Wonder Women

Andrea Parker masters both decks and for the DJ Kicks series.

Story Patricia DeLuca. Photography Joseph Cultice

IN JUST ONE YEAR, ENGLAND'S ANDREA Parker has remixed Depeche Mode and Afrika Bambaataa, DJed all over Europe, and released her own stellar installment in the prestigious !K7 DJ Kick series. The modernday Wonder Woman has earned praise and props from her peers, ripping the "men only" label off remixing and DJing. But as her Kicks disc evidences, she shows no signs of burnout: old school electro flows seamlessly into hip-hop, breakbeats and classic tracks. As striking as her cuts are her samples, culled from nature sounds and her personal stock of analog arid BBC-produced noises. Care to elaborate? "Cats, tires going over the road."she explains. "me sneezing in four-bar loops."

Not surprisingly, she says. the disc allowed her to showcase her diverse tastes. from classical to big beat. This diversity is in full-effect as she switches from remixer to DJ. Though Parker describes her club sets as "sporadic," she says 'at the studio, I'm serious when I make sounds."

Parker's anything-goes DJ attitude garnered Its own share of diverse attention at the Winter Music Conference party that kidked off her debut U.S. tour. While spinning a dubplate of one of her tracks, the long arm of the law came down on her tone arm: she was busted for noise pollution. "I'd rather get fined for playing one of my records than someone else's." she muses.

Since the tour, Parker's been an in-demand remixer for acts like Luscious Jackson, and she's planning a short tour with minimalist Steve Reich. Her angle, however, isn't bare essentials. "People [will] see cinema screens [by the decks],' says Parker, "I'm doing sound television." With her DJ Kicks as the script, Parker's turning her sets into the Must-See TV of DJing. Tune in, turn on.

Andrea Parker's DJ Kicks is out now on !K7.

Originally appeared in the May/June 1999 issue of Mixer magazine . Copyright © Mixer