DJ /RUPTURE
Minesweeper Suite
Record label: Tigerbeat6
Format: CD
Release date: late July 2002

Wanna know how much juice DJ /rupture has? This spinna can go from hip-hop and dancehall to hardcore techno and jungle mashups while throwing dub and world music into the mix and not miss a beat. He is a master of music placement, showing you something you never paid attention to before because it's in a certain context. So he'll get you to listen to rappers with inane tags like Bling Dog and Project Pat (does it get any more ghetto than those two??) because it's interesting to hear how he switches from one type of music into the next. Vibe Magazine couldn't even front on him: they laced his last mix CD with four stars.

Like Gold Teeth Thief, Minesweeper Suite sounds like it was done live on three decks. Considering all the layering he does throughout the mix, I can't see how it was done any other way. /rupture gets buck wild on this one, he's throwin' everything at us. Acapellas of Dead Prez, Cutty Ranks, and Shinehead can be heard on top of mad stompers from the Ambush label as well as original offerings from his Soot crew members (Nettle, Mutamassik). The Roberta Flack/Aaliyah blend is one of the simpler ones on this disc, but I still dig it, though not as much as hearing Eightball & MJG on top of Cex's "Am I Soundboy." Straight up ghetto-bling cats over some glitch-hop? Come on now, that's the flava!

Of course, /rupture's comin' with some bangers of his own, both original joints and flippin' the script on other artists' material. Check out "In Front Of You," where he puts soul sista Sade through some changes, or "High Resolution," taking Timbaland's production through the matrix. Plus anytime he's messin' around with world music, it's a beautiful thing - always accentuates the mix. Even if you don't like everything he's playing, take your focus off who the artist is; chances are you'll still be amazed with how he makes such different pieces fit. That's half the fun of listening to a /rupture mix session: trying to figure out where he's going to go next.

{vic feedle}


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