Double Life: DJ Pfeif
Screenshot from https://djpfeif.com/
Meet Michael Pfeiffer, supervisor of the CICS makerspace, also known as the Physical Computing makerspace, here at UMass Amherst. In his off time, he takes on a new identity: Drum and Bass DJ, DJ Pfeif.
Drum and bass, also known as DnB, is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the early 1990s UK rave scene. It is characterized by a fast tempo of 160-180 BPM, breakbeats, sampling, heavy bass lines, and synthesizer sounds.
The genre saw its original heyday in the 90s incorporating sounds from a multitude of genres including dub, reggae, house, and hip hop. With subsequent subgenres taking influence from ambient, industrial, jazz, and pop. For example, Pfeif himself often features many liquid DnB tracks in his streams.
Now in the 2020s, DnB’s popularity has resurged with many Gen Z artists such as PinkPantheress taking influence from the genre. In addition to this, the experimental DnB fusion genre (arguably adjacent, for the pedantic readers out there), breakcore, has been one of the better known examples of the resurgence, with its internet-inspired disciples putting a twist on traditional drum and bass by embracing a sound that takes influence from anime and video games by way of eclectic samples and a fast-paced, unpredictable sound (with artists like Machine Girl, Femtanyl, and goreshit littering my top tracks this past year).
Circling back to the topic at hand, Pfeif runs a weekly broadcast called Hack The Planet, which runs every Saturday night from 8-10pm on Valley Free Radio WXOJ 103.3 FM and on the Twitch page https://www.twitch.tv/djpfeifdnb, with an audio-only version on hacktheplanetdnb.com.
An Example of “Hack the Planet”
Since the pandemic, Pfeif has run his streams from a home studio that allows audience interaction, with viewers being able to “hack” his background lights and gadgets. He also runs a 24-hour internet radio station at https://hacktheplanetdnb.com/ that plays reruns of past broadcasts.
He can also be found on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/djpfeif as well as his website https://djpfeif.com/.
