Happy accidents can certainly play a part, but true innovation is rarely stumbled upon. Achieving it normally requires decades of osmosis and experimentation. Everybody’s gotta start somewhere. Strangely enough, Kraddy craved polka as a pip squeak.
“I remember loving Bobby Vinton, the Polish polka king as a little little kid. The first 45s I bought were ‘Heartlight’ by Neil Diamond and ‘When The Bullet Hits The Bone’ by Golden Earring.â€
As the burned out birthday candles piled up over the years, some of the classics—Floyd, Hendrix and Zeppelin, to be exact—made an impact. Genesis also generated its share of air time with the growing Kraddy’s young eardrums. The previously mentioned influences served well together as a sort of musical foundation, but true mind-shattering was still around the corner.
“Two tracks blew my mind when I heard them: LA Style’s ‘James Brown Is Dead’ and KMFDM’s ‘Naïve.’ The 32nd note kicks at the intro of ‘Naïve’ had me bugging! I had never heard drums so fast. I went to see the Triple Threat DJs in SF. After that night, I decided I wanted decks.â€
Although he was often designated “stereo b!+ch†at college keggers, Kraddy made his proper debut spinning drum and bass with his first crew, The Stress Collective, at a tiny club in San Francisco. Glitch Mob, a collective of California producers he has since parted ways with, is largely responsible for the popularization of a cutting-edge hybrid of electronica and hip hop called “glitch hopâ€. Glitch refers to the producers’ propensity for intentional glitches or “stutter editsâ€. Genius recluse Richard James, slightly better known as Aphex Twin, is recognized by those in the know as the godfather of the technique. Defining stutter edits in laymen terms can be a challenge, but, basically, they are micro-edit percussive stabs that can only be accomplished with computer software. Hearing is believing, but the sound has definitely found an audience. Kraddy has rocked Burning Man, Coachella, Electric Daisy Carnival, South by Southwest and even NASA alongside Bassnectar, Digable Planets, Funkstorung, Glitch Mob, Hank Shocklee of Public Enemy, Freq Nasty, Prefuse 73, Modeselektor, Plaid, Richard Devine, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Telefon Tel Aviv, Tipper and Zilla, among others.
“There’s nothing better than playing with friends to an appreciative crowd.â€
Kraddy is set to crush Euphonic Conceptions’ Haitian hurricane benefit tonight, May 21, at Cervantes, along with Eliot Lipp and Fresh2Death.