Who Art Beheaded (2020)
Our cruel father who art beheaded
Shallow be thy almost long tail
Thy ghosts are feted no statues erected
& all the tasty treatises are pungent stale
You took a wish upon a star
Even your golf game was subpar
And there’s no remorse just one less source
Of crumblin’’ dice & slammed shut doors
Our cruel father
Lost his head
Who will bake
All the children bread
Who will run
The important biznesses
Who will count
All the lesser sicknesses
Our cruel father who art beheaded
Swallowed much too much for one man
Took his sadness to the blood bank
Now there’s nothing much left to brand
With all the sins the eater consumes
All the letting a million lilacs bloom
All the fantasies dreamed by the TV
All the tricks that say can you see
Our cruel father
Lost his head
Who will bake
All the children bread
Who will run
The important biznesses
Who will count
All the lesser sicknesses
Two Truthers and a Birther Walked Into A Bar (2016)
Two truthers and a birther walked into a bar
The truthers had some ritalin — the birther had a car
They made a pact right then and there
To tell the folks who didn’t care
About the bad things being done
And get some guns and have some fun
Scrambled codes make scrambled minds
Strategic lies make paranoids
Anemic guys make angry blogs
Unhappy girls want perfect bods
The truthers split to berkeley & hung out in a tree
The birther went to Nashville — The Grand Opry
They planned to meet halfway between
And make the sheeple share their dream
By dropping acid in the tea
Then pirating every Tee Vee
Scrambled codes make scrambled minds
Strategic lies make paranoids
Anemic guys make angry blogs
Unhappy girls want perfect bods
The birther trained the truthers in marksmanship and fight
The truthers showed the birther how to hack into a bank
But things went south when Truther One
Shared all their plans with Neil Young
Who wrote a song then turned them in
While slipping each a Mickey Finn
Scrambled codes make scrambled minds
Strategic lies make paranoids
Anemic guys make angry blogs
Unhappy girls want perfect bods
The truthers woke up sadly in a stuporous haze
They swore to all in court it had just been a phase
The birther returned to the south
Big hero by word of mouth
Did a day maybe two in jail
Ex-Governor Perry paid his bail
Scrambled codes make scrambled minds
Strategic lies make paranoids
Anemic guys make angry blogs
Unhappy girls want perfect bods
We Are Duchampians of the World (Infinite Gesture) (2019)
Libido mosquito
Found in a purse
Dead man’s soup can
Things could be worse
Infinite gesture
Obstinate curse
Reframe the same refrain
Give it another name
We are Duchampians my fiendish little friends
And we neverminded the Karens or the Kens
We are Duchampians
We are Duchampians
Open for cruising
And we are Duchampians of the world
Regrettably circumspect
More sly than high
Ivy league and twee
Means shit to me
Infinite gesture
Land of the fee
Home of the craven
Reframe the same refrain
We are Duchampians my fiendish little friends
And we neverminded the Karens or the Kens
We are Duchampians
We are Duchampians
Open for cruising
And we are Duchampians of the world
The Stepfather Of His Country
He was the stepfather of his country
But he raised the kids as his own
He gave them ears of corn — oodles of porn
But when they bought bad cocaine they earned his scorn
& when they all got older
He turned them into soldiers
Strapping tote bags to their shoulders
filled with weapons of mirth
It was all rather cheery
He read them Dr. Leary
Until those silly numbskulls
Decided to give birth
That was just the final straw
This was just what killed their pa
“Birth & death stay from my door
What do you think the porn was for?
