DJ Spooky

IFC's Aaron Hillis recently spoke with DJ Spooky (aka Paul D. Miller) about his film project "Rebirth of a Nation" which is his scored, cut up, and remixed interpretation of D.W. Griffith's notorious 1915 film, "Birth of a Nation." I haven't seen it yet but I like this past quote about it from Margo Jefferson in the New York Times: "Silent film scores were grandiloquent, meant to heighten what we saw on screen. Mr. Miller's score, by contrast, deflects our responses, then alters them. A hip-hop drum beat pulses. (It sounds African and urban American.) A wash of industrial sound is joined by bells and cymbals; a dissonant violin; blues fragments. These are the sounds of history and racial complexity that Griffith tried to suppress. " (Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky. Photo by Richard Avedon. 2003) Hillis also asked him about his next record and seems to have gotten...

IFC’s Aaron Hillis recently spoke with DJ Spooky (aka Paul D. Miller) about his film project “Rebirth of a Nation” which is his scored, cut up, and remixed interpretation of D.W. Griffith’s notorious 1915 film, “Birth of a Nation.” I haven’t seen it yet but I like this past quote about it from Margo Jefferson in the New York Times:

“Silent film scores were grandiloquent, meant to heighten what we saw on screen. Mr. Miller’s score, by contrast, deflects our responses, then alters them. A hip-hop drum beat pulses. (It sounds African and urban American.) A wash of industrial sound is joined by bells and cymbals; a dissonant violin; blues fragments. These are the sounds of history and racial complexity that Griffith tried to suppress. “

(Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky. Photo by Richard Avedon. 2003)

Hillis also asked him about his next record and seems to have gotten first word about it. The record, called The Secret Song comes out sometime in October. DJ Spooky also said some wild shit about ” I’m having it narrated by a Chinese economist, in Mandarin, and an economic analyst for the Shanghai Times. There’s going to be hip-hop on it, and we got in touch with Radiohead — I’m playing dub versions of Radiohead.” That sounds really dope, and not just cause I’m heading to Jamaica next week. Read the full interview here.

And here’s the trailer for “Rebirth of a Nation,” which is screening now at MoMA in NY.