V.U. – Seven Grain
Crispy, funky organic beats and treats from the Bay Area..
As smooth as it sounds, even if it is your favorite genre, you cannot listen to studio-only produced downtempo and hip hop all the time. That is why the music from the eight piece ensemble V.U. (which stands for ‘Variable Unit’) is a breath of fresh and foggy air- they have put out an album that flows in the same vein as Medeski, Martin, & Wood and the new school funk outfit from the prestigious Blue Note label known as Soulive. The song writing is cerebral enough to not be just funk or trip hop and funky enough to not just be experimental or jazz, ‘Seven Grain’ blends these two realms and at the same time reminds you of how party-rocking the San Francisco Funk is. Jon Birdsong and Joe Cohen hold down the horn section giving us punchy licks from the trumpet, tuba, and sax. And the standup bass playing by Matt Montgomery is not a gimmick, this boy can hold down a groove. This album makes me want to skip out on my weekly hip hop/deejay party and go to the Mission District to check out a band at the Elbo Room to re-appreciate live music.
While there is some actual hip hop happening on two of the tracks (‘Promise’ and ‘Eighties Product’), they are forgettable and actually confuse the album’s focus. Plainly put, I wasn’t feeling these two joints w/the emcee. What does work are the album opener, (the title track) and ‘Sirens’- just stripped-down jazzy funk here with real nice piano/keyboard work in particular. With timely and ample scratching by turntablist DJ Zeph, these two songs are sort of a hybrid of DJ Greyboy’s beats and the Stones Throw labels ’s Yesterday’s New Quintet’s fuzzy but endearing background noise.
‘Short Bread’ and ‘Jumentous’ are even more funk-oriented, these two songs are sure to be dance floor fillers when Vu performs live. ‘Sniper’ gets the more experimental treatment with a psychedelic breakbeat jam fest. The most interesting track on this record is surely ‘Dr. J Dub’ – an emotional reggae fused track that will have your mind thinking and your head bobbing.
If I were to be stranded on an island, this album would not be on my list of necessities, but I would definitely check these guys out live if they even came in town and would be glad to have it as the soundtrack to host the beginning of my upscale cocktail party (as if that would ever actually happen).
- V.U. – Seven Grain
- by a parallel mechanic
- Published on November 1st, 2002
- Artist:
- V.U.
- Album:
- Seven Grain
- Label:
- Wide Hive Records
- When:
- June 4th, 2002
- Rating:
- 3 out of 5 wrenches
More from a parallel mechanic:
-
Dj Shadow – Private Press
Survey says…good album! Shadow manages to maintain his style from his 1996 “Entroducing….” release without sounding dated. Shadow fans will not be disappointed.
Here’s a track-by-track size-up:
1. Letter from Home – This is kind of random. Apparently, this was the way to communicate with a loved one over long distance back in the day. Just another … -
Thievery Corporation – The Richest Man in Babylon
Thievery’s tempo has slowed down and for the most part steered away from the bossa nova&house vibe which were the more prevalent themes on their 2000 “Mirror Conspiracy” release. Not that the bossa nova stylings weren’t appealing and fresh at the time, but this whole “nu jazz” movement has been played out a bit too …
-
Richard Dorfmeister – Presents a Different Drummer Selection
Though it may be a gimmick to market this Different Drummer showcase as a Richard Dorfmeister remix album, it’s certainly not a bad idea to get the stamp of approval from the universe’s most accomplished downtempo producer. And though the shiny sticker on the CD package says “Different Drummer Releases Selected and Remixed by Richard …
-
Aim – Hinterland
Hip-HOP.
No Restric-TION.
‘Hinterland’ is an eclectic (to the extreme) menagerie of heavy hip-hop beats on the English trip-hop tip. The album hits you like a watered down Massive Attack, but this isn’t meant to be a slight on Aim. The space created in the songs allows for jazzy instrumentation (guitars, piano, horns, and xylophone) to flourish … -
Nightmares on Wax – Mind Elevation
So I’m reading the review of ‘Mind Elevation’ in MIXER magazine and they write: “If you liked [N.O.W.’s 1995 release] ‘Carboot Soul’ then you probably won’t like the new album.” Then again, MIXER had P. Diddy on its cover claiming that he “invented the remix” (take that, Al Gore!), so what the hell does MIXER …
-
V.U. – Seven Grain
Crispy, funky organic beats and treats from the Bay Area..
As smooth as it sounds, even if it is your favorite genre, you cannot listen to studio-only produced downtempo and hip hop all the time. That is why the music from the eight piece ensemble V.U. (which stands for ‘Variable Unit’) is a breath of fresh …
Other recent features:
-
Sónar 2010 – Barcelona, Spain
The festival attracts a lot of outsiders, but the Mediterranean, Spanish and more specifically Catalan nature of the people makes the festival what it is. Catalan people are passionate and this passion is infectious. The atmosphere is electric in Barcelona as a city and heightened by music and intoxicants at Sónar.
-
Summer Party Naval Styles at Seven RestoLounge
Oysters, like wine are affected by terroir and these Miyagi’s flavor profiles ranged with one showing a cleaner, almost tropical profile and the other being more salty, marine driven. As I was devouring the seemingly endless plates put in front of us, I sipped on a glass of fine sauvignon blanc.
-
R4NT Radio March 2010
R4NT Radio March 2010 um wow it’s been far too long since the last edition edition, featuring: Hector Hernandez, The Infesticons, Blockhead, Gramatik, Emika, Thunderheist, Parov Stelar, Eddy Meets Yannah, Anti-Pop Consortium, The Slew, Lighterthief, Andreya Triana, Parasyte Woman, Mathon, Venetian Snares, and Funki Porcini.
-
O Restaurant & Lounge revisited
Calgary has a diverse set of urban communities, most of which have the ubiquitous strip mall watering hole. In the South West community of Marda Loop, a reinvention of this paradigm has been established.
-
Predictions 2010.. and beyond!
So 2010 eh? Almost but not quite (no year zero they say) another decade? It seems like just yesterday that the world was waiting for Y2K. R4NT started publishing in March 2001, so we’re not quite 10 years old yet, but in internet years we are already a senior citizen.
-
Invictus
No matter what, the reality of Nelson Mandela is something that deserves screen time. Should this film even remotely intrigue the masses to take interest in this figure, the world would likely benefit greatly from it.