For more info on Rob Swifts "Under The Influence" visit Six Degrees Records

...Rob explains his approach to Under the Influence, "When Six Degrees approached me about composing a mix CD for their label, I asked myself, 'How can I structure a CD that not only sounds good but helps the listener come away with a new perspective on music?' Then it hit me, I'll compose a CD which consists of the kind of music that I was exposed to as a youngster by my older brother. These are the kind of records he used when teaching me I how to scratch."

Born Robert Aguilar in 1972 and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, Swift initially learned his chops with some hands-on help from his DJ dad and older brother. "My dad was a salsa and merengue DJ. My brother learned how to scratch and do all the hip hop deejaying stuff on my dad's equipment (without his permission) and I'd sit there and watch him. When I entered the sixth grade, I decided I wanted to learn." And so, Swift got busy educating himself in the classic turntable beats of the early '80s New York playground pioneers while listening to cool funk and hot jazz sides at home. "My older brother exposed me to all that," he says. "All the stuff I create as a DJ is rooted in the songs that I heard from Bob James, Herbie Hancock and James Brown to Quincy Jones and old DJs like Grandmaster Flash and Grandwizard Theodore. That's where my roots are." By 1991 he turned pro musician when he joined the world-class crew of turntablists, the X-ecutioners. In 1992, he was named DMC East Coast Turntable Champion and in 1993, he began producing and remixing tracks for other artists. Cornershop, Lords of Acid and the Altered Beats album for Bill Laswell's Axiom label are among his growing list of credits.

In 1999, Rob's first solo album, The Ablist came out on Asphodel. SPIN called his two-Technics technique "Mind-boggling," comparing it to "wizardy." VIBE called it a "Brilliant debut."

In 2001, Swift added his scratches to Herbie Hancock's Future 2 Future album. He contributed "Blues for Bob and Rob" with Bob James to the compilation Turntable Essence (Silva Screen Records) and James in turn joined Swift on the track "Salsa Scratch" for his second solo album, Sound Event on the Tableturns label in 2002.

Rob still works the deck with the X-ecutioners. The group's 2002 release, Built from Scratch (Loud/SONY) got the nod from VIBE: "Rocking and rock solid." Paper magazine called the crew "virtuoso." Swift also continues to score hi-tech games and television projects like Blue Torch TV and was recently chosen to be part of the Gap's vanguard artist ad campaign.

Rob reaches back to his roots for his 2003 outing. Here he explains, "In the music I chose to present on Under the Influence, you will hear a mixture of previously unreleased music from the '70s, heavily based out of the south. Little did these artists know that approximately 30 years later, someone would be breathing new life into these rare songs. I also played some of the turntable-oriented songs by DJs like Marley Marl on this CD because just like the selection of unreleased songs inspired a lot of the soul and funk of today, many of the scratch songs of the 1980s are responsible for the kind of turntable-oriented music we hear from people like myself now. Lastly, I rounded out the CD with a couple of tunes that I hope help reflect the scope of music which has surrounded me my whole life." "Artists like Stevie Wonder go in to cut records and they think, 'Well, we can get him on drums and him for guitars….' My thing is to get people to think, 'Who's gonna play the turntable?'"

Future releases in the Under the Influence series will include eclectic, international DJs including some of those from Six Degrees' own globetrotting roster. According to Bob Duskis, each artist will choose how to approach the project - whether to mix a "live" set or to try something more experimental. One of the advantages of this series, he says, is that the DJs "don't have to worry about the constraints of moving a dance floor and can focus on tracks that have been influential to them.

Global culture at the start of the 21st century is like a big mix tape, reaching across styles and borders, and always changing slightly with each person's point of view. Six Degrees' Under the Influence offers a groundbreaking look at that culture, as seen from some of the music world's most distinctive points of view.