Artist: Eric Kamen (a.k.a. E)
Title: Native Unit
Genre: World-Instrumental Jazz Fusion
Label: etraxxx
Eric Kamen lives in two worlds, as a producer in Hip Hop and R & B and as E with his own recording endeavors on an album called Native Unit. All tracks were composed, produced, engineered, and played by Eric Kamen on the new release. When you read something like this it's "ok, people do this all the time, all you have to do is mix it, right?" Well, there is a little more to it than that. First, you must be very diverse, knowing all your instruments are obviously a key component even if they were produced electronically. Putting together a composition, then pulling all of it together with today’s technology is the final step. This man did it all; I congratulate him wholeheartedly because the results are nothing less than superb. Besides the guitar, there is a lot of midi music, and to my surprise, it sounds very good. It all has a nice body and texture to it and I think the guitar is what makes it all sound so colorful. Far be it me to put down electronic and processed music, hey, if can sound this good, go for it! I guess it all depends on who is manipulating it. It is definitely the Spanish Guitar that lays the foundation though, everything else is the bricks to build the house on.
The music on Native Unit is all instrumental. Actually, I like to call this instrumental bliss - when I refer to a CD in this light it means I loved it. Instrumental jazz fusion is the modus operandi here, and it comes at you from all corners of the globe. I heard African rhythms, Middle-Eastern moods, Latin, and Flamenco guitar, World, all of this and more with an underlying foundation that I believe stems from the blues. It makes sense that it all started with the blues, although this music does not sound anything like it, I know that most music of this nature was the offspring of the genre, and so was jazz, so when you put that all together you have steaming brew, a multicultural musical delicatessen.
Artist Commentary: I work with young rappers, R&B and neo-soul singers, day in, and day out. I love it and I am becoming increasing successful at it. We have deals on the table with a number of the majors as we speak.
But, today's music is so formulaic, in terms of chord progressions, beats, choice of sounds, etc. that it does not give me enough opportunity to push myself anywhere close to my playing abilities. As you well know, today's formula is all about coming up with a catchy 'chicken scratch' riff and a catchy hook and then looping the shit out of it for 4 minutes.
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