Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: DJ Q-Bert (1997)
Mo’ Wax was a record label started by James Lavelle in 1992, which closed about ten years later. Initially they released 12" singles and licensed a compilation from Japan of Japanese Hip Hop, until 1994 when they began releasing albums of their artists original work. While some of these artists such as DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Money Mark continued releasing music after Mo’ Wax closed, others have seemingly disappeared from the music scene. In this series I will look at each artist on Mo’ Wax and try to find out where are they now…
In December 1997 Mo’ Wax released a short mix featuring a mashup of several DJ Shadow songs titled Camel Bobsled Race (Q-Bert Mega Mix). While it is officially credited as a DJ Shadow release, the mix was created entirely by DJ Q-Bert, aka Richard Quivetis.
Q-Bert had begun scratching at the age of 15 after hearing Grand Master DST scratching on Herbie Hancock’s Rockit. In 1989 Q-Bert was hit by a car and was unable to leave his bed due to his injuries which led to Q-Bert using his time to master the turntable, and he credits this with helping him to become a better musician.
It was during this time that Q-Bert had met fellow DJ’s Mix Master Mike and they soon teamed with DJ Apollo to form Shadow of the Prophet, an all turntable band. It was also during this period that Q-Bert first met DJ Shadow, as he later explained:
I’ve been friends with Shadow since 1990. We met ’cause both of us were in the hip-hop DJ circuit and shared similar names at the time. I was in a collective called Shadow of the Prophet, which was changed…when too many DJs with shadow names were on the scene.
Q-Bert won several Technics’ DMC Championships, both solo and with groups featuring his Shadow of the Prophet teammates, and it has been rumoured that Q-Bert was asked to stop competing as he was so successful, though Q-Bert has explained that he was actually just asked to judge. Following his decision to stop competing, Q-Bert formed the Invisibl Skratch Piklz which at various times included as members: Mixmaster Mike, Shortkut, DJ Disk, D-Styles and Yoga Frog. The group released several of their The Shiggar Fraggar Show! albums, which collected radio mixes and live performances from 1995 onwards, before eventually going their seperate ways.
In 1994, Q-Bert released his first solo mix album Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik, and in 1995 he took part in the Dr. Octagon recording sessions with Dan The Automator and Kool Keith. The Dr. Octagon album, Ecologyst, was released in the UK by Mo’Wax in 1996, marking Q-Bert’s first appearance on the label. This was followed by Camel Bobsled Race, which was released by Mo’ Wax in 1997, and Q-Bert explained the origins of the mix to SF Weekly:
Shadow came over one day and presented the idea. When I accepted, he handed me a stack of his old records and I went to it…I took all the beats from Shadow’s past releases and created a medley of instrumentals, throwing down scratches on top. Each of his beats has its own personality, so I developed unique scratches to fit each one.
The short mix contains sections of many DJ Shadow songs, including: Napalm Brain, Midnight In A Perfect World, Organ Donor, Hardcore (Instrumental) Hip Hop, Bonus Beat, Influx, and The Number Song (Cut Chemist Remix). But while the mix only runs for 24 minutes, it was originally much longer and was released in edited form, as reportedly Q-Bert was mistakenly sent tracks by DJ Krush alongside those by DJ Shadow, with the DJ Krush elements having to be cut out prior to release. The complete mix has never been released.
In the UK the mix entered the charts in December 1997, spending nine weeks in the Independent Singles Chart Top 50, peaking at #11, spending three weeks in the Singles Chart Top 100, peaking at #62, and spending five weeks in the Scottish Singles Sales Top 100, peaking at #64. Outside of the UK, Camel Bobsled Race was available as a bonus track on some copies of DJ Shadow’s Preemptive Strike compilation, released in 1998 in the USA. But not all reviewers were impressed with the mix, and The Atlanta Constitution (29 January 1998) told readers, “Discard the “bonus” CD that comes with this collection…it’s 24 minutes of graceless scratching and ho-hum break beats. Obviously, there’s a reason this clumsy opus was left off the main disc”.
Elsewhere, NME called it a “a completists-only release” and while they enjoyed the mix they also felt it wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste as “even the most charitable critic would be forced to admit that the “Wicky-wicky-wack!” ways of the scratch DJ are an acquired taste.” The Times agreed, calling it “something of a curio, more suited to collectors and hardcore enthusiasts.” While Neil Strauss for The New York Times listed it as one of their favourite singles of 1997, and Andy Gill wrote for The Independent that Camel Bobsled Race was “an extraordinary piece featuring some of the most fluid, expressive scratching I’ve ever heard.”
The cover art for Q-Bert’s Camel Bobsled Race is a direct homage to Afrika Bambaataa’s Death Mix — Live!!, a mix released in 1983. Even the albums linear notes have been copied from Bambaataa’s Death Mix, with the original stating “If you listen to this record, you’ll know why Africa Bambaataa is the best DJ”, while the Q-Bert mix states “If you listen to this record, you’ll know why Q-Bert is the best DJ”. The Q-Bert linear notes are credited to James Lavelle, but are the same as those by Paul Winley from Bambaataa’s album, other than some minor changes. Similarly, the vinyl label has been changed from “Paul Winley Records”, to “James Lavelle Records” to complete the homage.
Following its release, the album was later bootlegged, as unfortunately there are many bootlegs of Mo’ Wax releases due to the fact they have since gone out of print.
Following Camel Bobsled Race, Q-Bert released his first solo album Wave Twisters in 1998, and during the recording of the album Q-Bert decided it could make an interesting movie, as he explained to Phoenix New Times:
About halfway through it, I thought I could make it a story…I’ve always wanted to make videos for my music, but to stay away from the MTV stuff. I wanted more like graffiti animation.
In 2001 Wave Twisters: The Movie was released and toured at film festivals. The film combines 2-D and 3-D animation with live action and photo collages, while using Q-Berts original album as its soundtrack. The final product impressed Q-Bert yet left some audience members initially confused. But luckily another film featuring Q-Bert was released at the same time which gave some context to what was going on. Scratch premiered at the Sundance Film Festival with Wave Twisters: The Movie, and helped audiences better understand “turntablism” and scratch DJ’s, as Q-Bert explained at the time:
People didn’t really understand what Wave Twisters was about, but after they saw Scratch they knew a lot more about it. A lot of people opened their eyes to [scratching], and we got a lot more respect than before.
Q-Bert discussed his future plans for Wave Twisters in 2003, which included a videogame and sequel movie, but these haven’t materialsed yet. Since the films release, Q-Bert has remained busy touring, and running Thud Rumble, a company set up with fellow DJ Yogafrog which stocks albums of breaks and DVDs created by Q-Bert.
In 2014 Q-Bert released two new solo albums Extraterrestria and GalaXXXian, and he has since been preparing for their follow up, titled “Origins” Wave Twisters Zero. The new album is billed as a prequel to the original Wave Twisters album and is due for a release “sometime in the fall of 2020”, with several free downloads teasing the full release. Following the release of the new Wave Twisters album, Q-Bert has suggested his next album will have MC’s on it, and there are also plans for another Invisibl Skratch Piklz album which is currently being completed.
