Published
Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 20:57
- The Negativland member, radio DJ and sampling pioneer passed away yesterday in Oakland, California.
Don Joyce, member of Negativland, has died of heart failure at the age of 71.
Joyce joined the pioneering experimental group after they dropped in on his weekly radio show "Over The Edge," broadcasted on KPFA FM in Berkeley from 1981 up until the point of his death. Negativland member Ian Allen was one of Joyce's radio DJ colleagues and brought Negativland into the studio one night, where they "immediately transformed Don’s "normal music show" into a free-form collage sound odyssey." (Allen died earlier this year.)
The group posted a touching eulogy on their Facebook page, saying that in Joyce, "Negativland had found its "lead vocalist" without even realizing they were looking for one. It was Don who took the idea of reshaping previously recorded words—in a pre-sampling age— and ran with it to an extent and depth never before heard, and never equalled. "Recontextualization' became his weapon, with the 1/4" tape machine and razor blade his ammunition, and the radio "cart player"—an entirely forgotten piece of broadcast history using endless-loop tape cartridges, which he used until he death—his delivery system." Joyce would contribute to nearly 30 Negativland albums. He also coined the term "culture jamming," a concept at the heart of Negativland's practice. The group will forge on, with at least two more albums ready for release and potential live dates in the works.