- I’ve always marveled at the ease with which people bob their heads and step to hip-hop beats and dance music. What’s inside this sound that makes us want to move so much? I've been searching and searching for answers and finally I found them all with DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist. Their recent McCarren Pool performance in Brooklyn was education of the best kind.
A video in the style of a decades-old PSA taught us how they operated the turntables (there were, um, EIGHT by the way). No computers here. Just the decks, four each. The fanciest thing they had was some sort of guitar looping pedal. I should know the name for this "thing" but I don't. However, my ignorance was permissible—after all, these guys came to enlighten us.
They split their act in two. The front half was more of an informative how-to of DJ tricks than a concert party. Every time the crowd settled into a nice rhythm, Shadow and Chemist would stop the show, or shift gears entirely. They were toying with us, playing into our desires and then, like two hip professors, demonstrating how the music was moving us. This often produced laughs: We started jamming when Fleetwood Mac was sampled. We nodded to the tune because, hey! we know those lyrics. The tempo peaked slowly. We thought we were building to a -70s boogie and then, out of left field—Alvin and the Chipmunks? They cranked the speed and vocal pitch so that Stevie Nicks sounded like Theodore. People were giggling…at themselves. Mixes with familiar musicians can often be too accessible, too easy, and far too predictable. Shadow and Chemist were putting DJ faults on display and asking us to ask for more from our favorite artists.
The magicians had shown us where all the cards were hidden and, for being such a gracious audience, they let everybody get down the rest of the evening. Hell, they even caved in and pumped the bass just to make sure we were still paying attention. Unnecessary. The live mixing was enough to keep us captivated.
Unfortunately, the sum of the night was clouded with what could have been mistaken as disdain from the duo. Their refusal to implement computers and constant reminder that the vinyl was original, not printed only for the tour, might’ve felt like a criticism of today’s Mac-toting club kids and Justice-led techno revival. However, the DJs weren’t hoping to inspire a laptop-burning bonfire. Their chaotic hustling from the LP crates back to the decks proved that their methods just aren’t always efficient. DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist simply requested that we electronic adherents cultivate an appreciation for the source of our beloved music rather than giving into gimmicks.