Tipper
Broken Soul Jamboree

THE REVIEW

The idea is gaining more and more strength that in the era of access, what matters most is the ability to choose. When material becomes abundant and easy to find, creating becomes choosing a method. The author acts as a demiurge between what is and what will be; in certain cases, the author vanishes, replaced by the method. Take Wikipedia, Wikileaks, the community of comedians from Spinoza; they collect, debate, and publish material selected by someone. Even DeBaser, in some respects, works this way. In music production, a genuine standout goes by the name of Tipper.

Born in 1976, David Tipper began crafting sounds at 16 during the rave era, soon leaving a lasting mark on club culture. DJ, composer, producer, Tipper crafts music for commercials, themes, and genre-defining records. The Breakbeat with "The Critical Path," Downtempo with "Surrounded," or even hybrids between Hip Hop and assorted Glitch (Tip Hop and Relish the Trough). Labels say little; what matters, as we've seen, is creating the method. Tipper finds it, in a sea of digital sounds. Tipper cuts, pastes, assembles, chooses, and produces. He does so with freshness, originality, and the ability to move.

In the electronic scene, especially British, his poetics become stimulating material for figures like Goldie, Squarepusher, Amon Tobin, or LTJ Bukem. It remains a mystery that such compositional intelligence has not met the deserved public recognition, and that he is still a cult author, a definition that does nothing to diminish his phenomenal talent. Since 2005, David has founded Tippermusic and continues to refine his method with varying fortunes until reaching this tenth, astonishing album. Astonishing for the successful alchemy between sounds of Indian tradition (tabla, sitar) and Western modernity (the "breaks & beats" in which he is a master), assembled on an ambient/downtempo canvas.

The impression is one of traveling through oceans of sounds where resonances are part of the cultural baggage of the listener. It's as if what was (what we have listened to), each in their own way (Indian music, exotica, downtempo, ambient, electronic), returns to resonate with us in an organic, new, and friendly form. That form which positions "Broken Soul Jamboree" as one of the most credible sonic seeds at the start of the decade.