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JAMIE LIDELL – JIM (WARP) |
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The showman, or should that be soul man, returns with his push for world domination. Rated by the likes of influential record guru Rick Rubin who recently tried to sign this album to Columbia in the US, Jamie Lidell is really beginning to turn heads with his crackerjack voice and irresistible songwriting. Who would have thought back in the millenial era he was churning out elliptical, awkward techno. Leftfield purists may question the motives of his 'makeover' but, bottom line, he's made a great record and its 100% him. "'JIM' is me," says Lidell. It's the person I want to be, a conscious effort to focus on one side of myself and, ultimately, one of my multiple fictions."
Resisting the temptation to define Lidell by what he shouldn’t be doing is quite difficult. Prior to his 2005 sonic Stax/Motown jamboree 'Multiply', released on London independent label Warp, the Albert Ayler fan was just another "man in a bubble throwing out noise". Who knew that he could simultaneously channel the spirits of Otis Redding and Prince, while pushing buttons. So what prompted the change? "Having done a million shows as an electronic artist," he explains, "I wanted to change. I grew up listening to pop music on the radio so I thought why don’t I just make a pop record? Something optimistic and hopefully timeless. The kind of music you’d love to put on in the morning."
In truth, the voice has always been there. Lidell has played in many bands, including one called Balzac, in Brighton, and he lent a husky croon as early as 2003 to fellow experimental producer Herbert’s big band project. "I need to feel free and work fast when I write. If I have an instrument in my hands I sit on things. When I think only with my voice I can hear things as a recording. I’ve always been that way."
His surroundings also helped to hone his new perspective. From 2000 up until this year Lidell lived in a quiet locale of East Berlin. He also befriended Canadian musician Mocky who he describes as "a great interpreter of my madness and player of many instruments". Together they set about crafting a "no-frills", modern day finger-snapping soul revue, true to schizophrenic Lidell’s creative urges yet tempered by Mocky’s popularist knack.
"There’s a lot of feel good in 'JIM', says Lidell. "And that has a lot to do with LA. I think I was really happy that I timed it when I did [last March]. I took Mocky out and made sure we had our time to focus on writing."
'Multiply' was a great success, allowing the theatrical Lidell to appear – building improvised crescendos of his own voice, dressed in a lamé robe – on Later with Jools Holland, mesmerise a crowd of 15,000 at the Pitchfork Festival and support Beck during his US tour in summer 2006. He’d found a sound he could "tap into" and new album JIM is an even more organic, coherent and fluid realisation of his pop sensibility.
"I wanted to keep sound more contained and together on 'JIM'," he says. "So Mocky and I wrote all the songs together in sunny LA with a just basic backing of keys and guitar to see if they held up, both lyrically and melodically. I think that's where the energy is on this album and that’s makes it different to 'Multiply'."
From the daybreak joy of ‘Another Day’ (originally a melancholic ballad!) through to the wired Wilson Pickett stomp of ‘Hurricane’ and the meditative ambience of ‘Rope of Sand’ Lidell has, with Mocky and Beck producer Justin Stanley, created a powerful testament to, well, himself.
Just think though, that 'JIM" could have been a wholly deeper proposition formulated from Lidell's more spiritual music bent. He reveals that Mocky desperately tried to get Archie Shepp to collaborate on 'JIM' but to no avail. And that's not all. "'Rope Of Sand' originally started out as a bit of an Alice Coltrane number [Lidell fondly recalls his interview with Chaser's Kate Wharton, a former guest at the late Coltrane's ashram in India who recommended the experience to the inquisitive artist]. I Wrote it with this loose Zen lyric. I always wanted to do a song about a rope of sand. It’s a lyric I’ve always connected with. I recorded it very quick in a Coltrane style but Mocky thought it was 'nothing special’. But I wouldn’t let it go. We slowed it down and worked on the arrangement and making the creative turnaround one rainy afternoon. This bridge came in and we found a way to work the chorus in again. Mocky arrangement really came through. It's a great opportunity for me to showcase another voice.
"This album was originally going to be a crazy mellow Birds kind of folk record. I've always loved them since I was a kid. Now I’m listening to the Kinks. I'm only really hearing them now."
Will those sounds dominate the next record? "Who knows," he shrugs. "I'm not in the businesss of guessing the future. Maybe I should be. Maybe I should have a five-year plan, like U2!"
Catch him on tour with a full live band of ‘maverick fuck ups form jazz and free jazz world’ – yet another new direction – on 16 October 2008 at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London. (Amar Patel)
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JACKSON CONTI – SUJINHO (KINDRED SPIRITS) |
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So here it is. After meeting during the B+ Brasilintime project a few years ago, Ivan 'Mamão' Conti, legendary drummer of Azymuth/session man for anyone from Gal Costa and Edu Lobo, and Madlib the infamous combine to deliver an album of Brasilian classics and new material on the unprepared masses.
"Madlib loves Brasilian music," he begins. "Back in 2002 that wasn’t so obvious. At that time he was beginning the experiments that led to the Yesterday New Quintet records from 2003 to present day. Peanut Butter Wolf used to slide Eric Coleman [fellow photographer] and myself CDs of those early 'rehearsals' as Madlib would call them.
When the possibility of the Keepintime crew going to Brasil came up I asked Madlib one night outside the Rootdown if he wanted to go. 'C'mon man…. Azymuth is one of my favorite groups,' he confided.
I’m happy to say that in regards to Azymuth - Madlib blew our heads open. The next time I saw him at the Rootdown, he slipped me a CD of covers. All Azymuth. To this day that CD still makes me giddy. 'Entrando Pelo Janela' from that session made it onto the Keepintime remixes. Madlib had gone through the Azymuth catalogue and taught himself to play his favorite songs and then recorded it.
