The Pre-Mix CD : The Fine Line – 50,000 Volts Of Trojan Records

Last week at the Apple Store in SoHo NYC, DJ Spooky explained his methodology for his track selection for his compilation CD from the reggae vaults of Trojan records. DJ Spooky talked about how Jamaicans in the 60s were the original mash-up artists – that they listened to American music and replayed it with their bands in their interpretation.

In the 90s DJ Spooky and fellow DJs looked at their record collection not for playback – but as a way of creating new music. Today, people were taking part in the “gift economy” where people shared music to develop new forms of music – “a shared networks between people, a social architecture, where the networks are no longer about geography and even visually,” DJ Spooky said.

DJ Spooky showed the audience how to find accapella’s from the web, find drum beats in his iTunes tracks and then mix them up. And then he told us more about the CD: the tracks had been chosen as they were perfect fodder for a new generation of mash-up artists to listen and mix-up the music all over again. Encore!

In Fine Style On iTunes