 DJ
DSL |
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Some years ago, when trip
hop was still the ‘dernier cri’, DJ
Krush visited Vienna. Expectations ran high, but
Senor K was about to be blown into nothingness
by a support act. A certain DJ DSL doin’
something rarely encountered, making music with
his hands, splitting hip hop atoms with ease.
None of the locals were surprised, they had seen
this guy do other outer worldly things before.
But most spectacular, all his achievements are
made in the absence of odd turntable trickery
and standard vinyl exoticisms. Its about timing
and discreet interventions! This force is a quiet
one.
The most raw and basic hip hop ingredients are
used to cook up not your average b-boy jam, but
a universally accessible groove. Accessible, not
because this is some odd pop conspiracy vs. rap.
It is a perfect dislocation of the well known,
a musical virus that affects and mutates the microstructure,
leaving body and meaning of hip hop intact, transcending
the format within the format. It sounds all new
and smells like victory.
What a break from the European standard of doctorin`
the hip hop, either shock freezing it into artificial
purism or trying to make it more ‘interesting’
by bleaching, thinning and the addition of funny
noises. Even our G-Stoners are not entirely innocent
here. DJ DSL`s take on hip hop might as well be
one of the few profound and lasting Europe ever
had. On account of this he should have been a
global player ever since, but he is an essentialist
by choice and heart. While the herd changed taste
and direction every Friday night, DJ DSL over
the years remained a reliable bullshit-detector.
Nothing is more misleading than the full version
of his ‘nom du guerre’, DSL, originally
Stefan Biedermann, had picked some 15 years ago
in typical old school tongue-in-cheek fashion:
D. for DJ (that makes two in the end), S. for
super and L. for ‘leiwand’, a Viennese
slang term for something beyond excellence.
In fact, he is a man of straightforward understatement,
full of dry wit and humour, who easily will give
you a damn good expertise on why it´s better
to hang out in your favourite coffee house, rather
than pursuing the pop star lifestyle. Accordingly
his vita can’t be filed under ‘career’.
After starting in the mid-eighties with lonesome
turntable home training, winning local DMC DJ
competitions and a short stint with his brothers
trash disco chart rocket ‘Edelweiss’,
he joined ‘The Moreaus’ a freaky outfit
of hopeless idealists alongside Peter Kruder,
Dub Club´s Sugar B and Uptight´s Rodney
Hunter. After recording an album Austria definitely
wasn’t ready for, the bubble went bang and
DJ DSL back to his old coffee house routines.
He had to be pushed and pulled back on the scene.
An era of legendary DJ sessions supported by the
MC’ing of Sugar B under the moniker ‘Swound
sound system’ followed.
A truly impressive tribute to the low-key-great-fun-hardly-making-any-money
side of things. When DJ DSL was voted ‘best
DJ’ by influential German mag ‘Spex’
in 1995, he again quit the business. He never
liked that much attention.
Hadn’t the beat addict come back, this fine
album wouldn’t be around. DJ DSL even managed
to transfer his unique mix-style into production.
As an avid member of the ‘mark the 45 king’
school of break-buddhism, he gives seriality and
repetition in hip hop a new meaning. Tunes, that
have house-track length, loops that rotate like
gyros, breaks that break themselves. Rich musicality
never overruling the idea of hip hop, a deep fertilisation
of the groove, durable for life.
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