How many years have passed since Primo showed us what he did when he was deeply concentrated? Scratching has many years of evolution on its back and it ain’t gonna stop (well, who knows...). What ordinary people thought about DJs is in crisis, vinyl and music composition are getting closer as we speak.

2004 seemed like a key moment for this constantly changing artform. Concepts are being reinvented and sample-based music changes every minute, destroying old clichés in the process. Scratch music experiments with sample-based music in a particular way, exploring the most “organic” approach to what creating music out of samples means. It is obvious that djs and other “traditional” musicians are bridging the gap between themselves and we are starting to see more bands with a DJ in their line up (from the awful Sugar Ray to the interesting Live Human).

So, in full collision of both traditional and postmodern ways of creating music a new breed of scratching tools appears to give an answer to those questions people are starting to ask. It’s not about your average battle record, filled with beats, well known beep-aahhaa-fresh sequences and the likes. These records are about giving the DJs specific musical material in order to create music using turntables. Getting away from the average soloing routines you might see in battles, these records stress the need for instrument samples, music scales, percussion kits and the such available on one record and in good quality (both in the quality of samples and quality of vinyl) thus saving DJs time instead of having to dig through their record collections.

A new breed of records that focus on bridging the gap between the traditional musicicans and the DJs. This article is a simple overview of these new tools out there, which you can use to create music.

UTILIY PHONOGRAPH RECORD (pts 1 and 2) by Ricci Rucker (EOF)

For you internet freaks and scratch addicts the name of Ricci Rucker is not new, whether it be known through his polemic opinions or for his dedication to the scratching artform. From the mind of this scratch musicican comes the concept for this record: to provide DJs with a bunch of sounds tailored for music creation. UPR gives you a lot of real instrument samples such as some fat Rhodes samples, guitars put through wah pedals, flute sounds, long analog synth sounds, asian inspired sounds and a load of percussions kits and combos (multiple combinations of different kicks and snares plus hi-hat sounds are the best part of the record, in my opinion). On the other side you get a few rhythmic loops that play at 45 rpm and that provide a steady rhythmic pattern (usually built from hi hats) giving the user a perfect base for keeping in time or/and learning to. In addition the samples are usually arranged so that the beginning of every one matches with a imaginary mark on the record (called the 12 o´clock system) so it is easier to find the sounds and to progress. For instance in the analog synth section, you go from on note to another. These two records (volumes 1 and 2) make for very interesting tools for practice, making music using the turntables or for live use.

The main problem I found here is the creativity issue. As the samples have already been selected and chosen by someone, it creates a conflict as to whether or not it is valid to use the samples for your own compositions rather than digging for your own sounds yourselves. The debate has already been open on that one. Ultimately it’s a great record, very useful for beat scratching and short stabs in a live band environment.

THE SOUNDCRAFTSMAN RECORD by NICK NACK (Crowd Control Records)

From Texas and the mind of this creative DJ (who plays with a live band and has put out some very creative scratch music) comes this record that goes beyond in the search of a useful musical tool. The main difference that this record brings to the table is its focus on the idea of being able to do different melodic combinations of given available instrument sounds. Thus opening up the chance to freely create new melodies with a turntable and a copy of the record. It offers multiple scales (pentatonic, third progressions...) of different instrument sounds (which I believe mainly come from VST plugins) and various main notes. This allows you to tune into the main or dominant note that the band you’re with might be playing in and throw in some tuned solos, by combining the different notes available on the record (which are in progression on one side of it). This turns your turntables into a melodic instrument, so the guitarist won’t be looking at you funny again! The record provides some musical instructions on the way the scales work, how to use them and how they are recorded as well as what you must do to tune yourself to other instruments. This is a record that introduces traditional music concepts to scratching in a new way. A great choice.

MAZTURBATION TOOL by Kypski and the Waxwankers (Supertracks Records)

Kyspki looks like he might know what a DJ working with musicians needs and along with the Dutch based Waxwankers crew, he comes with this record that uses a concept called the Clocktaves (credited to Dj Sjam), which makes it very easy to create melodies with the record. Clocktaves are similar to what Nick Nack offers with Soundscraftman but make the concept easier for those without a more classical musical training. Clocktaves are sequences of instrument notes where the root note of the scale starts at 12 (if you think of the record as a clock) and where the different notes progress in quarters (through the record) so by using markers you can know which note is going to be next on the vinyl by just looking at the markers. With some training this system makes it fairly simple to be able to create solos or basic melodies (with sounds such as organs, guitars, bass etc…). The record is completed by a lot of traditional instrument samples such as keyboards, brass sounds, stabs, percussions sounds and a few off the hook beats for plain practice.

Until such technical concepts as a pitch pedal for turntable or prototypes of more melodically inclined turntables start to appear (these concepts are already being discussed and developed by people like DJ Focus, D-Styles and Ricci Rucker) these records seem to be the best tools (built with the DJ in mind) for exploring the musical side of this thing we call scratch music and the musical capabilities of what your parents always thought of as a household appliance.

Other Records

There’s no doubt that records such as ‘Swamp Breaks’, by DJ Swamp, with its inclusion of a whole complete octave of fuzz guitar tones that allowed you to create melodies by dropping the needle (Develop did an interesting battle routine with these in the 98 ITF), put the first brick to the wall for the scratch tools we are now seeing. Other records such as ‘Call Me I’m Hot and Horny Breaks’ from D-Styles or the ‘Bastrd Language Tour Record’ provide musical samples for scratching but also go into other directions and do not include such refined concepts as those seen in the aforementioned records. Then again some might think that the given samples in a way shorten the creativity of the DJ, but that’s another story.

It’s great that in a world surrounded by ‘Turntable Timmy’(s) and other merchandising products some people are trying to bring light to the real purpose of this artform: the music itself. These people are trying to bring more autonomy for DJs to create music, and to me that’s great. The tools have been given, it’s time to work.

Some useful links for more on all this:

Asisphonics, home of Ricci Rucker and the UPR. Waxwankers, Supertracks and Kypski’s site for more on The Maz Tool and some videos of Kypski demo-ing the clocktave system. And finally Crowd Control Records and Bside Blends for more on Nick Nack and the Soundscraftman.

Special thanks to Nick Nack, C-Mon and Kypski and Maurits de Weert for their help. Contributed by Revenge of the Nerd and taken from the first issue of Serie B magazine. Republished with permission from the author.