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Yet, it is enahanced by the deep bass, the blaring guitars, and yes, the layers of electronic effects Logic spitfires like bent notes on a Hendrix fretboard. In the post grunge mid-90s, electronic rock was the "next step" for a bored music world to sink its teeth into. I used to find myself thinking "this is great, but it needs an organ or a guitar to flesh it out." At worst, the music was a bunch of digital mush.But DJ Logic has confounded me, showing me the amazing posibilities of creating music that would be impossible in an anolouge world. This is tradtional music you can get up and shake to, as if at a 1950s go-go. Little pencil neck New Jersey album geeks like me spend hours with a magnifiying glass, trying to figure out what the greats do when they raid the crates.Maybe I have a little too much time on my hands. This album is stuffed with blues, funk, smooth jazz (think Herbie Mann and Les McCan, not Kenny G,) and yes, modern digital sampling and processing.
My only complaint is the cover. Yet outside of the greats-Portishead, Red Snapper, Broadcast, Tricky, and the great DJs Shadow and Cut Chemist-a lot of this music was long on production and short on subtance. (If guess who were alive, he'd definately want a piece of this). There are no noisey space age gimicks or beeping throwaways here: just chunky, meaty Africian American music. Logic takes his records, spins and scratches, all over the aforementioned music, played by New York gods like Melvin Gibbs and Vernon Ried. It shows Logic in front of a bunch of his albums, but you CAN'T SEE WHAT THEY ARE.
Oh well--Let's Party.
There are some GREAT tracks on this CD but overall it's very uneven. The Tracks "French Quarter", "Black Buddah", "Ron's House", "Michelle", "Soul-Kissing" and "Afronautical" are all very interesting and fun, with the rest being pretty forgettable and standard fare. The album is a pretty good listen all the way through, but as far as songs that you're going to listen to repeatedly the songs I listed above are pretty much it. With 6 out of the 15 tracks being very good and the rest admirable (also its historical influence bumps it up to a 4.5 - a lot of artists sample "French Quarter", for example) I would recommend this to anyone interested in turntablism or hip-hop.Highlights include:"French Quarter""Black Buddah""Ron's House""Michelle""Soul-Kissing""Afronautical"
I am a fan of just about every style of turntable music, but this record is really bad. It's not wierd enough to be avant-garde, it's not slick enough to be jazz and it's not beat enough to be funky. Buy Pimp Daddy Nash or St Germain or CPEN and you'll be a lot happier than if you bought this mess. And if you want just ambient strange sounds -try DJ Spooky.
I was looking for a crazier turntablist pastiche, ala Peanut Butter Wolf or Australia's The Avalanches. I only know Logic from this album and I must say he is not cutting things up too hard here. If you want nutty cuts that are surprising and will move your feet and have strong beats, check out towards the end of the album, the cuts Hip-Hopera and Miles Away, which is all full of "Sketches of Spain" horns. Most of the stuff here is at about the energy level of Air or like the mellower cuts on the last DJ Shadow record. This is not rowdy enough stuff for my taste. Those two have me making spastic motions on the train if I have the headphones on but the rest of the album is for Medeski, Martin, and Wood fans only. Medeski actually guests on a track or two here even.
I saw DJ Logic open for the Dave Matthews Band, and I immediately knew that this is an artist worth checking into. Just think St Germain meets RJD2 meets Cut Chemist. Along with the music, seeing people dancing in their seats was what sold me. 'The Anomaly' basically captures the improvisational spirit of jazz, the groovy rhythms of funk, all under the framework of instrumental hip-hop. Blended into the mix is everything from Miles Davis trumpet bursts, Sly Stone basslines, to DJ turntable scratching. DJ Logic achieves the ultimate celebratory experience.turntabilism you can dance to.
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