Catching The Waves

Confidence, Not Cockiness

Listening to rap, hip-hop, call it what you will, is like clearing out a wardrobe. Out go the holed socks, the braggadocio, the threadbare underpants, the violence, the once-fashionable shirts, the relentless swearing, the Christmas jumpers, the misogyny, the kipper ties, and the rampant capitalism. Just when you're about to tire of throwing all the crap out, there's the prize, sitting right at the back of the wardrobe and desperately looking for an entrance to Narnia: head-nodding beats and ingenious hooks.

Here's one such find. Classic Material Vol.1 by CM (the cheeky scamp) is a schizophrenic album. Half of it is creamy soul served in a hip-hop tub; the other half is a gentle reminder that music didn't begin in 1920, '55, '68 or '85 but may actually have existed before electricity became widespread.

If CM were better known, Who I Am would be a classic album track, the type of song that wouldn't get released as a single but would be acknowledged by fans as his best work. It's got that indefinable something that conveys emotion, whether it be the incisive strings and woodwinds, the heartfelt lyrics, the production, or the feeling that Who I Am, along with the companion piece All Or Nothing, sees CM shrugging off expectations and promoting a manifesto that there's more to life than seeing how many bullets a rapper can stop on the way to having a music career. That dread phrase, "taking it to a different level", applies here; I love the soul grooves but it's the album's orchestral/acoustic tracks that provide intimacy. True needs just a piano hook, a violin and a beat to kidnap my ears, though the enticement is provided by that delicious hip-hop tradition of introducing the hook and then letting you salivate for a bit before dropping the beat. Worse than crack, let me tell you.

But don't knock the grooves - Confidence slurs and slips deliciously before locking onto your hips and declaring, "This ain't cockiness, this is called confidence." Reintro is hypnotic. Doing The Damn Thing reveals a gorgeous piano intro and loop that slaps into a clap so well-timed that you can't get the Damn Thing out of your head. Grown and Sexy sees CM turn into Barry White - the music's fine but Ira Gershwin had nothing to do with the subtle-as-a-hammer lyrics.

Classic Material Vol. 1 is guilty of some of the sins I mentioned earlier, but it's still a pleasurable listen; some of the tracks are irresistible. My only quibble is that I'd like to see a few bridges and choruses for variety's sake and because I'm curious to see what CM can come up with. If CM's rapping continues to develop, becoming as open-minded and far-ranging as his musical taste, then the future looks bright for fans of well-crafted and likeable hip-hop.

CM aka Creative - Classic Material Vol. 1 (link to zipped album and separate mp3s)

Random Flow netlabel

Zoots You, Sir

CTW has fought Christmas, illness, the New Year, more illness and extreme laziness to bring you today's recommendation, Kurz und Klein, so stop complaining at the back there. Yes, you.

This five-track e.p. on Broque.de netlabel should appeal to jazz, swing, funk, big-beat and electronica lovers. The proof: a quick early morning blast of Kurz und Klein transformed CTW from a drooling, stained-underpant-wearing, bed-head victim into a zoot-suited, fedora-snapping hipster on his way to booty town with the funking ladies from across the street. Whether I changed my underpants I shall leave to your imagination.

The person responsible for my transformation, Nils Hoffmann, comes from Hamburg, and is a music teacher, concertmaster, chamber music composer, rock band member, a lover of all kinds of music and, all in all, is perilously close to being a Renaissance man. He is talented. I therefore hate him and love his music.

Sweet Man Like Me is a remix of St James Infirmary, a Dixie-blues standard made famous by Louis Armstrong, which Mr Hoffmann introduces to the 21st century with a shuffling beat and sampled chops and cuts. Is that Satchmo's trumpet slipping in and out of the mix? He would have loved this, I'm sure.

Next up is Goodbye Glamour, a superb remix of Candy Shop by Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire. It swings, it jazzes, it combines violin solos with scat vocals, it stops, it starts, it's ridiculously catchy...am I getting through?

Track 3 is the over-promoted Texan in the foreign policy committee. Popmusik is a minimalist pseudo-Kraftwerk dance number that has absolutely nothing in common with the other tracks save for a joy in the making of music. The deadpan vocal is a winner. I like it.

Cry Swing makes me cry for mama. The first time you hear it you realise you are briefly the centre of global cool. Many different minimalist elements weave around a so-idiotic-it's-genius jazz guitar riff, to which Herr Hoffmann adds synth stabs, chopped vocals and ingenious bridges that will make electronica fans throw their fedoras in the air. Distorted background strings and a bit-crushed synth sweep add to the fun. Halfway through, we're hit with a bassline that will be familiar to MGM pith-helmeted explorers hacking their way through the jungles and ruins of dastardly Johnny Foreigner circa 1935. But what makes the track is the timing - the whole EP is hypnotically rhythmic, but Cry Swing is syncopation in excelsis.

Old joke: An explorer, his guide and various luggage-carriers are lumbering through the jungle. They refuse to be unnerved by the tribal drums that have beat unceasingly for the past three days. Suddenly, there is silence and everyone but the explorer and his guide run away in terror.

"Whatever's the matter?" asks the explorer.

"It's the bass solo next," replies the guide.

(At this point I should insert a Paypal icon so I can reap some reward for the ripple of uncontrollable laughter I've sent around the globe. But I'm too nice.)

Why Don't You Do Disco is a moody, clever piece that slowly reveals itself to be a reworking of Peggy Lee's jazz/blues standard Why Don't You Do Right. Her voice and a jangly piano spookily emerge amongst a driving rhythm and countless electronica clicks and cuts, as though a ghost has successfully wormed its way through your electronica collection. Excellent.

No, I'm not sure about the cover either. You can't have everything, can you?

Nils Hoffmann - Kurz und Klein e.p. (link to zipped album and individual mp3s.)

Broque.de netlabel

If you get addicted to Kurz und Klein and you simply must have more Hoffmann musical heroin then visit Nils Hoffmann's own website and bask in his talent.

P.S. I don't really hate him, you know. It's called humour.