DJ SNIFF

Parallel Traces Of The Jewel Voice

Genre: ELECTRONIC, DOCUMENTARY

LP (Black Vinyl)

Boomkat Product Review:

Ingenious sound art by Japan’s DJ Sniff: a concentric-cut record reflecting on the proto-turntablism behind Emperor Hirohito’s radio announcement of the end to WWII.

One of those musical/non-musical gems that Discrepant specialise in, ‘Parallel Traces Of The Jewel Voice’ is a very canny attempt to correct the narrative surrounding Emperor Hirohito’s historic ‘Jewel Voice Broadcast (Gyokuon Hoso)’ on August 15th, 1945, in which he declared the surrender of Japan to allied forces. Contrary to popular belief, that recording was not made live but, in fact, was enacted from two lathe cut recordings skilfully blended by Shizuto Haruna, an engineer at Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK. The “performance” was heard not only in Japan but also by its colonised territories in Asia, effectively making it one of the earliest, if not most historic, examples of turntablism to be recorded.

Formerly artistic director of STEIM in Amsterdam, and nowadays a teacher at Kyoto Seika University, DJ Sniff spent some three years between Japan and Taiwan researching and collating samples for the record. Comprising interviews, field recordings, vsampels of vintage LPs and improv shockouts, plus a re-reading of the Imperial Rescript on Surrender in Chinese, Sniff combines many perspectives into an absorbingly impressionistic piece of revisionism that, in light of recent geopolitical events, takes on perplexing new pathos perhaps not intended in the original recording.

It’s one of a rare number of concentric cut records - where the grooves (tracks) are cut side-by-side, making it difficult, and part of the fun, to know which one is playing - and makes great use of the technique to express this period of Japan’s complicated history with direct references manifest in oblique style. Like Discrepant’s classics ‘A Study Into 21st Century Drone Acoustics’ and Porest’s ‘The Parallel Broadcasts’, Sniff’s efforts make for a strangely vital record that uncannily resonates with the times.

LP (Black Vinyl) (4)

Multi Groove single sided LP.

Play All LP (Black Vinyl) (4)

Boomkat Product Review:

Ingenious sound art by Japan’s DJ Sniff: a concentric-cut record reflecting on the proto-turntablism behind Emperor Hirohito’s radio announcement of the end to WWII.