For years, Thirsty Ear label has been trying to shake up the often snobby world of jazz by thrusting forth more modern-thinking exponents and letting them mate with hiphop and electronica. No more ‘nice’ guy noodlings a la ‘The Fast Show’ here! New York’s Mike Ladd teams up with durmmer-producer Guillermo E.Brown to follow last year’s What Language? album, creating an arresting effect sometimes close to the feel of seminal later work of proto-rappers the Last Poets. Ladd was inspired by Petrine Archer-Straw’s book ‘Negrophilia’, which traces the avant garde Parisian art scene in the 20s and its pioneering endeavours to embrace black culture. Poem-raps like ‘World Wide Shrink Wrap’ and ‘Blonde Negress’ are planted on unsettling, dreamy backdrops which sprawl and embellish mainly via Brown’s crashing drums, howling wind instruments and Vijay Iyer’s running piano and whale-fart bass. There are atmospheric skyline instrumentals and raucous funk-ups too. Compelling, evocative stuff that grabs the brain instead of its crotch.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs
