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Mowgli
There’s a fetid smell is in the air and it could well be the dilapidated state of hip hop. Is it the lack of fresh blood in the game? Or is it the weight of plummeting sales or those tried and tested formulas or the blatant profiteering, directly or stylistically, off a certain Detroit producer’s posthumous work? From where I’m sitting things are looking bleak and the quest for fresh innovative sounds and new talent seems to have ground to a premature halt.
Enter young North London wordsmith Mowgli who, along with Brighton based producer Chris Fader, is on a mission, sidestepping label politicks, to broadcast his own DIY diatribe via the Myspace revolution. As an emcee the 21 year old’s words are sharp and deadly serious, recalling fellow North Londoners Taskforce’s finest lyricism, while making blunt observations of post 9/11 society and its preference for media spin and escapism, with lines like: “leaving them quickly satisfied like punch lines and cheap skits, a generation born dreading what’s next?”
‘Back to the Bricks’ his debut offering will drop in the autumn on a lo-fi tip along with a 4 track vinyl. Also in the mix are numerous collaborations with the up’n’coming Sound Scientists, Jam Baxter (Contact Play), Nottingham’s Emcee Killa & Karisma, the ridiculously talented Excentral Tempest, quirky beatster Platitas, Chosen Fume, Desa and house producer Nick Greek. Keep your ears peeled for the following mass home-grown movements and don’t be expecting any monkey business. Michael ‘Iron Halo’ Krasser
www.myspace.com/mowgliuk
El Michel's Affair:
All The Wu In The
World
If you've got those Shaolin sevens you'll already be a fan of the NYC's El Michels Affair.
Listening to 'Sounding Out the City', the recent release from Brooklyn based band, The El Michels Affair, is blissfully reminiscent of Corvette Stingrays and an old episode of [the popular 70’s cop show] Baretta. Ranging in age from 24 to 26, chances are no member of the band has ever had the pleasure of experiencing either. Still, their retro soul-inspired sound – rich with prominent horn play to compliment the band’s deep funk arrangements – suggests a distinct fondness for the old school.
“Early in high school we were all interested in jazz,” explains Leon Michels, one of the bands founding members and namesake. “We later moved on to The Meters and James Brown and a short but obsessive stint with P-Funk.” Under the name of the Mighty Imperials, the band recorded with Desco Records. During that time, Michels reveals, they became “immersed in deep funk and oddball 45’s.”
“The idea [El Michels Affair] originated when I got a Tascam 388 8 track _ inch tape machine,” Michels recalls. “Myself and Nick Movshon started recording music in my bedroom at my parents house. We were somewhat burned out on just aping deep funk 45’s and we started incorporating rocksteady, soundtracks, garage rock and Ethiopian soul music into what we already knew.”
Those sessions would later resurface on 'Sounding Out the City', an accidental concept album according to Michels. “We never set out to do a cohesive record but in the end it just turned out that way.”
Though their catalog implies a devotion to times past, it’s their appreciation for hip hop that explains the bands recent net-worthy presence. A brief engagement as the backing band for the Wu-Tang Clan, has proven to be quite the catalyst. The pairing of the band with Rza’s production afforded them a new school platform for their throwback sound.
“Because Rza's production is so sampled based and uses records which lean more towards early soul music rather than late Seventies funk and also his production is so layered and dirty it fits perfectly with our playing style and recording aesthetic,” expresses Michels. And after recording two 7” covers of Wu material, they’ve signed on for a long player of Wu-Tang covers to be released on Fat Beats.
“We had no idea the Wu 45s would be such a success. We just thought the instrumental versions sounded cool and liked the idea the turning a hip hop song back into soul song from which it would be sampled, not to mention that some of Rza's productions are so layered with different samples in different keys that the live end product sounds like it could be some avant garde tune from the Art Ensemble of Chicago or something like that.” In short they’ve taken something old and made it new. Al Burton
AARON JEROME
Commercial success and recognition has been a long time coming for this modest young man from South London, but at long last it looks like this year is the year for Aaron Jerome. His debut EP for BBE came out in July, and the album, the cunningly titled ‘Time To Rearrange’, will surely soon follow.
