Show Us Your Junk! Ep. 6 - Dan the Automator (Gorillaz, Deltron 3030, Dr. Octagon)
In the world of underground hip-hop, Dan the Automator is second to none. Between his work on Dr. Octagon’s groundbreaking Dr. Octagonecologyst and his collaborations with Gorillaz, Prince Paul, Mike Patton, Kool Keith, and Kid Koala, the Automator keeps things fresh on the production side of the game, no doubt.
We visited the Automator’s San Francisco studio to watch the master at work doing what he does best - make sick beats. When we arrived, he was hard at work on a blown-out track using the Hoof Reaper and Fuzz Master General to add character to the stock sounds in a vintage Roland CR-78 drum machine. “That thing [the Hoof Reaper] blows out the kicks, basically, and that’s what makes it really exciting,” he says. “This brings a whole different dimension to the whole thing.”