RIP Dee Swift – A note on his passing

Stretched Animal Skin Drum Ten with Dee Swift by Awkward

From Mr Trick.

Its with real sadness today that I learned of the passing of David Holmes, aka Dee Swift.

Back in 1998 or so I started a forum for turntablists called Snatchcon. Spoofing the Q-Bert/Invisibl Skratch Piklz Scratchcon forum, what started as an attempt by me and some friends to punch a hole in the bullshit and posturing around the scratch scene soon snowballed into arguably one of Europe’s larger communities for fans of the tablist artform. That’s where I got to know Dee Swift, as he soon became the Snatchcon/Team SNIG “resident errant DJ” – so titled because he was a little enigmatic at best with a tendency to vanish for a week at a time, only to then appear in a flurry of posts and online punch-ups that became a humourous lynchpin of the site.

Dee was an enigmatic character in some respects. Incredibly gifted, he rapidly proved himself to be a seminal figure on the tablist scene, mainly via one practice session he’d once posted up called StretchedAnimalSkinDrum, which I’ve posted below for you to hear. The sheer technicality of his cuts soon had DJs the world over talking about him, and in a very short time he became the guy most other DJs wished they could cut like. Even now, listening to this track, it holds up: very, very few people even now could come close to that kind of technical cutting.

Not many people knew that Dee was also a highly gifted guitarist. To my amusement he also held the dubious honour of once being asked to join the British metal group Saxon, making him surely the only guy to ascend the world of scratch DJing and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Dee was a technician; we’d often argue about guitarists (me being a player too), with his all-time great players unsurprisingly including Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and others, while mine remained in the “vibe” players like Jimmy Page. We’d end up agreeing to disagree, on the basis the argument would never be resolved otherwise.

To me Dee was curious in that he was easily one of the most influential figures in the world of tablism around 2000-2003, and yet never released a proper EP, album, battle weapon or anything else. To that end, there’s a danger he’ll go unrecorded in the world of turntablism, when the truth is many, many DJs who emerged from that period would happily acknowledge his brilliance as a key influence on them. I seem to recall DJ Craze asking him to collaborate. Dave wasn’t interested. That pretty much summed him up though; he steadfastly refused to do anything other than what he wanted. Always a perfectionist, one argument for his lack of recorded material may be that he never felt it made the grade. I guess now we’ll never know.

Any which way, it should go on record that Dee Swift was one of the finest tablists of his time; someone who bucked a trend for battle DJing in favour of musicality. His contribution to a then very-exciting scene shouldn’t be forgotten; without him I wonder how much the tablists of the time would have been pushed to excel in the manner they did. Ironically – in my view anyway – it was after this heyday period that tablism generally got a little dull. Nobody matched the excitement of that time, and Dee contributed to that. He was a spiky character at times and downright difficult at others, but on the whole I’ll remember him as a warm guy with his own demons who was blessed with a true brilliance very few get to achieve.

Rest In Peace Dee

Listen to the files over at Mr Trick’s Posterous.

Ken One – Live at Skratch Evolution 2 videos

Quick one – our roving, globe-trotting skratch reporter Yoshi from Beat4Battle TV recently finished some edits of Ken One’s set at the Skratch Evolution 2 party which was held in Tokyo last December. You can view all the edits in the youtube playlist above, or by clicking right here.

We’d originally planned to do a joint series of audio and video podcasts for Skratch Evolution 2 but unfortunately we couldn’t due to various technical issues so instead we did a joint podcast series on Turntable Radio and Rhythm Incursions – which you can catch here (TTR mixes) and here (Rhythm Inc mixes) in its full glory if you haven’t yet. The mixes feature Ken One, XLII, Ichiro_, DJ Duct and more. Think of this youtube playlist as the late cherry on the cake.

Yoshi will be returning shortly with his Beat4Battle TV series. More news when we have them.

Enjoy!

Beat4Battle TV:UK – Episodes 4 and 5 bonuses

To go hand in hand with the last Beat4Battle TV:UK episode we have some more bonus cuts (pun kinda intended but not really cos it’s quite bd) from episodes 4 and 5, available for streaming now on Yoshi’s Vimeo channel. I’ve embedded them below for easy browsing or you can head straight to the channel page where you can stream every episode so far including bonuses.

