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LP
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CREP 122LP
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$28.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 9/19/2025
DJ Sniff returns to Discrepant with a direct and visceral document: Turntable Solos. Composed from live recordings made during the latter half of 2024, Turntable Solos captures DJ Sniff's improvised performances in their rawest form. At the core of his setup is Cut 'n' Play, a software sampler he originally built in Max/MSP in 2007. Since then, he has continued developing custom tools and instruments that extend what Derek Bailey called the "instrumental impulse" -- the tactile, responsive relationship between musician and machine that defines improvisation. Following a summer 2024 tour of Japan with Gonçalo Cardoso, Sniff was encouraged to document and release a selection of his live sets. Not long after, a performance at 20α (Alpha) in Hong Kong would become the emotional and conceptual anchor for the project. In the liner notes, Sniff reflects on the eerie parallels between footage of protestors in Los Angeles -- assaulted by police using so-called "less-lethal" weapons, and civilians being abducted into detention centers -- and the 2019 Hong Kong protests. A place once filled with personal nostalgia began to feel like a grim foreshadowing of what might unfold in Western societies. In this turbulent context, 20α stands out as a space of resistance and renewal -- a beacon for a new generation of experimental musicians, growing in defiance of increasing censorship and surveillance. Turntable Solos is both a personal statement and a public act of sonic resilience.
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LP
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CREP 088LP
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Multi-groove single-sided LP. Parallel Traces Of The Jewel Voice by dj sniff is a project that takes inspiration from historical narratives and personal memories constructed around The Jewel Voice Broadcast (Gyokuon Hoso) that took place on August 15th, 1945. Contrary to common belief, Emperor Hirohito did not speak live on air to announce the surrender of Japan on this day. Instead, two lathe-cut discs with his recorded voice were skillfully mixed and played by NHK engineer Shizuto Haruna. Haruna's proto-DJ/turntablist performance was heard not only in Japan but also throughout the colonized territories in Asia, marking the end of World War II and Japanese rule. Interested in these aspects which often have been overlooked within the Japanese narratives of this historical event, dj sniff conducted research in both Taiwan and Japan. Over the course of three years, he collected various materials that include; interviews and field recordings, audio samples extracted from phonograph discs and recordings sessions with improvising musicians, and a re-reading of the Imperial Rescript on Surrender in Chinese. These were used to compose two compositions that are paired differently depending on their distribution format. The vinyl release is a multi-sided disc with two parallel grooves cut on one side, which in effect plays a different composition depending on where the stylus is cued. The other side has no audio but features two silkscreened lines that refer to how Haruna played the original lathe-cut discs. Additionally, an extensive text written by dj sniff accompanies this release. Sniff uncovers technical details of the recording and broadcasting of the emperor's voice that took place over 75 years ago. He also reflects on his encounters with the elderly community in Taiwan who spoke fluent Japanese and shared their personal stories after listening together to records from their childhood.
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