- Dig & Edit, an album series by revered Japanese digger and DJ KZA, is music about record collecting. On the second volume's ten tracks, KZA burrows deep into a grip of genres, especially French pop, disco and German kosmische music. Each track feels like a love letter to its genre.
"Vous Danzes," which draws from the French chanson disco sound, has the lurid cool of Serge Gainsbourg. A loping Rhodes and lightly strummed acoustic guitar enmesh over a sturdy proto-hip-hop beat. "Computerstime" adds swing to the motorik chassis of German electronic pop. The track is built on a trio of hypnotic synth progressions and robotic drums. 90 seconds in, KZA adds a delayed house snare and EQ's the lower arpeggio into a cocksure baseline. This one feels boxed in by the severity of its source; Krautrock typically achieves liftoff through dogged repetition, and KZA's modern touches throw off the formula. "Taking It" is more successful, turning the four-second synth intro of a Cori Josias tune into a space disco epic.
Mid-album, KZA shifts his focus to heavily sampled American artists. "Let's Go" uses a Moodymann-style sample of a record from Brenda And The Tabulations. The bassline is clipped to a functional three notes and the piano becomes a deliriously funky trill. On "Want No Other," KZA uses Chic to create a storming house track out of vivid disco strings and Bernard Edwards' rock-solid bass rhythm. Clocking in at just under two minutes, "Two More" is a brilliant dad-rock intermission. The record returns to disco-era France for its conclusion: "Le Troubalant Acid," a track with breathy female vocals that make for a bittersweet ending.
Dig & Edit 2 shows KZA to be one of the more thoughtful listeners out there in the stacks. He gravitates towards emotionally resonant records, regardless of obscurity or lack thereof, and is often reverent to his beloved samples, which means his productions live and die on the strength of their source material. Lucky for us, KZA's worldly tastes rarely miss the mark.
Tracklist01. Vous Dansez
02. Schritte
03. Computerstimme
04. Taking It
05. Let's Go
06. Want No Other
07. The Beginning
08. Two More
09. Fallin'
10. Le Troublant Acid