APIT

A PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION TO: GURU’S JAZZMATAZZ SERIES | 2024-03-23

Essaying to introduce audiences to a body of work whose first of six installments debuted more than thirty years ago might seem like an oxymoron to most. Yet, considering the multi-hyphenate and still to this day vastly under-appreciated career of hip-hop MC extraordinaire Keith Edward Elam—aka Guru, a backronym for Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal—we claim this framework to be based and useful to some. The exceptionally talented American recording artist, producer, and actor, whose career was tragically cut short in 2010, is best known for his long-lasting impact as one half of superstar alt-rap duo Gang Starr, accompanied by DJ Premier on decks and production duties. Fewer people have the Boston, MA-native’s solo career trajectory on their radar though, particularly as it pertains to his contributions as the host of the unsung collaborative live jazz-rap project series dubbed Jazzmatazz. In his own words: “an experimental fusion of hip-hop and live jazz”.

While on a break in-between Gang Starr albums in 1993, the East Coast rapper saw fit to temporarily diverge from his storied trademark partnership with DJ Premier and venture into collaborations with both old-school and new-school postmod jazz stylists. The first 21-track chapter result of the series, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1: An Experimental Fusion of Hip-Hop and Jazz, saw the light of day that same year, and featured notable collaborations with none other than Donald Byrd, N’Dea Davenport, MC Solaar as well as Roy Ayers. While overall positively received at the time, the exploit reveals vast amounts of comfortable smoothness beyond what meets the eye; that both aged incredibly well, and belied Guru’s otherwise streetwise toughness.

To be clear, the sampling and interpolation of jazz segments into rap joints was nothing new to Gang Starr or even other prominent hip-hop collectives at the time. However, the way Guru executes that marriage throughout the six-episode Jazzmatazz series results in much more intricate, slamming, and gently seductive records than their street-anchored ones. Doubling down on his successful series opener, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Vol. 2: The New Reality followed suit a few years later (1995), with as much as an hour and fifteen minutes of new material, counting an expanded stylistic horizon inclusive of Chaka Khan, Ramsey Lewis, Branford Marsalis and Jamiroquai amongst its ranks. The project ended up commercially outperforming its predecessor, peaking at number 71 on the Billboard 200 chart (Vol. 1 had to make do with number 94) and number 16 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list, lending marketable credibility to Guru’s trailblazing vision at the time.

Amazingly, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Vol. 3: Streetsoul—the following offering in the run arriving five years later—did even better across its sixteen cuts than the previous two albums did. Departing even more drastically from the intelligent hardcore lessons set to incidental jazz on the first two chapters, Vol. 3 embraced more neo-soul and R&B-centric aesthetics, recruiting both genres heavyweights such as Angie Stone, Bilal, Craig David, Donell Jones, and Erykah Badu. Notwithstanding a perhaps more lukewarm critical reception from the reviewing intelligentsia, the album peaked at #32 and #8 on the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, respectively. Evidently, there existed at the time an audience appetite and marketability for the previously unchartered territory of direct taping live instrumentation to underscore sixteen bars over sixteen bars, aptly spat by a generationally impactful and revered MC.

Initially inspired to pursue his vision by a trip to Europe in the late 1980s, during which his eyes opened to the so-called ‘fusion scene’ where hip-hop breakbeats got grafted onto live jazz sonic mantels, Guru was all too aware that his ongoing undertakings with Gang Starr were loaded with too much pretext and expectation for them to be the right conduits for Jazzmatazz. So, leaning into a softer edge, he fully committed to experimentation under his own name instead. The East Coast hip-hop staple left no stone unturned in pledging allegiance to such cause, ranging from the more obvious instrumental layer all the way to his lyrical content. By his own admission, verses and flows on his Jazzmatazz series are more laidback, more easy listening, although still message-oriented. Moreover, he had no small chip on his shoulder—one grappling with the trials and tribulations that came with the record industry of the time.

Lamenting how the lack of radio hit records with Gang Starr was less attributable to the music’s inherent palatability than to label executives’ shortsighted understanding of what the art stood for, the wordsmith actively sought alliance from jazz and its cats on account of what he saw as a shared cultural curse. Both genres are art forms that are highly relevant and intrinsic to black culture and experience, and they both deal with real emotions. As the rapper learned of the different ways the grandparental record industry tampered and warped jazz in an attempt to increase its commercial appetite in the past, he immediately saw the value in uniting in order to speak truth to power. In a poetic twist of fate (and perhaps not coincidentally), major label Virgin Records, that had earmarked his Jazzmatazz endeavors hitherto, stopped supporting Guru’s recorded affairs after Vol. 3. So he went ahead and founded his own imprint in response; 7 Grand Records.

Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Vol. 4: The Hip Hop Jazz Messenger: Back to the Future—his sixth solo studio LP to date (in-between Vol. 3 and 4., he dropped the standalone projects Baldhead Slick & da Click and Version 7.0: The Street Scriptures)—took a whole other seven years to come to fruition, only to clock in at just shy of an hour of runtime as it was released by 7 Grand Records in 2007. Officially billed as the final installment in the Jazzmatazz canon event, the full length was entirely produced by Solar, and features guest appearances from Blackalicious, Bobby Valentino, Slum Village, Common, and Damian Marley amongst others. However, in a move that put even Frank Ocean‘s 2016 millennium label deal finessing to shame, Guru and 7 Grand saw fit to surprise drop a raw companion mixtape on the same 31st July Vol. 4 came out: Guru’s Jazzmatazz: The Timebomb Back to the Future Mixtape. So much for making a statement of intent directed at the majors.