To make you each one onanistic
Now I’ll get a bit fascistic”
One by one he ate his grandkids
Chowed them down like gutted pigs
Except one who was schizophrenic
& could produce some anaesthetic
Together they drifted into a coma
Singing gleeful songs of soma
& thus a world was born & died
All because of a stepdads pride
It takes a village to make things fair
Fuckin’ stepdad didn’t care
No Rest For The Precariat (2019)
Dumb easy feckless proles
Matrons danced the Watusi
Hoodlum malcontents did the stroll
Early tech geeks couldn’t find sushi
Assholes like me were relentlessly droll
Dads at home acted like il Duce
Middle class kids weren’t on the dole
Everyone bowled and went to the movies
But now there’s no rest
Now there’s no rest
Now there’s no rest
For the Precariat
But now there’s no rest
Now there’s no rest
Now there’s no rest
For the Precariat
Punters fighting punters
Owners sailing yachts
We can jump into the fire
But we cant afford new Reeboks
Nothing much is left to say
It’s cyberwar from day to day
Street distress from night to night
Play instruments of madcap blight
And now there’s no rest
Now there’s no rest
Now there’s no rest
For the Precariat
But now there’s no rest
Now there’s no rest
Now there’s no rest
For the Precariat
MONDO is Italian for World (2019)
When I opened up her fridge
Saw tablespoons of monkey jizz
Preserved within a box of lemons
Next to the tarantula venom
That is when I had to see
This was just the gal for me
All along the citadel
Physicists were raising hell
Alchemists were raising heaven
Magicians were raising seven
Fools were shouting 23
This must be the place for me
Soon an apparition came
Carrying a vial of fame
Pleased to meet you what’s my name?
“I’m the scepter and the stain”
Come on in, call me “him”
Take this number, call up Tim
It was all a mad charade
And a glorious freak parade
Some got screwed but some got laid
Most got something some got paid
Mondo is Italian for world
I knew this had to be my girl’’
Deleuze Guittari Gnash & Jung (2020)
Deleuze Guittari Gnash & Jung
They weren’t having too much fun
Til Dylan came along in a big-ass truck
Sayin’’ “Hey who really gives a fuck?”
They all piled in pointing at him
Taking narcotics and drinking gin
Bob asked “who here plays guitar
Who else here is a fuckin’ star?
& if you don’t like blues harmonica
Get the fuck out my car”
Well they had to think of something
Deleuze started humming
Then Jung started dreamin’
And Gnash started schemin’
Bob said “that’ll have to do”
Guattari said “I ain’t no fool
Let’s cruise drunken through the burbs
Pretend that we’re the angry birds”
They saw the white men cooking chicken
That is when the plot did thicken
While Deleuze and Guattari screamed like angry birds
Dylan didn’t say a fuckin’ word
Soon the neighbors with their guns
Cried “go elsewhere with all your fun
We like Bob Dylan and we like puns
But we have no truck with Carl Jung”
And just to make them stay away
Said “Last week we fucked up Dr. Dre
And if you wanna see the dawn
Hey hey you you get offa my lawn”
(rept many times)
They said “hey hey you you get offa my lawn
Lip Sync Ships Stinker
Torn limb from limb by the mean girls at the orphanage
Glued back together in a spirited attempt at hoodoo bricolage
Went on a rampage of irreligious sacrilege
It didn’t matter to her a whit if it was Islam or written in Sanskrit
Lip syncs sink ships
Uncle Fester loves Trent Reznor
Polly the hijacker wants a cracker
Lip sync ships stinker
She sniffed the air tingling & tasting loves uneasy lunacy
Saw sorrowful vistas spotted with funereal urns
She rang a doorbell brought her neighbors an eerie shrieking doll
With that invasion they entered the dreamlands of the unwell
Lip syncs sink ships
Uncle Fester loves Trent Reznor
Polly the hijacker wants a cracker
Lip sync ships stinker
Live Free Or Dye Your Hair Blue (2020)
(every other line is verse/chorus i.e. call/response, etc.)
What will you wear to the new civil war?
Live free or dye your hair blue
Who’s gonna be your new Tipper Gore?
Live free or dye your hair blue
Did you beat the militias to the gun store?
Live free or dye your hair blue
What will you wear to the new civil war?
Live free or dye your hair blue
Will it be televised virtual or raw?
What will you wear to the new civil war?
Will it be tearful fearful and more?
What will you wear to the new civil war?
