CNP030 - DJ Manipulate - Robust Audio Transition (R.A.T.) (12")
2023 - Cut & Paste Records
“Be certain that you understand it fully, and completely, and it will make you ill.”
And with that, DJ Manipulate's album kicks off its auditory assault on the listener. Created over 2019 through to 2020, the dystopian atmosphere seems to have perfectly predicted and captured the sense of desolation the following era would bring. Whilst delivering a fresh perspective, and a much needed kick in the teeth for an increasingly artificial cultural period, the skewed and distorted aesthetic of R.A.T. breathes to a very human rhythm.
DJ Manipulate has been a vanguard of the underground scratch scene for decades, hosting the legendary Community Skratch BBQ for 16 years in Brighton (UK), conceiving the central idea for the Skratchlords international turntable collective, and releasing countless scratch music productions under various labels (including his own imprint Nause Corps, Nozl, Lordcore, Cut & Paste Records and many more). Rap enthusiasts will have heard his cuts in on various productions from both sides of the Atlantic.
In true Skratchlords style, the album features collaborations on every track, with some of the cream of the crop from all over the planet contributing. The lineup is a roll call of premium scratchers that have inspired the progression of scratch music worldwide:
Kodac Visualz (Asthmafunk, USA), Lone Wolf (Nozl, UK), Jimmy Penguin (Alkalinear Recordings, CSM, Eire), Plato and Blam1 (Oslo Flow, Norway), Blood 1 (Surgical Cuts, UK/Sweden), DJ Foly (UK), Fooders (Asthmafunk, USA), Clockwork (UK), Djackulate (Eire), Symatic (UK), Maroon (fellow G.O.D. band mate, UK), Fidel Cutstro (Surgical Cuts, UK), Miyajima (Japan), Chmielix (Poland), Muzzell (UK), Krotki (Poland), and Redmist (Modusoperandi, Chile).
Mastered by Richard Simpson (Maroon) and cut to disc by Curved in the UK, the sound is heavy, the themes are dark. The album's narrative takes you on a murky trip, taking sound-collage and audio miss-use to another level with every track being made on a turntable with vinyl.
A word on the Artwork by Alex Young: in an homage to a heavily influential punk rock album, the idea of contorting and reinterpreting samples is visually represented with an outstandingly accurate hand-painted cover piece, that somehow makes the original seem light-hearted.
Side A:
1: Knock Knock
2: Bones Hope
3: Hive Stung
4: Eyes Reel
5: Beef In The Boozer
Side B:
6: Vibrainer
7: Earape
8: Eons For Days
9: The Brakes Are Fucked
10: Olde Snakey