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Paul Miller has established himself as one of the most versatile and engaging DJs of the past decade. He has revitalized and recontextualized the remix, bringing considerable capabilities to bear: virtuosic turntable and software chops, abundant creativity and innate musicality, and an uncanny sense for finding apt juxtapositions of seemingly incongruous material. Miller has long been involved in other media as well, active as a visual artist and as a writer. In Rhythm Science, he discusses the role of the DJ and the remix in the 21st century.
Just as he marshals hip hop and electronic rhythms as DJ Spooky, Miller the author has a musical style of delivery. One part post-modern semiotician and one part MC, Miller creates an impressive juxtaposition of erudite vocabulary and performance art prose poetry. Few poetry slam winners can reference Burroughs, Deleuze, Feuerbach and the Commedia del Arte while keeping their free style swinging, but Miller's fluid and rhythmic writing pulls it off.
Miller uses Rhythm Science to describe the approach, ethos and aesthetics of the DJ (or Dj, as he writes in the book). Over the course of his exposition of the tenets of rhythm science, he riffs on contemporary culture, makes polemical pronouncements about the present and future of music technology, and throws in a few autobiographical passages; he has a lot to say about each topic. I was most interested when Miller discussed his own story, his background and musical philosophy. His journey -- from being a school kid in Washington, DC to becoming DJ Spooky -- is an affecting one, and his evolution of a singular approach to remixing/DJing is equally fascinating.
While he is eloquent in articulating these opinions, his narrative sometimes suffers when he engages in too many self-conscious constructions of one-liner pronouncements. "Hip-hop is always innovative and it can absorb almost anything". Well, that may be so when DJ Spooky is spinnin', but check out any fifteen minute stretch of mainstream hip hop music videos and you'll see all too clearly that many sins of redundancy are committed in the genre's name. That said, Miller's enthusiasm for his subject often leads to enlightening anecdotes and aphorisms. Pointedly, he asks, "Is it Live? Or is it a sample? After almost three decades of rhythm science, the question remains just as powerful as ever."
Miller chronicles many experiences that have played into his formation of a theory of rhythm science, starting with his undergrad at Bowdoin College, where he ran a radio show, the Eclectic Jungle, and wrote a thesis on Wagner's idea of Gesamtkuntswerk, a synthesis of multiple artistic mediums into a single, colossal work (in Wagner's case, Der Ring des Nibelungen). Later, Miller moved to New York City and lived in an artist's studio/old junkyard called the Gas Station. DJing to pay the rent, he created outlandish visual accompaniments to his house parties, including one at which television sets, hung from the ceiling by industrial chains, provided the only light source. Within a few years, Miller graduated from handing out mix tapes and DJ Spooky stickers to recording for a major label. Along the way, he played gallery shows, wrote music journalism and mixed daring soundscapes at shows everywhere from Tokyo to Reykjavik. Miller's aesthetic steadily moved his musical endeavors toward uncharted terrain, from ILLbient remixes to working with avant jazz musicians, creating "nu jazz" and "nu bop" for Thirsty Ear's Blue Series. The latter recordings are some of his most engaging; Thirsty Ear celebrated their thirtieth Blue Series release with a remix, by DJ Spooky, of excerpts from all of the series' previous recordings: Celestial Mechanix: The Blue Series Master Mix.
There is a momentum inherent in the pursuit of new technologies, creating an ever-increasing rate of perceived obsolescence of software, hardware and even music. More and more, our culture values innovation as a virtue in and of itself, without always considering durability or quality as a significant part of the equation, occasionally throwing out the baby with the bathwater. While remixes and digital music technology employ and sometimes conserve artifacts from the past (what would you scratch without digging up some LPs?), an attitude that promotes disposability is also part of the equation -- the cannibalization of the old to make something "nu", and presumably better. Sometimes, while espousing the exciting new potentialities he envisions as a part of rhythm science, Miller errs on the side of dismissing other approaches. He writes, "Young composers need to think about the world around them, an environment made up of wireless networks, cellular relays, hybrid systems, rootless philosophies, immigrants from countries on the verge of transformation. Too many people continue looking backwards to 12-tone music and Wagner." In principle, I agree that it is important to compose music that has relevance here and now, but I am not so sure that the only way to do so is through the latest technological means. Is the only legitimate new way forward spelled "nu", or can composers with old-fashioned means create new works of vitality?
When Miller later states that "...rhythm scientists don't need orchestras; they can simulate them just fine, thanks", he seems to presuppose that the orchestral medium, without technological refashioning, is an anachronism. But no matter how great your software is, or how many terrific samples you have, you can never simulate the experience of hearing the Boston Symphony Orchestra live in Symphony Hall -- there is an ephemeral sonic quality that is timeless and irreplaceable, even if the repertoire programmed for symphony concerts isn't always timeless or irreplaceable. I would submit that each medium -- the simulated, digitally refashioned orchestra and the real one -- is powerful in its own way, and both resources can create relevant music in the 21st century.
Caveats aside, Rhythm Science is a compelling book written by a formidable intellect, filled with insights into his own working method and philosophy. The book's design component is engaging as well: the paper it is printed on is two sided, with a light side on which text is printed and a green side with collages. While this breaks the continuity a bit, it is more than compensated for by the interesting visuals, created by Cornelia Blatter and Marcel Hermans at Coma. A CD is also included, attached in the back of the book via a red button; the button that holds the disc in place appears as a hole in the cover and then throughout the entire book, creating a unique focus. This musical component amply demonstrates Miller's theories in action; Rhythm Science (also available separately on Sub Rosa) is a remix of material from the Sub Rosa archive. DJ Spooky tackles a host of disparate music and spoken word: Luciano Berio, DJ Wally, James Joyce, Patti Smith, Lee Ranaldo, Mouse on Mars and Debussy, to name just a portion of the many sources. The Rhythm Science recording is a marvel, bringing all of these various sounds together in a fantastic polyglot mix. As verbally proficient as Miller is, no words could better describe his work than this superb aural document. Still, the book is a pivotally important manifesto for DJs, and a valuable glimpse into the ILLbient world for the rest of us.
-- Christian Carey
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About the Publisher:
The Mediawork Pamphlets series pairs authors with graphic designers to produce intellectually sophisticated, visually compelling, modestly priced short works. The pamphlets take up the themes of art, design, technology and market economies. Series editor director Peter Lunenfeld calls them "zines for grownups".
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