BPitch Control – Jahcoozi video and remixes

BAREFOOT DUB VIDEO LINKS:

http://www.vimeo.com/11924834

JAHCOOZI – BAREFOOT WANDERER (BPC215CD)

What’s a press release like this one supposed to be about? It’s supposed to sum up an artist’s journey, point out their career landmarks. So in the case of this band, you’d have to talk about their formation in Berlin in 2002. Something that wasn’t just about forming a band, but also about balancing different cultural backgrounds – the beats being arranged by Robot Koch in Berlin, the vocals coming from formerly London-based Sasha Perera and the basslines being laid down by Oren Gerlitz, who lived in Tel Aviv. You’d also have to talk about the early support from John Peel, and their album releases “Pure Breed Mongrel” (2005) and “Blitz ‘n’ Ass” (2007). Plus their countless 12” releases on labels such as Citizen Recordings, Crosstown Rebels or Playhouse. Not to forget their buzzing and unpredictable live shows which brought them to four continents in 2008 and covered everything from renowned festivals like Transmediale to raves in Transylvania. Then you’d have to talk about the numerous collaborations with folks like Modeselektor, Asian Dub Foundation, Anti Pop Consortium, Buraka Som Sistema and many more. And you’d definitely have to talk about them being at the forefront of producing eclectic sounds and merging genres like grime, punk rock, hip-hop and various blends of electronica to create a unique definition of pop music. A pioneering role they embraced with the same spirit that brought like-minded projects like Diplo or Switch productions, figures like M.I.A. or Terry Lynn or subgenres like baile funk, 2 step or booty bass into the public eye.

All of this had to be featured here, and well, it is now. But! A band that records an album like “Barefoot Wanderer” could hardly be interested in a text full of self references. It might even be quite useful to simply forget most things known about Jahcoozi. “Barefoot Wanderer” most definitely marks a caesura. As the title already suggests, it’s the implementation of a new-found purism. It’s not a loud, bright, stage-ready record. Recording something like that would’ve been far too easy. Of course they continue to be restless, they still filter their distinct dynamic from their different tastes in music and they are still crossing borders. With the support of the Goethe Institute they went to Kenya to record the track “Msoto Millions” along with MCs from Ukoo Flani, a Kenyan dancehall/reggae crew in Nairobi. Staying true to their core musical approach, they gathered friends from all around the globe, but this time took it further than ever. For example, there’s a track with percussionist Guillermo Brown from New York, they feature Belgian singer Barbara Panther on another, and (drum roll!) clay pot percussionist Oori Shalev from Israel, who of course played his part in making this track a quite unconventional affair. In general, they bring home sound souvenirs from every one of their journeys, but they wonít tour the world with Hypebeast-approved trainers on their feet – they wander barefoot. Not only does “Barefoot” happen to be the most fitting metaphor for this album, it is also a kind of branding for the mentality that Jahcoozi and their brothers in spirit, Stereotyp & Alhaca from Vienna, have come up with. A mentality that appeals to everyone who feels comfortable in the most varied worlds of bpm counts and bass variations. Itís something like an attempt to find a genre name for the act of refusing genres.

It’s not that this new album revisits all of the band’s typical reference points. Rather it examines all their unexplored niches in an incomparably subtle way. Chances are the band has never stretched itself so far, and it has ended up forming a unique microcosm with its own rules and language. “Barefoot Wanderer” is without a doubt the most self-contained and cohesive work they have done so far. Its sex appeal not only speaks through Sasha’s booty-shake, it virtually shines through a mysteriously hazy twilight. Unlike anything else, this album refines dubstep, it recalls the early dancehall spirit, it even reawakens the expressive force and agitation of digital hardcore, though without letting the formal execution become too explicit. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It’s a documentation of subtlety. Yet in every proclamation – some of which even reach into ambient aesthetics – pulsates the most lucid form of expression and the niftiest approach to pop the band has undertaken so far. And even the most explicit moments such as “Power Down Blackout”, fuelled by long-time partner in crime M. Sayyid of Anti Pop Consortium, are laid down with a nonchalance that will get a crowd going in the blink of an eye.

On the whole, “Barefoot Wanderer” is the album nobody expected, but perhaps that is the only possible outcome for a band that holds unpredictability as its one constant principle.

