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Rating: The Search for Synthesis
The world of hip hop has always shown a strong tendency towards cross-pollination: all musical styles can find an interaction with this genre rightly considered the most open. Most hip hop productions nevertheless refer to a common denominator: “The Game”, the jungle-city game with its gangs, its stories of crack, shootings, displays of style, money, sex, values, and assertion of race. On one hand, there are groups that revel in this game, and on the other, those that criticize or mercilessly satirize it. But there are also those who don't get involved at all and focus solely on the creative front and on cross-pollination. Here is a representative example, a record loved even by those who usually avoid hip hop: Blend Crafters by DJ Nu-Mark & Pomo released by Genuine Records. I invite you to discover it.
DJ Nu-Mark of Jurassic 5 (by the way, Numark is a well-known brand of DJ accessories) and co-producer/friend Pomo with this album rise to masters and impart a great lesson on the art of the break for both old school and new school. A timeless, genuine hip hop that draws from the recollections of that spiritual blues born in prisons, as in the masterpiece track Bad Luck Blues where acoustic guitar, hip hop beats, and singing overlap, and which moves from James Brown-style funky influences to sounds from '60s horror b-movies, to Jazzmatazz lounging, to DJ Shadow's experimentations, to jazz vocalizations skilfully treated on a piano and orchestra base, as in the beautiful Pow.
Going further, we find a perfectly fitting reinterpretation of John Lennon's Imagine where a sax sings, accompanied by piano and naturally by a turntablist base. Another little jewel closing the album is Unwind, a dreamy instrumental track in piano bar style with an anachronistic organ at its core.
In total eleven tracks, all concise and essential with a duration of about three minutes... yes, unfortunately, the album only lasts about thirty minutes, though very intense, and after the last track you want more and more. However, it is also true that it's typical for connoisseurs to leave the table with still a bit of appetite. And we are connoisseurs, aren't we?
My hope is that the writing “Volume One” on the cover signifies that a second course of this precious DJ Nu-Mark & Pomo collaboration is soon on its way: from their creative approach, it is clear that we are facing individuals who understand the subject with full knowledge and know where to fish in the past and modern musical memory, and will therefore be able to offer us another lesson of style similar to this one.
Unmissable.
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