Ironically, the industrious approach ended up backfiring, turning the right heads in the major label circuit. A mere year later, on the heels of Guru’s growing legacy and influence both within and outside of his Gang Starr lane, dearly departed Virgin Records kind of proved his original point entirely by throwing together a puffy, rushed, and haphazard Jazzmatazz greatest hits compilation. It’s too bad that owing to the EMI/Universal Music Group controlling stake of the body of work’s front-end, the best-of collection only featured 18 cuts, limited to the first three Jazzmatazz volumes. Not exactly the faithful rearview mirror doing justice to the whole creative vision on Guru’s part. Only two years later, and not without having released his swan song solo LP Guru 8.0: Lost and Found, Keith Edward Elam passed away from myeloma at the premature age of 48. Although his carnal manifestation might’ve moved on, his visionary impact is forever. Amidst a genre-less and experimentation-prone contemporary musical zeitgeist, Guru’s Jazzmatazz was both prescient and incisive—as Nate Patrin so eloquently outlines for Stereogum:

Jazzmatazz isn’t nearly as outlandish an idea as its creators might have thought at the time. That seems to matter less than the fact it still bumps, though, and slotted between the two Gang Starr classics that bookend it, it captures one of the all-time greatest MCs at a creative peak. Maybe the more important takeaway is this: it’s always worth celebrating when hip-hop finds a way to do the job of preservation that the conservative purists never really could do alone. And the future belongs to those who know where to take the past.

We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time. RIP Guru.

AV

Below listed and displayed are Guru’s Jazzmatazz volumes (1993-2008):

  • Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1: An Experimental Fusion of Hip-Hop and Jazz (Chrysalis, 1993)
  • Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Vol. 2: The New Reality (Chrysalis, 1995)
  • Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Vol. 3: Streetsoul (Virgin Records, 2000)
  • Guru’s Jazzmatazz, Vol. 4: The Hip Hop Jazz Messenger: Back to the Future (7 Grand Records, 2007)
  • Guru’s Jazzmatazz: The Timebomb Back to the Future Mixtape (7 Grand Records, 2007)
  • The Best of Guru’s Jazzmatazz (Virgin Records, 2008)

A PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION TO: THE 2024 PAXAM ALBUM TETRALOGY | 2023-11-27

Safe to say it’s been an eventful 2023 for Jacksonville, NC-native singer/songwriter Ryan Adams. The current calendar year began on a tributary note for the 49-year old country rocker, with back-to-back releases of three significant cover albums in the shape of Bruce Springsteen‘s Nebraska, Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, and Oasis‘s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, all between Christmas and Easter. In-between unveiling those reimagined collections, he also found the time to get his old Cardinals band back together after over a decade of hiatus (with a supergroup-worthy line up, no less), drop a new single with them, and take them on a nationwide US tour over the summer. Before all of that, he managed to squeeze a limited leg of solo shows in the UK and Europe. Meanwhile, sometime later in spring, he saw fit to announce the highly-anticipated live acoustic sequel to his 2015 Live at Carnegie Hall compilation—aptly titled Return to Carnegie Hall. Recorded during his acclaimed return to the storied New York City namesake venue last year, the tape was eventually released on music outlets worldwide on 25th August.

You’d think that would do it for even the hardest-working artists in the business, but nope. It’s the most prolific songwriter of his generation we’re talking about here. So halfway through the feel good heat of July, the PaxAm founder came through once more and gave away another new live album. This time couching a highlights reel of salient performances recorded during the first round of shows with The Cardinals, Alive — Vol. I remained available as a free online download for a few months. Then in early fall, a cancelled run of solo shows due to poor health between September and November followed suit, only to be trailed by the surprise announcement of “I Was Here”, a purported new instant-gratification single teasing toward a previously unannounced forthcoming project, named Sword & Stone. Surely, this should be enough for a year-in-review round-up? Well, here comes the kill.

During the first week of November, the former Whiskeytown leader revealed what might be his biggest milestone of the year yet: the majorly hyped ‘PaxAm Relaunch’. Touted as a fresh new clean slate for the artist in anticipation to its d-day, skyrocketing new creative enterprises such as book publishing as well as a slew of previously unreleased original music, the big reveal turned out to be a bit of a chimera to most. Granted, Adams did stay through to some of his prior advertisements. Excitingly, included at launch there was indeed his first ever fiction novel, 100 Problems, on top of your regular update of merch capsules, ranging from fine grade tees to scented candles. However, what built out to be the crown jewel to the buzzed PaxAm reset, his latest tetralogy of albums, ended up leaving fans eagerly salivating, and still mostly dissatisfied. At best. While he did unveil the title of the four new bodies of work in said tetralogy—Heatwave, Star Sign, the aforementioned Sword & Stone, and the long-rumored follow up to his hardcore punk Hüsker Dü worship 1984, 1985—the catch is that at the time of this writing, those projects are only available for vinyl pre-order, with a tentative mid-January 2024 shipping date.

For the full record (pun probably intended), the bells and whistle-y PaxAm comeback also came with the dispatch of five additional products. Still, vinyl pre-orders all the same. Most notably, these encompass an exclusive live unplugged rendition of Adams’s exquisite Prisoner LP from 2017, as well as the second pressing of his remarkable and patchworked 2022 album quartet (Chris, Romeo & Juliet, FM, and Devolver). Just for shits and giggles, inclusive of the upcoming tetralogy, yet sans his bunch of live records in-between, this projected music pipeline would bring his accrued tally of music projects released since his 2020 return to an otherworldly thirteen studio efforts (!). All within just about three years of time.

In the midst of it all, the 2024 PaxAm album tetralogy appears to be happening. The aforementioned four outings all have (somewhat graphically questionable) respective cover art, as well as an official track listing. In lieu of formal chronological release timelines, the album sleeves are embedded below in alphabetical order, whereas according to the label/publisher’s website all of the projects’s sequencings range from Star Sign‘s compact ten songs to a whooping 29 (!) on what’s poised to be a rabid and hard-hitting 1985. Yet, not official street date in sight—whether that goes for the nominal release of vinyl, or for the highly-demanded streaming outlets’s sales availability. For all we know today, these four exploits are all slated for a 2024 release. So while it is true that their announcement and promotion fall on this side of the year, this is legitimate enough a reason for this to be considered as a 2024 tetralogy, for all intents and purposes.

And then there’s the Grammy Award-nominated act’s typical set of scattered, contradicting, and excessive marketing of upcoming music. Now wholly contained on the author’s own Instagram page—alas, with the store relaunch, even the nail-in-the-coffin PaxAm newsletter updates appear to have been indefinitely nixed. The promotional roll out of well, basically everything and anything all at once, has hitherto been an outright spray and pray. With all its shows and tells, uploads and takedowns, and hodgepodge of juxtaposing information, not one soul would admittedly have been able to even commence to make head or tails of it all, if it weren’t for the benevolent Ryan Adams archivist vigilante graciousfew. To date, almost thirty different track previews have been rolled out by the alt-country mainstay within the projected tetralogy. For the most part, without much rhyme or reason as to what kind of picture one is to expect from each of the four full lengths.

