Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
DJ Olive's "Bodega" is the sound of the barrio rewired and recontextualized, a genre-defying mash-up encompassing everythign from brash Latin horn solos to twangy spaghetti Western guitar riffs to reverberating dub basslines. Not at all what one would expect from an avant-garde turntablist who's collaborated with names like Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and free jazz legend John Zorn, but it's an irresistably funky and fresh collection of backtard bangers all the same. The end result is blended seemlessly in the style of a block-party-rocking mix disc. Muy sabroso!
(Brock Phillips)
- XLR8R
Bodega might be the first album by Gregor Asch, aka DJ Olive, but he has been far from idle, as collaborations with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and composer/drum programmer Ikue Mori, plus a live electronic set at the 2003 Venice Biennale prove. Bodega is a selection of tracks produced in different venues around the world throughout 2002 and 2003. This gives the flavour of a sound travelogue, of DJ Olive travelling through different time and space zones, ranging from Ystad, Sweden, Wels, Austria and Le Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland to his hometown Brooklyn. "Trains, planes, and parks", meanwhile, provide the thematic basis of the album, with the insert's artwork complementing the theme. Stefano Giovanni's images of the bodega encapsulate the journeyman theme of a mixing of elements - the typical bodega shopfront of cinematic colour and eclat mixes well with Olive's fusion of sounds.
Olive has fashioned the phrase "rooftop music", which serves as a sharp description of this CD. "Ally Way" rumbles out of nowhere, with its collection of riffs and underground murmurings. Its dub influenced syncopated drum lingers even in the high tones of the Latin-flavoured, disco-influenced tracks "Shy Ear Swing" and "Ballad and Scrambled".
The mixes on "Hen Porch Blues" take the bodega theme elsewhere; coupled with the solitude of cinematic track "Tinthology Roof", they together cause a slow wind reminiscent of the danceable and low energetic grooves of DJ Olive's WE trio with Rich Panciera aka Lloop and Ignacio Platas aka Once11.
(Anan Collymore)
- The Wire
Discography
"Bodega" on the Agriculture and "Buoy" on ROOM40
here is his full discog:
Solo:
DJ Olive, "Buoy" CD, ROOM40
DJ Olive, "Bodega" CD, the Agriculture
DJ Olive, "Coonymus" 12" ep, the Agriculture
The Audio Janitor, "Perpetual Soundcheck" vinyl score, Phonomena
The Audio Janitor, "Composition 11: Audio Roulette" vinyl score, Phonomena
The Audio Janitor, "Copier.Coller", Quatermass, La Batie, Sub Rosa
solo compilation appearances:
V/A, "Funk: This is Jungle Sky vol.6", Liquid Sky Music
V/A, "Welcome to Execrate", Leaf
V/A, "Cloudwatch vol. 2", Sonic Soul
V/A, "Soundworks, Whitney Biennial 2002", Whitney
V/A, "EMIT One" EMIT
V/A, "A Mutated Christmas", Illegal Art
V/A, "Polyhedric Tetrapak", Ooze.bap records
V/A, "Drop the Needle, illy B Eats Remixes", Amulet Records
V/A, "City Sonics 2003", Transcultures
Mix CDs:
V/A – “Barbecue Beets, Sunrise on a Rooftop in Brooklyn” CD, the Agriculture
Full lengths as part of We™:
We™, "Decentertainment" CD and 2x12", Home Entertainment
We™, "Square Root of Negative One" CD and 2x12", Asphodel
We™, "As Is" CD and 2x12", asphodel
We™, "the Antenna Tool and Die Sessions" 12", Asphodel
We™ compilation appearances:
V/A, "Incursions in Illbience", Asphodel
V/A, "Home Entertainment Vol. 2", Liquid Sky Music
V/A, "Home Entertainment Vol. 3", Liquid Sky Music
V/A, "Rock & Roll, This is Jungle Sky Vol. 5", Liquid Sky Music
V/A, "Land of the Baboon", Silent
V/A, "Asphodelic", Asphodel
V/A, "Sonar99. La recopilacion", So Dens
V/A, "Crooklyn Dub Vol 1", Wordsound
V/A, "Valis: Assassination of Syntax", Subharmonic
V/A, "Mysteries of Creation", Axiom
V/A, "Necropolis Mix", Knitting Factory Works
Other collaborative appearances:
Dj Olive, Kim Gordon, Ikue Mori, Sonic Youth Recordings
Dj Olive meets I/O, "Powerhouse Sessions", Room 40
Liminal, "Live at the Whitney Museum Series", Knitting Factory Works
Liminal, "Nosferatu Soundtrack", Knitting Factory Works
Liminal, "Pre Set", Knitting Factory Works
Uri Caine, "Urlicht / Primal Light", Winter and Winter
Uri Caine, "Urlicht / Primal Light Live", Winter and Winter
Uri Caine, "Goldberg Variations", Winter and Winter
Elliot Sharp, "State of the Union", Zoar
Ben Neill, "Triptycal", Antilles
William Hooker, "Armageddon", Homestead Records
William Hooker, "Mindfulness", Knitting Factory Works
Gerard Malanga, "Up from the Archives", Sub Rosa
Medeski Martin & Wood, "Uninvisable", Blue Note Records
Blue Marble, "Aiko Shimada", Tzadik
NXS, "Sleeper", Music Mine
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
DJ Olive was raised in Boston, Nova Scotia, Trinidad, Rhode Island and Australia.
In 1994, he started up Multipolyomni and We(TM). We's '97 release "as is" can be considered a classic. We opened for the Orb that spring. Their 3rd release, "decentertainment" landed them at Barcelona's Sonar '99.
In 1995 he began to enjoy improvising. Kim
Gordon ( Sonic Youth), Ikue Mori (DNA), Medeski, Martin and Wood, Luc Ferrari, Bill Laswell, John Zorn, Uri cain, Dave Douglas are just a few of the artists he has recorded or played with. His versatile skillz as turntablist and dj/producer have put him in high demand, often touring the world for months at a time.
In 1999, he and Toshio Kajiwara founded Phonomena Audio Arts & Multiples (www.phonomena.org), a weekly event as well as a record label. also In '99, he and James Healy started the Agriculture, a down home tempo beats in the backyard label from Brooklyn.
In 2003, after many years of collaborating with musicians, live and on recordings, Olive finally released his debut solo CD, "Bodega," an ass shaking continuous mix tape of rough down home dance party beats.
In 2004, Room40, from Brisbane Australia put out his "Buoy" composition. A 60-min voyage of beat-less warmth Olive call's "a sleeping pill".
He has also been included in many exhibitions including: Treble, Brooklyn Sculpture Center 2004, City Sonics 2004, Mons, Venice Biennale 2003, Whitney Biennial 2002, Bit Streams, Whitney 2001.
He continues to compose in his Brooklyn studio, Skin Tone Riddles when he's not playing somewhere like ?Tasmania.
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