ARTIST: JAHCOOZI
TITLE: BAREFOOT WANDERER
RELEASE: 19.04.2010
FORMAT: CD / Digital
CAT NR.: BPC215CD
EAN: 880319459122
LC: 11753
DISTRIBUTION: Rough Trade / Kompakt / Finetunes / Beatport

TRACKLISTING:

01 Barefoot Dub
02 Zoom In Fantasize
03 Powerdown Blackout feat. M.Sayyid
04 Close To Me
05 Lost In The Bass
06 Speckles Shine feat. Guillermo E. Brown
07 Read The Books
08 Msoto Millions feat. Ukoo Flani
09 Barricaded feat. Barbara Panther
10 Watching You (Deadbeat Stalker Dub)
11 Wasteland

Upcoming singles will include remixes by Click Box, Milanese, Ramadan Man, Mr. Statik and Object Object.

Supported by the Initiative Musik Non-profit Project Company Ltd. with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media on the basis of a resolution passed by the German Bundestag.

TOURDATES:

JAHCOOZI “BAREFOOT WANDERER TOUR”

16.04.2010 / AT / Innsbruck / Stadtcafé / Soundcity
17.04.2010 / AT / Vienna / Planetarium
23.04.2010 / GB / London / Fabric
24.04.2010 / FR / Rennes / Antipode
30.04.2010 / DE / Lärz / Kulturkosmos

07.05.2010 / DE / Berlin / Festsaal Kreuzberg / Record Release Party
08.05.2010 / CH / Zürich / Zukunft
14.05.2010 / SI / Ljubljana / Kino Siska
15.05.2010 / AT / Graz / Postgarage / Springfestival
20.05.2010 / IE / Cork / Pavilion Theatre
21.05.2010 / GB / Bristol / Thekla / Monkey!Knife!Fight
23.05.2010 / FR / Paris / Rex Club
27.05.2010 / BG / Sofia /Mellow Festival
30.05.2010 / CN / Beijing / Obiwan

01.06.2010 / CN / Shanghai / Expo
02.06.2010 / CN / Shanghai / Expo
04.06.2010 / IT / Florence / MUV Festival
05.06.2010 / DE / Hannover / Cafe Glocksee
09.06.2010 / DE / Leipzig / Campusfest
11.06.2010 / FR / Besancon / Citadelle / Electro-Clique Festival
19.06.2010 / DE / Nürnberg / DESI
25.06.2010 / DE / Lärz / Fusion Festival

02.07.2010 / DE / Berlin / Maria
16.07.2010 / DE / Hamburg / Hafenklang
18.07.2010 / DE / Berlin / Bar 25
24.07.2010 / PL / Szczecin / Boogie Brain Festival
25.07.2010 / DE / Gräfenhainichen / Splash Festival
31.07.2010 / DE / Darmstadt / 603qm

07.08.2010 / DE / Düsseldorf / Open Source Festival
to be continued…

BOOKING REQUESTS: andrea@magnet-musik.de

LISTEN TO THE ALBUM MEDLEY HERE

DOWNLOAD THE ENGLISH INFOSHEET HERE

DOWNLOAD THE GERMAN INFOSHEET HERE

DOWNLOAD THE PRESS PHOTOS HERE

DOWNLOAD THE ARTWORK HERE

LISTEN TO A DJ SET HERE

DISCOGRAPHY

MYSPACE

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

Jahcoozi’s current Album Barefoot Wanderer must surely rank amongst the biggest surprises of the year at this early stage. Whilst it plays masterfully with all genre expectations, it is nevertheless a prime example of coherence. In keeping with the album, unpredictability also features heavily on the first single release. It takes us by surprise with the album opener “Barefoot Dub” – where a dub beat and 4/4 kick are fused logically into a unique and danceable form – and the hysterically cheerful and adorable “Close To Me”, a song which is in fact about the not so cheerful topic of loving and longing for Heroin….

A) Jahcoozi’s highly unconventional interpretation of “Close To Me” is taken to another level of abstraction by Brazilian DJ/production duo and Minus family member Click Box, who also skilfully blend in elements of “Barefoot Dub”. The pair almost effortlessly pull off the feat of retaining the hysterically absurd mood of “Close To Me”, even though the sound of their remix, with its old-school electro beat and nervously flittering filters, is light years away from the original.

B1) No less surprising to the ears is the extremely quirky dub-house-electronica blend of the antagonistic sound tinkerers Object Object / Raw Milk, who hail from the dubstep/grime epicentre of North London. Whilst the latter is still regarded by most in Germany as a blank slate, Object Object aka Mark Rutherford has already picked up remixer credits for Unkle and Yapacc in his previous incarnation as a member of Repeat Repeat. Their “Barefoot Dub” mix has an oppressively skewed feel. It’s laden with a peculiar energy and most certainly not from this world!

