I thought this was kind of interesting...I know the 4Hero fans will disagree :)
I personally haven't heard the album yet.
Gen
>I pulled this off of the front page of radiospy. For
>those of you who like jazz and or breakbeats you might
>find it interesting.
article begins here:
>Future Loop Foundation
>PHunk Roc
>Liquid
>
>Proof that jazz / breakbeat hybrids don't have to
>induce catatonia
>
>
>It's not necessarily a rule, but by and large, efforts
>to fuse break beats with jazz usually produce the
>electronic dance-music equivalent of the color beige.
>Sure, there have been some dynamite exceptions: Roni
>Size and Reprazent's New Forms employed wicked horn
>lines and R&B vocals to produce an edgy pre-millennial
>masterpiece. The trick, Size revealed, lies in finding
>ways to incorporate the syncopated riffs of jazz with
>the frenetic grittiness that makes jungle so
>compelling. It doesn't sound all that difficult, but
>then, there are folks out there who will
>enthusiastically drop Kenny G's name into a discussion
>on Coltrane, so it's apparent that some people just
>don't get it.
>
>Sure, drum 'n' bass can sound pleasant and atmospheric
>when blended with smooth jazz (usually by LTJ Bukem or
>someone else from his venerable Good Looking label).
>It can also sound relentlessly dull (4 Hero) and
>intolerably cheesy. It sounds best when talents like
>Size and Mark "Future Loop Foundation" Barrott ramp up
>the BPMs and fiddle with the irony meter. They
>reference jazz without succumbing to it, leaving jazz
>innovations to the Vandermark 5s of the world.
>
>Case in point, FLF's third LP, PHunk Roc, which finds
>Sheffield, England native Barrott tracing his roots in
>the early '90s British jungle scene to assemble a
>well-balanced meal of tasty jazz licks and smoking d
>'n' b rhythms.
>
>The album's first few seconds don't immediately clue
>you in to Barrott's sense of balance. PHunk Roc starts
>off with a deceptively mellow intro: a lactose-heavy
>synth wash coupled with delicate chimes and a male
>vocalist plaintively asking, "What kind of world are
>we living in?" The wheels fall off the mediocrity
>express right there, however, as FLF quickly launches
>into an unbroken 21-minute jump-up jam, spread out
>over three tracks (at least two of which, "Conditions
>for Living" and "Daddy Radical," have appeared on
>previously released FLF singles or EPs).
>
>Barrott then takes the album along a different, less
>overtly energetic route. "Espionage" is, given its
>title, appropriately clothed in noir atmospherics and
>disco-fied paranoia, barely stabilized by a slinky
>backbeat. This sets the listener up for the backroom
>coke-fueled haze of "Gimme Some Blow," the first part
>of another three-track mix that smoothly progresses
>into the dance-floor bounce of "Jumper" and the
>comical mambo madness of "Santos Del Futuro."
>
>Here, Barrott truly shows off his mixing and
>composition skills, creating tracks that have unique
>ambience and flavor, which he deftly mixes to form a
>sonic narrative that takes the listener from trough to
>peak with nary a shudder. In doing so, he demonstrates
>that the miscegenation of jazz and drum 'n' bass
>doesn't have to produce a new plateau of blandness.
>With most drum 'n' bass producers heading off in one
>extreme direction (atmo) or another (hardstep,
>techstep -- take your pick), it's refreshing to hear
>an album that's neither too mellow to take seriously
>nor too hard to take in large doses.
>
>
>
>Sean Flinn | May 23, 2000
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