Coinciding with the ongoing 2011 DMC World DJ Championships happening currently in London, England at the 02 Arena's Indig02 this is the second in a two-part Amoeblog series on the current state of turntablism/skratch music (here's yesterday's Amoeblog). Note that the results for the DMC World DJ Championship battles (which end by midnight Friday, Oct 7th, UK time = 4pm West Coast time) will be published tomorrow in the Hip-Hop Weekly Rap Up Amoeblog. As you know turntablism is a musical form born out of hip-hop by the DJ but not given an actual name until the mid nineties when DJ Babu coined the term turntablism to describe the DJ as a turntable manipulation artist - one as worthy of respect as any other musical instrumentalist. By that stage I personally had already been a convert for a good decade and a half to this infectious component of hip-hop music. In fact when I first heard hip-hop in its formative days I was drawn more to the DJ than the MC. And ever since I've been hooked on the sound of scratching and spellbound by beat juggling and all the other skilled moves that the DJ as mixer & turntable master so effortlessly throws down. To me this musical style, unique to hip-hop and whose pioneers included Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Grand Wizzard Theodore (creator of the scratch), has always been deserving of its own genre or at least sub-genre. And as a diehard fan and supporter of DJ scratching from hip-hop's earliest days when I first heard in the late 70's through all the years later up to and beyond including that point when QBert altered the spelling of the word from scratch to skratch, I have thoroughly enjoyed closely following its evolvement; warmly witnessing turntablim/skratch music's creative growth as it blossomed with a seemingly never ending array of new sounds generated by an ever-progressing arsenal of new styles and techniques been added to this vibrant art form. Coinciding with the ongoing 2011 DMC World DJ Championships happening currently in London, England at the 02 Arena's Indig02 this is the second in a two-part Amoeblog series on the current state of turntablism/skratch music (here's yesterday's Amoeblog). Note that the results for the DMC World DJ Championship battles (which end by midnight Friday, Oct 7th, UK time = 4pm West Coast time) will be published tomorrow in the Hip-Hop Weekly Rap Up Amoeblog. As you know turntablism is a musical form born out of hip-hop by the DJ but not given an actual name until the mid nineties when DJ Babu coined the term turntablism to describe the DJ as a turntable manipulation artist - one as worthy of respect as any other musical instrumentalist. By that stage I personally had already been a convert for a good decade and a half to this infectious component of hip-hop music. In fact when I first heard hip-hop in its formative days I was drawn more to the DJ than the MC. And ever since I've been hooked on the sound of scratching and spellbound by beat juggling and all the other skilled moves that the DJ as mixer & turntable master so effortlessly throws down. To me this musical style, unique to hip-hop and whose pioneers included Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Grand Wizzard Theodore (creator of the scratch), has always been deserving of its own genre or at least sub-genre. And as a diehard fan and supporter of DJ scratching from hip-hop's earliest days when I first heard in the late 70's through all the years later up to and beyond including that point when QBert altered the spelling of the word from scratch to skratch, I have thoroughly enjoyed closely following its evolvement; warmly witnessing turntablim/skratch music's creative growth as it blossomed with a seemingly never ending array of new sounds generated by an ever-progressing arsenal of new styles and techniques been added to this vibrant art form. 
The always innovative and funky LA club Low End Theory -- at The Airliner every Wednesday -- has taken the show on the road to New York City, where in March it began a new monthly at the Knitting Factory there. It held its second night at the downtown Manhattan club over this past weekend where, judging by both nights' charged performances plus the warm audience reactions, it seems that Low End Theory NYC is a hit.
I attended the two Low End Theory NYC parties, including the first night last month when most of the resident DJs from LA flew east for the night. Onstage were Daddy Kev, Nobody, Gaslamp Killer, Nocando, Eliot Lipp (resident NYC) Flying Lotus (special guest) and the always amazing D-Styles (who did two skratch sets). This past Saturday (4/5) Daedelus (pictured left), edIT, DJ Nobody, Nocando, and Eliot Lipp put on another great night's entertainment -- especially Daedelus, who clearly stole the show. What a performer! Check the video from his performance below. And check this space in the coming days for when Irish guest Amoeblogger Johnny Doobs will write a review of Daedelus's scheduled lecture in Limerick, Ireland on Friday (April 11).
Meantime, I asked Peter Agoston, who among many other things in the music biz, books hip-hop related shows at the Knitting Factory NY, how he came to bring the Low End Theory to the Big Apple? "Daddy Kev and his squad created and cultivated the Low End event for Wednesdays in L.A. I've been to it a few times and even DJ'ed at it once," said Agoston, who spins under the alias DJ Thanksgiving Brown. "It's a
fun atmosphere and the line-ups were always unique and very strong. I've known Kev for a while as a contemporary in the hip-hop game -- when I took the job as Talent Buyer for The Knitting Factory NY one of the first things I did was reach out to Kev to bring Low End to NYC. It took about six months of planning, but it proved to be a good idea!"
