A musical wanderer who toys with styles from around the planet, DJ /Rupture is a mixologist who sounds at home in cities of the mind, where friction and confusion make culture something more than a byproduct of leisure. He got his start in 2001 on the Internet, where his first DJ project became a download staple that answered to the possibilities of mixing Timbaland with Moroccan street bands. Since then, DJ /Rupture has grown into a full-fledged composer, working with samples and original tracks that bear his own distinct stamp.
Special Gunpowder shows DJ /Rupture in his most overtly musical guise yet. The sound still wobbles between continents, but these 16 tracks flow like an album more than a turntable mix. "Overture: Watermelon City" opens with a jazz-tinged spoken-word riff that bids hello to "holy rollers who plug in their amps, blow out the power in the building, preach to the street from the stoop." From there, Special Gunpowder trades in the kind of mellow and manic break-beat tracks that help give those rollers their strut. "Little More Oil" sprays a minimal dancehall beat beneath a female Jamaican singer whose round patois floats away untethered. The mix is standard operating procedure for DJ /Rupture, but warm horn charts and patient builds of intensity find him focused on moments more than methods.
After leaning back slow and low early on, Special Gunpowder picks up speed with "Musquito," a swirl of squiggly African guitars and singalong vocals that dart between organic percussion rumbles. "Bonechip" gives the album a touch of hard, dark ragga toughness, while "The Book That Can't Be Opened At Either End" burrows into pure noise, scraping against screams and radio signals gone crossed. It's a long way from DJ /Rupture's more song-minded excursions, but it trades in the same kind of rootless rustle that he's made his own.