Aaron has been cutting his teeth for a while with remixes for established artists like Roy Ayers, Bugz, Zap Mama and (his mate) Nitin Sawhney, but it was his remix of Nicole Willis’ ‘Feeling Free’ that really got this young man noticed. Having wowed the underground with his single on Wah Wah 45s, ‘Man Troubles’, and having appeared on the acclaimed CDR ‘Burnt Progress’ compilation, this boy is now ready to fly. His super smooth production skills earned him a deal with BBE, and we can now all look forward to a stunning selection of songs that have been on repeat on my CD player for longer than I care to mention. There are also more remixes to come, with a stunning break beat re-work of Pete Rodriguez for Fania out about now (as part of the Fania DJ series) and remixes for label mate DJ Vadim, Richard E, Scrimshire and Ninja monkey boy Bonobo to follow.
The second single for BBE, ‘Late Night Mission’ – a humourous tale of trying to reach a gig in time – featuring Yungun, is out in September, and there are more side projects, including an instrumental hip hop thing called AJ’s Dilemma, and an amazing African highlife cut under the moniker The AJ Rhythm Orchestre.
Dom Servini
Big Aaron up at www.myspace.com/aaronjerome
Who Is Clutchy Hopkins?
This is the question that's been bubbling from the West Coast and causing beat lovers to scratch their heads since the CD 'MF Doom meets Clutchy Hopkins' surfaced a few months back. Tracking down this Clutchy character revealed an LP from 2005 called 'The Life of Clutchy Hopkins' on Misled Children, but the biography of his that was found with a Mojave shaman posed even more questions than answers. Stories about his political activities in Lagos, studying the rhythms of silence under Zen monks, and his father being a studio engineer at Motown studios, remain unconfirmed. Even the news of a forthcoming album on Ubiquity has been shrouded in mystery. However, one testimonial we did discover was from a certain Zach Sheckles, who claims deep gratitude to Clutchy, and told us the following story.
"I was digging at a thrift store in Big Bear, California, in the late 90's. Big Bear is a mountain community, about 50 miles north of where I live. It was a small, dingy shop where I found myself searching through an old stack of dusty records. After a while the shop owner approached me and told me that she had a whole cellar full of wax... Of course my eyes lit up and off we went.
After digging through 1000's of records in this basement I emerged with over 100 extremely rare Funk, Jazz, Soul, and Latin gems from the late sixties and early seventies. I was at this thrift store nearly all day. Of course the question running through my mind this day was "Who do these records belong to, originally?" After an extremely vague explanation of where the basement full of music history came from, the shop owner reluctantly took my contact info, with a promise to pass it on to the person responsible for this collection.
A couple months go by and I am still busy listening to all the new funky beats and breaks I got in those mountains, when out of the blue I get a call from a girl claiming to be the daughter of this man named Clutchy Hopkins, her name is Kelly. To make this long story short, I still get blessed every couple of years with a call or a mysterious package from this man who finally is beginning to get a touch of the exposure he deserves; but has been trying to avoid, his whole life."
Mamiko Motto & Max Cole
Hunt down 'The Life of Clutchy Hopkins' and 'MF Doom meets Clutchy Hopkins'.
Read the full article in the September 2007 issue of Straight No Chaser |
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Words: Michael ‘Iron Halo’ Krasser, Al Burton , Dom Servini, Mamiko Motto & Max Cole, Martin Messonier, Kristen Sweat + Paul Bradshaw, Raggy, Jez Smadja
Pictures: Mowgli / Aaron Jerome /Neil Cowley by Alexis Maryon. Elan Mehler by Dominique Issermann. Seun Kuti by Mickael Jiminez |
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