DJ YODA & THE HERITAGE ORCHESTRA - G. PROKOFIEV CONCERTO FOR TURNTABLES & ORCHESTRA (NONCLASSICAL)
The first thing you should know about this is that it probably isn’t going to be what you expected (well, what did you expect from something called Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra?). Looking at the individual sums of the not-so-greater whole, it’s obvious there is a lot of conceptualism afoot, but then, at least it’s not another Dilla CD (which are dope, obviously, but variation is the spice of life and all that). Try to imagine Monty Python’s John Cleese before you push play and doubtless you’ll have found the best way to approach this: it’s all a bit “and now for something completely different.”
The package consists of a recording of the Concerto’s five original movements performed by DJ ‘Cut-and-Paste’ Yoda and The Heritage Orchestra under the guidance of Gabriel Prokofiev (who is awesomely the grandson of that Prokofiev, yes, the one who penned Peter and the Wolf!), as well as 11 remixes in a similar vein by a handful of endeavouring artists. Yoda (real name Duncan Beiny) is well known for his boundary-breaking DVD mash-up performances, splicing Darth Vader with Crazy Legs via some EPMD, and you get the impression the former DMC champ is never acting too far from his agenda: to push the creative potential of hip-hop turntablism to its outer limits - all in all a prime candidate for the task at hand then. The Heritage Orchestra gained notoriety for their non-classical classical scores, regularly performed at London’s Cargo, and cite acrobats, dead conductors, and sailors among their influences (okaaaaay!), which one imagines is just about the right kind of nutty to match Beiny on the ones and twos. Add to this a bonafide classical composer’s namesake and you have a recipe for some very interesting listening.
The concept was actually initiated back in 2002 by Will Dutta, now creative producer for his own company, Chimera Productions, whose creative rationale is to traverse the line between classical, contemporary, and experimental art music. Dutta introduced Beiny to Prokofiev, and the pair set about the cross-pollination of hip-hop and classical - two very respectable musical genres - with a subtle focus on showcasing the turntable as a genuine musical instrument of the 21st century. The key word here is ’subtle’, so anyone expecting some Primo cuts circa ‘92 is going to be disappointed, since in order for Beiny and Profokiev to effectively up the turntable’s humble status as an instrument they wanted to make it fit alongside a 45 piece orchestra, not by way of crab-scratching Craig N.I.C.E. over a well-composed allegro. Heads need not fear though, as the various techniques of the hip-hop DJ are duly employed here, it’s just that the samples are all instrumental snippets taken from the orchestra itself, as opposed to a snare-drum/DITC lyric, and they do work. This would be by no means the first time most will have heard the turntable being used in this way (think Cut Chemist pitch shifting to play musical scale) but to place it in the context of traditionally high-end musical arrangement is, well, completely different. Think of a cinematic orchestral piece with gloomy brass and foreboding strings annotated by a scratched-to-fuck cymbal and big bass drum, kind of like how Disney’s Fantasia would be if Mickey Mouse had spent his formative years at block-parties in the Bronx.
The remixes are just as experimental, though less rigid in their classical scoring, and include bold attemps at dub-step by Prokofiev under his alter-ego Medasyn, some off-key funky courtesy of Kat! Heath!, and straight oddball electronica by Kreepa - interestingly the first two suffer at the hands of the structure imposed by their respective genres, whereas the bleeps and random noises of the Kreepa collective seem to work well in a classical context. Ultimately, this is perhaps the maximum scope of the project, more of a hit and hope attempt at hybridisation of classical and contemporary, some of which strikes out and some of which hits, well maybe not a home-run, but at least second base.
This is fundamentally classical music laying on its side having its belly scratched by a world class turntablist. A good look for life’s more introspective moments, when all the realness gets too a bit too real and you want to min/max out to some experimental astrophonica. Try it, you might surprise yourself, and if that fails, at least you’ll surprise the neighbours.
John Whybrow