Adams has been most generous with 1985, teasing as many as ten cuts from the expected twenty-nine. Undoubtedly the most focused and cohesive-sounding of the four new LPs, the record appears to be building and expanding on the distorted, fast, and zany street-rage displayed on its almost ten year-old predecessor. The more somber and reflective Star Sign follows suit with a whole eight records out of the available then having been peppered and then recanted throughout the pinball cult leader’s IG feed within the last year or so. Here, the picture appears to be clearer, one painted by way of a more refined, song crafted, and lush brush. A vastly ambitious affair, Star Sign enlists the richest arrangements and the longest track runtimes of the bunch (with its title track previewed at as many as eleven minutes of playtime, and another four teasers clocking in longer than five minutes). As far as an early guessing is concerned, this might end up being the best received and most gratifying of the four projects by the lion’s share of DRA’s fanbase, with evident callbacks to a wide range of back-catalogue issuances, such as Jacksonville City Nights (“Shinin Thru the Dark”), Love Is Hell (“I Lost My Place”), and his self-titled (“Darkness”).

Regrettably, Heatwave and Sword & Stone are both rougher around their edges, and more of a mess. At least on paper. Going off its first six teasers, the former appears to pick up from the power-pop and alt-rock inklings Adams left us with both FM and Devolver last year. While the latter—beefed up with an additional quartet of previews (“Blown Away”, “I’ll Wait”, “I Can See the Light” and the title track) to complement the aforementioned official lead single “I Was Here”—sounds more like a spiritual successor to last year’s brotherly tribute Chris. The issue at face value here, with the benefit of doubt tied to the missing full album listening experience, is that both projects tend to blend into each other à la mixtape—not always in a flattering way. Take for instance the minute and change fire and fury of “Lies”, Heatwave‘s opening tune, and you might be wondering how on earth it didn’t make the 1985 cut to round up its track listing to thirty songs.

Meanwhile, when listened to in isolation, records like “Mercy”, “Why”, “Sword & Stone” and “I Can See the Light” absolutely sound like they would belong on the one and same body of work. An upbeat, catchy, and fun one at that. A companion piece to FM of sorts. Too bad the first two are sequenced on Heatwave, and the other two appear on Sword & Stone. No harm no foul—it’s not like the LA-transplant hasn’t repurposed and recycled a wealth of material across his numerous, numerous records. Especially so in his more recent spate of third act career releases. For instance, Chris and Romeo & Juliet have a lot in common, musically and lyrically. His comeback 2020 full length Wednesdays brings it back all the way to a post-Whiskeytown, early solo DRA era. Not to mention his past B-sides and bonus tracks; all systems go as far as where they truly fit amidst their up- and downgrading across deep cuts and official tracklisting slots. Whether deliberate or not on Adams’s part, that is all definitely part of the charm and allure of his fine craft. A little bit like remaining uneasy and on edge until the godforsaken day his 2024 PaxAm album tetralogy finally becomes available for listening. The only assurance we have at this point, is that that will be a good morning.

We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

A PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION TO: (OASIS’ SHADOWCAST UPON) SHADER & ENUMCLAW | 2023-03-12

Almost fifteen years after their off-kilter, watershed, and unceremonious split in a Parisian backstage, it’s hard to overstate the amount of influence, longing, and nostalgia English rock band Oasis has propagated in its aftermath. Although most of the attention and money on the heels of their disbandment revolved around shoehorning an improbable reunion by way of reconciling the Gallagher Bros’s insurmountable differences, the britpop marquee fixture’s creative footprint has found boundless ways to permeate inspiratory wells of lots of contemporary acts in its wake—both within and outside the immediate confines of rock and roll.

It could be contended that two latter-day quintessential offshoots of such a musical lineage would be fellow Mancunian indie rockers Shader on the one hand, and Tacoma, Washington-based Enumclaw on the other. Aside from how their music rings and shreds (more on this below), both foursomes sport self-evident signs of worshipping association with their spiritual grandfathers—the shared stomping ground coupled with a parka-punk antic in the former group’s case, the “best band since Oasis” biography tagline for the latter. Yet the apparent similarities between these outfits should theoretically end there.

That is, geographically and socio-economically, the band members’ upbringings and backgrounds could not be more different from each other, at least at first glance. For starters, a planet-sectioning 4,650 miles/7,500 km separate the primordial soups from within which Shader and Enumclaw sprouted. If the artistic extrapolation borrowed from Oasis’s industry-changing sound and aesthetic is more than comprehensible in the Manchester natives’ case, it does require a more substantial cognitive leap for the American Fat Possum Records signees. Not unrelatedly, as the advent of geographically distributed and interconnected nodes of connection went on to annul even the stealthiest of outstanding barriers, a cultural dynamic directly stemming from Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities ensued.

With both acts properly soaked and hard-boiled in guitar-led no frills indie rock—one wouldn’t be too far off in picturing them with a sprinkle of mid-Naughties emo sensibilities on top—their musical crossover pushes past the high regard they each hold the britpop icons in. Refreshingly in the present climate, virtually every creative component baked into each of their collections of songs to date is built in order to thrust the guitar as the lead protagonist instrument, rather than blink-and-you-miss it-bit part in much of today’s tired rock canon. Sticky intro riffs, slews of parallel melodic riffs, main vocal dynamics atop of consonant arpeggios: these all revolve around six-strings, not unlike a certain giant band from the 90s.

However, perhaps Shader and Enumclaw’s most appeasing and earnest value is found in their unabashed and dejected adoption of true blue, tried and true pop rock songwriting formulas. Without ever incurring the risk of coming across as one-dimensional, their verse/chorus/verse/bridge/chorus song-crafting method is of an endearing textbook execution. This results in multiple cuts on either of their debut studio LPs Save the Baby and Everything Is Connected sounding handily and seamlessly like they could sneak into each other’s tracklist without anyone batting an eye (take Shader’s “There Was a Time“, “Time Is Right” as well as “Runaway“—or conversely, their US counterparts’ uncanny sonic adjacency of “Cowboy Bebop” and “Jimmy Neutron“).

