James Yancey 1974-2006, picture © B+
When Jay Dee (aka J Dilla, aka James Yancey) passed away two and a half weeks ago at the age of 32, hip hop lost one of its most gifted, but also unduly underrated producers. Although he created an impressive body of work, Dilla had never been a household name outside of the industry and a certain circle of hip hop enthusiasts. One reason for this kind of shadowy existence may have been his allegedly modest character, but what mainly kept him out of the spotlight of the hip hop arena was his music. Never caring about the latest fashions of mainstream rap, his musical vision revolved around the legacies of jazz and soul. With his production work he was instrumental in the redefinition of the sound of A Tribe Called Quest and other groups associated with the Native Tongues in the mid-90s, as well as in the preparation of the ground for the neo-soul movement.
Jay Dee’s beats are exemplary of how advanced sampling technologies define the musical aesthetics of contemporary jazz-influenced hip hop and neo-soul. Instead of simply looping portions of sampled material, Jay Dee used digital programming to deconstruct his source material into molecural pieces and subsequently re-arrange these particles in his tracks.
An example of this strategy from the early days of his career is „1nce Again“ off A Tribe Called Quest’s crininally underrated „Beats, Rhymes and Life“ album (1996), which Dilla co-produced as a part of „The Ummah“ (a group which consisted of Dilla, Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad). A hypnotic vibraphone loop – put together from sampled bits of a 1960’s jazz recording (The Gary Burton Quartet: „I’m Your Pal“) – forms the melodic backbone of the track. The warped bassline which sets in with the beginning of the first verse is programmed from sampled bass tones of the same source. This „deconstructive“ approach is even more obvious on the The Pharcyde’s „Drop“ (also from 1996), which is entirely based on a sampled loop playing backwards.
How Dilla used abstract methods and cold technological means to create organic, warm and soulful sounding music is simply astonishing. This distinguished way of beat-crafting really is the essence of his musical vision and the reason why he was admired by fellow musicians and producers. The beauty of his loops lives on.
A decent compilation of Dilla tracks can be found on the excellent special features of Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide show (BBC Radio 1) and Benji B’s Deviation (BBC 1xtra).
Februar 27th, 2006
DJ Lao Wu’s new club night „Open House“ kicks off tonight at the „Style*Hair*Club Sastre“ (a combination of hairdresser’s saloon, cocktail lounge and clubbing location) in Berlin-Schöneberg. Be sure to check out the second instalment on Saturday, March 11, when Lao Wu and myself will be celebrating our birthdays with some out-of-control turntable mayhem. Deviating from my regular music policy, I’ll be playing a oldschool UK Garage/2Step set – be prepared to party hard!
Check out philtre.de for more info on Mr. Wu’s activities.
Februar 24th, 2006
Tune of the year:
Skream: „Midnight Request Line“ (Tempa)
The obvious choice. With „Request Line“, Skream has not only singlehandedly bridged the gap between dubstep and grime, but also gained recognition from other electronic music scenes. And this guy sits on loads of brilliant material which is still waiting to be released. (Still worth checking out: Skream mix and interview from August on Blackdown’s blog.)
2. Jammer: “Merkle Man” (White)/Bear Man: “Drinking Bear” (White) – Good to see that grime MCs don’t take themselves too serious anymore. (I’ve got the whole “murking/merkle” business now – but what the hell do “neckle” and “seckle” mean? Can anybody fill me in, please?)
3. Kano: “They Don’t Dance No More (4×4 Remix)” (679) – Whatever the haters may say, this is an awesome dancefloor remix. It’s uplifting, it’s bumpy, it’s the best 4×4 tune of the year.
4. Distance: “Empire” (Hotflush) – Outstanding „breakstep“ track. (Most of the Toasty releases have also to be mentioned, especially „Guesswork“.)
5. Rossi B & Luca feat. N.A.S.T.Y.: “Run 4 Cover” (More 2 Da Floor) – Not just another remake of Damian Marley’s “Welcome To Jamrock”, but a goddamn heavy yardie-style banger. (Although the N.A.S.T.Y. boys’ one-dimensional gun lyrics (”When it comes to knives, here we have many, When it comes to guns, here we have many…”) are be a bit annoying.)
6. Dexplicit: “Bullacake” (More 2 Da Floor) – Another producer who has left his mark in 2005, creating devastating riddims like Fire Camp’s “No” or the remix of Akala’s “Roll Wid’ Us”. Shows his stylistic versatility on this massive 4×4 bassline anthem.
7. Ruff Sqwad: „Underground“ (Ruff Sqwad) – Let them show you how they do it in the underground…
8. DJ Narrows: “Hardcore (Take Me Higher)” (Storming Productions) – Forget about the a-side (”Kick Daan Ya Door”), which is basically the same uninspired “acid garage” stuff Narrows already came up with years ago. But “Hardcore (Take Me Higher)” truely lives up to its name: A great ‘ardkore jam sounding like from waaay back in the day and destroying any dancefloor. (Also on the old school tip and banging: “Take Me” by Dubchild, on Storming Productions as well.)
9. Recloose: „Dust“ (Peacefrog) – There’s a whole world outside of the post-garage continuum, and someplace in the southern hemisphere (to be precise, in New Zealand) there lives a young man from Detroit who created this fuuunky, fuuunky piece of afrobeat. It has a bumping bass drum, a funky guitar lick, hypnotizing horn stabs and everybody’s favourite vocalist Joe Dukie (of „Fat Freddy’s Drop“ fame) on the microphone. What else could you want?
10. Shy FX & T-Power: “Sheets” (Digital Soundboy) – Maybe you’ll think I’m completely nuts, but anyone who has the guts to turn a cheesy little slow jam like “Between The Sheets” into a drum’n’bass monster gets my both thumbs up! And yes, I own the Isley Brother’s original recording as well as Biggie’s “Big Poppa”. You know what I’ll close my NYE set with this year…
If you’re looking for extensive reviews of the year in grime and dubstep, you are (once again) strongly recommended to head over to Martin „Blackdown“ Clark’s site. Until the end of the year Martin has opened up the sacred webspace of his blog to artists and fellow bloggers from both scenes for their first-hand accounts of the last twelve month. New reviews are being posted daily (the participant’s list already includes Plasticman, Burial, Skepta and Kode 9).
And as we’re at it: London’s leading Pirate station Rinse FM has finally managed to restore its infamous online stream and promises to keep it up permanently. If that ain’t a good look-out for the two-double-o-six, then what?
Dezember 22nd, 2005