As announced in the podcast for episode 6, the UK leg of the Beat4Battle TV series is now over. Coming up next is a one off China episode and then a new series focusing on Japan. Until then, there’s plenty more for you to get stuck in below and keep an eye out for the next episode which should be hitting the site and feeds in early September.

Beat4Battle TV: UK – Episode 4 part 2 and 3
Featuring: Discuss, Maroon, Manipulate and 2tall.
Filmed and Edited by Yoshi at Discuss’ house.

Beat4Battle TV: UK – Episode 5 part 2 and 3
Featuring: DJ Clix
Filmed and Edited by Yoshi.

Beat4Battle TV:UK – Episode 3.2

Yoshi’s on holiday this week, so we’ll be taking a break from our weekly Beat4Battle TV episodes. To keep you going though here’s a stream of Episode 3.2 continuing from where the last one left off with the talents of Brighton-based Blood 1, Fidel Cutstro and Ideal.

We’ll resume regular broadcasting shortly.

Beat4Battle TV: UK – Episode 3 part 2
Featuring: Fidel Cutstro, Blood 1, Ideal

Beat4Battle TV:UK – Episode 2 (parts 2 to 4)

Slight change of plan to the previously announced additional parts of Beat4Battle TV:UK episode 2. Instead of releasing them weekly we’re giving you all remaining 3 parts as Vimeo only embeds/streams exclusive to this here site!

So without further ado, see below for the video goodness, and stay tuned for part 3 which will be online tomorrow. Bit late but I’m on holiday and have better things to do! (ok so I’m doing this, but I’m also sitting in the shade with a glass of pastis so it’s ok).

As usual all videos edited by Yoshi for Beat4Battle TV.

Beat4Battle TV: UK – Episode 2 part 2, 3, 4
Featuring: Muzzell, Tigerstyle, Mr Brown, Silk Kuts
Sponsored by: Dephect Clothing

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Community Skratch Tour – dates announced!

The Community Skratch collective are going on the road this summer, in full baller status with a mini-tour of some of the UK’s finest haunts where they’ll deliver amazing sounds and showcases never before seen by the indigeneous population. Or something like that. More accurately, the guys will be touring this summer bringing the Community Skratch experience to fine cities up and down the UK – expect some great scratching, challenging showcases and most important of all a great party vibe and some serious good times.

Hitting the road will be Grandeurs of Delusion, Blam and Plato (from Norway), Blood One, Discuss, Clockwork, Lone Wolf, Vince Mack Mahon (from Ireland), Fluins and Crkrik (from Germany) and Fidel Cutstro. Dates are as follows:

11th August – Leeds @ Jakes Bar
12th August – Nottingham @ Jam Bar
13th August – London @ The Victoria, Bow
15th August – Lewes @ The Landsdown
16th August – Brighton @ The Gladstone (Community Skratch BBQ)

Peep the flyer above for more details and the myspace as well. And if you missed it check the videos from this year’s Community Skratch Games in Galway for a taste of what to expect. We’ll be at the London and Brighton shows so come say hello!

DJ Hero, Scratch: first guitars, now DJing and turntablism.

Its been tough to ignore the monumental rise of the Guitar Hero franchise and its various copycat incarnations (Rock Band etc). As befits these Fear & Loathing times for the music industry, games have now proven a better earner for some bands than the albums their tracks were licensed from. Aerosmith are one fine example, notoriously making more money from their branded Guitar Hero game than they ever made from any of their albums to date. Not bad when you consider their multi-platinum-selling status with records like Pump.

The guitar format was always going to wear out though, and so inevitably games developers have turned their attention to DJs, DJing and turntables in particular (though “Laptop DJ” is one franchise I’d love to see launch… and fail). Enter two new titles: DJ Hero and Scratch. DJ Hero, as the name implies, is from Activision, makers of the Guitar Hero game. Scratch, meanwhile, is being developed by a far smaller company, but is noteworthy for tablism fans for one simple reason: Mixmaster Mike is helping develop it. In fact, it seems Scratch was such a strong product that Activision tried to buy the company just to remove the competition it might present.

