Secondhand Sureshots

Daedelus, Nobody, J.Rocc and Ras G

Dublab / Stones Throw Records

It's always a pleasant surprise to open a promo package which contains a DVD, and this one's a true gem.

Diggers, record choppers and beat makers take note: Dublab’s “Secondhand Sureshots” may have you itching to press pause and head out to your local Salvation Army before you even get to the film credits.

This in-the-moment and intriguing documentary follows four LA DJs/producers, Daedelus (Ninja Tune), Beat Junkies’ J. Rocc, Low End Theory’s Nobody and Ras G (Pooba Records), as they each head to a different thrift store to start their hand-dirtying search.

The rules: $5, five records, no instruments, drum machines or extra samples. Only cuts and effects.

Then it’s off to their bedroom studios to begin chopping samples to produce something entirely new from their finds. And with J. Rocc picking up a Barbra Streisand album, you know you’re in for a treat.

Cameras artfully capture the four each using a different beat-making platform (MPCs, a keyboard and software program) as they profess their love for digging and all things vinyl.

Their newly crafted, heading-nodding beats are pressed and presented to them in an equally-as-cool collaged album made from the original records’ album cover art.

Those who live and breathe vinyl can appreciate the group’s last effort. They secretly slip the new album of beats back into the bins at the original thrift stores.

And so the vinyl recycling begins.