DJ /RUPTURE

1 + 1 = 3

Genre: JUNGLE / FOOTWORK, DUB / REGGAE, ELECTRONIC

Cassette

Boomkat Product Review:

The 1999 debut mixtape by DJ /rupture - a pre-cursor to his legendary ‘Gold Teeth Thief’ session - is finally, widely available as a 25th anniversary edition with Reel Torque. Joining the dots between African blues, rap, ragga, jungle/breakcore, and avant garde turntable terrorism like no other, it’s 100% e-s-s-e-n-t-i-a-l, no messing.

Whether or not you’re aware of it, Jace Clayton aka DJ /rupture really is one of the best to ever do it. His ‘Gold Teeth Thief’ (2001) and ‘Minesweeper Suite’ (2003) mixtapes utterly set the tone for C.21st club music at the cusp of a new millennium, shelling mind-blowing, culture bending blends that would, directly or not, usher an era of cross-pollination that has arguably come to define the most crucial contemporary music in the decades since. ‘Gold Teeth Thief’ - a 45-track, 3-turntable mash-up that took advantage of free internet dissemination, was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times - Jace would comment; “The overwhelming response to this mix changed my life. Countless fans have told me that it changed their ideas about music, too.” We firmly consider ourselves in that category - it set a unique, un-blinkered musical purview that’s held a huge influence over us for as far back as we can remember, so it’s a real privilege to give second wind to his hardly-heard debut, released a couple of years earlier, and no less of a radical trip.

Marking the genesis of a now-legendary style & pattern, ‘1+1=3’ catches a yung DJ /rupture, at the time in his mid 20’s, wrecking the Technics on a promo mixtape only sold at Toneburst raves in Boston. The disciplined rudeness of variation and energy is all enviably in evidence across its 62 minutes, the first half limning his roots and branches in the Afro-American diaspora, knotting up gnawa grooves with late ‘90s NYC hip hop and rap, fractious breakcore and dancehall, while screwing folk into acid downbeats and liberally messing with turntablist forms - always keeping one eye firmly on the ‘floor - right up to a deadly blend of Steve Reich’s ‘Come Out’. The B-side only goes harder, racking up the baddest, classic ragga-dancheall and its mutant offsprings in D&B/breakcore with a seamless slow/fast metric that still beggars belief, especially when considering it was done live on 3 decks - no laptop or synced CDJs.

Aye, this one’s really special. We can’t overstate DJ /rupture’s influence on DJ culture and our listening lives over the past 23 years, and not only his mixes; his curation of the Soot label (home to his Nettle project, Mutamassik, Filastine a.o.) would turn us on to cumbia, reggaeton, and North African Arabic musics long before they became part of the underground diet. Likewise his blogging at Negrophonic, and thoughts firmed up in 2016’s ‘Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music and Digital Culture’ - as touted by everyone from Laurie Anderson to Diplo - have been instrumental to shaping the sonic weltanschauung of a generation. We reckon yous might get as much joy from this mix as us, and jeeez you’re in for a treat if it introduces you to his work for the first time.

Tip :)))

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