Rebirth of a Nation

Liner Note Author: Paul D. Miller.
Recording information: Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA (02/02/2007).
Editor: Howard Kenty.
Arranger: Howard Kenty.
Rebirth of a Nation, by DJ Spooky (Paul D. Miller), has been called a remix of D.W. Griffith's notorious and explicitly (if not avowedly) racist 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, applying the techniques of the electronic DJ to film instead of music. But it was also a musical score, and one of an unprecedented kind. You get both viewpoints on the work here: the album release includes two discs, one containing a complete version of DJ Spooky's remixed film, with the soundtrack recut and resynchronized to the film. Those who have seen Rebirth of a Nation in one of its many live realizations may wish to have this release for the sake of completeness. But really the music itself is another good reason. The cover rubric "Performed by Kronos Quartet" doesn't quite represent what you hear; instead, the string quartet weaves in and out of DJ Spooky's electronic soundscapes, which both reflect and comment on the film's violent story, as sure an indication as there is of the evil that lurks in the hearts of humans. The music is broken into 19 cuts, each with its own title ("Ride of the Klansmen"), more or less in the manner of a traditional soundtrack. But the relationship between the electronics and the acoustic instruments is something else again. This is not the first fusion between classical music and hip-hop, which composers from each tradition have juxtaposed since hip-hop was no more than a decade old. But even in 2015, when the project was eight years old (the Kronos Quartet parts here were recorded in 2007), it remained the most thorough, profound, and problematic attempt to bring the two traditions into conversation. Recommended and worth hearing as abstract music. ~ James Manheim