Re: New Breed & Subharmonic Info

Eric Kalabacos (ekjazz@netcom.com)
Thu, 30 Nov 1995 09:12:58 -0800


> I really like the stuff coming out of Ubiquity, Mo'Wax and Ninja
>Tune, but I've never heard any of the New Breed OR Subharmonic discs.
>Could someonw out there help me by recomending discs that they think are
>good introductions to these labels and possibily give quick decriptions
>of what the best tracks are like so I'm not blindy guessing in my purchases?
>Thanks,
>Zed
>p.s. any opinions are better than none

I don't know much about Subharmonic, but here's a bit of info on New Breed:

New Breed is primarily DJ Smash (Wayne Hunter) from NY. Smash was the
original Giant Step DJ, was one of the founders of EightBall Records (one
of the top NY deep house labels), and then moved on to found New Breed w/
his wife Asia (who handles the business side of the label). All the
material on the label is studio made, with lots of jazz samples. They've
put out quite a lot of material by now, much of it by Smash himself
(usually released under the name "Jazz Not Jazz", but also by others such
as Headshock (Azel Brown Jr.), I-Cue, and the Prunes.

Their cornerstone has been the Fat Jazzy Grooves series (up to at least
volume 12 by now) which are released in pairs on CD. My faves are Vol. 4/5
and 8/9. They've also released two "Jumbo Packs" which consist of choons
from the FJG series pre-mixed on the CD. One is mixed by Smash and one by
I-Cue. I haven't heard I-Cue's but I'm not that wild about the mixing on
Smash's. A recent favorite from New Breed is the down-tempo "Loungin'",
which I think was my vote for "Underrated Project of '95" on Alexee's poll.

peace,
ek