Dan Haug (a.k.a. Ruckus Roboticus) is no Johnny-come-lately to the revitalized scratch DJ scene. Having purchased his first decks while in junior high school, the now 26-year-old turntablist/producer recently released his first full-length artist album, Playing With Scratches. The work took Haug nearly three years to create and is comprised of the digital as well as scratch sequencing of countless samples. The listener may find some similarities between Ruckus’s new album and releases by artists such as DJ Shadow and Kid Koala.

Though certain turntablism purists may take exception to Haug’s use of DAW software for the purposes of editing and sequencing, rest assured, not only is the hissing and sporadic popping of vinyl preserved, but occasionally it’s even used rhythmically to add an extra dimension to the listening experience. Haug advised, “This album to me… it’s really more of a headphone listen. If you really want to appreciate it, you have to pay attention. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and wanted every little thing to be close to perfect. A lot of music I like listen to is like that; it’s not thrown together in a day.”

According to Haug, nearly the entire album was skillfully seamed together with found materials, and unlike works from fellow turntablist-producers like Madlib, Scratches is a concept album. The album is “semi-autobiographical” and linear, beginning with a track about conception/gestation/birth, meandering into teenage rebellion, and eventually into coming to terms with the adult world. Not only do the tracks flow in a linear progression, Haug created them serially over a number of years. When asked what helped to allay the temptation to modify particular songs after they were completed, he replied, “One thing that dawned on me was that the earlier songs in the album were child-like, but that really fits the theme of the album … character growth.”

Scratches is not strictly a hip-hop album; reflecting Haug’s eclectic taste, the listener will note elements of funk, rock, electro, downtempo and even glitch/noise (see the final track). When asked how much of the album is derived from found materials, Haug reported that all but a few short segments came from his enormous digital and analog audio collection. One original sample can be found in his collaborative track with local hip-hop favorites Skratchmatik, “Taking Turns.” To create vocal one-shots used in the song, he convinced his sister, an elementary school teacher, to let him use the voices of a classroom filled with students to introduce each turntablist. Regarding his relationship with the group, Haug stated, “One of the first DJs I ever met was No Neck Ned. Just hanging out with him, I eventually met a couple of other DJs. One of them was a guy that goes by Etch. He and No Neck Ned really started Skratchmatik… Then I went off to college and whenever I went to visit I would see them play and hang out. Skratchmatik eventually kind of ballooned into having four or five members.”

While many DJs specialize in providing the soundscape for one type of event, Ruckus has amassed a musical collection broad enough to enable him to spin at weddings, clubs, house parties and even fashion shows. Utilizing the Serato system, he is now able to tap into the potential of his full collection while performing on traditional turntables. Though Haug began playing shows as a young teenager, he claims it was not until he landed a residency, “Dance or Die” (a twice-monthly at The Union in Athens, Ohio), that he began to really learn how to properly work a crowd and create themes through his track selections. “That’s when it just became crazy. It was the place to be every couple of weeks. DJing for 300 people that were just there to get crazy, drunk and dance…it was just insane! That was one of my crowning moments – to be a part of that.”

Scratches has been receiving regular support on WYSO (FM 91.3), particularly on Niki Dakota’s freeform show, “Excursions.”
“I just kind of approached [the station] out of the blue… I even asked (Rev Cool) to be one of the DJs at my CD release party (held at Therapy Café) … when he went on, the energy just went through the roof.

Haug has also found work creating tracks for the children’s television station, Nickelodeon, MTV, the Disney Family Channel, and in producing a scratch record for release with Numark’s hybrid turntable, the X2, a deck designed to play both traditional vinyl as well as CDs in wav or mp3 format.
“I did create a few original sounds, but at the same time I did use a lot of the beloved sounds, altered to disguise them - pitch shifted, applied some effects,” Haug says of dealing with copyrighted samples, "and a lot of them I truncated.”

Ruckus’s listening taste is eclectic; “I’m definitely all over the place, but at the same time I’m very picky. I’ll start to say “Oh, I like everything,’ but that’s really not true. I’m into a lot of jazz and hip-hop... funk. At the same time I’m always trying to keep up with what’s out there in the dance world. I actually like a lot of house, electro, but more towards modern electro, as opposed to Africa Bambaataa. I’m always on the lookout for music that I’ve missed over the years: disco, or electro, or hip-hop… classic or modern. Lately I’ve realized that there is so much music out there, being discriminating and picky is very important.

Regarding future plans, Haug reports, “Because we’re kind of DIY we can’t do everything a big label would do. I would like to form a band and do the whole thing live, but that’s a bit out of reach at this point. I have some things lined up: a show in DC and one in Detroit.” Finding major label support has been both time consuming and tedious; “I took a year or two shopping around for a label, and eventually just decided to (produce) it myself… we started a label for the album.” Ruckus Roboticus plans to launch a full tour beginning in early summer of 2008 and currently has a music video in preproduction. For more information on the artist, visit www.ruckusroboticus.com