When we went to Brasil to recruit drummers the only name I knew I wanted for sure was Mamão. Mamão is the drummer of Azymuth. João Parahyba of the legendary Trio Mocoto picked up the phone and called him for us and from there Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti was a part of the project.
Mamao is a fantastic drummer and a warm generous person. That scene in the film where we played him the Madlib CD is a beautiful emblem of the spirit of the Brasilintime. Mamão reacted with genuine excitement at the music - singing and playing percussion along with it. Even calling in his wife to hear. We knew that a Madlib, Mamão collaboration would only take time and organisation. Within two months Madlib had turned those rhythm tracks into the album you have in your hands.'
Amazing. So how does it sound? Well with any luck you will have checked out the podcast of originals on the Chaser site. Now imagine those tracks toughened up in a Madlib style – drums bursting out of their skins counterpointed by myriad exotic instruments – with layers of Mamão percussion over the top and you're at stage one! Honestly, although he can be a little messy, it's astounding how Madlib can assimliate and replicate sounds with no real training. Maybe it's that rough, lo-fi aesthetic that is polemical. One man's kitsch is another man's crap etc
Anyone who's heard previous tribute material from Madlib, namely the Stevie project and the Blue note covers, will know that he can become self-absorbed and flood the sound with too much noise. Well not so with 'Jackson Conti'. Melody and space are key to Brasilian music and Madlib knows it (check 'Anna De Amsterdam'). So he's let the melodies shine and kept the arrangements simple.
The album is a breezy 18-track monster taking in imaginative reworks of anything from 'Berimbau' (love that synthesised guitar) to 'Casa Forte'. 'Papaya' is one of the most interesting originals with its 10-minute Azymuth jazz expansion on the central melody.
An infectious need for fun permeates throughout as demonstrated on Airto's 'Xibaba', which has humourous doses of accordion.
Elsewhere there are enjoyable covers of great songs by Chico Buarque, Joao Donato, Vinicius, Marcos Valle, Dom Um Romao, George Duke and Azymuth (closer 'Segura Esta Onda', from Madlib's covers CDR, finishes on a suitably unbeat note with Mamão lending vocals and Madlib trying to cram one album into one tune!). In the end, it all goes well with summer so pick it up. Before Madlib unsuspectedly throws his afrobeat album at you! (Amar Patel)
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ROLAND APPEL – TALK TO THE ANGEL (SONAR KOLLEKTIV) |
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‘Creativity is an ongoing process. It is not to copy. Creativity is love making with your soul.’ So portentously begins the debut album of Roland Appel, member of VOOM: VOOM, Trüby Trio and Fauna Flesh. Appel cut his production teeth alongside the likes of Christian Prommer, Peter Kruder and Rainer Trüby before striking out alone. This album entails him finding his path as a producer and artist. ‘When you are working alone you sometimes want to talk to someone,” he explains, “but on the other hand you don’t want to talk to them, because you really enjoy being alone. It’s then that it becomes clear to you that you can talk to your angel.”
The most impressive aspect of this nine-tracker, and it’s a crucial foundation, is Appel’s use of traditional song structures to add resonance to his house and techno pulse. ‘Secrets’ with the impressive Araba Walton’s plaintive vocal interrupted by that catchy synth vamp, is a prime example. ‘Changes’ finds the eerie middle ground between Detroit, Chicago and Berlin – circa 1990. Meanwhile, ‘Angel’ is sublime, in an era and genre all of itself, watchful and reassuring. ‘Dark Soldier’ was well received in 2007 for the opposite effect, no doubt. Building drama and dread, the track has possessed a few clubbers. And ‘Unforgiven’ deceives you into thinking Appel has retreated to his Fauna Flesh days. Not so, the pulsating synths rise and fall just when a change is needed.
Concluding the album you feel as though you’ve been both on the floor and in your room – feeling or contemplating. And that is high praise indeed. Roland Appel has made a winning debut distinguished by touch and soul. (Amar Patel)
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V/A – ELASTE VOL.2: SPACE DISCO MIXED BY TOM WIELAND (COMPOST) |
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Seek out this excellent new compilation of obscure boogie and, Kraut electronica and glitchy, atmospheric breaks compiled by Austria’s Tom Wieland, Trans Europa Express radio host, 7 Samurai and one half of Panoptikum.
Where the first volume of cosmic disco lost it’s way, paddling in a cloud of nothingness devoid of either memorable rhythm or melody, Wieland has built a really fluid and heavy mix stacked with the obscure and addictive – tracks you won’t readily find on your typical The Loft or Paradise Garage compilation, more likely collector djs’ uncredited mixtapes. ‘This is what this compilation is about,’ he explains in the informative liner notes. ‘Lost space disco gems and soulful Euro boogie, the good side of the early 80’s in Europe.’
There are so many killers on here but particular favourites include Selection’s ‘Rebel On The Run’ – what a vocal – along with JAGG’s ‘Take Time’, a big Italian disco anthem from the VA Danceteria Faber Cucchetti mix from back in the day, Ströer’s ‘Don’t Stay Till Breakfast’ from 1978 (presaging the easy wave of 80’s British pop) and Frankie Knuckles ecstatic Balearic extension of Rufus and Chaka’s ‘Aint Nobody’. It’s all impeccably blended and contextualised by Wieland himself. Compilations seldom get it right like this. Whether you’re into vocal boogie, Italo disco, Kraftwerk, this is one word – quality. (Amar Patel)
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