D Styles In underground hip hop circles around the world; D-Styles is the name most associated with innovative turntable scratching. Thanks to the popularity of the Internet and the explosion of scratch videos, D-Styles is influencing turntablists and scratch artists around the world. His approach differs from the highly technical, yet repetitive scratching that currently dominates the scene, in that it emphasizes musical composition and style. D-Styles unique sound emerged from a long period of self-imposed isolation following his disillusionment with the battle scene of the early 1990s. He wanted his own style apart from popular trends of the time: "I went back to the blackboard and decided to find myself,Ó he says. "Like how a snake sheds its skin, I wanted to shed the effects of my influences because it was so clear who I was trying to imitate." During this period of introspection, D-Styles expanded his musical horizons beyond the turntable, working with drum machines and samplers. "I wanted to make my own beats and scratch over my own music," he explains. It was also during this time that D-Styles became a member of the multi-talented and immensely popular World Famous Beat Junkies. A major turning point in D-Styles career came in 1996 when Qbert asked him to join the world-renowned Invisibl Skratch Piklz (ISP), which also featured Mixmaster Mike of the Beastie Boys, and fellow Beat Junkie, DJ Shortkut. Between 1997 and 2001, D-Styles toured with ISP and performed in various countries around the world. He describes his time with the group as having broadened his mind to the potential of scratch music. "After joining ISP, I took scratching more seriously," he remarks. "Instead of battling, now the competition was with each other. Q, Mike and Short were so into the music and ahead of the time that it forced me to keep up and advance myself." One obvious result of that advancement was the electrifying "Razorblade Alcohol Slide," D-Styles all-scratch song that was featured on Qbert's Wave Twisters album. D-Styles left ISP in 2001; and since then, has been concentrating on his own music. Halloween 2002 saw the release of D-Styles most acclaimed work to date: the highly anticipated solo album Phantazmagorea, a collection of songs composed entirely from scratching. ²The missing element of scratching is that people arent performing their songs live,Ó says D-Styles. ²And thats where I want to take it.Ó At the Phantazmagorea Release Party, the much-publicized ²D-Styles SextetÓ composed of D-Styles and fellow Beat Junkies, performed live renditions of D-Styles songs, set to visual imagery resulting in one of the most unique and unforgettable scratch shows to date. After the solo effort of Phantazmagorea, D-Styles joined four other gifted scratch musicians to form the Bastard Language Tour, a quintet of avant-garde and highly skilled scratch musicians who are also featured in a DVD by the same name, which documents their live performances. D-Styles latest and most ambitious project is the band Gunkhole. Gunkhole combines three scratch musicians and a live drummer in a fusion of turntables and traditional instruments. This cutting edge group specializes in completely improvised performances, pushing the enveloping, and combining styles from all genres of music. In 2004, Gunkhole successfully toured Europe, improvising each performance. The band will be releasing their highly anticipated DVD in September, 2005. |
 Current projects, booking information, and a complete discography can be found on D-Styles website: www.djdstyles.com |
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