Sunday, July 09, 2006

CUT CHEMIST - The Audience's Listening

All I can say is that it's easily one of the best frigging albums of the year in my books. I love it. J5's new album Feedback is a bit ordinary & it shows probably because of the absence of Chem & the use of outside producers. eg: Scott Storch's vomitous Black Eyed Peas styled track Brown Girl is one of the most pitiful & contrived radio friendly tracks I would never have thought J5 would lower themselves to make. It sounds unlike anything they've done before, but sounds like a million things others have done. Thankfully one listen to Cut Chemist's album & you know he would never go down that route in a zillion years. It's chock full of dynamic uptempo cut n paste styled compostions & quirky downtempo pieces of brilliance. Only 2 tracks have emcees, Edan & MR Lif on Storm (see here for MP3) & Hymnal on What's the Altitude. And a nice addition of a Astrid Gilberto vocal through the Brazilian inspired The Garden.

Easily one of the best albums of the year for me. No question. It delivers without even half a duff track. We all knew he had it in him, but many, including myself, were nervous only due to the fact that he was signed to Warner. Amazingly they must have left him to his own devices, because there isn't even a whiff of a suspicious odour with any of the tracks. I'd be hardpressed to even nominate an obviously radio friendly song.

Postscript:
The one thing that Cut Chem has over DJ Shadow is a definite sense of humour. I've seen the track listing for The Outsider & the mere fact that it has The Federation, Keak da Sneak & David Banner doesn't exactly have my heart racing. Even the Lateef/Q-Tip track 'Enuff ' sounds like generic club track. Though the soulful track, using a 40yr old found vocal, This Time (I'm Going To Try It My Way) is simply divine.

• MP3: CUT CHEMIST - My 1st Big Break
Classic double copy infused deejay wonderment.
• MP3: CUT CHEMIST - Spat
Listen to this imaginative & original track for example. Its 2 turntables having a conversation over the phone...

1 comment:

Planet said...

I don't know man. I didn't really like the stuff I heard of this album. The single was aiight. Cut and paste DJ albums are cool to a point but it gets a old for me real fast.