B2) Planet Mu hero Steve Milanese has put the brakes on his breakcore-heavy mash-ups. Here he appears in a relatively moderate mood and even surprises us with a song-like structure. His congenial “Close To Me” remix is even a trace closer to the original than the Jahcoozi edit. The focus is on the vocals and wonderfully cheesy sounds which once more – following his Planet Mu hit “Double Face” with the singer Kate Kestrel – demonstrate Milanese’s talent of writing genuinely catchy songs.

X) The digital track completes this extremely diverse remix package with an instrumental version of the Object Object / Raw Milk track “Barefoot Dub”. Identical except for the absent vocals, this version feels a touch lighter and more spacious.

TRACKLISTING:
A) Barefoot Dub/Close To Me (Click Box ‘Medley Mix’)
B1) Barefoot Dub (Object Object & Raw Milk Remix)
B2) Close To Me (Milanese Remix)
Digital Only: Barefoot Dub (Object Object & Raw Milk Remix) INSTRUMENTAL

ARTIST: Jahcoozi
TITLE: Barefoot Wanderer Remixes Pt. 1
RELEASE: 19.04.2010
FORMAT: 12” / Digital
CAT NR.: BPC214
EAN: 880319466311
LC: 11753

distributed by Kompakt / Finetunes

Jahcoozi’s “Barefoot Wanderer” keeps striding onwards. The A-side of “Remixes Part 2” explores previously unknown features of the marvellous album opener “Barefoot Dub”, whilst the flip side turns to the gently provocative “Read The Books”. One immediately noticeable aspect of all these remixes is the way they casually play upon the stylistic unpredictability of the tracks. The three remix artists filter out the typical clues to the various genres – dancehall, dubstep, hardcore techno – in order to produce tracks which aren‘t typical, but play upon expectations, excess and suggestion.

First up, one of the shining stars of the small but highly regarded Vienna downtempo scene turns his attention to the “Barefoot Dub”. Producer Stefan Mörth, aka Stereotyp, has been releasing his dancehall, ragga and hiphop-infused works for over ten years, predominantly on Klein Records (The Bug, Sofa Surfers…) and Kruder & Dorfmeister’s G-Stone. He has contributed remixes for his label colleagues from Sonarkollektiv as well as for Faunaflash, Juryman and several others. His “Barefoot Dub” remix cranks up the dancehall elements of the original in an almost paradoxical fashion: double tempo and a whole catalogue of harsh noises turn this dancehall into a rollicking pogo pit.

Ramadaman, commonly known as David Kennedy, takes a considerably deeper and more relaxed approach. The high-flying Brit only recently turned 20 and has already booked his ticket into the premier league of dubstep. As co-manager of Hessle Audio he has released tracks not only on his own label but also on Tampa, Soul Jazz, 2nd Drop and Bare Dubs to name a few. His remix works include Delphic, Howie B, SpectraSoul and Ragga Twins, whilst his parties in the London dubstep institution FWD have seen him share a platform with Kode9, Skream, Benga, Scuba – and Ricardo Villalobos. Ramadaman also plays a skilful game with the typical ingredients of his favoured genres, although he never allows his “Barefoot Dub” remix to nestle too comfortably into the dubstep niche.

The greatest shock factor surely comes from Ikonika’s “Read The Books” remix. Sara Abdel-Hamid, who has cemented her own star on Dubstep Boulevard with her album release on Hyperdub, turns the rhythmically and sonically dub-laden original into a kick-ass electro smash by combining a hard-as-nails lo-fi beat, cheesy 8-bit melodies and ultra-soft sound textures – all the more remarkable, since Ikonika has tended to favour playful dubstep variations with her own releases on Hyperdub. As a remix artist she has already earned the highest honours with her version of the Warp hit Township Funk by DJ Mujava.

The 12” is completed by the “Read The Books” album track. Finally, on the download release, there’s an instrumental version of Ramadaman’s “Barefoot Dub” waiting to be dropped in the club.

TRACKLISTING:
A1) Stereotyp Remix (Barefoot Dub) 06:05
A2) Ramadanman Refix (Barefoot Dub) 05:22
B1) Read The Books (Ikonika Remix) 05:13
B2) Read The Books (Original) 03:03
X) Ramadanman Refix Instrumental (Barefoot Dub) DIGITAL ONLY

ARTIST: Jahcoozi
TITLE:  Barefoot Wanderer Remixes Pt. 2
RELEASE: 21.06.2010
FORMAT:  12” / Digital
CAT NR.: BPC219
EAN: 880319475115
LC: 11753

distributed by Kompakt / Finetunes

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