You can list the number of hip-hop artists hailing from Oxnard, CA (official motto, "The City That Cares") on one hand with plenty of fingers left over to pull off a passable Tonedeff Fast-Finger Playa-Piano gesture, but why crunch numbers when the hip-hop artist in question is someone as prolific and daring as Madlib, aka Quasimoto, aka Otis Jackson, Jr? Now based in Los Angeles, Ventura County's finest DJ has been proudly showcasing his impeccable taste and turntable skills since first hooking up with the late J Dilla in the mid-90s. Even as the hip-hop scene has morphed into a more blatantly MC-based form of entertainment, with beats increasingly simplified and pop hooks masquerading as samples, Madlib has remained a DJ first - this despite the fact that one of his signature moves, the manipulation of the vocal track's speed, has become a rap hallmark.
Perhaps Madlib has managed to stay on the right side of the hip-hop divide thanks to his deep knowledge and appreciation of that other great wellspring of American rhythm - jazz. In a project he's dubbed Yesterday's New Quintet, Madlib and others have explored the intersection at which jazz and hip hop meet, through a combination of live tracks cut up through studio edits and sampled beats pasted in to the mix. The result is a true collaboration that is neither straight jazz nor pure hip hop, but a dank melange of improvisation and groove.
Not exactly one to rest on his laurels, Madlib has greeted the new decade with an ambitious project labeled The Madlib Medicine Show, a twelve-month/twelve-album release schedule that might exhaust lesser mixers. The odd months of 2010 see releases highlighting his own productions, from sessions with Detroit rapper Guilty Simpson to fresh cuts by Yesterday's New Quintet. On the even months, Madlib lays down new mixtapes and DJ sets, and these are the offerings I've been digging the most. Over 80-minute sets of non-stop sound, the Mad Professor defies listeners and fellow DJs to keep up with his my-vinyl-weighs-a-ton ethos.
Madlib Medicine Show #2 - Flight To Brazil
Far more than a tip of the hat to the funky bossa nova 45, this set comprises field recordings, traditional folk chants, psychedelic cuts, tropicalia and salsa singles, jazz tracks, and phase-shifted sequences of obscuro whimsy, all linked through abrupt yet assured edits. While a steady diet of heavy beats is maintained (often dropped in with little warning and just as quickly faded into the ether), this set is not merely for breakbeat addicts. Sweet melodies and murmured lyrics in Portuguese dominate as much as "Funky Drummer" loops, and the entire scene manages to avoid the excessive scratching and cutting that so often mars DJ sets helmed by those less sure of the musical quality of their selections. Simply put - a muddy, grimy, unapologetically restrained peek into the broad musical traditions of the world's fifth largest nation.
Madlib Medicine Show #4 - 420 Chalice All-Stars
What this set of reggae remixes lacks in thematic diversity, it more than makes up for in sonic consistency and pure bong-soaked hedonism. An exercise in epic crate digging and low-end bass worship, it's proved one of the more solid Jamaican mixtapes I've come across (and I've come across a few - this is far superior to some of DJ Spooky's reggae sets, and ranks alongside Bill Laswell's dub reductions of mid-70s Trojan tracks). All swampy echo, dub lines, clattering rhythm tracks and ghostly vocals, this is roots-heavy and convincingly skeptical of the dancehall revolution that has dominated Jamaican music since the mid-1980s (although Madlib doesn't ignore the style). One shouldn't come looking for a painstakingly crafted symphony of reggae moods, however, as the set has the feel of late night rec room parties, where an omnivorous host keeps switching out current tracks for ever-more obscure cuts. It should be pointed out that my description of this set as "bong-soaked" should be taken literally - released on April 20 (4-20, right?), with liner notes consisting solely of Los Angeles marijuana dispensary locations, and song titles nothing more nor less than an extended Q&A session on the various benefits Madlib ascribes to medical pot use....well, it's clear how Mr. Jackson believes you should digest this stew. I can report than a few Dark and Stormy highballs can do the trick, too.
Madlib Medicine Show #8 - Advanced Jazz
Opening with a classic routine by Lord Buckley, this immersion in the world of post-bop jazz, circa 1955 to 1975, is recommended to both seasoned scholars (who'll rack their brains trying to identify Madlib's more obscure selections) and swing neophytes (who'll hopefully discover a world of music far more adventurous, varied and appealing than mainstream culture lets on). No purist, Madlib unloads hard bop, soul jazz, Afro-Cuban, free and fusion, raids the back catalogs of ESP, Blue Note and Strata-East. Again, the beat nazis may be more than a little disappointed by the general lack of funky edits in this set, even though plenty of slinky grooves rub shoulders with pointy-headed improv. This album is more an educated tour of America's native art form than a funkster's revenge on the complexities of swing. And as a jazz fan, I dig it. I dig the cover, too - something called Jazz Cats Crossing the Hudson, with Miles Davis as George Washington overseeing a crew made up of Mingus, Coltrane, Herbie, Pharaoh and the other single-name giants of postwar jazz.
I don't need all twelve Madlib Medicine Show releases - I can live my life quite happily without his prog-rock mixset, for example, although I'll admit to being pleased by its existence - and I can't yet report on how the mixes will age over time (DJ sets often prove notoriously unable to consistently offer up new surprises after the initial listen). But it's a privilege to witness an artist effortlessly tossing off monthly updates on their craft - living proof of Madlib's innate good taste, deep-rooted adventurousness, and warped sense of humor. May the Medicine Show roll forward.
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1 comment:
well-worded
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