On Incredulous Cuts, DJ Sniff finds the hidden connections between the chirrup of the hip-hop needle-scratch and the squawk of the free-jazz horn blast. Also known as Takuro Mizuta Lippit, the Japanese-born, Hong Kong-based former artistic director of STEIM in Amsterdam (from 2007 to 2012), a turntablist and computer musician, describes his work as “a distinct practice that combines DJing, instrument design, and free improvisation.” Four years in the making, Incredulous Cuts began when Sniff approached Doubtmusic founder Jun Numata with the idea of remixing his label’s entire catalogue. Best known for countless releases since 2005 by Japanese free-jazz and noise pioneers such as Otomo Yoshihide, Keiji Haino, and Akira Sakata, Doubtmusic has also included international artists in its fold. Rather than subjecting the label’s vinyl releases to the usual hip-hop-based scratch techniques, Sniff instead used basic audio-editing software to condense entire albums into short excerpts, which were then cut onto dubplates that the DJ could play through his live setup, consisting of just one turntable and a computer running Max/MSP. The results are as far from danceable as a DJ record can get, and more like a ping-pong game between intriguing sounds. For the most part, Sniff’s titles cheekily refer to each piece’s backstory. “No Time to Breath” [sic] indeed removes all the breathing pauses from a Mats Gustafsson record and so becomes all rhythmic attack from the brawny Swedish saxophonist. “Liquefaction,” appropriately, features truly molten guitar distortion by Otomo Yoshihide. Then again, “Watch Your Bags on the Train from Brussels,” based on material by Sim, sounds like a conversation between a tropical fish aquarium and a James Brown funk guitar-chord. It may sound strange, but it’s still worth being a fly on the wall for these Incredulous Cuts.
