Pitchfork

One Night in Bangkok

Conductor: Shadow, DJ (née Joshua Davis of Hayward, California)

History: Origins indeterminable. Distribution through non-label channels signifies bootleg/mixtape status; cut'n'paste sleeve design implies minimal art budget. Recording date unknown (see below).

Content: Exceedingly diverse beat science, technically flawless mixology. Bifurcations include classic hip-hop, r&b, electro, future breaks, future jazz, psych-jazz, classic jazz, funk, crunk, broken beat, boogaloo, etc. And Sun Ra.

Characteristics: Continuous, hour-long set to maximize bounce (booty-swerve factor > 7.7 wpm). Surprising return to early, free-style form for iconic auteur?

Timeline (± 1.5"):

0.0: "Everything owes its existence solely and completely to sound." Identical Attenborough-esque vocal sample from earlier work with Cut Chemist, Product Placement.

1.20: "Quality Control" remix; backpack-friendly Jurassic 5 track vs. synth-driven break. Light/dark juxtaposition.

3.20: Zaakir, J5: "Put me in the mix, LP 12-inch," cut and dropped like a mantra.

5.19: Vocal sample: "Black people unite and let's all get down." How many black people are in the Bangkok crowd? Bold, if misplaced.

6.22: Beatnuts flute sample from "Off the Books" (shared by J.Lo's "Jenny From the Block"). High/low juxtaposition.

7.43: Juvenile, "U Understand": "I'm a rebel but I'm still a gorilla." New Orleans MC swaggers cartoon-like over rubberband rhythm.

9.10: Scratch interlude, all too brief.

10.12: "Get crunk!" call-and-response. "East side run this motherfucker?" "Hell yeah!"

11.00: 50s-sounding crunk&b, old-piano break. Sly, hilarious, raw. Hard to believe this works so well.

12.12: Nu Shooz, "I Can't Wait" ushers in roller disco parade.

13.10: SOS Band, "Just Be Good To Me" a capella over break. Roller disco continues, doo-wop slanted, with layered horns and drums.

14.46: Cleveland harmony thugs Do or Die kill the disco. "Nobody's Home"=double-time P.I.M.P.-whip anthem. "Do you wanna smoke my weed?"

19.00: Drop.

19.01: Cue conga rhythm, downtempo. From coke-crunk to blunted soul with nary a fadeout. Smoove like John Legend's falsetto.

21.50: Beat breaks into breakbeat, soul goes all neo-.

22.33: Breakbeat breaks again, heading towards fractured meltdown, or...

23.47: Drum 'n' bass eruption. BPM spike, hectic but panic free. Atmospheric?

24.29: Not quite. Atmosphere diminishing, beats constricting.

27.27: Maximum density. Devilish, but luckily, playful.

27.33: Vocal break (relief!) "The residue from this mornings atomic detonation is drifting...

28.00: No longer playful. Dark, sinister, electro. Evil is the new good.

28.55: Just long enough. The light's switched on, cowbell paints goony playboy day-glo swaths. Suddenly, all is funk.

31.00: Scratchadelic deluge floods precision dexterity all over previously free-flowing set.

32.21: Beat switch, still scratching. Can't get enough of this shit.

33.13: Wicki-wicki peters into out-jazz blowing breezy fills, reverbed organ over conga and snare break. A long time ago, in a poorly lit club probably not so different from Shadow's Bangkok music hall, people sat and played this music. Given new context here, it exists outside time.

35.31: Strangely euphonic, pitch-shifted synth sample could be the whirring the mind makes when considering infinity. The conductor lets this thought sink in over minimal snare and ride fills. These sound live but are not.

38.48: Rim shot, conga polyrhythms = dub-bop? Midnight, mystery jazz, like swimming in the ocean under a slivered moon.

42.02: Upright bass calls up Cinematic Orchestra at Ninja Tune HQ: Can Orchestra come out and play? Drum fills continue. It's been more than eight minutes, the bulk of the set devoted to this stark cabaret shuffle, mostly brimming ride rhythms, and a tip-toe conga backbeat.

44.34: Vocal sample: "That's jazz music you're listening to"-- so that's what they call it. The mix is momentarily severed by silence.

44.50: Which is uprooted by sanguine double bass, lithe Hammond melody, brisk beat. Verve jazz circa 1957, served neat. Eloquent organ solo rains reluctant grins and sly nods.

49.10: Vocal sample: "All that other bullshit is here today and gone tomorrow, but jazz was, is, and always will be." A theme emerges. Could it be all about jazz? Piano leads down dim corridor, towards Latiniares session. Sax wafts through, dreamy, and is gone.

51.19: New horn. Honking, waddling baritone beams in from¡­

51.47: "Outer space is a blessed place. There's no limit to the things that you can do... A particularly difficult rendition of Sun Ra's "Space is the Place" unfolds. The title is chanted hypnotically over manic horn catharsis and diffuse rhythms, gradually dissolving.

59.10: Vocal sample: "So close, so close," and fadeout.

Findings: Creative, informed, witty. Attempt at cosmic-crunk connection (hip-hop --> funk --> DnB --> jazz --> Sun Ra) entertaining and potentially groundbreaking (no tracks from post-2000; set could be several years old), though disconnected. A fun but imperfect ride.

Next Entry: Sun Ra Crunkestra.