![]() ![]() An epic, gently expanding piece anchored by a looping bass line and a simple keyboard figure. The centerpiece of the album is the 14-minute “Red Notes (original)”. With a Moog sounding bassline and stuttering beat, Hieroglyphic Being entwines insectile synths with pneumatic classic house chords. “Awake and Energise” offers ambient sweeps before dextrous jazz bass in the Thundercat mold melds with glitchy IDM all cut with sprinklings of jazz piano and swaying synth chords.”Video Jazz” is a classic Chicago house tune with a jazz twist. It’s the kind of track that keeps any expectant club crowd in the palm of the DJs hand, hanging on for the drop. The whole thing grows, snakes and builds until it becomes a heady, hypnotic grooving beast. “The Seduction Syndrome” keeps things simple as a jazz piano figure is looped over a solid kick drum beat before being joined with flashes of synth and occasional snare. Deftly minimalistic, it’s Moss strictly abiding by the less is more approach. That continues into “The Melody Lingers” with Moss showing a masterful ability to give the various components space as boundless, emblematic spirals of percussion, punched pads and slowly unfurling chiming synths are still given plenty of room to breath. It retains his characteristic lo-fi sound and, as such, feels raw and authentic – a throwback to the classic Chicago house sound without ever sounding derivative. Despite the sheer amount of things going on, what becomes abundantly clear from the outset is that this is, at its core, is a quintessential Hieroglyphic Being album. Cleverly, Moss takes the edge off the glitchy mayhem by injecting some impossibly cool soulful organ that rides out all the way to the track’s conclusion. The phenomenally titled “Youth Brainwashing and the Extremist Cults” opens the album with a dizzying storm of whirling backward loops and squelchy synths. In effect he applies the attitude, freedom, and sounds of jazz, especially it’s liberal application of form and structure before fusing it with characteristic leftfield techno and Chicago house. On this album, Moss takes his cues from jazz as he describes the album as, “an homage to the Blue Note jazz sound of Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Herbie Hancock”. While that album was purposely concise and succinct, The Red Notes sees Moss let loose as he trusts the listener to buckle up and stay along for the ride. Last LP, 2016’s The Disco’s of Imhotep seemed like the perfect summation of his career up to that point as he confidently moved from trippy experimental techno to classic kinetic Chicago house all with a healthy sprinkling of jazz fusion. With releases on his own Mathematics Recordings label and a slew of releases for Spectral Sound and Soul Jazz, he has proven himself time and time again to be a unique talent. ![]() ![]() He is a willfully prolific artist, confident in his ability but certainly not one to shout about it. Hieroglyphic Being, aka Jamal Moss, is an artist who marches to the beat of his own drum. His appetite and passion for the Chicago club scene as a DJ, producer, and promoter has solidified his standing as one of the most important house artists to come from Chicago since the peak years of Chicago house in the mid to late ’80s. For many enlightened club goers in Chicago, Hieroglyphic Being is as much a part of the house and techno scene as the sticky floors and the sweaty walls. ![]()
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