Posted on 05/01/2008
Mike Relm extends turntablism beyond music and into image, manipulating audio and film in a manner consistent with the concept of “multi-media artist.” The nature of this work might lend itself best to a live experience, but DVDs such as Relm’s new Clown Alley In 3D can at least begin to compensate for the prohibitive ticket prices of the Blue Man Group show for which he has been opening. A mixture of live footage, skits, and titular 3D action (courtesy of included glasses), Clown Alley is fun, but not necessarily as innovative as you might have expected from the techniques that he employs.

The performance segments, which are the meat of the program, do sometimes demonstrate Relm’s proficiency for turntable manipulation, both of video images and their audio counterparts. At best, this is very entertaining and effective, as in seeing the “O-face” dialogue from Office Space cut up and scratched to true musical effect. Too often, though, these performance bits seem uninspired, merely placing an image of someone dancing on top of a well-known song: Napoleon Dynamite dancing to AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” or John Travolta and Uma Thurman dancing to Joe Jackson’s “Stepping Out.” The audio manipulation sometimes feels similarly bland; some drum programming under the Charlie Brown theme of “Linus and Lucy” doesn’t really constitute much of a remix.

Keeping in mind that Relm opens for the Blue Man Group, much of this seems like a version of the DJ arts made consumptive for general audiences. By making use of universally recognizable images and sounds (universally recognizable from a U.S. pop-culture standpoint, that is), and tweaking them in minimal ways, this seems to be a way to bring the DJ to folks that might not otherwise be receptive to such things. Audiences unfamiliar with the creativity of earlier multi-media artists like EBN, Coldcut, or the classic mash-ups of Z-Trip and P may be soundly impressed, even blown away. Those who are a little more familiar with hip-hop and electronic dance culture may see this as professional, proficient, but not really that ground-breaking.

The remainder of the disc is filled with images of Mike Relm being chased around by clowns (interesting because it is in 3D), and some “instructional” segments featuring a guy in a Mexican wrestler mask demonstrating various slapstick combative techniques. A middle segment, reminiscent of a bit that Weird Al would do on his MTV specials, edits a Larry King broadcast so that Larry King appears to be interviewing Mike Relm. Much of this seems to be filler more than anything, and is not nearly as interesting as the performances.

- Justin Deremo