Re: roots (and dj's)

[kflint@annihilist.com (Kim Flint)]

At 10:15 AM 10/5/96, Jon Morris wrote:
>>
>> I think the question still remains from a few weeks ago. How did the
>> technology driven approach get started? Who were the first ones to make
>> tape loops? It seems there were quite a few people doing this by the 
>mid to
>> late sixties, but where did they get it from? I've heard that the first
>> tape delays were done in radio stations, but I don't know who or when. 
>And
>> who were the early ones applying it to music? For that matter, did it
>> really start with tape? Was there anything before that?
>
>I beleive that before tape looping, there were some radio engineers who
>would scratch records to make them skip on purpose, thus creating loops,
>and musique concrete was born.  Also, they used the wind-off groove at
>the end of a record side to repeat things indefinitely.  I'm no expert
>regarding this kind of stuff, but I bet that if you search for info on
>Musique Concrete, you'll find some names of the first people to compose
>with these kinds of materials.
>
>-Jon

Aha! This is a lead. Any Musique Concrete experts hanging about? I thought
there may have been people who experimented with records as a musical tool
before tape loops, but wasn't sure. Does anybody know more details about
that? I'd love to know who these people were and who inspired them.

This brings up another branch in the looping family tree that hasn't been
touched on at all yet: dj's. Over the past twenty years or so the craft of
spinning records has been elevated into a musical art of its own. I've
heard some really stunning and creative music coming from guys with a
couple of turntables and a box of records. For the longest time I was just
completely baffled as to how they did this. I finally had the opportunity
to watch up close, and I was even more impressed, if still baffled. I
definitely did not come away thinking "Gee, I could do that."

Anyway, the dj-musician is really employing loops, using a different
technical approach than those of us using delays, real-time loopers,
samplers, and our computers. I'm sure some dj's employ these tools as well,
I don't know. I know Roland and Akai both make looping products aimed at
dj's, generally called phrase samplers. As you might guess, I'm fascinated
by this topic. I'd really like to know how dj's approach their music and do
their thing. And what the history is and where the influences came from. I
think some really interesting cross-pollination could happen as well.

So are there any dj's on the list yet? Does anybody know one and want get
him/her in here? Maybe I'll venture over to one of the relevent usenet
groups and try to get some dj's on the list to provide some different
perspectives. Unless someone else wants to beat me over there.....

kim

______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
kflint@annihilist.com       | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html
http://www.annihilist.com/  | Loopers-Delight-request@annihilist.com