They’ve got the bullets we’ve got the queens
What will you wear to the new civil war?
Scare ‘em up with pictures of guillotines
What will you wear to the new civil war?
His name’s Erik Prince and he’s not funky
Live free or dye your hair blue
Should we wear grunge or a wee bit punky?
Live free or dye your hair blue
Frilly shirts & scarves like those elegant junkies? (distant voice shouting … “it’s only rock and roll”)
Live free or dye your hair blue
What will you wear to the new civil war?
Live free or dye your hair blue
Live Free Or Dye Your Hair Pink (2021)
Live free or dye your hair pink
The choice is easier than you think
There ain’t no choices just cacophony of voices
It’s the entire kitchen sink
So while we try to make sense
Ideas are being steamrolled by events
While we try to make sense
Ideas are being steamrolled by events
An intoxicating mixture of dogshit and fennel
Chowed down right there in the very kennel
A handful of bros and their surly bitches
Laughing in the faces of beheaded snitches
And if’n that don’t float your boat
See what the news is with your remote
Yes pandemonium comes to all seven seas
Pirates with nukes and the deadly bees
So take a moment to name your poison
To run with the wolves or hang with the boys ‘n’
Take a quick pic for an NFT fortune
Or just wait around for the next bus to Boston
Not A Bug But A Feature (2017)
We all have a lot of drugs
It’s not a bug it’s a feature
And me I’m easily buzzed
So I can give you a bunch of my drugs
They tell me hugs not studs
They tell me don’t piss in the strudel
But I don’t care for their advice
I’ve got some drugs to make me nice
We’re having too much fun
And all the guns are loaded
And we were born to be wacked
And we were made to attack
We were born inside out
Like in a Cronenberg movie
But we have lots of strange drugs
Therefore the whole thing is groovy
Queerish (2019)
You couldn’t sit outside
Without some trajectory
Some vast vocabulary
Hitting upside your head
You couldn’t read queer studies
To a Ballardian fuddy duddy
Messing with your data entry
Some self-conscious narco-mancy
Have we not lived too long?
Can you please digeriDON’T?
I’m only begging Apollo
For a few sensible follows
I only want to light up a smoke
Take a broken mirror home
Zapruder film please leave me alone
I only want an ice cream cone
(rept last 2 lines)
The Smarter King Of Deliria (2020)
The girl at the ticket booth
Started wailing and weeping
With all the grieving
A body could hold seething
& the bouncer standing near to me
With cracked and violent idiot glee
Was swinging his fists randomly
Saying everybody gets in for free
But first you have to get passed me
Everyone from all around
saying stuff that sounds profound
& a smarter king of Deliria
That day was duly crowned
& if you listen a wee bit closer
To all the people in the ground
You’ll hear them screaming loud
& this is the sound
[follow with Ornette Coleman meets Jimi Hendrix 8 minute jam]
Sneerbot (2014)
The edgelord built a sneerbot
He knew it would replace him
When it came time to upload his mind
He slipped away on a vacation
He hid out in Tangiers
Imagining he was Brion Gysin
But Edgelord pals can’t be trusted
And one day one slipped him some ricin
And we were laughing all the way to the bank
But we found the account was vacant
We tried everything from flash to bland
And to making the sex more blatant
We tried pitching to the British ravers
And to the sincere planet savers
And to the loony libertarians
Who didn’t do us too many favors
And the sneerbot says…
Haw haw haw they used to wipe there own asses
Haw haw haw they used to wipe there own asses
Haw haw haw they used to wipe there own asses
Haw haw haw they used to wipe there own asses
And the sneerbot says…
Look at this history of the human masses
Haw haw haw they used to wipe their own asses
And look at this dude tryin’ to boil his own eggs
Man those humans was on their last legs
Watched jocks and the hippies share a kegger
And give free oysters to the local beggar
I’ve seen this all with my very own eyes
Man these humans they take the fuckin’ prize
and the sneerbot said
Haw haw haw they used to wipe their own asses