Lest we lose our trail of thought here—both quartets wear their singular strain of britpop influence proudly on their sleeves. Hence, the notion that significant portions of their studio-grading recordings come across like they could be covering each other isn’t exactly an affront to the Pepsi test. Yet the set of coincidences start to run deep as soon as one realizes that their aforementioned long-gestated debut projects came out within the span of two weeks of each other, across mid to late October last year. Even more surreally, both bands enlist a member whose surname spells Edwards, and watch this: they both play bass.

We’ll spare you some of the most surface-level traits that could be thrown into the set of explanatory variables in a hypothetical regression analysis indexing Shader and Enumclaw’s interconnected output. Attributing their similarity to the shared frigid and rainy climate, their regions’ insular isolationism from their respective country’s centers of power, or simply their comparable latitude levels leave a lot to be desired. We would rather invite you to delve into the sonic material to make head or tails of this improbable kinship alongside the North England-Washington state axis. Start with—and for now, stick to—their inaugural full length albums: while there is about an additional ten minutes of runtime on the English indie rockers’ project (46 minutes packed into twelve records, versus Enumclaw’s 36 in eleven), there is an immediacy of impact whose deduction is undeniable.

There is something uniquely glamorous and affable in how Oasis presents itself as the center of a phantasmagoric venn diagram between a band hailing from the industrious and sullen birthplace of grunge music, and another cut from the working class cloth of a sanctuary as stricken by its secondary economic sector heritage as it is placed on the global artistic map by the force of post-punk. If anything, such disparate premises speak to the gelling power and impact of the enterprise the Gallaghers created—while it might be true that no check can be fat enough for Noel to acquiesce to a forced industry-planted reunion, for now their musical legacy rests in good reincarnated hands.

We’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and we hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

Below listed are Shader’s complete works since 2020:

Shader

Stu Whiston (vocals, guitars)

Mike Lo Bosco (guitars)

Daz Edwards (bass)

Tommy Turney (drums)

Studio albums
Everything Is Connected (2022)

Singles
Streets Tell Stories (2021)
Runaway (2021)
Don’t You (Forget About Me) [2020]
True to Life (2020)
Lately (Demo) [2020]
Time Is Right (2020)
Be My Saviour (2020)

Below listed are Enumclaw’s complete works since 2021:

Enumclaw

Aramis Johnson (vocals, guitars)

Nathan Cornell (guitars)

Eli Edwards (bass)

Ladaniel Gipson (drums)

Studio albums
Save the Baby (2022)

EPs
Jimbo Demo (2021)

Singles
2002 (2022)

A PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION TO: BRIGITTE LAVERNE | 2020-04-26

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

BRIGITTE LAVERNE

DISCO CHINA

2019, Brigitte Laverne

https://www.instagram.com/brigittelaverne/

Disco China_BL

A PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION TO: BOB MOULD | 2020-03-15

Since every March is APIT season, I figured this is as good a time as any to shine additional ethereal light on Bob Mould. Not that the 59-year-old guitarist and singer/songwriter would ever need it, but recent haphazard revisiting of his immensely prolific catalogue—spanning two major influential rock outfits and thirteen LPs worth of solo work—made it abundantly clear and poignant that the gentleman stands as one of alternative rock’s most paramount, characteristic, and genre-defining frontmen in the last forty years. I understand how filing this piece under the Preliminary Introduction To rubric might sound like an abhorrent affront to many a punk rock brothers and sisters. I hear you all and I agree—Bob needs no delirious preliminary introduction. Yet again, it’s March after all and this the ideal excuse to indulge ourselves one more time in this amply revered author’s relatable melodic distortion of harshness…

Ask any self-respecting ex-scene kid who came up in the punk, underground, hardcore, or alternative artistic milieus in the 80s what Hüsker Dü meant to them and their peers and you’ll be graced with passionate tell-alls aplenty. The Malone, NY-native fronted punk rock outfit—completed by iconic drummer/singer Grant Hart and bassist Greg Norton—almost singlehandedly steered the cultural and critique agenda of alternative music’s heavier spectrum during the better part of the legendary decade, together with a few other core projects such as The Replacements, Minutemen, and Sonic Youth. With seminal and trailblazing concept albums such as the off-the-wall Zen Arcade (1984), as well as the quick succession of near-perfect gnarly full-length catchy ankle-biters New Day Rising, Flip Your Wig (both 1985), and Candy Apple Grey (1986), the St Paul, MN-band thunderously rose to the mount Rushmore of indie underground punk within the span of twelve months (despite ending up signing with prestigious major Warner Bros for the latter record).

Their songs had the intelligent melodic tapestry of The Beatles, but were performed with the intensity, sound, and ferocity of The Ramones. The following year’s Warehouse: Songs and Stories turned out to be the trio’s final studio album and de facto fulfilment of their fat major label deal contract, with Hüsker Dü dissolving in the wake of the tour in its support, allegedly due to creative differences between Bob and Grant Hart, exacerbated by the drummer’s drug use at the time. Bob certainly didn’t rest on his laurels though, and within the span of a year from the band’s break-up saw fit to put out his first, highly-anticipated solo album in 1989, coming in the shape of the almost wholly reverb-folk acoustic affair Workbook. His return to slightly heavier soundscapes on his foreboding sophomore solo project Black Sheets of Rain provided another assertive statement of post-Hüsker intent, before foraying into bona fide early 90s alternative rock canon with his cult and critically-acclaimed band Sugar.

Sugar—sculpted by Mould alongside bassist David Barbe (ex-Mercyland) and drummer Malcolm Travis (ex-Human Sexual Response)—turned out to be a relatively short-lived stint for Bob and co, albeit one of tremendous cultural resonance at the time. The band’s calculated turn towards more melodic fringes of punk, and especially its life-defining debut LP Copper Blue (1992), went on to attract both commercial and high-brow success amidst glowing reviews, most notably snapping the number one spot in the same year’s Best Albums list by at the time reputable music publication NME. Two more hollowly stark studio projects in swift timely succession (Beaster and File Under: Easy Listening) sealed Sugar’s brief yet terrific ascension spell, toothlessly completed by a handful of compilations and live recordings thrown out over the years following the trio’s disbandment.

