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Written by Jesse Jarnow
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Tuesday, 12 June 2007 |
The Mix-Up
Capitol
With The Mix-Up, The Beastie Boys pull off a musical jack move that is modest as it is dope: they have made the album they were probably always looking for. An all-instrumental sequel to 1996’s pleasing-as-pie The In Sound From Way Out compilation, The Mix-Up reverse engineers the mythical world the now 40-something Beastie Men imagined and fetishized during their crate-digging youth: a fantasy genre combining deep organ jazz, deeper dub pockets, analog electronics explosions and enough breaks to seed generations of hepcat pastiche-laden hip-hop (if hepcats were allowed to sample the Beastie Boys, that is). While there is no shortage of bands jamming throwback soul-funk, many tend towards overthunk jazz geekdom. Though the Beasties have grown more proficient on their instruments since their days as a punk trio, there is still something of the old egg-raiding spirit in every groove. On “Dramastically Different,” a melody (on what sounds like synthesized sitar) naively recalls Sly Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” more a casually graffitied reference than a sample. On “Suco De Tangerina,” the band uses a variety of strategies: slathered layers of delay referencing Jamaican versioning sessions, a distorted and shimmying organ melody siphoned from an Afro-beat side, and guitar and Rhodes fills that mimic that decay of the initial reverb. Phrases are imprecise, and the echo straight up. But what makes the material fresh isn’t sloppiness or even simplicity so much that every move sounds like a real-time creative decision made by a band writing and recording collaboratively. Rough edges notwithstanding, the band’s efficient arrangements are striking and mature. With “Electric Worm,” guitarist Adam Horowitz even manages to make a wah-wah pedal sound subtle. Longtime auxillary keyboardist Money Mark contributes impeccably throughout, from oscillating Hammond on “The Rat Cage” to watery noisescaping on “The Gala Event.” Like any artist returning to their roots, The Mix-Up both closes a circle and opens up as broadly as one can imagine. Neither chill-out LP nor raucous party fave, The Mix-Up is serene in its own existence: the eternal, transcendent sound of the utterly hip. Hot damn, that’s groovy.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 December 2007 )
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