Gilles Peterson - Journeys by DJ

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  • From the man who apparently coined the term Acid Jazz, comes his own Journeys By DJ - an interesting journey through acid jazz, jazz, groovy beats, cinematic soundscapes, house, drum'n'bass and trip hop. The mix kicks off with the spoken word jazz of Mark Murphy's Dingwalls. A mad clash of fast drum beats, melodic bass, latin percussion and rapid beat poetry. Letta Mbulu follows on and asks us What's Wrong With Groovin? - definitely one of those rare groove tracks that you could only expect from a Gilles Peterson or a Norman Jay set. It's two and a half minutes of piano heavy soulful jazz. Juryman vs Spacer's Submersible is just that - deep sounding cinematic trip hop reminiscent of Red Snapper. The wavy bass stabs make the track! Ballistic Brother's Love Supreme has a nice indian feel to it with the tabla percussion and sitar melody at the end. Jazzanova bring out the latin influenced nu-jazz with Fedime's Flight very similar to a lot of Jazzanova tracks and remixes that they've pulled out these days and Blaze's My Beat is a groovy, percussive house number with a nice piano line. Speeding things up before the drum'n'bass hits is Jazz With Attitude by Bel-Air Project using some hard hitting horn stabs and long winded female vocals - when will she run out of breath? Roni Size is Gilles Peterson's man of jungle as both of his works appear on this release - Breakbeat Terror by Breakbeat Era and Roni's own It's Jazzy. Both classics in the drum'n'bass scene and highly influenced by jazz. Hip hop is finally represented in the form of Priest's Disorientation, Anti-pop Consortium's MC ripping out verses along with Beans and a female MC. New York hip hop with attitude - similar to what Digable Planets did back in 93. Rounding out the CD is the head hod acid jazz trip of Drop Zone Productions' Wondering. It's a smooth R&B tune using female vocals before finally finishing off with Black Gold Of The Sun by Rotary Connection - retro funk which uses some gospel elements, operatic elements and 70's guitar solos. Another fine rare groove selection from Gilles' record box. While the track selection is interesting, the tracks themselves aren't mixed into each other and it spoils the concept of having this classed as a mix CD and this release doesn't hold it's ground against some fine mixes such as Coldcut's Journey's By DJ. For those out there who like their rare grooves, jazzy tunes and don't mind it not being mixed, then this is for you, otherwise you may wish to skip this.
RA