It’s not until 1996 that Bob decides to reprise his solo project stick—notwithstanding the erratic vanity exercise of releasing bundled halves of his first two solo records as part of a Virgin-issued compilation titled Poison Years banking on Sugar’s acclaim in 1994—as he returned to the scene with his third eponymous outing, effectively re-launching his musical trajectory as a one-man show. A number of dime a dozen and partially uninspired studio LPs followed between then and 2008’s regal District Line, a robust 10-track exercise in his unique trademark sombre and sticky punk rock authorship. Distortion-drenched, capo-steered, gain-optimised Fender Stratocaster-generated sound waves had long been his superior discerned unique selling point as a popular punk rock songwriter, but nowhere are these better distilled than in his output during the 2010s. While I don’t mean to go over his 2009 preciously delicate and fragile Life and Times too thanklessly—one that incidentally provided the contextual building blocks for his heart-on-sleeve 2011 memoir See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody—the work of art released over the past ten years might be his best.

By his own admission, the 2010s saw Bob go through a whirlwind of private and public emotions, ranging from the perishing of both his parents to the socio-cultural shock of relocating his whole entire life away from utterly hip and radical chic San Francisco to the even more utterly hip and radical chic Berlin, Germany. His first record under his new deal with imperial indie label Merge Records, the outstanding Silver Age in 2012, signalled a fortified return to raw honesty and compositional poignancy, unsurprisingly so, considering the motions the New York state native was going through at the time. Truly and honestly, pick any Bob Mould record past this point and you’ll be furnished with exceptional performances, impeccable delivery, quality ideas, and watertight no-frills punk rock truth. Guaranteed. 2014’s Beauty and Ruin might just be his best—it’s hard to describe what kind of music it conduits, collectively surrendering to the fact that one can’t quite understand what happens in those songs transporting to transcendental states—although both Patch the Sky (2016) and last year’s Sunshine Rock surely give it a run for its money.

All in all, in all his artistic forms and expressions, Bob Mould stands to represent a trustworthy, prolific, and timeless underground rock minstrel who approaches his craft with scientific-like devotion and method. It will come to no surprise to most that the infamous and sublime north star that keeps on guiding him like a lighthouse when led astray is the goal to perfect the quintessential pop song. Case in point, he always sequences his stickiest track, his calling card, the one with the most powerful hook and airplay rotation potential, at number three on his tracklists. This is true for Hüsker, Sugar, and his solo material. Go back to his discog and check that for yourselves. After all though, Bob Mould remains a relatable, fallible, pedestrian, and regular gay man. By happenstance, he somehow ended up being a very important one, too.

Below listed are Bob Mould’s selected works from 1982 to 2019:

Hüsker Dü

Studio albums
Everything Falls Apart (1983)
Zen Arcade (1984)
New Day Rising (1985)
Flip Your Wig (1985)
Candy Apple Grey (1986)
Warehouse: Songs and Stories (1987)

Live Recordings
Land Speed Record (1982)
The Living End (1994)

Studio EPs
Metal Circus (1983)
Extra Circus (2017)

Sugar

Studio albums
Copper Blue (1992)
Beaster (EP) (1993)
File Under: Easy Listening (1994)

Bob Mould

Studio albums
Workbook (1989)
Black Sheets of Rain (1990)
Bob Mould (sometimes referred to as Hubcap) (1996)
The Last Dog and Pony Show (1998)
Modulate (2002)
Body of Songs (2005)
District Line (2008)
Life and Times (2009)
Silver Age (2012)
Beauty & Ruin (2014)
Patch the Sky (2016)
Sunshine Rock (2019)

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

Bob Mould_Portrait

ON (SANDY) ALEX G’S MYSTICAL LOW-FIDELITY MELODY LAYERING | 2019-09-15

I’m just so unbelievably glad and fundamentally content that I stuck to my warm initial instinct and kept on believing its by-productized original hype, when it comes to Philadelphia-born singer-songwriter (Sandy) Alex G. Hailing from the somewhat overcooked and saturated strain of post-2010 homegrown, DYI, Zoomers-appealing bedroom-extraordinaries who conquered much of Bandcamp’s real estate during this past decade, the 26-year old yours truly-namesake arguably still touts his personalised claim to fame as him being the main six-strings architect and arranger behind Frank Ocean‘s summer of 2016 legendary release combo Blonde + Endless. Reverse engineering and unpacking the latter two album’s contents over the past couple years often led me to him, in one way or another. Too bad the many tries and attempts at delving into Alex’s existing discographic repertoire to date pretty much always yielded nothing more than metaphorical cul-de-sacs, with little to nothing in the way of deeper creative connection to be established with his confused, hazy, and spotty musical work including everything up until his 2017 LP Rocket. Yet something inside me kept whispering that there was merit to be rescued somewhere in there.

The above leitmotiv fiercely and completely fell out of the window a few days ago, upon arrival of his latest Domino-issued studio album, House of Sugar. His third on the trailblazing and influential British indie label, the record is a gorgeously hallucinating compilation of layered harmonic sound waves just short of forty minutes in length. It’s by far unlike anything I have engaged with in very, very, long, and I’m not simply referring to the musical realm here. Right off the bat, and throughout its thirteen cuts, House of Sugar’s sonic mantel glues together perfectly woven instrumentations, assembling tenderly infectious motifs, licks, and riffs in both uncomfortable yet stupendously gratifying ways. From the cradle to the grave, this is a map for the lost. Almost too pristinely doctored to still be filed under Alex’s conventional lo-fi musical wheelhouse, the record’s raw and loosely defined contours are perhaps best gripped through a bird’s eye view of the whole, instead of artificial partitioning them across thirteen different chapters. Here, the artistic compromise of track-listing the project into separate songs feels more like a resentful trade necessity, rather than a creative boilerplate to interact with at the songwriting stage. The input might even be lo-fi, but the output is decisively HD.

