Pavement Politics Vol.1 [MLMNG01]

The record is nice. As I told un in an AIM session, it's great music for me to listen to while I do my work programming and writing papers.

The most apt comparison, in my opinion, would probably be Fat Jon, although that's stretching it. Jon's records tend to be relatively easy on the ears... stuff that you can sit back and just chill to. This one is much more complex, and less of an easy head nod. There is something raw... abrasive... rather off-kilter to it... not unlike what you might find on an El-P record (but don't go looking for a Deep Space 9mm on this one... it ain't there).

Another notable fact is that the tracks were made independently by 2 separate producers, but the whole thing really gels nicely. It is, so to speak, a singular vision.

What this record really excels at is setting the ambiance. I don't want to call it "ambient" because that is already a subgenre that comes with it a bunch of connotations. However, this record really is the core of what ambient music should be about: setting a mood and sticking to it. This record is not eclectic, nor should it be. In many respects, the songs do not have a narrative structure, so to speak, like you might find with most electronic music.

Although the record is clearly sample-based, it isn't built from an immense collection of sounds, such as DJ Shadow's legendary record collection. I highly doubt if there is is too much that a seasoned crate-digger could recognize in the construction.

The songs themselves are repetitive, but not in a bad way. There are no sudden changes of tempo or tone, and the variations are applied gradually over time.

There is a story behind the record, and many of the songs have personal meanings to them. This probably would not have been something that I would have figured out myself, just from listening to it; however, knowing that it is there is quite interesting. Pay attention to the voices that are sampled; that's all that I can say.

If there is one standout track that needs to be discussed on its own, it is the final song: TSP Meets El-Primo.The main sample is a wind instrument -- perhaps a basoon or a French horn (help me out here}-- that sounds like it has been lifted out of a supporting role in a jazz quintet, and pushed to the front of a track for which it was never originally intended. The beat slowly plods along, like a horse at a low-speed trot, while the listener rides to the conclusion of this record. My initial reaction to the track was that it would not sound out of place on a downtempo jazz record, like El-P's High Water; although clearly, it is the work of someone else.

Either way, the record is damn nice, and I will probably play it long after I have stopped spinning most records from '07