CD Review: Cut Chemist - The Audience's Listening - Page 2

Cut Chemist takes these ideas and produces what can only be described as danceable art.

Armed with few guest musicians, an armload of samples, and a whole pile of ideas, Cut Chemist (Lucas MacFadden) just brings it. From the skankalicious two-step of the opening "Motivational Speaker" (funniest sample: "The DJ of the future is going to be a respected member of the community"), to the stomping "(My 1st) Big Break", to the spacey beat workout of "Metrorail Thru Space", this record never lets up.

While MacFadden plays with a style quite a bit less dense than, say, Public Enemy's Bomb Squad, the resultant mash of ideas is no less interesting. "Spoon", built on top of a short ascending chord sequence, adds some guitar and bass to produce a sort of soul/jazz meditation. A similar treatment works with "2266 Cambridge", with keyboards lifting a suite of samples that give the impression of drive through a neighborhood...maybe not Bed Stuy though.

My favorite track on The Audience's Listening is without a doubt "The Garden". Put together around an Astrud Gilberto vocal from "Berimbou", the slinky tune of the past is gently pulled right into 2006. The layers and layers of percussion, guitar, and berimbau (a Brazilian stringed instrument) perfectly illustrate the "big ears" of Cut Chemist. The music and its construction serve to bring Gilberto's lovely vocal into extremely sharp relief. Great stuff.

Flannery O'Connor, hair salon, Toni Morrison, turntablism. Different for sure....but not unrelated.

Article Author: Mark Saleski

Mark Saleski is a writer and music obsessive based out of the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. He is an editor and writer for Jazz.com. He also writes reviews for Blogcritics.org and produces the weekly feature The Friday Morning Listen. …

Visit Mark Saleski's author page — Mark Saleski's Blog