Streetlight Records

Reviews:

In the off-moments when one is inclined to consider the career path of DJ Spooky,one can only sigh. For a brief time in the late ‘90s, Spooky had a real shotfor the big time as he progressed from broke-as-dirt Village Voice journalistto downtown New York City's poster child for the fledgling illbient movement.Yet, for as initially revelatory as his original genre-bending DJ sets and quasi-academicsales pitches were, the Subliminal Kid couldn't breathe life into the lead-footedgrooves and and aimless pretension of his one major-label attempt at stardom,Riddim Warfare, even with more star cameos and famous friends dropping in thana September 11th benefit. Still, it's a sad, sad, sad, sad, sad world allthe same, now that Paul D. Miller is just another DJ, mixing up the back catalogof Shadow Records on mediocre mix CDs like this to pay the rent. But that'sonly if one chooses to ponder the circumstances surrounding this CD particularlydeeply.

Of course, one would think that after a few years, Spooky would have learned thevirtues of proper mixing technique. But he's still as willfully messy ashe ever has been, occasionally scratching and mixing the odd bit of dialogue orill-considered scratch where it's least needed. Of course, one could arguethat this is a crafty and esoteric bow to post-structuralist semiotics and howit can combine with Burroughsian cut-up technique to make Shostakovich sound reallydope when it's mixed right next to Master P's "Make ‘Em GoUhhhh!!!!" But somehow, it never really seems to work in a club setting.Besides, since no one's really interested in bankrolling these things anymore,Modern Mantra just stands as a bargain-basement elegy to an artist who'sstill trying to sell the same old experiments that failed years ago.