Haw haw haw they used to wipe their own asses
Haw haw haw they used to wipe their own asses
Haw haw haw they used to wipe their own asses
Beware The Rolling Logs (2017ish)
We’re rolling logs
He lets me pet his frog
I use his cancer-smelling dog
We’re gonna shoot P.J. O’Rourke
Beware of spiritual babes who worship Hindus named Craig
Beware of racist grifters playing for political gain
Beware of every belief or of even giving relief
Beware of Einsturzende Neubauten as much as Judas Priest
We’re rolling logs
He lets me pet his frog
I use his cancer smelling dog
We shot P.J. O’Rourke
Beware of eating bad things that turn out to be good
Beware of stuff that’s good for you that isn’t even food
Beware of arguing with people who quote Michel Foucault
Beware of garbage etymologists trying to steal all your faults
We’re rolling logs
He lets me pet his frog
I use his cancer smelling dog
We didn’t shoot P.J. O’Rourke
(rhythm change)
When the world is almost over
I’m gonna be that fat lady who sings
So much to do in-between
Get big tits – record some hits
Maybe get married to Sting
How To Explain The Details
He took wheels made of concrete, tied them to a dead ox
Then put a boy who had both measles and the mumps on top
Boiled some tea using cadmium and rotted melon
And to guard it all he bought a matching set of escaped felons
At the opening with Jeff Koons Hirst and Emin
Drinking Pernod and passing out buttered pillow trim
Laughing vigorously at all of Emin’s cynical jokes
When the testicles of Valentino emerged from out my throat
What to do then how to explain the details?
It was that trip to Spain where I came upon some entrails
They weren’t testicular damned I cried in my defense
The artist just laughed at me and said this chokes at your expense
And that’s how I learned the ways of sensual martyrs
Not from some blue hair punkette in Stiv Bators dog collar
It took a friendly tea of cadmium and some melon stink
And something about Jeff Koons that made me want to go to sleep
Vertigo & World War 3 (2022)
With no fucks left to give
We fell into the abyss
And kept falling & falling falling endlessly
Vertigo and World War Three
And the gods said…
We gave them the pandemic
We sent some great floods
Australia was pretty much on fire
We got them to accept eating bugs
But World War 3 is gonna be big
Fry the trees and roast the pigs
And here’s the hilarious kicker
We’ll call the newsman Wolf Blitzer
Yes all the gods laughed and laughed
“Oh man that’s just way to crass”
Let’s get this thing movin’
Get around to shootin’ Putin
And America all rootin’ tootin’
Will probably give the final bruisin’
Drop the big one like once before
Melt the earth down to its core
What do you think the money was for?
Ain’t no micro-aggression
Get over yourself
No cure for depression
There’s nukes on that shelf
No contested election
No stories to tell
Death in every direction
Yes this is hell
Have a Dramamine
Have a wacky dream
Have a widespread illness
Take some time for silliness
Before world war three
Before world war three
This ain’t the space age
We ain’t here to go
Vertigo
Don’t you know the way?
Just say Namaste
But don’t say gay
Watch those assholes pray
Before world war three
Before world war three
This ain’t the space age
We ain’t here to go
Ignore (2020)
Ignore
Out of boredom or torpor
The trending thing is so soporific
& your beauty & the moonlight is so terrific
So ignore
Ignore
Every Marie Kondo urging you pep talk
Every ugly rumor about Johnny Depp
Just ignore
& when you’re stuck in traffic
Some MAGA wearing a leather jacket
Some argument that trades logic for static
Ignore
And if everybody else lost the plot
& you ask are they really alive or not
Just lay yourself down on the cot
Have some whiskey & a little pot
& ignore
DJ Spooky’s new album “Phantom Dancehall” is a Jamaican Dancehall Mashup album available now on Jamaica’s VP Records. Greensleeves, their reggae sublabel, is the catalogue he explored and sampled on the album. The digital version of the album is available for purchase here, and you can here it on SoundCloud here. There is also a limited edition vinyl version that is currently available in record stores and online.
