Magazine: Southeast Performer
Title: FAUST AND SHORTEE:
DIGITAL SOLDIERS AT ODDS WITH THEIR OWN IMAGE
Writer: TONY WARE & LAYLA BELLOWS
Photos: KEN FORSYTHE Issue Date: 10.01
DJ/PRODUCTION
DUO FAUST AND SHORTEE ARE WAGING WAR AGAINST THEIR OWN IMAGE BOBBY BRUNO AND SHANNON BURKE ARE STRESSED OUT. The couple, who have been together since they met in Virginia in 1995, got engaged the eve of Y2K and have since been steadily planning their September wedding. Now the ceremony scant weeks away, they’ve kindly taken an hour to be interviewed despite having tons more planning to do. But even as Bruno & Burke take a few minutes to wind down their thoughts, their alter egos – Faust & Shortee – are still hard at work. Staring down from a promotional flat taped to the wall of Bruno & Burke’s north Atlanta apartment, Faust and Shortee are out there on every copy of their latest release, DIGITAL SOUL, trying to show people that they haven’t changed up, they’ve just wised up.
What
Faust and Shortee are working toward is changing people’s perceptions of them
as artists. Faust and Shortee are at war with the public’s image of them – of
their being solely a scratch DJ duo (albeit the only scratch duo of their co-ed
kind). Two years after releasing scratch-heavy albums on bomb hip-hop records
meant to establish their solo identities, their Stray Records debut released in
July whose aim is to reintroduce people to Faust and Shortee as a production team,
not a performing act. Just don’t call it a comeback. And for God’s sake, don’t
call them turntablists! “We’re not trying to completely fight the turntablist thing,” says Faust. “We just don’t want to be completely stigmatized by it.”
“I don’t want to NOT be considered a turntablist, “ adds Shortee, who often completes Faust’s thoughts, and vice versa. “We still scratch & beat juggle and all that but that’s not only what we are.”
What Faust and Shortee always are is a unique partnership, a working relationship in every sense of the phrase. If the pair were actually prepping for battle, Shortee – who grew up with psychedelic rock and percussionist training – would be the comic book POW ZAP BAM type, while Faust – the seemingly stoic Puerto Rican B-boy who introduced Shortee to the turntables – would be the military strategist, playing scenarios out in his head. Once comfortably in private, however, Faust is the talkative one and Shortee doesn’t shrug off business to beat bongos. It’s possible that everything you think about Faust and Shortee is wrong. Starting with the duo’s first release.
“Man or Myth?” [Faust’s debut, credited as the first wholly turntablist album] was an accident,” says Shortee. “A label head happened to hear Bobby’s mix tape, “Man Or Myth?, on someone’s answering machine. It was just the timing. But that’s how Bobby developed his identity in the beginning.”
“Man or Myth? wasn’t a representation of me as an producer,” says Faust. “It was basically a mix tape. We were never so much trying to be a part of the turntablist thing as using the only mediums that we could. At that point the DJ thing was just starting to get popular, so we went with it. Kind of like how we originally started Djing with Techno. We knew it was going to go off, so it was an easy way to get out foot in the door since the rave scene was already big.”
Armed at first like so many urban guerilla producers with just a pair of Technics 1200 turntables, Faust and Shortee actually started off gigging separately at more raves then rare groove events – spinning hard house and techno. Over time, however, they marketed their four-turntable sets as a valuable commodity. Then, once their solo albums – planned as a means to establish Shortee as more than just Faust’s sidekick dropped, the duo became known primarily for their turntablism, a perception they are scheming to shatter.
Don’t worry, they’re not giving up on Djing or anything so drastic as a statement. But while their touring the country – mixing soul, funk, breaks, rock, and even rave music – they’ll now be playing many of their own compositions and preaching understanding, with Digital Soul as their pulpit. Because “digital soul” to Faust and Shortee is more than just an album, it’s their approach to leaving behind the eight-track and Technics-based production and embracing digital composition to make music from a million bits and pieces and snippets of sound, mixing spacey acid-jazz, tribal drum ‘n’ bass, classic b-boy breaks and heavy bass in a scratch free environment.
“Digital Soul is a concept album,” says Faust, “even though it’s different then our last two albums [the overtly concept albums Shortee’s The Dreamer and Faust’s Inward Journeys] it was still a concept album. It surrounds the concept of ‘digital soul’ – computer-based funky, soulful drums and bass-based music.
