Ruckus Roboticus

Artist Information

Biography

"This Ohio DJ is the rare crate-digger who can use his obscure vinyl, found sounds, et al. to spin a captivating yarn" - SPIN Magazine (May '08)
 
"With experimental and highly engaging tracks, double R is no ordinary beatsmith." - URB.COM
 
"An incredible fusion of music that incorporates funk, hip-hop, and experimental electronica all in one — a unique sound that's wildly vivid." - NPR / The World Cafe
 
"Worth getting excited about... Puts him in league with the likes of Cut Chemist, Prince Paul and RJD2... fun, funky and cognitive." - OkayPlayer.com
 
"Though primarily for grown-ups, Playing With Scratches might just be the hippest kids' album ever made. It certainly is the funkiest." - Cincinnati Citybeat
 
"It rivals anything from king cut and pasters like Cut Chemist and Kid Koala." -TurntableLab.com

"Our favorite DJ album of the year" - WOXY 97X

"Ridiculously good" - Strictly Kev (Ninja Tune)
  
"Holy Sh*t!  ...Very impressive!" - Steinski (Stones Throw)
 
Born from the industrial powers of Dayton, Ohio, Ruckus Roboticus has risen to unleash his fury of funk, hip-hop and mischief. Part turntable, half drum machine, all sex machine; the robotic wonder has continually electrified listeners with his colorful and imaginative world of sound.

When he's not busy remixing the stars (Bloc Party, Lady Tigra, Vampire Weekend, Pase Rock), or winning "Best DJ Mix" awards from Rockstar Games, Scion, and Solid Steel Radio, this bot can be found tearing the roof off of your local dancehall, art gallery, fashion show, and house party with a fierce live-set. His sharp skills and diverse selection have landed him countless shows across country, and even a few in the U.K., Canada and South Korea. He's rocked on stage with Crystal Castles, RJD2, The Juan Maclean, Peanut Butter Wolf, Prince Paul, DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Food, The Rub DJs, DJ Premier, Mitsu The Beats, and Mr. Lif. And he has heads nodding to his beats featured on Nickelodeon, MTV, and a Progressive Car Insurance commercial... It's no wonder his fans call him "the second hardest working man in show business."

At the beginning of 2008, Ruckus quietly infiltrated the iPods & Turntables of the world with his long-awaited debut album, "Playing with Scratches" (Grease Records, 2008). While the album didn't quite reach the Pop Charts, his tracks nonetheless dazzled critics and DJ's alike, gaining support from indie juggernauts KCRW (Los Angeles), WFMU (New York), KEXP (Seattle), WOXY (Cincinnati), and others, eventually catapulting the album into the CMJ Top Ten. Tracks were also supported by The World Cafe (NPR), XM Satellite Radio, Rob Da Bank (BBC Radio 1), Annie Mac (BBC Radio 1), Solid Steel Radio (London), The Blend Corp. (Australia), Brooklyn Radio, and Spin Magazine.

"Playing With Scratches" reached another level it was ranked in WOXY's 97 Best Albums of 2008 (alongside albums by Santogold, TV On The Radio, Portishead, Beck, MGMT...), and Ruckus was declared one of the "Next 1000" by Urb Magazine. In royal fashion, he was crowned an official member of Ninja Tune's Solid Steel Radio, joining Cold Cut, DJ Food, DK and other top-notch DJs in producing the weekly radio show that broadcasts "The Broadest Beats" around the world.

Despite his continued success, Ruckus remains in relative obscurity in Ohio, working endlessly in the studio on a slew of new remixes, music for television, and his next solo LP. Song by song, and mix by mix, Ruckus continues to capture the hearts & minds of music lovers around the world. It's only a matter of time until the whole world realizes, this is the dawning of The Age Of Roboticus.

Instrumentation

Ruckus Roboticus on turntables, sampler, keyboard, computer, FX units, and tambourine.

