Ever since I first heard Minesweeper Suite pump through my farting Sony MDR-V500 headphones (all Sonys fart, s’ose ya’ know) on my way home from my local record store, I’ve been a fan of DJ/rupture. Known to his family as Jace Clayton, that mix opened my eyes to the true power and possibility within the studio mix, blending seamlessly through mainstream R&B, bass-ripping glitch, and obscure "world music" as if that had always been the thing to do. He had me hooked, but he only officially released two such mixes, the other being his live-mixed 2002 debut Gold Teeth Thief, so I didn’t have a whole lot to go on; though he would later issue a self-released radio set and the first installment of the Shotgun Wedding series, both in limited numbers and, hence, outside of my reach. His production debut, the critically praised 2004 Tigerbeat6 release Special Gunpowder, was surprisingly narrow stylistically compared to those early mixes; it mostly consisted of glitchy downtempo dub.
Yet, as if by fate, we’ve crossed paths again, as the promo for the latest limited-edition Shotgun showcase landed in my mailbox. Rupture handles the first half of the CD with his usual standard of crazy North African hip-hop, jive dancehall, glitch, dub, spoken word poetry, and mash-up indie, as he cuts through his favourite tracks from Various Productions, Skream, Justin Timberlake, Neko Case, and a particularly striking dubstep remix of Joanna Newsom’s “The Book Of Right On.” It’s all done straight live too, as scratchy vinyl pops are the order of the day. All that adds up to one of the most provocative off-the-cuff mixes I’ve heard in some time. Your average club DJ would shit themselves at the very prospect of attempting anything close to this magnitude of mash-up, even with Torq or Final Scratch.
However, this scratchy live thing kinda sets him up for disappointment too, as Rupture prodigy Filastine closes Volume 6 with a breathtaking journey of a studio mix (minding the wash of personal field recordings between Budapest and Istanbul, it’s a literal journey). Fil launches straight into orchestral jungle from warp dub and Turkic hip-hop before crunching breakcore and crazy mashes of everything in between. When you’re blending Arto Lindsay, Hrvatski, Venetian Snares, and Dabrye, that in itself is practically a sign of genius. It’s no wonder he’s working with some odd time signatures in the process. Hard to dance to? Yes. Hard to appreciate? Fuck, no. This kid is the future. So, yeah, it’s pretty difficult not to dig this shit, but it’s prolly not something you’re likely to up and stumble across. If karma is with you, perhaps this CD will find you. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for the next Filastine studio album. You won’t regret the wait.