In an era where former Presidents flex cool Spotify playlists, it should come with no surprise that this thing has no genre. Tracks like “Near“, “Project 2”, and “Sugar” are flat-out indescribable in their spatial-infrastructural depth and variegated melodic density. Yet, their inability to make heads or tails of single components acts as the creative statement’s unequivocal poignant strength, as opposed to it representing a lack of compositional clarity. Throughout House of Sugar, brace yourselves to be stoked head-first with elements ranging from mid-naughties alt-acoustic emo, to experimental lab beats and some of the most enduring Smashing Pumpkins-esque melancholic aesthetic refuges. One might as well throw in peppered nuggets of easy listening IDM, adult alternative radio rock atmospheres, unconventionally paired-up instruments, highly introspective and revealing lyrics, and suddenly one arrives at a place where they could begin to translate this record’s spirit and soul into dried words. Beware, as the act of pressing play on album opener “Walk Away” rapidly decays into a void and senseless protocol, fully overtaken by the full length’s mystical sonic might, one that centrifuges the whole 38 minutes into a unified vortex of light, beauty, and redeeming splendour. It would be easy to imagine House of Sugar as a short movie of sorts, plugging into multimedia sensory experiences exclusively by way of its sounds and aesthetics, an illusory plateau that perfectly comes to mental fruition with each repeated new listen.

I’m just so unbelievably glad and fundamentally content that I stuck to my warm initial instinct and kept on believing its by-productized original hype, when it comes to Philadelphia-born singer-songwriter (Sandy) Alex G. This album is fantastic, an interstellar journey venturing into otherworldly sound sensations, allowing one to come out of the other way with their filthy hands cleansed top to bottom. Perhaps leading us to states not too unlike the graciously cathartic ice skater’s depicted on the record’s sleeve, this collection of tracks’ dazed gripping potency places itself as an unquestionable frontrunner for modern day self-serving modularities of escapism. Let us not kid ourselves. There are no lead singles here. No official music videos. Just an enthralling and continuous stream of consciousness music tape supplying seamless stylistic mood transitions between thirteen not-so-distinct acts, all veraciously accompanying personal enlightened ascensions climbing metaphysical stairways to heaven. Come to think of it, this might just be the Bandcamp generation’s Endless.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

Sandy Alex G_House

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): DOMINIC FIKE – PHONE NUMBERS | 2019-07-07

School, radio shows, TV programmes, and so much more are easily out for summer by now. However, as we all know very well, music and other forms of conspicuous cultural media production and consumption never miss a beat, rising up instead to pull out all the stops in times of abundant times to kill on the part of unaware audiences. New music Fridays know no holidays, if you know what I mean. So needless to say, the initial portion of this year’s warmest season did not go shy in cranking out new creative manufacture to keep us and our moms all entertained. Hence why, this latest ARM instalment found itself forced to come to fruition by way of a hybridised approach, milk-shaking various existing content staples together, such as ARM itself, APIT, and pinches of musical loose odds and ends too.

To cut a long introduction short, despite this very piece being filed under the ever-so-familiar ARM feature section indeed (see above), it actually represents kind of a novelty, an editorial debut of sorts. For the first time after 45 — yes, I counted — individual ARM instalments spread over multiple years, going over either full albums or EPs, this new Dominic Fike short review will instead focus on a single track only. Consider it a precedent, ladies and gentlemen. And, I won’t be afraid to use it in the future. Shocker, I know. Regardless, before we delve into the artistic merits and flaws of this new Kenny Beats-produced song “Phone Numbers“, I just wanted to take this occasion to blatantly implore you, on my bruised knees, to please please give the new Freddie Gibbs & Madlib joint Bandana a listen. Several looped listens, actually. The replay value of this thing is off the charts. Mind you, whether this wholly gratifies you or not, at this point I shall constrain my critical judgement to this tweet alone. Also, if you feel like checking out season three of Stranger Things, which just dropped mere days ago, go ahead and do that too. It’s a hectic and layered third set of episodes. That Bandana album though.

At this point you might have heard or read about 23-year old Florida-born rapper Dominic Fike in-between the lines of previous pieces on this online real estate property, or anywhere else on the Interweb for that matter. However, generally speaking, little is still to be encountered about the somehow elusive rapper/singer-songwriter, who’s already managed to squeeze jail time, drug abuse, a dysfunctional family background, and a multi-million bidding war among major labels under his existential belt. His indie rock-flirting debut project Don’t Forget About Me, Demos — a swirling and hooky 6-track EP that received the re-mastering/re-releasing treatment with Sony Music/Columbia Records shortly after they successfully courted him — is in fact the sole official trace of a music industry pedigree of sorts for the Naples-native, virtually shelved on streaming services alongside a few standalone singles that started to emerge since the month of June this year. That’s where things start to get interesting for us.

First, on the 7th day of said month, it was the hollow, pensive, and sullen “Açaí Bowl“, a slightly distorted autotune crooner aided by gentle guitar arpeggio fingering, navigating through evidently sensual chanted melodies (“She said ‘I dressed in your favorite / I bought two bottles of red / Unless you made reservations / Oh look, you thought all ahead'”) as well as concrete MC-like rap bars (“And when they locked me up, she never listened to her friend / They told her “move on” movin’ on (Mhm) / And now she tells that same bitch ”My shoes Prada / My boo bought ’em, I do love him‘”). Revealed on the same day, side-B to said single was the lo-fi neo-soul number “Rollerblades“, a 2-minute and change fuzzy, laid-back deconstruction of R&B sounds and aesthetics that wouldn’t have been out of place on Frank Ocean’s Blonde. Or actually maybe on its cutting room floor.

This takes us to a few days ago, Friday 5th July, when the BROCKHAMPTON-affiliate saw fit to unveil his third single in the now full-throttling series. The fun and groovy tongue-in-cheek reprimand “Phone Numbers”, which he seems to have confirmed serves as yet another taster in anticipation to his still unannounced debut full-length effort later in the year, sports a borderline tropical-dancehall vibe, embodying a 4/4 slapping beat and what sounds like a zany ukulele strumming moulding the main melodic lane throughout: “Why you not here with me? / Can you break bread with me? / Why you switch phone numbers like clothes? / Why you can’t answer me? (Yeah) / ‘Cause I got more coming“. While not the longest in runtime,  this one definitely feels like the more structured and robust verse-chorus-verse-bridge boilerplate out of all the standalone tunes dropped hitherto, thanks arguably to super mega trendy producer royalty Kenny Beats doctoring the sound architecture on here.

