DJ Spooky Releases Secret Song, Develops Secret App
DJ Spooky’s (NYC) new record, The Secret Song, comes out today on Thirsty Ear Records, and features guest appearances by Thurston Moore, The Coup, Rob Swift of the X-Ecutioners, Mike G. of The Jungle Brothers and others.
Looking to bands like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead for inspiration, DJ Spooky has made a concept album, a “manifesto,” described as a “meditation on hip-hop and electronic music’s relationship to philosophy, economics and the science of sound in a world where the steady drumbeat of the financial meltdown has made music the last refuge of young people with less and less time and money.”
Centered on the collision between economics and globalization in sound, The Secret Song collages musical sounds and samples, crossing rock and dub, jazz and hip-hop, electronic and classical, with string arrangements by composer Graham Reynolds’ Golden Arm Ensemble.
Listen to The Secret Song on Aol Spinner.
The Secret Song album is accompanied by a DVD of a rare collage film from the Russian Revolution, Dziga Vertov’s 1924 film Kino-Glaz (Cinema Eye). DJ Spooky rescored the film and re-mastered the footage here in NYC for the DVD.
DJ Spooky’s also been working on an iPhone app in conjunction with the new record, called DJ Player, a mixable DJ album format that will allow you to play tracks from the album, and to mix the tracks yourself using the built-in mixer. The app includes 7 songs and remixes from The Secret Song, and exclusive DJ Spooky sound effects, and will be available from the iTunes app store soon. In the meantime, check out a demo of the app software here.
And, check it out — there’s a release and listening party for The Secret Song (album and DVD) tonight at Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg. The A/V system in Brooklyn Bowl will do it right, too, working with a custom designed JBL Vertec sound system and digital projection on nine high-def screens throughout the space. Presented with Souljazz Records, tonight’s event will also feature a screening of the film Dub Echoes, a history of Jamaican dub by Bruno Natal with King Tubby, King Jammy, Mad Professor, DJ Spooky and others.