dj ted shred

dj ted shred is a genius.

he should be a well known and well respected genius, but i think he slipped through

the net, which is unfortunate to say the least.

his music is hard to describe. no, actually it's easy to describe, it's just that

words don't really do it any justice. i've looked on youtube and i can't find any 

examples of his albums to play to you. i looked on ebay and can't find any of his 

cd's for sale. you'll just have to take my word for it.

so here are the three albums ted made...

and the story of how i discovered him...

i was in san francisco maybe 10 years ago. one day i took a bus to haight street,

which for those of you who don't know, is a pretty cool street. i wandered into the

stüssy store and as i looked around i heard the amazing music they were playing.

it was the theme tune to the old spiderman cartoon series from the late 1960's

but with a hip-hop beat. trust me it was amazing. after it ended, another tune

came on which was the hi-ho, hi-ho thing from snow white and the seven dwarves

also with a hip-hop beat. i asked the bloke in the shop what the hell he was playing

and he showed me the cd and told me it was by a local dj and that i could buy it next 

door.

so i went next door and bought the cd. when i got home to london i played
it a lot and was knocked out by the whole album. it's basically ted shred with
two decks playing everything live and mixing up the genres. live mash-ups.

there was an email address on the cd so i sent ted a message saying how much i
liked the cd and to let me know if he ever brought out another one.
a few months later he emailed me details of a little shop in san francisco that
was going to stock his next album and that took mail order requests.


so his second album came out. like the first it was on the upper playground label.

it was every bit as good as the first cd, maybe even better. it even had another
mix of the spiderman them, this time with ice-t's music in the background.


me and ted kept in touch for a couple of years by email and one day out of the blue
a package arrived at whitfield towers containing a new cd and some ted shred stickers.

he said it was to say thanks for all my support over the past couple of years.

i won't lie, i found it harder to get into than the first two albums but it still
was most impressive and was the work of a genius.

i guess ted needed a break. i kept telling him to get his spiderman mixes out to
the film company who were making the first spiderman movie at the time.
if they'd used one of his mixes over the closing credits who knows ?

if he had maybe a manager who could have promoted him better, who knows ?

as it is, ted has moved on and is now something of a fixed gear bike expert.
you can see videos of him on youtube riding around the hills of san francisco
without using brakes !

i have seen his albums on ebay now and then so if you are in any way intrigued
keep an eye out for them. maybe he'll be back one day ? i hope so.