Prog Hop + Eggnog

So the acclaim for MBDTF has spiraled out of control. The amount of praise of Kanye West's latest album has become a national epidemic for which there is nor will be a vaccine (check Muzjiks in the coming days for more on that). What hasn't been mentioned enough, in my opinion, is the structural formation of some of these album tracks and tracks included in Yeezy's "Good Friday" series. I have personally never seen anything like this. These are hip-hop jazz epics. The man has collected what he has dubbed the best in his genre at the given time (or what he has access to) and allowed them to take free reign over a melodic idea. Please listen to John Coltrane's "Moment's Notice" and note the melody that begins at :39. This is the nugget that drives the piece, but John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Chris Fuller (trombone), Lee Morgan (trumpet), Paul Chambers (D Bass), and Kenny Drew (keys) all get their hacks before the whole thing is bookended by the piece's outro.



Listen to "Monster" and "So Appalled" and tell me you don't feel the same thing. Kanye grabs a melodic idea, flushes it out, and lets his friends shit all over it. Listen to "Christian Dior Denim Flow" and the new single, "Christmas in Harlem" and dismiss them as b-sides; I dare you. Now you have no excuse, the latter two are featured below in down-loadable MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 format.

Enjoy yourselves, now you can say you listen to jazz.

Kanye West: "Christmas in Harlem"

Kanye West: "Christian Dior Denim Flow"

dw|tb

Can you dig it?

You've heard of the Budos Band. You just don't know it. Perhaps you're familiar with Black Eyed Peas' "Imma Be," which sampled the band's "Ride or Ride." Or maybe you've heard Wale's Mixtape About Nothing, which lifted the beat for "The Chicago Falcon (Remix)" from the opening track of The Budos Band II. Blending jazz, funk, afrobeat, and the sound of the 1970s blaxploitation film into a nostalgic retro style, the Staten Island-based collective evokes Super Fly and Shaft so authentically that I thought I was listening to an obscure '70s band, rather than an alive-and-well group that's only been together since 2005.

Now, don't misconstrue my words. Just because the Budos Band is making music characteristic of four decades ago doesn't mean that they're retracing steps on well-trod ground; rather, these musicians are fusing the aforementioned genres into something new, something fresh. And as you can see in the picture above, there's a lot of people in Budos. They combine their efforts to yield groovy syncopation, subtle melodies, sultry horn lines, and countless other musical ingredients that ultimately create a dense sound that rewards repeat listens, as there's simply too many elements demanding interest for the ear to process it all at once.

Golden Dunes [alt]
Chicago Falcon [alt]
Ride or Die [alt]

This... is BoomBox

Featuring Zion Godchaux, the son of ex-Grateful Dead singer Donna Jean Godchaux, BoomBox offers a refreshing new spin on the jam band genre, incorporating elements of electronic music into the usual blend of jazz, dub, blues, funk, and rock. Treating musical ideas in an Igor Stravinsky-esque copy/paste fashion, the two-piece develops short, catchy motives—a guitar riff, a synth line, or a head bob-worthy drum break—and creates songs through an additive/subtractive technique. The building and subsequent deconstruction of texture and timbre serve as the primary sources of musical interest. A persistent groove, however, is present throughout every BoomBox piece, making every track off of the band's debut and Live Music Archive bootlegs irresistibly danceable. In a sense, BoomBox bridges the gap between the classic Phish or Dead jam rock and genres like turntablism-centered independent hip hop and psybient. Although Godchaux's thin vocals admittedly leave something to be desired, this music is simply not about vocal chops; this is about the groove in its purest sense. As BoomBox's "Midnight on the Run" implores: "Better put 'em on, your dancing shoes." Enjoy.

Stereo
Tonight
Midnight on the Run