Discography

Ruckus Roboticus - Phantom of The Disco (LP) Fall 2012

Ruckus Roboticus - Take Me To A Disco (Single) April 2012

Ruckus Roboticus - The Chicks EP (Dance Or Die Records)
Fool's Gold "Nadine" (Ruckus Roboticus Remix)

"Switchblade Kitty" Remixes (Vinyl / Digital Download, Grease Records 2009)

"Here We Go" 12" (Vinyl / Digital Download, Grease Records 2008)

Playing With Scratches (CD / 2 LP, Grease Records 2008)

The Music Machine (Mix CD, 2007)

The Record Playa' (Mix CD, Monumental 2003)

Tales From The Crate Vol. 2 (Scratch Record, Monumental, 2002)

Tales From The Crate Vol. 1 (Scratch Record, Poolan, 2000)

Links

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Soundcloud

Audio

• Chicks
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• Here We Go
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• So Fucking Disco (Ruckus Roboticus Remix Ft. Vitamin E)
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• When I Grow Up
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• Hunting For Witches (Ruckus Roboticus Remix)
  Listen   Download

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• SPIN Magazine [+ Show ]
  

  "This Ohio DJ is the rare crate-digger who can use his obscure vinyl, found sounds, et al. to spin a..."This Ohio DJ is the rare crate-digger who can use his obscure vinyl, found sounds, et al. to spin a captivating yarn" - SPIN Magazine (May '08)

• Urb.com's Next 1000 [+ Show ]
  

  When asked to describe how something sounds, "Lots of records being played at the same time, with ho...When asked to describe how something sounds, "Lots of records being played at the same time, with hot sauce" seldom comes to mind. Perhaps this is just because few of us are blessed with the creative capacity of Ruckus Roboticus. And for someone who is emerging from "Under a rock, Ohio," Ruckus seems to know a thing or two about music. How's that? Well, not everybody has shared stages with the likes of DJ Premiere, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Prince Paul or RJD2. With experimental and highly engaging tracks, double R is no ordinary beatsmith. His debut album was not only semi-autobiographical, but it was crafted out of nothing but found sounds! Now if that's not impressive, than kinder-roboticus isn't the cutest next 1000-er we've ever seen.

• Cincinnati Citybeat - CD Review [+ Show ]
  

  With technology's growth spurt in the past several years, particularly in terms of music recording t...With technology's growth spurt in the past several years, particularly in terms of music recording technology, now anyone can make mash-ups, cut-and-paste samples from iTunes and become an amateur DJ of sorts. But to go beyond the amateurism, a deft touch is needed: a sense of musicality as well as a strong feel for rhythmic precision. Dayton's Ruckus Roboticus is a mix-master of the highest order, wisely compared to the likes of DJ Shadow and his statemate, RJD2. Roboticus has remixed Bloc Party and jammed the turntable and drum machine on stage with artists like Prince Paul and Mr. Lif. But his debut album, Playing with Scratches, is all Roboticus. Well, and about a million samples, culled most prominently from old children's albums and instructional recordings. Like Girl Talk, Roboticus' music is, first and foremost, fun, and the kid-record samples add to the playfulness. Beneath the merriment is a funky quilt of scratches and endless breakbeats, all craftily weaved together to give the record a high level of funkiness. The humor level is also pretty high -- on "How to Handle Grown Ups," a distinguished announcer gives tips for kids to relate to adults, but ends with a froggy voice instructing tikes to tell their elders, "You smell like a piece of doo-doo." "A Child's Introduction to Drums" is a marvel of beat intertwining, as various pieces of a drum kit are demonstrated, clashing and colliding in perfect sync with numerous outside rhythms. A lot of albums like this can become monotonous and trancelike, but Roboticus assembles his clips and beats together in a compositional manner, making it more than just background music for your next party and actually something you could listen to on a regular basis and still hear something new every time you put it on. Though primarily for grown-ups, Playing With Scratches might just be the hippest kids' album ever made. It certainly is the funkiest. Grade: A

• NPR's World Cafe [+ Show ]
  

  uckus Roboticus produces an incredible fusion of music that incorporates funk, hip-hop, and experime...uckus Roboticus produces an incredible fusion of music that incorporates funk, hip-hop, and experimental electronica all in one — a unique sound that's wildly vivid.
  
