Disquiet

These days, it isn’t so rare to find a DJ equally comfortable in exhibition halls and dance halls, in galleries and clubs, but long before such renaissance styling was the norm, DJ Olive was the high-low liminal culture figure to watch — and to listen to.

A veteran of the Whitney Biennial who’s also performed with such characters as Minutemen punk bassist Mike Watt and jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter, Olive (born Gregor Asch) has a way with rootsy material, as evidenced on a realms-crossing mix he posted over at plumindustries.org back in September.

Titled “Titicaca BBQ Mix,” the hour-long set places field recordings from Kenya, Cambodia, and Guyana (among the various stops) alongside the electronic and otherwise outward bound music of German iconoclast Karlheinz Stockhausen, British digital audio sculptors Autechre, and Italian film-score legend Nino Rota, with a little Cheech and Chong tossed in for good effect (MP3). While the broad and excellent selection speaks to Olive’s taste, it’s the spots where the tracks meet that his skill at locating artful parallels and contrasts is best evidenced.

Click through to the Plum Industries link above for a full set list. More on Asch/Olive at djolive.com.

Used to be, the Ninja Tune label’s website was a fount of free music, a free-flowing stream of MP3 uploads. The label’s penchant for freebies seemed appropriate, given how sample-based is much of its music (from founder Coldcut to Funki Porcini to the later explorations into hip-hop). These days, the “free” section on the site’s downloads page is stagnant, but the Ninja podcast series — titled Solid Steel — continues apace, and it’s as always packed with tasty mixes, interview segments, and new Ninja goods.

Case in point, the most recent entry (MP3), which features a sprawling interview (dating from 2002) with remix figures Steinski and Double Dee, backed by a massive haul of classic, beat-driven, copyleft-crazed goods, from Dee’s own use of Led Zeppelin’s “The Crunge,” to Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit,” set in context alongside Grandmaster Flash (whose “Adventures on the Wheels of Steel,” also heard here, gave the Ninja series its name).

The duo recount numerous stories from life before mash-ups dance parties and lawyer-cleared sampling, back when audio appropriation, much like graffiti, was an outsider art just beginning to make its mark on pop culture. Full track list at ninjatune.net.