Producer El-P (not to be confused with the embarrassment that is ELP) is best known for founding the occasionally groundbreaking Definitive Jux label, and for his masterfully creative, heavily atmospheric production on hip-hop albums such as Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein. Here, he teams up with the good folks of the Blue Series Continuum - Matthew Shipp's ever-experimenting jazz ensemble on Thirsty Ear. The results are surprising.While El-P's previous production efforts have been raw, gutsy, noisy soundscapes, his contribution to High Water is nothing if not subtle. So subtle, in fact, that on first listen you might wonder if he's doing anything at all (well, aside from composing everything on the album, which he also did). Aside from some strikingly familiar beats here and there and the occasional atmospheric synth part, El-P limits himself to subtle manipulations of the other players' instruments: a soft echo here, a loop there. There's no heavy-handed clipping and cutting, no indulgently sprawling electronic effects. For the most part, High Water sounds like an adventurous jazz album anchored by heavy, addictive beats. Are the beats real or produced? It's hard to say, which is a common theme on the album: in general, it's hard to say what's live and what's been tweaked, or even what's been looped or synthesized altogether.
If anything, the album peaks too early, with its second track, "Sunrise Over Bklyn", the only real stunner in evidence. This track is an incredible, moody, wistful piece, incredibly aptly-named. Lonely horns are joined by individual notes tapped out on Shipp's piano, a beautiful opening that quickly sets a contemplative mood. A few minutes in, Guillermo Brown joins with an imposing beat and Steve Swell provides an undulating backdrop with his ominous trombone blowing. The piece goes through a few unforgettable crescendoes and lives up to its name: I imagine sitting on a rooftop at 5am in New York, watching the sun creep above the horizon, egged on by Shipp's sparsely insistent piano playing and the otherworldly pressure of Swell's trombone.
The rest of the album fails to provide similarly poignant moments, but nevertheless has its strengths. Although "Get Modal" showcases the weakness of the ensemble - it features a great beat which El-P proceeds to loop endlessly without change through the entire piece - "Intrigue in the House of India" is great, starting sparsely and mysteriously before El-P's heavy beat kicks in with great effect. While there are times I wish El-P would be more heavy-handed, would just fuck with the proceedings a little more to spice things up and take it all a bit further from the jazz arena, at the same time there's an undeniable pleasure in just listening, not knowing what's "real" and what's manipulated, and not caring one way or another.
In the end, this is an album that may be too inoffensive to be groundbreaking, but that doesn't make it a failure (and "Sunrise Over Bklyn" makes the whole thing worthwhile for me). Thirsty Ear's Blue Series has consistently come up with records that are just enough off the beaten path to make me smile, but never quite out-there enough to really make me rave. Here's hoping they take the next step.
review by Brandon Wu — 9-24-04 —
