>>PREVIEW
ROB SWIFT
Monday, September 19
The Hifi Club
Rob Swift is to the turntable what John Coltrane is to the saxophone. It may be a grand comparison, but there’s something of Coltrane in Swift – talent, technique, a crazy pair of ears and the ability to expand the range and breadth of his instrument. Miles Davis said that fellow horn-player Coltrane "could play like a motherfucker" and the same could be said of Swift. The instrument’s just a little different.
Swift’s display of technical skill and acrobatics has elevating DJing to an art. In Swift’s deft hands, the lowly record player – the Technics 1200 – is the musical instrument of the future.
"I call myself a musician because I feel that what I do revolves around music," says Swift. "Although not necessarily picking up a guitar or drums, I’m still using the turntable in the same way a drummer would play the drums or the same way a person like Jimi Hendrix would manipulate the guitar. The only difference is my choice. My tool is the turntable, but I deal with time signatures, tempos, rhythms and octaves, just like a musician."
Like Coltrane, Swift is considered a musical pioneer. His latest album, War Games, will challenge countless DJs after him to do more than just beat match. Taking the role of the DJ and spinning it on its head, Swift takes the DJ mix to an entirely different level. It’s not about reading the crowd and making them dance – it’s about making the dance floor think.
Conceptual and symbolic, War Games revolves around the politics and social issues plaguing America. "It’s like I’m using my turntables to convey the message," says Swift. "To say something – to provoke thought. An album like War Games has never been done before. I think it’s symbolic of how far you can take the art form. You don’t have to limit yourself to showing off how good your scratches are or how fast you can back spin a noise. You can actually use it to communicate ideas and I feel that I’m doing that on my new album. The scope of what you can do with turntables is really so broad and unlimited."
For Swift, music not only conveys the message, but is the message. Taking material from recorded speeches and sound bites from the news found through months spent glued to his television set, Swift takes on such issues as the war in Iraq, police brutality, terrorism and poverty.
"What really inspired War Games was 9-11," says Swift. "I felt like my mission as a musician didn’t have the importance that it had before 9-11. I’d go to my turntables to practice and I’d ask myself how was I contributing to the world. I really questioned the validity of what I was doing. It got to the point where I didn’t make any music for awhile, but then I realized I couldn’t just sit on my couch all day doing nothing. I needed to try and work out of the rut.
"War Games helped me to get those emotions out of me in a constructive way. It’s a really intense project and I think that it really pushes the envelope of what you can do with turntables." |
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