Ruckus Roboticus

Ever the diligent record spelunker, Dayton, OH's Ruckus Roboticus has found his niche by digging through the dustiest out-of-the-way thrift store crates in search of underground kid-centric vinyl. Mixing Sesame Street and Fat Albert with hip-hop breakbeats, he creates a whimsical, danceable mash-up of pop culture and electro-funk, but unlike the similar-minded the Go! Team, who incorporate a blend of live instrumentation and samples, he relies strictly on his wheels of steel to scratch together his sound collages.

Picking up a pair of turntables in 1998, Ruckus Roboticus started obsessively collecting records. Within a few years he had several thousand rarities and began using his newfound sound samples to puzzle-piece together a rough concept album about a kid who uses music to escape from the trials and tribulations of growing up. A semi-autographical endeavor, he buried himself in music for nearly two years, and started rifling through his albums in 2004 to meticulously compose and mix down Playing with Scratches. As the record neared completion, he released several spin-offs, including an instrumental version and an alternate mix of Playing with Scratches, and an entirely new mix of kids' TV themes and pop samples called The Music Machine. Once the album was officially released in late 2007 on Grease Records, he decided to take a break from perusing his record collection to play the role of a producer, making freelance beats for Nickelodeon, MTV, and The Disney Family Channel, and remixing other artist's songs including Bloc Party's "Hunting for Witches".