Wbeeza - Void

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  • In the press release for Wbeeza's debut album for Third Ear Recordings he mentions that Void is "an album of moments from the last four years." The time capsules that the young producer, real name Warren Brown, refers to are presented here as 17 tracks across a 47 minute running time (yes, you did read that correctly). Void can be thought of as a sort of sonic sketchpad, then. The maximum duration Brown dwells on an idea is the 5 minutes 21 seconds of "Tru My Veins," a boxy tribal workout ran-through with the omnipresent hum of Rhodes chords. Elsewhere tracks range from a fleetingly brief 53 seconds on the sun-lounger vibes of "Beaver Skin," through to the generous 4.17 afforded to the early morning poise of closing number "2Nite." The effect of this "mind map" approach is twofold: frustration is sometimes felt as an arresting groove fades after a paltry two minutes, but as an album Void, perhaps a little surprisingly, flourishes. How many house LPs have lost your attention through the wholly incongruous drums-only intros and outros? Shorn of such DJ-friendly functionalities, Void drifts along in a semi dream-like state. Dazed jazz flourishes recall the Detroit house blueprint Brown keeps a knowing eye on; kick drums are blurred and clipped of their peaks; percussion is smouldering and heavily swung. This cloud of subconsciousness is only punctuated by the occasional curveball, such as the smoky old-school hip-hop of "The World Is Yourz." Brown has become known as house producer in the mould of his Third Ear peers Delano Smith and Norm Talley, although early EPs New Skank and City Shuffle displayed a pleasing propensity for pushing at the canon's boundaries. Void, however, never really beguiles in such a way. Tracks like "Variations" do hint at his often creative use of filters, but the equilibrium of the album as a whole seems to have been favoured over individual moments of flair. Brown also said in the aforementioned press text that he "didn't sit down and make this album" which makes you wonder how Void may have turned out if he did. Although over 50 tracks were selected from, culled from a recording period of 2006 - 2010, the overriding sense is that the happy accident that is Void's coherency could be further distilled. There are sufficient strength in ideas here, and within his previously released material, to suggest that a focussed expression in the LP format is within Brown—and perhaps the cathartic step of releasing a stream of consciousness such as Void will allow him to do just that.
  • Tracklist
      01. Blunted 02. Day by Day 03. Shangri la 04. Sharar 05. Beaver Skin 06. Manual Mode 07. Tru My Veins 08. Beyond Question 09. The World Is Yourz 10. Southern Girl 11. Hang On 12. Why 13. Let Me Know 14. Variations 15. My Mistake 16. Take Em Out 17. 2Nite
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