wordplay: Orangepeelmoses.com
image: Siouxzen

Hip hop is dead, according to Nas.  And while there’s a sh!+ ton of evidence to support his thesis, there’s a collective of necrophiliacs in California hell-bent on bringing it back from the grave.  Glitch Mob is their name and “glitch hop” is their game.  A cutting-edge hybrid of electronica and hip hop, glitch refers to the producers’ propensity for intentional glitches or “stutter edits.”  Genius recluse/producer Richard James, slightly better known as Aphex Twin, is recognized by those in the know as the godfather of the technique.  Defining stutter edits in laymen terms can be a challenge, but, basically, they are micro-edit percussive stabs that can only be accomplished with computer software.  Hearing is believing, but the sound has definitely found an audience fairly quickly.  Just ask Kraddy.  As a founding member of the Mob, he has seen its popularity skyrocket in the mere year since their debut performance at British Columbia’s Shambhala Music Festival.  

 “We had the stage all night and people were there dancing the whole time. It was an amazing night.”

 Happy accidents can certainly play a big part, but true innovation is rarely stumbled upon.  Achieving it normally requires decades of osmosis and experimentation.  That being said, everybody’s gotta start somewhere.  Strangely enough, Kraddy craved polka as a pip squeak.       
 
“I remember loving Bobby Vinton, the Polish polka king as a little little kid. The first 45s I bought were ‘Heartlight’ by Neil Diamond and ‘When The Bullet Hits The Bone’ by Golden Earring.”

As the burned out birthday candles piled up over the years, some of the classics—Floyd, Hendrix and Zeppelin, to be exact—made an impact.  Genesis also generated its share of air time with the growing Kraddy’s young eardrums.  The previously mentioned influences served well together as a sort of musical foundation, but true mind-shattering was still around the corner.

“Two tracks blew my mind when I heard them: LA Style’s ‘James Brown Is Dead’ and KMFDM’s ‘Naïve.’  The 32nd note kicks at the intro of ‘Naïve’ had me bugging! I had never heard drums so fast.  I went to see the Triple Threat DJs in SF. After that night, I decided I wanted decks.”

 Although he was often designated “stereo b!+ch” at college keggers, Kraddy made his proper debut spinning drum and bass with his first crew, The Stress Collective, at a tiny club in San Francisco.  Since becoming blood brothers with the rest of the Mob last year at Shambhala, he has rocked Burning Man, Coachella Electric Daisy Carnival, South by Southwest and even NASA alongside Bassnectar, Digable Planets, Funkstorung, Hank Shocklee of Public Enemy, Freq Nasty, Prefuse 73, Modeselektor, Plaid, Richard Devine, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Telefon Tel Aviv, Tipper and Zilla, among others. 
 
“There's nothing better than playing with friends to an appreciative crowd. And there's nothing worse than playing by yourself to a crowd who hates what you're playing.” 

Let the resurrection continue.  

November 3rd @ Overload 3 (The Gothic)

KraddyODaddy.com