Philip Jeck

by John BushIn similar territory to Christian Marclay and David Shea, Philip Jeck is an avant-garde turntablist, plunderphonic sample terrorist and performance artist whose most famous installation, Vinyl Requiem, included no less than 180 turntables. After studying the visual arts at Dartington College in Devon, Jeck began a performance career that found him at art galleries as well as warehouse parties, where he emulated the turntable tricks of American hip-hop DJs like Grandmaster Flash. It was during a five-year collaboration with contemporary dancer Laurie Booth though, that Jeck developed a more personal and experimental style of music-making allied with Canadian John Oswalds style of plunderphonics sampling. Jecks 1993 Vinyl Requim installation with Lol Sargent utilized 180 turntables as well as 12 slide projectors and two film projectors and won a Performance Award from Time Out magazine. The following year, he appeared on the Blast First! compilation Deconstruct alongside Christian Marclay, John Oswald, Bruce Gilbert and Stock, Hausen & Walkman and in 1995, Jeck released his debut album Loopholes for Touch. Surf followed four years later and then in 2001, Coda IV was released.