Faster Mix Master Written by Chris Uiterwijk Photo by Milton Repreza About five feet away from DJ Disk stands a tall, long-haired man with a white, porcelain featureless mask covering his face. A Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket sits on top of his dome while he plays bass guitar. To a steady drumbeat he violently slaps his right thumb on the bass strings. The bass guitar is looped through an effect called an envelope filter, which produces a succession of sharp sounds that conjure up images of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo trapped in a laser battle with storm troopers. Louis Quitanilla, a.k.a DJ Disk, stands poised, waiting to trade fastest scratch for fastest lick in a battle of musical wits. Like some of the great battles of all time--Godzilla vs. Mothra, Tyson vs. Holyfield and Nancy Reagan vs. Casual Drug Use--the crowd at Maritime Hall is witnessing a battle of epic proportions: DJ Disk vs. Buckethead, or in other terms, a DJ vs. a guitar player. This musical exchange has become commonplace at shows featuring Giant Robot 2 (GR2), the latest touring band of the innovative guitar wizard, Buckethead. Disk has been recently recruited as a regular member of the band. DJ Disk, a resident of the Excelsior district of San Francisco and local hero to the underground DJ scene, starts to play his table. He repeatedly drops his left hand forward and then back on the cross fader with eye-blurring speed, while his right hand manipulates the vinyl. The result is a rapid return of sharp notes to the sample of someone's voice, in time to the drummer's beat. Breaking boundaries, in an age where DJ's are now readily accepted into the musical mainstream, comes easily to Disk. According to the International Turntable Federation (ITF), earning the title as being "one of the fastest scratchers in the universe" is something many of his colleagues in the DJ community know he deserves. These facts about Disk and his offerings to the DJ community are not readily known by many. "Disk is one of the most respected DJs in the community," says Mark Wasserman, a designer at Plinko, a local on-line urban music magazine. "Disk is not a big self-promoter... if he was, he'd probably be even more popular." Alex Aquino, the street-wise president of ITF, says, "Disk is da shit. He represents our drive to have the turntable seen as a instrument." Viewing DJing as a unique instrument of self-expression is something Disk has practiced throughout his career. He's played with the local punk rock rap band MCM and the Monster, and has sat in on sessions with Les Claypool of Primus. His finesse is that of a jazz soloist, with perfect timing and a sixth sense of when to come in on a song and when to drop out without being abrupt. "It's a feeling I get and with great musicians like Bucket, it is easy to do," tells Disk. A 17 year veteran of DJing, the 27-year-old Disk is part of tight-knit community of DJs that includes Q-Bert, DJ Shortkut, and Mix Master Mike, all of whom are part of the infamous Invisible Scratch Picklz, a local DJ troupe that is known worldwide. With such a history Disk speaks casually about the mainstream DJ scene. "The Chemical Brothers and the other commercial DJs of today don't impress me at all," says Disk, who found a love for DJing after being exposed to it at a party his mother took him to when he was 10. "Making songs out of samples was done over ten years ago, plus any DJ will tell you that the samples they are using are old and not even theirs." Disk has been credited by some to have been one of the first DJs to press his own hand-picked samples onto vinyl. It's a process that has become standard today among professional DJs, which provides custom sounds unique to production. "I wasted too much money buying records to just get one sample," says Disk. Now several albums of his personal "breakbeats"--samples and drum and bass tracks-- can be found on his label, Scarecrow recordings. DJ Disk cuts the Salisbury steak portion of his TV dinner as he turns on a tape of his latest project with Buckethead, called Quail Breath. It is 10:38 a.m. Quail Breath is a frenetic take on the unique sounds these two virtuosos are able to create together. The album will be released by the end of 1997. Disk talks excitedly about the GR2 release that was recorded last summer on the east coast. "GR2 jams on this one. Plus the sounds I pulled off with Bucket were just out there," adds Disk. "The turntable is every instrument in the world," preaches Disk, "and what other instrument will allow you to manipulate any noise in the world, whether be a guitar or a drum? Give me a sample of wind and I will turn it into something you have never heard before." |ISSUE #3|FEATURES|A&E|INVESTIGATIVE| |GREEN WATCH|IN MOTION|FYI|INDEX|