As a follow up to these one-offs, it now seems more than legit to expect a fuller, more cohesive body of work sooner rather than later from the “3 Nights“-sensation, not least judging by the amount of unofficial and unreleased material that appears to be making waves around the web, including the raunchier underground gansgta hip-hop brand he started off in Florida with before moving off to shinier pastures new in Los Angeles. Also, if the stripped down Rain of Shine — the recent stream-of-consciousness impromptu Paris livestream he uploaded to his YouTube channel — is of any indication, then it’s signalling a clear pivoting towards beginning to re-populate the artist’s digital footprint with careful content pills apt to his new redux-ed persona.

Don’t get me wrong here, in spite of the slightly underwhelming and unfinished state of the material we got our hands on so far, we are indeed dealing with a raw and unrefined piece of artistic talent, capable of mastering a wide range of genres, instruments, and vocal interpretations dutifully puzzle-pieced together in service of clear pop sensibilities. After all, record labels might be cringeworthy and shallow, but they’re not stupid. With that being said, pretty much every element of his musical production is still quite all over the place, from his songwriting to even the slightest notion of a coherent sound apparatus. Yet, the various scatter-plotted pieces of gifted evidence we’ve gotten so far echo more and more promising by the drop. Furthermore, let us not forget the qualitative heights he managed to achieve for what he provided on BROCKHAMPTON’s leader Kevin Abstract recent ARIZONA BABY, a project on which he outshone any other collaborator. Come to think of it, we might indeed be witnessing the gradual unravelling of a caterpillar becoming butterfly just before our very eyes.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

DOMINIC FIKE

PHONE NUMBERS

2019, Columbia Records

https://dominicfike.com

DominicFike_Phone#

A PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION TO: YESTERDAYS NEW QUINTET | 2019-03-10

In times of slim pickings and underwhelming new music Fridays, one can often find warming inspirational comfort in looking back and digging through some blasts from the past, with no particular rhyme or reason. Such a contextual predisposition is what sparked a fairly recent nostalgic drive in yours truly that fuelled an eclectic and colourful journey into projects, gems, and scenes that had pretty inexcusably slipped through the cracks hitherto. Admittedly, it would have been a little bit of a shame not to unify these new found trips down memory lane into a solid chronicle of selected delicious picks, so we figured why not put this out in some way, shape, or form, kind of like a pamphlet-resembling primer for those who might perhaps also not be in the know of a particular cultural phenomenon. So this is what happened when we began perusing the crates of Los Angeles-based independent record label Stones Throw by way of several ancillary and adjacent jazz releases a while ago. To spare y’all the details, what we mostly ended up on was a rather mysterious and elusive US jazz collective with a surprisingly prolific catalogue that went by the name of Yesterdays New Quintet. Little did we know that behind such moniker lied Oxnard, CA-native DJ, music producer, multi-instrumentalist, and rapper Madlib, who had apparently created a parallel sonic outlet in form of a virtual band – à la Gorillaz, for those wondering – that acted as a placeholder vehicle for him to explore the multiple universes of jazz-meets-electronic music over the span of almost a decade.

This educational rite of passage of sorts came as a blessing, not least for esteemed readers of this web property might have already noticed the scarcity revolving the reporting and critique of jazz projects, that have thus far only permeated and found their way to the surface by indirect means ferried inside of hip–hop containers. In the hope of redeeming said thin editorial substance appraisal, we are humbled and delighted to introduce to you in this article a precious and reputable wealth of new nu jazz repertoire composed and performed by gnarly cats (just so you know, most of the historical information presented in here relies heavily on Stones Throw and has been adapted for brevity). So the story goes that Otis Jackson Jr, aka Madlib, first conceived Yesterdays New Quintet in the summer of 2000, after he had already made a name for himself in the indie hip-hop pantheon as creator and producer of Lootpack and Quasimoto. Right around the turn of the new century, he took an extended break from hip-hop production and, we quote, “decided to replace the SP1200 with the Fender Rhodes”. The initial Yesterdays New Quintet fictitious line-up comprised of Joe McDuphrey on keyboards, Malik Flavors on percussion, Ahmad Miller on guitar and vibraphone, Monk Hughes on bass, and Otis Jackson Jr. on drums, with each session player drafted under Madlib’s guidance and supervision as producer, arranger and engineer (personnel metadata fetched from Discogs and Wikipedia).

Having initially released a series of singles and EPs during the year following its gestation, such as the gorgeously tight and dry Elle’s Theme as well as the defining genesis statement Uno Esta, the instrumental collective went on and played various secretive and experimental shows, cutting their live performance’s teeth and starting to make a name for themselves in the West Coast alt jazz scene. Their 19-track debut LP Angles Without Edges – which borrowed multiple rough drafts from its preceding EP Uno Esta – was released on the untimely and unfortunate date of Sept. 11, 2001 and was as result “ignored by virtually everyone, except those who listened, and loved it”. The formative and consolidating year that followed saw the up-and-coming ensemble record and release a full album of Stevie Wonder covers, including but not limited to “Superstition”, “You’ve Got It Bad Girl”, and “Golden Lady”; another project that dropped without much fanfare in 2003 on Stones Throw Records. As the collective evolved and progressed, a vision began to take form in Madlib’s head, where each of the founding band members would have gone on and branched off from the core group releasing standalone records one at the time, all the while introducing entirely new – fictional – members and groups into what he would subsequently dub Yesterdays Universe. As of today, the transitional timeline describing the original formation’s evolution from Yesterdays New Quintet into solo offspring outfits and eventually the miscellaneous multi-dimensional supergroup cluster Yesterdays Universe could be described as follow:

Phase 1: Yesterdays New Quintet – 2000
Phase 2: Joe McDuphrey Experience – 2002
Phase 3: Ahmad Miller – 2003
Phase 4: Monk Hughes & the Outer Realm – 2004
Phase 5: Malik Flavors – 2005
Phase 6: Otis Jackson Jr. Trio – 2007
Phase 7: Yesterdays Universe – 2007

