If you weren’t a music fan back in the 90s, you may not understand how important DJ Spooky is. Back then, he was a hugely popular underground artist and intellectual who not only helped launch groundbreaking magazines (Artbyte) but collaborated with the likes of Metallica and enjoyed a major label deal (albeit a short-lived one). His “illbient” take on hip-hop, dub reggae, electronics and contemporary music — particularly the 1996 masterpiece Songs of a Dead Dreamer — was hotly debated among independent hip-hop nerds, rock kids (indie-rock culture was just forming back then) and “electronica” fans alike.
The media glare has waned somewhat for Spooky since then, but he’s still assembling interesting and provocative projects. On January 22, he’ll debut a version of Terra Nova: The Antarctica Suite, at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Like his controversial 2002 “remix” of the D.H. Griffith’s silent-era film Birth of a Nation, Terra Nova will be an evolving and ever-changing work-in-progress.
In a MySpace bulletin, he wrote, “Hey people, I’m just coming up for air from my film shoot in Antarctica. It was an incredible and awe inspiring exploration of nature. I’m still feeling the wind and waves… Anyway, I edited the material there, and created a soundtrack based on the environmental material at hand: wind, the tides rhythm (it made good hip hop material!), oceanic currents, and yes, Penguins.”
In the bulletin, he added that the film will eventually be shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as well as cultural festivals and movie theaters around the world. For now, though, you can view a trailer of the film at www.djspooky.com/art/terra_nova.
www.djspooky.com
www.myspace.com/djspooky
Photo by Art Jones.
I remember when Dj spooky was a big name in the underground scene. I think there are some videos on youtube of him really going it. Some from the 90’s 2!!!