August 14-20, 2003

musicpicks

DJ Radar

Dance/electronic

The turntable is a musical instrument. Phoenix's DJ Radar fuses his classical music background with his cut 'n' scratch turntable dexterity. Over the years he's collaborated with Money Mark and Mario Caldato Jr. and busted out a plentitude of trip-hoppin', genre-bending 12-inches, mix CDs and remixes on labels like Om, Bomb, Matador and Sub Pop. Aside from being one-half of Arizona's Bombshelter DJs hip-hop duo, Radar's also teamed up with jazz and piano luminary Raul Yanez to unleash Concerto for Turntable -- an exquisite composition that incorporates a full symphony orchestra starring the turntable as the lead instrument. And just like a composer writes and reads sheet music, Radar devised "scratch notation," a system that turns scratching techniques into western notation using symbols (or "articulations") to map out a DJ's hand position for each note in a musical score. In the electronic world's constant battle for DJs to be respected as artists, Radar is instrumental.

Wed., Aug. 20, 10 p.m.-2 a.m., $10, Fluid, 613 S. Fourth St., 215-629-0565.

—Sean O’Neal