(MusicPortal.com) (05/15/06)

Edited By Michael Bennett

LOS ANGELES, CA - CUT CHEMIST is set to release his Warner Bros. Records debut album, "The Audience's Listening," on July 11th. The Los Angeles native recorded hundreds of songs before selecting the final 12 tracks that made it onto the LP.

"They say you get as long as you need to make your first album, but the second one you get a year!" jokes Cut Chemist. Consider this as well: his songs have been built with the assistance of thousands of rare, crazy, odd, eccentric and quite often unplaceable samples from other records, a truly global library that has been amassed from his extensive travels and dates back to sometime around 1977.

Throughout his life, he's honed his skills as a record hunter extraordinaire. That's a history that has built up into a varied and uplifting album that even defies his complimentary characterization as someone known to play with sound in unexpected ways.

It's true that "The Audience's Listening" was a bit of a long time in the making, but imagine how relatively little time Cut Chemist has had in the laboratory. Mainly, he's toured a lot. He spent 12 years as a DJ and producer for L.A. Hip-Hop dynamos Jurassic 5.

He also did five years playing the turntables backing up the Grammy-winning Latin alternative band Ozomatli, and several years releasing highly bootlegged mixtapes (such as his "Brain Freeze Original Soundtrack" collaboration with DJ Shadow in 1999, a much sought eBay delight that lead to another popular meeting of the two in 2004's "Product Placement" tour and DVD).

Throughout it all, he's found the time to helm his own recurring club nights in Los Angeles (these days he can often be found on Saturday nights playing at "Funky Sole" at Hollywood lounge Star Shoes).

As an in-demand DJ that's always tried to further his craft as a producer, Cut Chemist has had to juggle a lot more than beats over the years. But, after departing Ozomatli and, more recently, Jurassic 5 in late 2004, his focus is finally squarely on himself.

"That's probably part of why it took me so long," he says of the album. "I had to retrain myself into seeing that I was the only one here. There's really no one else I have to clear things with."

Cut Chemist met future Jurassic 5 MCs Chali 2na and Mark 7 at a park jam in Silverlake, while attending an arts-based high school in the center of Los Angeles, which boasts other famous alums such as Leonardo DiCaprio.

The three were part of a group called U.N.I.T.Y. Committee (which made its cassette debut in 1991 and played at shows with Tupac Shakur, among others). By the next year they were enjoying the unexpectedly fertile talent scene at the weekly open mic night at the Good Life Cafe, a health-oriented restaurant in South Central LA's historic Leimert Park area.

The Good Life helped nurture the careers of Freestyle Fellowship and Pharcyde, among others. It also facilitated the formation of Jurassic 5, when these three U.N.I.T.Y. members joined forces with another group, Rebels of Rhythm. Cut Chemist's first original production came on 'Lesson 6' from the Jurassic 5 EP: A cheeky head-nod to the pioneering sample-based cut-ups of Steinski & Double Dee (who first gained attention in the early '80s via a record called 'Lesson 1').

Now, 13 years since the formation of Jurassic 5, to call "The Audience's Listening" purely just a Hip-Hop album would be to miss the point entirely. "I think this album mirrors the world palate - there's Brazilian stuff, rock stuff, Eastern European influences and many others," he notes. "I wanted it to be that way, to kind of give it a texture of, 'Hey, I go all over the world and buy records!'"

The album has allowed Cut Chemist to get back to the root of his DJ self; back into the crates, though these days that means vinyl, CDs and digital files. Bookended by what he would call the more "classic Cut Chemist" styles ('Motivational Speaker' and 'The Audience Is Listening (Theme Song),' the meat in between often leaps into new sonic territory.

Take the Kraftwerkian 'Metrorail Thru Space,' or the lushly guitar-driven 'The Garden,' recorded in Brazil. The legacy of Hip-Hop is still a firm root, which might be best evinced on 'What's The Altitude' featuring Hymnal. The song was inspired by the hissy and muffled recordings on widely circulated cassette tapes of old-school Hip-Hop DJ battles, like the 1978 face-off between the L Brothers and the Herculoids.

Speaking of battles, it's audible that Cut Chemist has given his all for this project, fighting with his heart and soul: "I treated songs as if they were the last I was gonna make," he says. "The Audience's Listening" is a product of a Los Angeles native who's lived in the bustling metropolis for all of his 33 years. It's what's shaped his sound and diverse outlook, his playfulness and his edge.

It is also evocative of an era when sound enthusiasts put out records for the adventure of it, not just as a vehicle tied to hit singles and booty-shaking videos. Using a turntable, mixer and computer to create the songs, it is an homage to all that is musically possible from the fingertips of a gifted DJ and imagineer.

"Everything on the album was uncharted territory, something I've never done before. The only thing that's worth doing is exploration."

"The Audience's Listening" Track Listing:

1. Motivational Speaker
2. M 1st Big Break
3. The Lift
4. The Garden
5. Spat
6. What's The Altitude (Featuring Hymnal)
7. Metrorail Thru Space
8. Storm (Featuring Edan & Mr. Lif)
9. 2266 Cambridge
10. Spoon
11. A Peak In Time
12. The Audience Is Listening (Theme Song)

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