Soon after the twofold sound recording manifestation outed under the standard Yesterdays New Quintet alias (Angles Without Edges and Stevie), it became evident that Madlib had envisioned something reminiscent to New York hip-hop heavyweight Wu-Tang Clan’s orbit for the project, with each of the subsequent records following Stevie announced as different phases of the group under each member’s individual name. However, quickly after finding this new spin-off purpose shining well-earned light onto individual musicians, a wealth of even more jazz and funky performers joined the wider ranks of the collective, many of whom, it turned out, were invited to feature on Madlib’s Blue Note Records remix joint Shades of Blue (2003). As previously hinted at, this growing circle of more or less staple collaborators became known under the free and loose band Yesterdays Universe. It was very much in this spirit that the self-titled all-star 2007 compilation showcase LP was released (see official compilation jacket below), announcing both old and new side-projects, such as Young Jazz Rebels, The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble, Sound Directions, Jahari Masamba Unit, and Jackson Conti. By then, almost inevitably, what was manifested and recognised as the original Yesterdays New Quintet line-up had officially disbanded and indefinitely split up in 2007. Relatedly, home label Stones Throw had this public announcement to make when addressing various rumours coming through the grapevine at the time:

“At this point we should address the frequent claims that the five members of Yesterdays New Quintet and the entire Yesterdays Universe collective are fictional aliases, mere figment of Madlib’s hazy imagination. Unfortunately, our agreement with Yesterdays New Quintet/Yesterdays Universe prohibits us from divulging any biographical data about the group members or commenting on their physical status in space and time. We can, however, point out that there are documented live performances, and Yesterdays Universe artists who are known for their work outside of the Madlib circle – Karriem Riggins, Ivan “Mamao” Conti, Todd Simon, and Dan Ubick among them. But due to the private nature of Madlib and the members of Yesterdays Universe, we can say no more.”

The years following alleged diatribes and chaos surrounding Madlib and his joint venture with virtual jazz cats nurtured further full length releases from additional spin-offs The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble, Jackson Conti, and R.M.C., amongst others, while master conductor-conspirator himself Madlib saw fit to release yet another bold statement around the psych-electro-jazz experiment by dropping Madlib Medicine Show #7: High Jazz in 2010. As the title suggests, this was the seventh instalment in the Oxnard producer’s 13-album series of the same name, where a strikingly fiery number of even more outfits floating within his jazz universe got a platform to showcase their commercial works. These previously unannounced and latent names include Generation Match, The Kenny Cook Octet, The Big Black Foot Band, Russell Jenkins Jazz Express, and Poyser, Riggins & Jackson. Not that it would somehow help shed more clarity on the blurred fuzziness frame entailing the true arc and trajectory of Madlib’s electro-jazz-swing pet project, but here is a fairly comprehensive and updated discography of Yesterdays New Quintet and what became of it after its break up in 2007 (excluding unofficial releases, remixes, bootlegs, and live performances):

Yesterdays New Quintet – Elle’s Theme, 12-inch EP (2001) STONES THROW
Yesterdays New Quintet – The Bomb Shelter, 7-inch EP (2001) STONES THROW
Yesterdays New Quintet – Uno Esta, 12-inch EP (2001) STONES THROW
Yesterdays New Quintet – Rocket Love, 7-inch (2001) STONES THROW
Yesterdays New Quintet – Angles Without Edges, Album (2001) STONES THROW
Yesterdays New Quintet – Heaven Must Be Like This, from Rewind, 12-inch, Album (2002) UBIQUITY
Joe McDuphrey Experience – Experience, 12-inch EP (2002) STONES THROW
Yesterdays New Quintet – Deja Vu, from Rewind 2, Album (2002) UBIQUITY
Yesterdays New Quintet – The Meaning of Love, 7-inch (2002) STONES THROW
Ahmad Miller – Say Ah!, 12-inch EP (2003) STONES THROW
Yesterdays New Quintet – Suite for Weldon, EP (2003) STONES THROW
Yesterdays New Quintet – Nuclear War, from Dedication: The Myth Lives On, Album, 7-inch (2003) KINDRED SPIRITS
Sound Directions – Skyscrapers, 7-inch
Yesterdays New Quintet – Stevie, Album (2004) STONES THROW
Malik Flavors – Ugly Beauty, 12-inch EP (2004) STONES THROW
Monk Hughes & The Outer Realm – Tribute To Brother Weldon, (2004) STONES THROW
Joe McDuphrey Experience – Entrando pela Janela, from Keepintime, 12-inch #2 12-inch EP (2004) MOCHILLA
Sound Directions – The Horse, 12-inch (2005) STONES THROW
Sound Directions – The Funky Side of Life, Album (2005) STONES THROW
Young Jazz Rebels – Miss K, from The Sound of L.A. Vol. 2, 12-inch EP (2006) PLUG RESEARCH
Sound Directions – Wildflower, from From L.A. With Love, CD (2007) ART DONT SLEEP
Otis Jackson Jr. Trio – Jewelz, 12-inch EP (2007) STONES THROW
Various Artists – Yesterdays Universe, Album (2007) STONES THROW
The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble – Summer Suite, CD (2007) STONES THROW
Jackson Conti – Sujinho, Album (2008) KINDRED SPIRITS
Jackson Conti – Upa Neguinho, 7-inch (2008) KINDRED SPIRITS
Sound Directions – Wanda Vidal, EP digital (2008) STONES THROW
The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble – Fall Suite, (2009) STONES THROW
The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble – Miles Away, Album (2010) STONES THROW
Young Jazz Rebels – Slave Riot, Album (2010) STONES THROW
R.M.C. – Space & Time, Album (2010) OROCHON
Madlib – Madlib Medicine Show #7: High Jazz, Album (2010) MADLIB INVAZION

To this day, it is not clear whether we will ever see another collection of tracks associated with Yesterdays Universe, and to be frank the quickly approaching 10-year hiatus doesn’t sound too reassuring for those in hope. One should not despair though, as during their fruitful decade of busy and dense manufacturing activity, both Yesterdays New Quintet and Yesterdays Universe including all its offspring collectives did not sit idle and delivered over thirty different exquisite, intricate, and sophisticated music products that ought to be able to whet the listeners’ appetite for quite some time. Whether that is through the more canonical jazz cuts flirting with rap production of the early Yesterdays New Quintet days, or the left field and off the beaten path latin jazz, samba/funk of duo Jackson Conti, there is certainly no shortage of auditory entertainment in this collective’s catalogue, displaying almost no artistic or genre boundaries, thus opening up a myriad of sonic ventures and new opportunities ahead, much in the spirit of Yesterdays Universe itself, really.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time. And no, I still haven’t completely figured out whether Yesterdays has the apostrophe or not. Pretty on brand, at least.

AV

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