- Putting jittery footwork beats beneath chunks of R&B tracks is old hat by now, but from the opening notes of Lil Jabba's debut album, Scales, it's obvious there's something different happening here. But then, Alexander Shaw is pretty out of the ordinary himself. Though he's a card-carrying member of DJ Rashad's Tek-Life crew, he's based in New York, and his record comes through London's Local Action. The opening track, "Red Current," takes a delicate string sample, like something from an old soundtrack, and carefully slices and dices it, jettisoning footwork's crazed thrash while maintaining its thrilling speed. Scales is full of such strange tricks, leading the listener down left turn after left turn and helping to expand the genre's possibilities in the process.
Clarity is most crucial in Shaw's approach, which is rare for a sound that's usually associated with a speed demon blur. Recent efforts from footwork figures Rashad and Spinn have cleaned up the makeshift feel of the genre's roots, and Shaw adds an alien palette of film samples, funky instrumentation and eerie synths. His relaxed style lets him riff on melodies and build catchy figures between the beats, instead of just presenting an onslaught of stabbing samples.
Jabba's sound can often feel stoned and even sedate, creating a push-and-pull that makes Scales more digestible than your average footwork full-length. "Station North" works from a well of revving synths but never quite lets loose, while "Maven" has all the lazy-day funk of an LA hip-hop production, but layered with dense, hard-panned percussion. "Tomorrow" somehow manages to bring to mind both drill & bass and sample-heavy Detroit house, deftly pulling together two extremes.
That's the other thing about Scales: Jabba does so much more with his percussion than just aping his Chicago brethren. "Gorgon" seems to touch on the shimmering textures of gangster rap and the bone-snap snares of grime, while "Echinacea" employs stuttering hi-hats, trap-style. These disparate styles all stick together on the madcap Scales, a record as zany and lovable as a children's cartoon.
トラックリスト01. Red Current
02. Cavern
03. Maven
04. Raiders
05. Loki
06. Echinacea
07. Tomorrow
08. Gorgon
09. Station North
10. Spektor
11. Precision
12. Serum