Phantom Dancehall debuted at #3 on Billboard Reggae and has settled in comfortably in the top five for the foreseeable future.
Phantom Dancehall combines sampled reggae tracks, woven in to a finely detailed tapestry of chill electronic beats and melodies. This sample track we are including below is a collaboration of DJ Spooky and Stephen Levitin a.k.a. Apple Juice Kid. Other tracks include the keyboard work of Alex Thompson aka Fourth Shift. Walshy Fire (Major Lazer) on vocals and dancehall new comer Sanjay added to vocal samples of Busy Signal, Lady Saw and Garnett Silk. Everything is blended to give the project an eclectic, modern dancehall flavor.
DJ Spooky celebrate the release of Phantom Dance Hall on vinyl, available online.
I caught up with DJ Spooky while he was in San Francisco, before he hopped back over to Brooklyn for Wednesday night’s record release party.
Lisa Rein: What’s going on at Wednesday night’s record release party?
DJ Spooky: It’s just a straight up party so people can hear these songs. Most of these were recorded in Jamaica at VP Records’ Fun Studio. VP records is legendary; They are the biggest record label in Jamaica. “VP” stands for “Vincent and Patricia Chin” – so “VP.” They are Chinese-Jamaican, which I have always loved. The fact that they are just quirky, kind of at the heart of Jamaican culture; Chinese and Indian. Jamaica is very multicultural. So the idea was to represent a little bit of an update on Dancehall with a downtown New York flavor. Ya know, there are so many classics you could look at that show how reggae influenced Rock n Roll, Jazz, Hip Hop; you name it.
You could say the beginning of Hip Hop was all about sound systems. When I say “sound systems,” I’m talking like ya know Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc, and so on…Those are legendary figures who began Hip Hop as we know it. So, it’s sort of looking at that synthesis between Hip Hop, Dancehall, and that sort of New York/Kingston connection.
LR: So you’ll be blending the new songs into the mix?
DJS: Right. Turntables, scratching. Ya know, doing crazy fun party stuff.
LR: Francois K. is opening, right?
DJS: Yes. It’s a famous party for New York for people who are really into dancing, and who just really want to hear good music that’s got a kind of a Dub & Jamaica connection. So people go there ready to dance. You can just hang out and get a good vibe and it’s fun. Simple stuff. Like the simple pleasure of dancing to good music. There’s no pretension. There’s no extra annoying stuff. You just go ready to party and have a good time. The music’s great and they’ve chosen a really good sound system, and it’s clear. It’s a good party with a clear vision of how electronic music and dance hall music connect.
LR: The other night, when we were walking in the Mission, you noticed that the clubs were playing Jamaican Dancehall. It was such a vibrant scene.
DJS: Yeah. Right in the middle of San Francisco. Every single bar we walked by.
LR: Right. Even the Indian restaurant we tried to go to (Bissap Baobab) was totally packed, with everyone dancing, and Jamaican Dancehall blaring out the windows. So, why do you think this is happening now? It seems like something’s happening, doesn’t it?
DJS: Yeah it’s a retro-future thing. Dancehall was at the beginning of a lot of electronic music, and I think that anybody that goes out to a party and hears it; It’s catchy. It’s immersive, and it pulls you in. That 80s and 90s catchiness, while a lot of the music now is very cold. I try as much as possible to build a bridge between the older styles and some of the contemporary styles.
LR: Yes it was interesting looking these people up, as there is a lot of history there. You went through VP Records’ back catalog, right? What was that process like?
DJS: The idea was to go through some of those memories that those songs triggered, and then update. So, some of it’s old school stuff, mashup-wise. I would go through Dancehall classics, basically.
LR: Is this vinyl that you are going through?
DJS: Yes.
LR: So this is Jamaican Dancehall vinyl from the 80s and 90s?
DJS: And older, yes, from Greensleeves Records. I’ve done projects before with Greensleeves Records.
LR: Greensleeves is a sub-label of VP Records?
