Turntablist Performance Practice

The work here presented is a reaction to a number of issues within contemporary turntablism. Firstly, the perceived disparity between the turntable traditions of hip-hop and the avant-garde has been analysed, and a number of new works created in order to explore the possibilities for greater hybridity between these two playing styles. Secondly, the rapidly changing landscape of turntable technology has been addressed, and conclusions drawn concerning both the new technical and sonic opportunities afforded by the new technology and the influence of these changes on existing playing styles and techniques. Finally, one of the defining characteristics of the instrument – the need to choose source material before playing – has been explored, in order to make judgements concerning the interplay between technique, style and the chosen sonic materials. These different strands of practice-led research all feed into an overarching discussion of idiomatic playing, and the findings of these projects help to define what that phrase might mean for contemporary turntablists

Experimental turntablism - live performances with second hand technology: Analysis and methodological considerations

In experimental turntablism, sound artists and musicians encounter not only the pre-recorded sound of the vinyl records, as is common in DJ culture and hip hop turntablism, but also accentuate the materiality of the records and turntables themselves. The thesis shows that the record player is itself the key concept within which each experimental turntablist unfolds an intricate dialogue between mediation and materiality. Through these media-specific practices, these sound artists raise to the surface the fact that our listening habits tend to dissolve the reproduction medium from our awareness. This thesis explores experimental turntablism in live performance and presents an innovative methodology that establishes the ideas and tools for a potentially generalisable approach to performance analysis for concerts using live electronics. The analytical framework, disclosing the medial and sensual significance of experimental turntablism performances in a digital era, broadens the perspective on sound with theories of performativity, materiality, mediality and instrumentality in electronic music. The thesis methodology includes performance analysis, artist interviews, video and audio recordings and interactive graphical transcriptions based on the current music analysis software EAnalysis. Three case studies examine three distinct artistic approaches: the specific focus of each experimental turntablist varies from playing techniques, to sculptural objects, to mechanical operations. Joke Lanz’s direct and embodied playing negotiates a sound production between signal and noise, musicalises samples, and leads to spontaneous acts with site-specific aspects. Vinyl -terror & -horror destruct playback devices and vinyl records to re-structure samples in chance processes; the duo accompany their sculptural objects with movie soundtracks and ‘unfinished compositions’ from their own records to engender cinematic soundscapes and imaginary scenes. Graham Dunning’s turntable construction sequences patterned discs, which trigger auxiliary instruments through the turntable’s rotary motor operations. These mechanical movements embody rhythmic loop structures with temporal inconsistencies, creating a mechanical techno. Having been considered redundant following the introduction of digital media, the vinyl record has recently witnessed a revival. As a post-digital tendency, contemporary musicians using live electronics seek to recover tactile and physical actions in performance. This thesis shows the ways in which the turntable allows artists to develop personal instruments from ready-made products and to emphasise specific sensual-bodily aspects

Analysis of a Genuine Scratch Performance

Abstract. The art form of manipulating vinyl records done by disc jockeys (DJs) is called scratching, and has become very popular since its start in the seventies. Since then turntables are commonly used as expressive musical instruments in several musical genres. This phenomenon has had a serious impact on the instrument-making industry, as the sales of turntables and related equipment have boosted. Despite of this, the acoustics of scratching has been barely studied until now. In this paper, we illustrate the complexity of scratching by measuring the gestures of one DJ during a performance. The analysis of these measurements is important to consider in the design of a scratch model.