Audio File

DJ Empirical

TABARI MCCOY | CIN WEEKLY

DJ Empirical (Photo by Meggan Booker/CiN Weekly)

For 29-year-old Clifton resident Stephen Boyd, also known as DJ Empirical in local music circles, music is more than just a hobby. It's an obsession.

"I've always been fascinated by turntables," Boyd says. "The thing I get the best enjoyment out of playing records is putting records together that people don't think would go together and making it work. Like making Missy Elliott sing over the top of some Indian music or Pink sing with Salt N' Pepa or the Bangles or Biz Markie because I do a lot of 'mash-ups' - that's my main shtick."

Caught hanging out in his hearse turned mobile DJ station, Boyd waxed poetic about some of his favorite electronic tracks.

SQUAREPUSHER
Ultravisitor (Warp Records 2004)
Boyd: "Squarepusher is one of the innovators in electronic music in general. He's interesting because he takes the IDM (intelligent dance music) genre, which is much more abstract and cerebral, and he is an incredible bass guitarist and that really comes out (in his music). It's more of an organic feel in what is usually a pretty sterile electronic genre."

MC PITMAN
It Takes a Nation of Tossers (import) (Son 2003)
Boyd: "He is a British coal miner turned MC. It is absolutely hilarious and at the same time really good. It's kind of like if MC Paul Barman were a coal miner instead of an Ivy League guy ... It's very, very entertaining, and musically, it's quite good as far as hip-hop goes."

CASSETTEBOY
The Parker Tapes (Barry's Bootlegs 2002)
Boyd: "Cassetteboy, they totally recycle stuff you know and stuff you never heard. They're British, so a lot of the samples I don't recognize, but they take it all and chop it all back out, so it's a very interesting, eclectic mix of stuff."

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN
Pertetuum Mobile (Mute U.S. 2004)
Boyd: "They're a band who started out when they were younger - in their early, early 20s - making a lot of noise, rebelling against traditional song structure ... 20-some years later, they're middle-aged now and sort of embracing traditional song structure and trying to corrupt it from within. Their stuff is much more palatable to the average listener nowadays ... but it's still just as innovative as it used to be."

Boyd can be seen at 9 p.m. Saturday, May 1, at the Avant Garage, 4573 Hamilton Ave., Northside and at 11:30 p.m. Monday, May 3, at Golden Lions Lounge, 340 Ludlow Ave., Clifton. For more on Boyd, visit his official Web site at www.sensoryresearch.com/~quahogs.