DJS: Yes. Exactly. They are both legendary for different reasons. Let’s put it this way. Dancehall is more of a digital approach, and Dub is more analog. What I wanted to do was build a bridge between those two, analog and digital. Some of the producers of VP records influenced my thinking. Digital B a.k.a. Digital Bobby, and there’s also another gentleman, Bobby Konders, who did a whole bunch of projects mixing Hip Hop, Dancehall, and House Music in the 90s. I’ve listened to their styles for a long time. I wanted to make a statement about it and keep it fun; a party vibe.
If you go through old records, you realize, you know, 40 years is a long time for music, but that stuff is still fresh. It’s incredible. The 80s was just incredible. That’s when I was a kid. Ya know Shabba Ranks and so many others.
LR: So we have a song included here in this article, “Buju Banton.” It’s a track you collaborated on with Stephen Levitin a.k.a. Apple Juice Kid. How’d you guys meet and start working together?
DJS: He’s a younger producer who’s getting on the scene, and he’s been working hard on a project with PBS where he goes to different countries and teaches younger kids how to work with beats. I really enjoyed the educational aspect of what he’s up to. So, we had a conversation, and, generally, I’m crazy busy, so I thought I’d give him a shot to help with the project, and it just went from there.
LR: So what’s your creative process like when you collaborate with someone on a track?
DJS: The idea is, you make beats, and then you tweak, edit, combine. I’ll come up with a first draft. He’ll come up with a different draft. And we send files back and forth until the track is done.
LR: You are the producer though, technically?
DJS: Yes. I suppose. But I don’t look at it like that. It’s a DJ Spooky “album project” where I have invited others to share in the conversation. I really think of it as an “album project.”
For this project, I was going through VP Records’ releases, and listening to all the Dancehall records, and then editing beats and samples I select from their material.
LR: So, how did you hook up with VP Records?
DJS: They had heard a project I did with Trojan Records a long time ago, and then asked me to do a mixtape. They had asked Diplo to do one. Then they asked me to do the second one. They are legendary. They put out Bob Marley and stuff from the sixties. They’re huge.
LR: You mentioned that you recorded this project at VP Records’ Fun Studio, had you ever been to Jamaica before this project?
DJS: Yes. I’ve been to Jamaica. My mom was an art critic for the Kingston Daily Gleaner in Jamaica. It’s like the New York Times in Jamaica. We knew people there and I would go there every summer.
LR: Ah. Ok. Tell me more about your mom.
DJS: My mom was a Historian of Design, and she wrote for the Kingston Daily Gleaner as an art critic covering Caribbean Art. And we would go every summer because we had “god cousins” there. (People that are like family at an abstract level.) My mother had been room mates with several Jamaicans in college. Everybody stayed in touch. For many years, we visited. And they visited us.
LR: You would go there every summer?
DJS: Oh yes. Constantly. And that’s what left that kind of vibe in my head space.
DJS: Yes. A Historian of Design. Her main book is called The Threads Of Time:The Fabric Of History: Profiles Of African American Dressmakers And Designers From 1850 To The Present.
LR: So you totally grew up living in the art world, with yourart critic mom taking you to art openings? No wonder the two of you have a lot in common.
DJS: Yes, we do. And we really both have had a deep relationship with Jamaica. Because there is both a literary component and an art component there, there was always something that felt like a powerful connection for us.
LR: So this is going back to your roots a little bit. I didn’t realize you grew up there. Even though it was only in the summer; doing that every year can strong cultural influence.
DJS: Absolutely. It just was fun and really life affirming. Jamaica’s got this whole really vivid, flavorful kind of colorful sensibility.
LR: Well I wish I was closer to Brooklyn. It sounds like it’s going to be an incredible show.
If you are in New York, remember to go to the show Wednesday night at the Output. (Tickets)
Limited edition vinyl is available at your local record store & online. The digital version of the album is available for purchase here. You can hear it on SoundCloud here.
DJ Spooky in San Francisco, California, June 2018.