Fwd: [amtrak] jazz + breakbeats (article)

From: Gen Kanai (gkanai@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun May 28 2000 - 20:40:57 MET DST

  • Next message: Paulo Fonseca: "Horas Funktasticas with Paulo Fonseca Radio Show (2000/05/27)"

    I thought this was kind of interesting...I know the 4Hero fans will disagree :)
    I personally haven't heard the album yet.

    Gen

    >I pulled this off of the front page of radiospy. For
    >those of you who like jazz and or breakbeats you might
    >find it interesting.

    article begins here:

    >Future Loop Foundation
    >PHunk Roc
    >Liquid
    >
    >Proof that jazz / breakbeat hybrids don't have to
    >induce catatonia
    >
    >
    >It's not necessarily a rule, but by and large, efforts
    >to fuse break beats with jazz usually produce the
    >electronic dance-music equivalent of the color beige.
    >Sure, there have been some dynamite exceptions: Roni
    >Size and Reprazent's New Forms employed wicked horn
    >lines and R&B vocals to produce an edgy pre-millennial
    >masterpiece. The trick, Size revealed, lies in finding
    >ways to incorporate the syncopated riffs of jazz with
    >the frenetic grittiness that makes jungle so
    >compelling. It doesn't sound all that difficult, but
    >then, there are folks out there who will
    >enthusiastically drop Kenny G's name into a discussion
    >on Coltrane, so it's apparent that some people just
    >don't get it.
    >
    >Sure, drum 'n' bass can sound pleasant and atmospheric
    >when blended with smooth jazz (usually by LTJ Bukem or
    >someone else from his venerable Good Looking label).
    >It can also sound relentlessly dull (4 Hero) and
    >intolerably cheesy. It sounds best when talents like
    >Size and Mark "Future Loop Foundation" Barrott ramp up
    >the BPMs and fiddle with the irony meter. They
    >reference jazz without succumbing to it, leaving jazz
    >innovations to the Vandermark 5s of the world.
    >
    >Case in point, FLF's third LP, PHunk Roc, which finds
    >Sheffield, England native Barrott tracing his roots in
    >the early '90s British jungle scene to assemble a
    >well-balanced meal of tasty jazz licks and smoking d
    >'n' b rhythms.
    >
    >The album's first few seconds don't immediately clue
    >you in to Barrott's sense of balance. PHunk Roc starts
    >off with a deceptively mellow intro: a lactose-heavy
    >synth wash coupled with delicate chimes and a male
    >vocalist plaintively asking, "What kind of world are
    >we living in?" The wheels fall off the mediocrity
    >express right there, however, as FLF quickly launches
    >into an unbroken 21-minute jump-up jam, spread out
    >over three tracks (at least two of which, "Conditions
    >for Living" and "Daddy Radical," have appeared on
    >previously released FLF singles or EPs).
    >
    >Barrott then takes the album along a different, less
    >overtly energetic route. "Espionage" is, given its
    >title, appropriately clothed in noir atmospherics and
    >disco-fied paranoia, barely stabilized by a slinky
    >backbeat. This sets the listener up for the backroom
    >coke-fueled haze of "Gimme Some Blow," the first part
    >of another three-track mix that smoothly progresses
    >into the dance-floor bounce of "Jumper" and the
    >comical mambo madness of "Santos Del Futuro."
    >
    >Here, Barrott truly shows off his mixing and
    >composition skills, creating tracks that have unique
    >ambience and flavor, which he deftly mixes to form a
    >sonic narrative that takes the listener from trough to
    >peak with nary a shudder. In doing so, he demonstrates
    >that the miscegenation of jazz and drum 'n' bass
    >doesn't have to produce a new plateau of blandness.
    >With most drum 'n' bass producers heading off in one
    >extreme direction (atmo) or another (hardstep,
    >techstep -- take your pick), it's refreshing to hear
    >an album that's neither too mellow to take seriously
    >nor too hard to take in large doses.
    >
    >
    >
    >Sean Flinn | May 23, 2000



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