Let Us Remember: The Vulcan’s “Star Trek”

In 1972, Ken Elliott, formerly of prog-rockers Second Hand, recorded some crazy cool ARP-2600 synthesizer over various Trojan reggae instrumentals, in a bid by both Elliott and Trojan to cash in on the 7os easy listening market. The result was The Vulcan’s Star Trek. Like all those fusion records full of disco instrumentation or electro funk basslines, Star Trek is one of those albums that, though it may have sounded ridiculous at the time, can now be fully appreciated without all that “keyboards/progressive rock will ruin music forever” baggage it was saddled with at the time.

While the mix of the ARP-2600 and the reggae instrumentals is far from seamless (Elliott’s keyboard dueting with a saxophone on opener “Asibiso Jungle” was probably a bad idea), it’s often this very incongruity that creates such wonderful moments, transforming the music from a electronic/reggae pastiche (which is still really great) to something stranger and more exciting. “Journey Into Space”  has a horn driven instrumental as its foundation, but it’s smothered under cavernous, “Doctor Who” sound effect synths, creating a stoner’s wet dream combo of heavy reggae bass and tingly analog synthesizers. On the title track (which is featured on Madlib’s Trojan catalog looting Blunted In The Bomb Shelter mixtape) the synthesizer so dominates its funky reggae backing that you could swear you were listening to the soundtrack to an 80s Charles Bronson movie instead of something released by Trojan in 1972.

The two tracks I’m including for download, “Dr. Spock” and “Shang-Haied” are the two catchiest. “Dr. Spock” sounds like a reggae cover of an R & B standard with the ARP-2600 standing in for the horn section, while “Shang-Haied” uses the keyboard to imitate both the sound of whistling and of ancient Chinese instruments.

The Vulcans – Dr. Spock

The Vulcans- Shang-Haied

 

The Right Track(s): Z-Ro’s “Raw” and More

Z-Ro – Raw

In his bizarre and frustrating review of Z-Ro’s Crack (calling Z-Ro a “noncommittal grump”? WTF?), Evan McGarvey blames a lot of the album’s failure on the absence of in house Rap-A-Lot producer Mike Dean. Despite the fact that Z-Ro sounds awesome over all kinds of producer’s beats, it’s hard to deny he has a special chemistry with Mike D. On “Raw,” off Z-Ro’s new mixtape Cocaine, Dean gives Ro a bluesy, swaggering beat with swampy guitar and a buzzing keyboard line. Over five minutes without a hook, “Raw” harkens back to those days when rap didn’t need conventional choruses, just an interlude between sixteen bar verses. Lines like “Making money is what I love to do, but my freedom is pending/So if I get caught slipping, my freedom is ending, so I’m playing it safe” pop out, infused with rage, frustration, and resignation, a cold reminder of the fact that, despite being one of Houston’s biggest rap stars, Joseph McVey is also an ex-con in a potentially ugly battle with one of the sketchiest rap labels in America.

DJ Pierre – Let Me Get That

“Let Me Get That,” off of DJ Pierre’s new mix CD Vol. 7 (which is available here), is one weird song. Built around a couple of pitch-shifted keyboard chords, a ping-ponging sample of what sounds to me like sheep bleating, and one of those classic double time drum patterns that Baltimore Club music is famous for, the song at first sounds kind of minimal. But close listening reveals even more elements, like a robotic vocal sample hidden in the drums. With the title like “Let Me Get That,” you assume the song is about sex, but there’s very little sexy about it. Its cycle of tension and release feels wired and druggy, again putting the lie to the retrograde notion that Club music is just Baltimore’s version of booty music.

La Roux – Bulletproof

La Roux is huge in the U.K. and for good reason. “Bulletproof” is a legitimate dance pop anthem, the kind of song that gets stuck in the heads of people who claim to hate this kind of music with a passion. Singer Elly Jackson’s voice is loud and brash, and with her bright red, perfectly coiffed asymmetrical hairdo, she looks like a video game character come to life. Songs like this get called derivative, but often it’s by the same people who drool over Neon Indian and Washed Out, which makes no sense at all. Would this song be considered genius if it had a layer of tape hiss on it? The vodocered chorus on the middle eight is perfect, and if enjoying it makes you feel guilty or lame, then, buddy, that’s your problem.

All Screwed Up: ESG and Slim Thug’s “Grippin’ Grain”

“Grippin’ Grain” has one of those beats that sounds amazing screwed up. If you listen to the original song, the beat sounds like the sort of thing regional rappers in the 90s used all the time, an amalgam of G-funk and 80s electro music that’s supposed to sound sleek and expensive. Screwed up, it sounds older and languid, like something off a late 70s or early 80s Isley Brothers or Earth, Wind, and Fire album.

For most of the first minute and a half, the song’s nothing but bass, drums, and some funky electric piano parts, with some synthesized strings creeping in around the :40 mark. If it was just this repeated for the song’s ten plus minutes, it’d be fine with me, because this is vintage Screw. He takes a laid back beat with a subtle, often airy melody, like ESG’s “Smoke On” or 4 Deep’s “Rollin 4 Deep” or Slick Rick’s “Sittin In My Car,” and he stretches it and stretches it, finding that transcendent sweet spot and just making a home there. He’s just like Eno on Music for Airports or the trippier Krautrock bands or any of my current favorite ambient drone artists like Emeralds or Skaters or Dolphins Into the Future.

Screw staggers his tricks throughout the song, leaving ESG’s first verse basically unchopped, but then, right before the first chorus, he randomly plays the song’s original intro twice. I get such a kick out of this technique, because it so throughly denaturalizes the listening experience. On the classic 3 in tha Mornin tape, Screw scratches the first couple of lines of RBX’s verse on “High Powered” what feels like eight or nine times, until the line “Haven’t you ever heard of a killer?/I drop bombs like Hiroshima” sounds simultaneously psychotic and absurd, like something you’d hear a homeless schizophrenic man repeating to himself over and over in an angry voice.

After Slim Thug’s verse, the song gets really trippy, with two phased choruses and ESG and Slim’s voices sounding almost like dying robots (I’m serious!) as they trade lines back and forth. This is all miles away from those screwed and chopped versions of albums that used to be everywhere–it’s gritty, it’s druggy, and seems to be more about what the sound of music does to your synapses than any sort of normal form of listening. For the last two minutes, Screw plays the instrumental part from the beginning of the song again, like he couldn’t wait for the rapping to end so he could get back to pure music.

ESG ft. Slim Thug – Grippin Grain (from the Screwed Up Texas tape)