Ruckus Roboticus
Playing With Scratches
Playing With Scratches
Playing With Scratches is a funky turntable mash up of children's records that is also a loose concept album. If that in any way sounds ambitious for a debut album trust me...it is. However the end result is like a giddy deranged episode of Sesame Street that harkens back to such DJ's as Steinski and Kid Koala. It should come as no surprise once listening to Scratches that it took Ohio DJ Ruckus Roboticus 2 years to piece together the sample heavy record. However what is surprising is the relative ease that each track unfolds to create a playfully hip album.
Up top I mentioned it as a loose concept album and the main over arching story is that it focuses on Ruckus Roboticus as a kid genius who uses music to escape the hum drum monotony of grown up life. It starts where we all start with birth on the track Birth of Ruckus that comes early in the album and starts with a conga drum that transforms into straight funk over a old time recording of someone explaining the birds and the bees and where babies come from. In fact much of Playing With Scratches takes many of it's samples with tongue in cheek humor. From the slowed down warning of Never Play With Scratches (originally Never Play With Matches) to the instantly familiar sound of a baby toy that tells what sounds different farm yard animals make on Baby's First Scratch. It's this ability to mix campy with lively beats that make Ruckus shine.
The album also dabbles a bit in throwing more experimental tunes in the mix such as the constantly morphing musical styles of Everlasting Ghettoblasting Gobstopper, the sweet laid back lullaby Bedtime For Sleepyhead, and the ominous jazzy march of Face The Music to name a few. The two stand out tracks in my opinion are the hilarious funk of How To Handle Grownups and the inventively fun swing of A Child's Introduction to Drums. Over the past few years Ruckus has been doing remixes of other artists stuff, but hopefully a followup is in the mix that is as ambitious and vibrant as his debut.
Essential Tracks: The Birth of Ruckus, Baby's First Scratch, Never Play With Scratches, How To Handle Grownups, A Child's Introduction To Drums, Taking Turns, Face The Music
The label that produced Scratches also put out the following video a few years ago which is pretty cool:
Up top I mentioned it as a loose concept album and the main over arching story is that it focuses on Ruckus Roboticus as a kid genius who uses music to escape the hum drum monotony of grown up life. It starts where we all start with birth on the track Birth of Ruckus that comes early in the album and starts with a conga drum that transforms into straight funk over a old time recording of someone explaining the birds and the bees and where babies come from. In fact much of Playing With Scratches takes many of it's samples with tongue in cheek humor. From the slowed down warning of Never Play With Scratches (originally Never Play With Matches) to the instantly familiar sound of a baby toy that tells what sounds different farm yard animals make on Baby's First Scratch. It's this ability to mix campy with lively beats that make Ruckus shine.
The album also dabbles a bit in throwing more experimental tunes in the mix such as the constantly morphing musical styles of Everlasting Ghettoblasting Gobstopper, the sweet laid back lullaby Bedtime For Sleepyhead, and the ominous jazzy march of Face The Music to name a few. The two stand out tracks in my opinion are the hilarious funk of How To Handle Grownups and the inventively fun swing of A Child's Introduction to Drums. Over the past few years Ruckus has been doing remixes of other artists stuff, but hopefully a followup is in the mix that is as ambitious and vibrant as his debut.
Essential Tracks: The Birth of Ruckus, Baby's First Scratch, Never Play With Scratches, How To Handle Grownups, A Child's Introduction To Drums, Taking Turns, Face The Music
The label that produced Scratches also put out the following video a few years ago which is pretty cool:
-Astroboy
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