Moodymann Album Music Review
A new Moodymann release is definitely gonna be a reason for excitement in the house community. "Moodymann" was eventually released at the conclusion of this past year to some decidedly mixed reception, the negativity mainly based on the purchase price, which at around 18 Euros on iTunes and as much as 37 Euros for your vinyl was considered by some to become excessive. You will find, compared to other releases it�s expensive (and compared to the price that many will pay for it - i.e.: nothing once they rip it from zippyshare it may be reported to be really rather expensive). But aside from gripes round the price, this can be a top quality release. Not only an accumulation of tracks and never an endeavor to re-create old successes, it�s a cohesive collection that spans numerous genres whilst maintaining a resolutely individual identity. Chill House
Kenny Dixon Jnr�s sound is sample heavy, groove based, deeply soulful, raw and uncompromising. He draws on funk, soul, disco, R�n�B, and jazz and the productions wear the weight of the influences; they�re deep, thick, heavy, oozing from your speakers like treacle. What Dixon does is to perfectly meld these old fashioned influences with the classic house and techno sound of Detroit: It�s machine soul.
The tracks and also the mini-tracks/snippets/excerpts/skits that come with together all contain samples and snatches of older black American music, subtle signposts for that initiated, hints with the influences that comprise KDs sound. The snippets, the speeches, slices of old RnB and Soul, spoken-word clips etc. all draw heavily around the good reputation for American black music, but re-presenting the different strands in a contemporary setting.
Its breadth is the better aspect of "Moodymann", its span of serious amounts of of different genres from various eras. Days gone by and the present mix together, our a feeling of time is enjoyed as distant hints of gospel and blues sit side by side with clearer shades drum machines and synths.
Taken as a whole, the album slides effortlessly between and throughout genres, sometimes, soul influenced, at times tech-inspired, always Detroit through and through and as politically uncompromising as ever.
Tying it all together and providing it its identity will be the vocals of KD himself, cool understated, thick deep and, sometimes light, sometimes yearning, pitched down, over compressed, flitting into and out of a combination, chopped up and re-sampled, bleeding into the rhythm track, a person's element perfectly meshed with the machines, tech soul. It�s perhaps a more personal release than his other work, by just the fact his vocals appear more prominently. Smooth House
And the lyrical concerns? Sex, Clubs, KD himself as well as, Detroit which can be described repeatedly, both as victim from the disintegration of Americas Rust belt economy but additionally inside a celebratory fashion, for the reason that strange doublethink that individuals often have about where they are offered from - simultaneously aware of their property city�s shortcomings and pleased to complain about them, right until someone externally does the same after which the sense of civic pride swells up - �Cos I�m a Detroiter� says KD and he means it.
Variations in tempo enhance overall a feeling of completeness to the album, rather than it just as a variety of 12� grooves cobbled together. Certainly, in terms of the dancefloor, some of the tracks simply aren�t planning to work with the harder conservative house DJ who simply wants to play tracks around 120-125 bpm. In fact for a Deep House DJ, this may be may be likely to be an even more challenging album - its deep, dark, sometimes claustrophobic, intense, full-on, uncompromising - its definitely not the Beatport Deep house Top. However this is the thing that albums are suitable for, a chance for artists to spread their wings just a little, to loosen up their ideas, to completely rinse out their influences, and when which means stepping outside their usual house tempos for a while to articulate new amounts of deepness and emotion then that�s fine with me at night and better for your scene.
�Desire� appears at the beginning of the track listing, setting the standard bar high. Composed of tight beats, part broken beat, part Latin-house, exquisitely produced percussion, piano and acoustic bass snippets using a deep soulful vocal, the entire package all filtered through KDJ�s Detroit sensibility.
The track on the album most abundant in downloads on iTunes may be the radio friendly Lyk U Use 2 featuring Andres, a soaring soul workout with hints of Andre 2000�s �Millionaire�. Part Motown, part DnB, descending Rhodes chords, simple repeating vocal melody, lovely unselfconscious backing vocals along with a filtered disco breakdown. Hooky, even, but nevertheless retaining its underground edge.
KDJ has got the gift of having the ability to combine resolutely underground repetitive riffs along with his soul vocals and chopped, effected vocal samples to great effect such as �I got work�, a driving, relentless groove with various vocal tracks interlocking and mingling, whispering and muttering since the track stops working and accumulates again.
The more techy tracks are striking in their coolness; simplified, minimal, spooky, empty but full, clearly wearing their Detroit heart on their own sleeves - their funk existing not in layers of syncopation however in the relentless groove, the simple percussion - everything effective, not one hat or clap is wasted or used un-necessarily, this is economic tech, austere house. �IGuessuneverbeenlonely� can be found in at 2 minutes and 43 seconds in total, not really three minutes long as well as in its short time, it presents an exact encapsulation of this deep tech house sound that KDJ does so well, cool, austere restrained yet with hidden depths of emotion.
Likewise �Radio� - restrained rhythms over which cold, gentle synths play, the entire sound somehow managing to sound both space-age and utterly contemporary, simultaneously conjuring the future whilst somehow managing to evoke the early 21st century urban landscape
�Ulooklykeiceccreaminthesummertime� has hints of Roy Ayers, effortlessly slipping from relaxed funk into jazz via more cool Rhodes and effected vocals prior to the main breakdown resolves right into a hardcore house rhythm, associated with the ever present Rhodes and vox.
�Born2Die� - a re work of his Lana Del Rey remix from 2012 - starts such as an 80sEuro-pop anthem a la Ultravox before KDJ starts to build up the percussion and synth action, giving the track a sheen of cool, dark funk - chopping the vocal, maintaining your beat tight and minimal, restrained and controlled - its another short track, coming in at just over three minutes, it might easily are already another Five minutes long.
I�m watching you features more layered interlocking vocals, it�s a restrained track that joins the dots between the contemporary house groove and disco and jazz - sweet chords, using a contradictory hint of paranoia to the vocal - can it be love or possibly it stalking? Here I can here oblique hints of Sly Stone�s claustrophobic, paranoid funk, and �Smiling Faces Sometimes� era Motown, Norman Whitfield�s Temptations brought up up to now and dropped to the streets of 21st century disaster zone Detroit.
Aside from the obvious musical sampling, borrowing and referencings, younger crowd makes more oblique hints and musical allusions, the track Sloppy cosmic recalling Funkadelic�s Cosmic Slop, not to mention the suggestion of Eddie Hazel�s guitar workouts inside the fuzz guitar that has on the track following the two minute plus gospelesque intro. Likewise there are echoes of Prince, not only in the track names� utilization of �U� rather than �You� but also within the space age funk of �Got Dem Freaks Dem wit Me�, a track full of edits, effects as well as an insistent nagging bassline, flitting between house-funk and dark, low RnB. It�s then �Freeki Muthafucka�- with increased dark paranoid vocals, this time spoken, heavily compressed, right up in front with the mix, sitting on surface of a bubbling bass line, future beats and minimal euro synths. Try playing this inside a dark basement at 3am and watch the space stop.
So what you've got can be a doggedly underground album from a designer that is both sticking with his influences whilst also widening his sonic palette. It�s rich and varied and in contrast to a lot of dance music, it has genuine soul as well as a very prominent human face. If you like it soulful, if you want it deep, if you like it resolutely underground and uncompromising and when you�d enjoy virtual tour of American black musics reworked into new forms -then "Moodymann" is made for you. 9/10
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