Readers may recall my comments re:Garage riddims being "not much without an MC". More recently have had my socks rocked and head turned by trax which have made me flash on the oevre of one of my all-time heroes, Chicago's hard jacking Steve Poindexter. Wizzbit's "Jam Hot" even has a looped refrain "Jam Hot" which I swear I've heard before, maybe it's the passing resemblance to Reese's "Bounce your body to Box" or Paperclip People's "Jam the Box" (Detroit, Chicago, whatever!)
It seems like stations who can rent a dizzyingly verbose MC are not the norm. Those minimal backing tracks must often suffice on their own. Who cares when they're as fucked up as 2nd II None's "Bulldozer", Big Shot's "Glitch", Wizzbit's "Jam Hot", the Menta Remix of Jammin's "Tonka" or Slimzos "2"?
Whither the sumptuous 3d bounce of Pay as U Go Kartel's "Champagne Dance" or London Dodger's "Down Down Biznizz"? These heartless rhythms are mechanoid and spasticised. Minimal not as in (post-Einstein) Phil Glass. This, like old Chi-town j-j-j-jack, is minimal by virtue of being utilitarian. Utilitarian because they're someone's drug-noise. These are tracks in the truest sense: mono-directional lateral horizontal, broken only by the punctuation of the gap.
It's tempting to assume that somewhere along the line production knowledge has been lost by the wayside (depth of sound so often means production "skill" as in Deep Dish and Brian Transeau, however lets not forget "skill" as in Martin Zero). Tellingly the richest production of the aforementioned is by "nearly-old-skooler" Menta (see the DND spiel), here brilliantly salvaging a humourless Jammin track on the Bingo Beats label, (which along with the work of El B nearly stymied my love of da garage). The 2d bite of these other riddims is basic in comparison, raw and flat like a Van Gogh.
Do I miss the MCs? Nah! I do my own rapping whilst washing-up Louis Theroux style: "I like a glass of wine etc".
This month has brought a rare chance for me to meet the glocals at the deeply creative Norfolk Windmills (Hi Jess!) and mind blogglingly brilliant Heronbone (the Luke of repute); also another virtual Eastender Position Normal dropped me a line to point me to his new website. Say hi too to the Glaswegian-without-organs too at David Howie's pensive i have zero money
Big blog highlights included The Astronaut's Notepad's Sunblindness list (tape of this too please Jon!), Reynolds peeling off his gasmask and white gloves and marching against the war, Marcello writing movingly on the Sensational Alex Harvey Band (it mattered not a jot if you've heard the records). "Oh Ambassador with these free-range music journals you are really spoiling us......"
Posted by Woebot at February 25, 2003 11:57 AM