DJ Spooky's music is often called turntablism, electronica, downtempo and even "illbient," but his output can be aesthetically linked to avant-garde electronic artists like Jean-Jacques Perrey or even Brian Eno, although beats and turntables figure prominently in his work. Spooky gets a bad rap for putting "intelligent turntablism" and art above the dance grooves, and while that can sometimes be true -- his book "Rhythm Science," which explored the art of sampling, included a CD with audio clips of interviews with Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein -- seeing him live is a study in the finest forms of audio and video collage. Always provocative -- he created a 21st-century score for "Birth of a Nation" -- he is always ready to do the unexpected. So we can't wait to see what That Subliminal Kid will do at the Black Cat tonight, and we hope it involves some of the rare old Jamaican dubs he mixed and complied for Trojan Records last summer.

--Rhome Anderson (May 2007)