DJ: Discolobos
by Frank De Blase

Chuck Cerankosky thinks in beats. He hears them over and above the existing throb within a song. Since 2000, he and Ben Gonyo, collectively known as Rochester DJ duo Discolobos, have been mixing and remixing, exploring well outside the hip and the hop.

Projects like a recent remix tribute to James Brown make perfect sense. But then there are detours, like Ram Jam's "Black Betty." Cerankosky plans to torque this 1977 classic's already savage groove after it knocked him out in the movie "Blow."

"Chuck is methodical and more 'how things work,' 'why they're gonna work,'" says Gonyo. "I'm more spontaneous, a little bit more like a loose cannon for lack of a better word."

The two got their start DJ-ing house parties while attending RIT. "We learned to DJ from a hip-hop background," says Cerankosky. "I started DJ-ing by scratching. So did Ben. But as we started putting out more records, it stopped being so much about just doing rap and started to expand into a broader sense of beat-driven music."

As 21st century technology spirals and spins more and more stratospheric, music - how it's recorded and how it's enjoyed - is getting simplified and multiplied. And the means to create, manipulate, transmit, and share it are getting easier as well. The upside: anyone can do it. The downside: anyone can do it.

Or so it would seem.

"Hopefully," says Cerankosky, "along with some responsibility in the art form, you're being creative. With the internet it's very easy to download play lists and see what's hot. Instead of just playing what they played on New York's Hot 97 last night, you might put a spin on it and play some stuff that's a little more original, whether it's cross genre or cross time period."

Like "Black Betty," which actually goes back to the 1930s when it was penned and performed by Leadbelly. Spanning decades and tempos, Discolobos manages to keep the soul intact.

"That's the spirit of what we do with Discolobos," Cerankosky says. "What links them all together is just the soul that certain songs can have. It gets governed by tempo so you can sandwich a Ram Jam cover of a Leadbelly song from the '30s with a 2007 release by LCD Soundsystem."

"You wanna stay current and know what everybody else is into," says Gonyo. "We create our own beats and remixes so we're always pushing ourselves to make cutting edge stuff or make new stuff people haven't heard, or come up with new techniques."

Beneath the beats and samples lies an idea, a concept borne of owning roughly 10,000 records. And Gonyo's had more.

"I've given away a ton, thrown a ton out," he says. "You can't listen to 'em all, you can't use 'em all, and stuff's only relevant for so long."

"I like everything," Cerankosky says, "from Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, lots of old jazz stuff like that, to portions of the new Justin Timberlake record or the new Bjork record, whatever. We like to emphasize a very solid knowledge and selection of great music."

To that end, Gonyo and Cerankosky have started Fish & Crown Records, a multi-media label releasing Discolobos material (Cerankosky figures Discolobos has released around 13 records), as well as other artists like Rochester soul singer Sun Dula's new record, "The Human."

Live, Discolobos has moved on as well, recently incorporating a visually salacious aspect into its next show; some ooo la la, some va-va voom, some bump 'n' grind. U-huh - dancing girls. Dirty Dolly, Holly Shock, and Luna Rae of the Saints And Sinners Burlesque Troupe will shimmy, shake, and gyrate while the Discolobos vinyl rotates at the next Trash Ball.

"We've wanted to do a party with the burlesque girls for a while," Cerankosky says.

Burlesque - vaudeville's dirty little cousin - has been popping up as an added bonus in venues around town for the past year or so. The gals' peel 'n' squeal oughta add nicely to Discolobos' shake appeal.

"We just figured, Man, it would be fun to bring these two things together."

This tantalizing trio will perform to their own music; however, Discolobos may beef it up some from the shadows.

"We're definitely working close with them so that we can keep the feel of the party," Gonyo says. "Our stuff is more dance-y and we'll just add an element of that to their stuff."

"This is more their show than ours," Cerankosky says. "They're more of the highlight. We're there to be the DJs and just be in the background."

So now Discolobos is crossing cultures, style, genres, decades, and mediums. It oughta work; swivelin' hips are the perfect accent to drive the beat home.

"The purity of DJing idealistically is to cross those cultures and those boundaries and bring together a lot of different things," Cerankosky says. "But at the same time, a DJ's No. 1 job is to rock the party. It doesn't matter if you're at a nursing home or at a teen night."

Discolobos rocks the party at the Trash Ball with Holly Shock, Dirty Dolly , and Luna Rae Friday, August 17, at the Bug Jar, 219 Monroe Avenue, 454-2966, 10 p.m., $3.