  The producer's career exploded when he self-released a remix of Bloc Party's "Hunting for Witches." Originally, the track was going to be released along with the Bloc Party single; however, the band didn't approve it as an official release, so he leaked it himself.
  
  Ruckus Roboticus' debut album, Playing with Scratches, is an audio collage that incorporates many different samples. He calls it "part children's music, part hip-hop."

• OkayPlayer.com [+ Show ]
  

  Yesterday's revelatory discovery of Thao with the Get Down Stay Down withstanding, so far 2008 has n...Yesterday's revelatory discovery of Thao with the Get Down Stay Down withstanding, so far 2008 has not been overly kind when it comes to blessing me with albums that truly excite me. I'm not worried though since (as I explained yesterday) the year just started, and as the trickle of new music that's already begun turns into a full-fledged flood I'm sure I'll be veritably overwhelmed by an inundation of genuinely breathtaking records so numerous that I'll be going crazy trying to find time to write about all of them. But in the meantime, business is still slow.
  
  
  The bright side to this seeming dearth of dopeness though is that when I'm confronted by something that's really worth getting excited about it stands out all the more. Such is the case with award-winning Dayton, Ohio-born turntablist Ruckus Roboticus and his debut LP Playing With Scratches. Self-described as "part turntable, half drum machine, all sex machine," Ruckus has performed alongside Prince Paul, DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Premier, RJD2 and The Juan Maclean among others, lent his production skills to Nickelodeon, MTV, the Disney Channel, and LOGO TV, remixed Bloc Party, and been featured on Ninja Tune's Solid Steel mix-show. His opus Playing With Scratches is a turntablist concept album that tells a narrative story about the birth, music-fueled life, death, and ultimate rebirth of a mythologized Ruckus, through sound collages built around scratches and samples culled largely from children's records, which puts him in league with the likes of Cut Chemist, and the aforementioned Prince Paul and RJD2, when it comes to crafting instrumental Hip-Hop that's all at once fun, funky and cognitive.
  
  
  Conceptually the album Playing With Scratches reminds me most of is Company Flow's instrumental outing Little Johnny from the Hospitul with a pinch of Prince Paul's not-entirely instrumental solo debut Psychoanalysis: What is it? thrown in for good measure. But concepts and sonics are two altogether different things, so don't expect Scratches to bear any discernible similarity to the former release. It shares more than a little bit in common with the latter though, not to mention Cut Chemist's The Audience's Listening and any number of downtempo records from labels like Ninja Tune and ESL. More than anything though it feels like a spiritual successor to my all-time favorite exhibition of Hip-Hop DJ skills (or turntablism if you will) ever committed to wax, Grandmaster Flash's seminal "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel." Perhaps Ruckus is just good at sentimental heart-string-plucking, but the breaks and kiddie-record vocal bits on tracks like "Here We Go" bring me right back to my childhood when the sound of a North Dakota-born storyteller mixed over Chic's "Good Times" pouring out of my boombox made me want nothing more than to be a real DJ and not just some kid sitting on his stoop "air scratching."
  
  

• WOXY - 97 BEST OF 97X
  

  "Our favorite DJ album of the year", and ranked #83 out of the 97 best albums of the year.

Setlist

Ruckus's Live performances last from 45 minutes to 90 minutes. His typical set consists of performing and remixing songs from his album Playing With Scratches, as well as new routines and tricks that we won't reveal here because we don't want to spoil the surprise. He can customize a set for a specific events or restrictions.

Basic Requirements

Calendar