What I’m curious to know though, is what you readers all think about this. Personally,I think its easy to shoot these things down as exploitative and undermining an artform that takes years of dedication. Hell, I play guitar and I’m no fan of Guitar Hero in many respects. However there is a flipside to this, in that these Guitar Hero-type games have seen a good upsurge in kids learning guitar – no bad thing in my view. Could DJ Hero and Scratch do the same? Pure exploitation or is there really no such thing as bad publicity – even for artforms??

Comments below please!

Further reading: ‘DJ Hero’ Vs. ‘Scratch’ As Music Game-Makers Turn To Turntables

CocoB online

Long time listeners of the show will no doubt remember the name CocoB, the Dutch tablist and producer who was a firm favourite of Trick’s back in the days. After a fairly extended period of silence, he hit us up recently to let us know his new website was now live.

Head over to cocob-productions.com for the full low down and to find out about the man’s latest projects. You can also check his myspace for more music. It’s good to see CocoB around again, and hopefully we’ll be hearing more from him in the near future.

Community Skratch Music compilation – free download

Rich Nozl dropped us a line recently to alert us and everyone else of a free compilation, 23 tracks deep, put together by the collective behind the Community Skratch Games, which includes Nozl, Jimmy Manipulate, Vince Mack Mahon and the G.O.D crew.

The compilation is available for free download from Nozl’s online shop (link below) featuring music from scratch related artists worldwide. A few of the tracks we’ve aired over the last year on TTR, so this is the perfect chance to grab them and more and have them in high quality goodness for your ears.

While you’re there you might want to put in some pre orders for the forthcoming Vince Mack Mahon and G.O.D releases which will be dropping in coming months and which are most definitely worth your time and money. Check recent Rhythm Incursions podcasts for a couple of exclusives and stay tuned for a new Turntable Radio podcast soon featuring all this and more.

Also look out for some Turntable Radio specials with the Community Skratch Games collective and G.O.D. More on that soon.

For now though get downloading!

Download the Community Skratch Music compilation from Nozl’s site

Tracklist
01 – mikey fingers – unfinished weather
02 – Uncle Lew feat.
DJ GEM, CLOCKWORK, MAROON, 2TALL, MANIPULATE – BOYBAND
03 – lorn, manipulate, jimmy penguin – raymond gobot’s emotion
04 – NozL – Playgrounds
05 – blood 1 – atom of consumtion
06 – vince mack mahon – klavel deserves better
07 – johnny doobs – Corman Knows His Stuff
08 – dj clockwork – owl of death
09 – jimmy penguin and blam & plato – Strømsvn
10 – cavern – DARDA
11 – mikey fingers and jimmy penguin – johnnies t-brake
12 – ken-one – SLOW WALK
13 – tweek – BLAZEAWAY
14 – DJ Mayhem Vs Danny Diggs – everybodys scratchin
15 – Naive Ted & Clockwork – Evil Spirits
16 – Grandeurs of Delusion – Glenn
17 – cavern & sebastien casino – Cri d’un phonomorphe – a 2 tetes
18 – 2tall & clockwork – style catalogue
19 – tweek – sleepy time
20 – dj quest & nac one – the elite
21 – jimmy penguin & mc mupeid – na bac
22 – Deviant & Sebi C – leave it at that
23 – Ventolyn & Becotyde – Restruct [Lorn - Army of Fear]

Apologies all for the lack of shows…

As many have noticed, we’ve been a little quiet with the podcasts of late. Our apologies for this, but as Turntable Radio remains a strictly non-commercial site run by myself and Laurent, it can sadly fall foul of the rest of our lives getting in the way. With the Mr Trick & Wrongtom show taking off, Rhythm Incursions more busy than ever and Laurent’s forthcoming Original Cultures project readying for launch, its taken all our time just to juggle everything and sadly, now and again something falls by the wayside. Rest assured though that we are back on track now, and have three “The Mr Trick Years” podcasts in the bag – one of which is live now, the others following at 7 day intervals. Enjoy!

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