Dusty Hickman, AKA Pickster One, begins to paint a picture of how Morse Code's turntable ensemble comes together.
Only - like the late, great Bob Ross, the instructional painter famous for his "happy little trees" on PBS - Hickman doesn't merely verbalize how Morse Code molds its hip-hop creation out of 33-inch vinyl. Like Ross did for decades, Hickman demonstrates with utter delight how the hills become mountains, or rather, how the scratch becomes symphony.
"Jimi starts it off with a kick drum and snare," says Hickman, 26, pointing to Jimi, who prefers to go by Mantis Claw.
The 27-year-old lanky elder of the group, Mantis Claw begins tweaking the cross-fader back and forth between his thumb and index finger in one hand, while the digits of his other hand do push-ups on a record almost tailor-made for the sound he's looking for.
"Finding a white guy who can do what [Mantis Claw] does," says emcee and unofficial frontman Jahmaal Muqimi, AKA Ru-Ski, "Oh man! I never I thought I'd find somebody like him."
Mantis Claw, whose home in central Phoenix provides the rehearsal space Morse Code is using this evening in preparation for its CD release party Saturday night at the Bash On Ash, finds the right split-second morsel of percussion he can extract from the record, and begins to construct a beat.
Known as a pioneer of Arizona hip-hop with three releases under his belt, Mantis Claw works the beat into a developing cadence before Hickman continues with his lesson, looking to the second of Morse Code's three turntablists.
"Then, Casper over here," Hickman says, "he comes in with this bass-lock groove. The needle keeps riding the same spot on the record, so he can keep the same sound and then just change the note of the sound as we get into it."
Casper, a quiet 25-year-old just a year and a half removed from his native Colorado, begins to find a bass melody and subtly bounces his redheaded noggin up and down to the beat Mantis Claw has sustained with precision.
He isn't on 'Turnstyles', Morse Code's debut album that took "the loss of three band members, the births of two babies" and more than two years to make, says Hickman. Yet, while Casper -who replaced turntablist J-Why less than a year ago - doesn't communicate the camaraderie he has developed with the rest of Morse Code verbally, the wry grin that comes over his face every time he hears a slice of hip-hop heaven emanate from this extended jam session speaks volumes about his first eight months in the group.
When asked about the hip-hop scene he left behind in Colorado to come to the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Mesa, Casper quips, "Man, there is no hip-hop scene in Colorado."
After rummaging through his stacks of vinyl from an array of genres ["About the only thing you'll probably never hear me incorporate into our sound is country music."], Hickman uncovers a record of which he will use all of three seconds to complete the turntable composition of this freestyle session.
The melody he scratches into the soul of the jam is infectious. Mantis Claw and Casper begin to improvise, changing rhythms and inserting random breaks in the sound and pace.
Soon thereafter, Scottie White, a percussionist from the now-defunct Hammertoes who makes a cameo appearance on 'Turnstyles,' begins to tap his conga drum until he is confident enough in the rhythm to wail away.
Smiles go around, and one can sense this jam may be on its last legs.
Until Muqimi, a booming presence both physically and lyrically, stumbles in.
"Oh, yeah," he says with approval, careful not to interrupt the vibe that has permeated the room in his absence.
If not for Muqimi, affirms the rest of the band, 'Turnstyles' would likely have never been made. "We figured out it would have cost us around $35,000 to make this record at a [professional] studio," proclaims Muqimi, whose JahTools Studio [AKA his home], along with the Sweat Lodge Garage [AKA Jimi's garage] served as the production headquarters for the album, which Muqimi says required an average of 24 hours of editing for each track.
Muqimi, who shares the emcee duties with Emiliano, who couldn't make the rehearsal, then busts out a tirade of inaudible rhymes [he doesn't have a microphone in hand].
The cycle is complete. All heads are bobbing. The flow keeps going and going...until nearly 10 minutes have past and this beat has run its course.
"Woo! You won't hear that one again," Muqimi says.
And so the canvas is wiped clean.
Reach the reporter at joe.watson@asu.edu.
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Morse Code 'Turnstyles' CD Release Party at Bash On Ash, 230 W. 5th St., Tempe. 8 p.m. Saturday. $10. All ages. 480-966-8200. |
