PhonopsychographDisk is what former Invisibl Skratch Pikl DJ Disk is calling himself these days. He's also known as the man behind Shigger Fragger, the mysterious bag- wearing DJ from the South Pole, and even more impressively, as the neighborhood kid who taught Q-Bert how to scratch back in the day. As time rolls on, it becomes more difficult (and unnecessary) to separate the truth from the fiction in San Francisco hip-hop lore, but whatever his persona, there's no mistaking DJ Disk's prowess on the decks, both as beat technician and sound transformer. Though he is now but one of many in the overcrowded field of scratch DJs, Disk stands out as a true innovator with the talent to rock the house cutting behind rock band Primus and the technique to improvise alongside avant- weird guitarist Buckethead.

Ancient Termites is Disk's entry into the once- unthinkable genre of the all- scratch LP. A lot of these types of records have been coming out, by artists like Q-Bert, Mix Master Mike, Rob Swift and too many other lesser talents to count, but none of them have sounded anything like Disk's album. There's an odd combination of both heaviness and restraint to Disk's compositional method. He can build a song like "Holidisk Inn" from beat-up be-bop records, scratching the familiar jazz instrumental bits and combining them with an odd walking live bassline, just before assaulting the listener with the chaotic metal of "Polar Bear Sunscreen," a track that conjures images of headless people clad in leather, dancing in cages.

Disk never overdoes it with the cuts, though, which alone makes him standout from the bulk of the battle- weary wankers, and he has a fine ear for sound collage. "Elevator Puss Music" combines vocals and instrumentation from novelty records, slowly slicing them into an oddly psychedelic candy- colored concoction, while "Exoskeleton" seems to invent the genre of "ambient scratch." This sense of the surreal and absurd, along with his willingness to try something different is what makes Disk's album stand up well to repeated listening, a rarity in the field of scratch records.

-Mark Richard-San