“Our identity as a team is stuff we would play live in our set,” emphasizes Shortee, “so our album is too.”
Faust and Shortee’s dabbling in digital doesn’t end with one album, however. The duo have another joint album, Satisfaction Guaranteed, planned for October release (featuring almost all new tracks composed between June and August), with singles ranging from funk, dub, drum ‘n’ bass and even possibly hard house planned to branch off that. “We established what we were doing with Digital Soul – it set that style in motion; gave it a name,” says Faust. “Now with this album [Satisfaction Guaranteed] we’re taking that and going in different directions with it. Some stuff is more scratchy and some stuff that’s more drums and breaks.”
As well the Faust and Shortee cottage industry has produced break records, videos, and mix CDs (both hip-hop and hard house). After Satisfaction Guaranteed and the establishment of digital soul, Shortee is going to concentrate on her second solo album (with accompanying film), The Time Machine (a parable about the dangers of banning music, with no relation to H.G. Wells). And the duo is working on remixes for the West Coast-based Tino Corp. And have submitted scratches for consideration for a Bill Laswell reinterpretation of Herbie Hancock’s Rockit. They’ve got so many ideas on the backburners they’ll never run out of fuel.
So just how industrious are Faust and Shortee? Well, to pay for their honeymoon they’ve even organized a string of DJ gigs throughout Europe to coincide with it. They can try all they want to change their image, but honest truth is that in some respects they are what they appear to be: Two of the hardest working multi-faceted DJ/Producers in the country.
FAUST AND SHORTEE DISCOGRAPHY
Faust and Shortee:
Digital Soul (Stray Records)
Fathomless Featuring DJ Faust, Shortee & Craze (Bomb Hip Hop Records)
Shortee (solo):
The Dreamer (Bomb Hip Hop Records)
Faust (solo):
Inward Journeys (Bomb Hip Hop Records)
Man Or Myth (Bomb Hip Hop Records)
Compilations:
Toolz of War Vol. 1
Battle record Faust and Shortee produced as the Citizenz (Replicant Records)
Urban R[Evolution]S
Faust & Shortee Co-Produced Track: “Scientific Breakthrough” (Future Primitive Records)
Bomb Anniversary Collection 1991-2001
Shortee Produced Track: “Cavern’s of Dub”
Faust Produced Track: “Better Than Before (rock the place)”
Faust Produced Track: “Hypnotizin”
Shortee Produced Track: “Sound Wars”
Shortee Produced Track: “R.E.M. State”
Faust Produced Track: “Tracking and Balance”
Faust Produced Track: “You Wanna Battle Me” (Bomb Hip Hop Records)
Revenge Of The B-Boy
Faust & Shortee Co-Produced Track: “The All Out Kid” (Bomb Hip Hop Records)
I Got All My Sisters & Me EP
Shortee Produced Track: “Shortee’s Return” (The Mishpucha Records)
DJ Girl
Shortee Produced Track: “R.E.M. State” (K-Tel Records)
Deep Concentration Vol. 3
Faust Co-Produced Track w/ T-Rock: “Where Will You Run” (OM Records)
CMJ New Music Monthly
Shortee Produced Track: “Sound Wars” (CMJ Recordings)
Life & Times Of A Beatboxer
Shortee Produced Track: “Goddess”
Faust Produced Track: “Lock Up” (Bomb Hip Hop Records)
Return Of The DJ Vol.III
Faust Produced Track: “The Return Of The DJ”
Shortee Produced Track: “Shortee’s Return” (Bomb Hip Hop Records)
Contents Under Pressure
Faust Co-Produced Track w/ T-Rock: “Abdukshun & Analysis” (Bomb Hip Hop Records)
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Mix CDs: (Faust & Shortee Music Productions)
A Certified Dope Hip-Hop Mega Mix Vol.1 mixed & scratched by Faust & Shortee
Another Dope Hip-Hop Mega Mix Vol.2 mixed & scratched by Faust & Shortee
Dream Theory Vol. 1: Energy Paths mixed & scratched by Faust & Shortee (hard house & techno)
Dream Theory Vol. 2: Tension Breakers mixed & scratched by Faust & Shortee (hard house & techno)
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