Artists at work, Competition stories, Music Performances, People at work / inside view

Scratch

It ain't news that kids play the turntable as if it was a musical instrument but this fast-paced history of how DJ scratching was invented is pretty cool. Profiles of four famous "turntable-ists" give a clear picture of how remarkable their scratching skill is; they can essentially sing by deftly oscillating appropriate portions of several records. With fine detail the film reveals the scratchers extreme dedication to innovation, constant practice, and an obsessive knowledge of records. It's quite a trip, very geeky in many ways, but it increased my respect and admiration for this weird little achievement 1000%.

-- KK [recommended by Matt Vance and by Alexey J. Merz]

Scratch
Directed by: Doug Pray
2001, 92 min.
$23, DVD

Rent from Netflix

Available from Amazon

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