Hip-hop's influence spread far and wide during the '80s, as witnessed by the growth of the international scene during the following decade. Standing beside brilliant DJs from Japan (
Krush) and France (
Cam), Russia's
DJ Vadim has proved to be the most popular advocate of
hip-hop to come out of the former Soviet bloc, triggered mostly by the fact that he moved to Britain early in life. Upon arrival, he set up his own Jazz Fudge Records later that year to issue a demo he called Derelicts of Conformity (by Son of Seth).
He finally released the recordings early in 1995, as
DJ Vadim's Abstract Hallucinating Gasses EP.
Britain's top
hip-hop and
acid jazz DJs began playing the record and, after being scouted by several labels,
Vadim signed a contract with Ninja Tune. Several EPs released during 1995-1996 showed him to be quite an experimentalist, working heavily with static and noise, never content to let his ideas meander past the two- or three-minute point. His first LP,
U.S.S.R. Repertoire (The Theory of Verticality), was released in late 1996. The following year,
Vadim began working on acts for Jazz Fudge; he issued the compilation Sculpture & Broken Sound, then debuted his own Andre Gurov project with the album A New Rap Language. His next project, the highly touted remix album
U.S.S.R. Reconstruction, appeared in 1998, and was followed a year later by
U.S.S.R.: Life from the Other Side. His third U.S.S.R. record,
The Art of Listening, dropped in 2002. Relatively quiet during the early 2000s -- his only full-length release was a mix album, Stereo Pictures, Vol. 3 --
Vadim nevertheless reappeared in 2007 on BBE, with a production album titled
The Soundcatcher.
Vadim has also worked as
the Bug, with Kevin Martin, Dave Cochran, and Alex Buess. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
