John Ferri

Giacomo Puccini's most enduring opera, La Boheme, revolves around four bohemian-type artists in 1830s Paris. To update the piece, the producers at the American Opera Music Theatre Company moved the setting to beatnik-era Greenwich Village, but the characters and story line remain the same. In the opening scene, Marcello, a...

Inspired by the likes of the Chemical Brothers, British promoter/producer Barry Ashworth got into the act himself, becoming a big-beat DJ in the mid-'90s. His Dub Pistols collective debuted in 1996, blending techno-rock, hip-hop, and reggae in a fresh potent stew. The full-length Point Blank appeared in 1998, and the...

Imagine Ravi Shankar jamming with Big Country. Add an electronic backbeat and you're pretty close to the title track of Ocean Birds from Nataraj XT. The title rings of New Age, and there are hints of such sounds here: the downtempo trippiness and weepy slide guitar of "Space In..."; the...

Since everyone could use a little break from orange-level terror alerts and talk of looming nuclear and biological fallout, the timing couldn't be better for a fresh dose of dub narcotic. Enter Nutone's latest, Sunset Nights: A Collection of Deep Jazzy Beats. The compilation of acid-jazz (or nu jazz, jazzy...

Just in time for winter, Nettwerk issues the second installment in its Summerbreeze remix series. This time, Florida's Noel Sanger twiddles the knobs on other artists' tunes, filling out the two discs with a few originals. The DJ/producer showed up on the rave circuit in 1992, mixing for various groups...