{"id":10408,"date":"2016-03-11T05:30:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T05:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=10408"},"modified":"2016-03-04T18:35:22","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T18:35:22","slug":"album-review-jaimeo-brown-transcendence-work-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/11\/album-review-jaimeo-brown-transcendence-work-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Jaimeo Brown Transcendence &#8212; Work Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10409\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/jaimeo_brown_work_songs.jpg\" alt=\"jaimeo_brown_work_songs\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/jaimeo_brown_work_songs.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/jaimeo_brown_work_songs-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/jaimeo_brown_work_songs-65x65.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>As a music reviewer, I get a lot of albums for potential coverage. A <i>lot<\/i>. And to manage the flow, I keep a spreadsheet, cataloging those slated for eventual review according to the date I receive them, genre, and a few other details. It makes for handy organization.<\/p>\n<p>But occasionally something comes along that brings about what one might describe as delightful confusion. A sense of \u201cwhat exactly is this?\u201d For me, the latest example of this phenomenon is <i>Work Songs<\/i> from <b>Jaimeo Brown Transcendence<\/b>. It&#8217;s difficult to describe, but worth my effort to do so. The disc opens with \u201cHidden Angel,\u201d a mash-up of field hollers (sharecroppers? Convicts?) set against minimal percussion and a forlorn saxophone. That tune quickly gives way to \u201cMississippi,\u201d a stomping blues \u2013 with harmonica and wildly distorted electric guitar \u2013 and some roaring blues vocalization. \u201cLazarus\u201d is a capella gospel chanting with atmospheric electronics, odd drum rolls, and that haunting sax again. \u201cSafflower\u201d samples a scratchy vinyl record and some wailing (sampled) female vocals that sound straight out of Japan, with a melody to match.<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"float: left; padding: 10px; width:120px;height:240px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ss&#038;ref=ss_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=B019EZ4U6Q&#038;asins=B019EZ4U6Q&#038;linkId=RSXQ6W6HPHANJJQS&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The whole album is like that: wildly varying sonic textures all coming together in some kind of cohesive whole. The liner notes provide some helpful context: \u201cThroughout history, human being have chanted, hummed and sung their way through the drudgery of labor. These sounds are the living tapestry of our human story.\u201d And <i>Work Songs<\/i> is a project designed to set that story against a modern musical backdrop that is both arty and accessible. Once can imagine <i>Work Songs<\/i> being played as part of an art installation. But it&#8217;s far too good to serve as accompaniment for someone else&#8217;s art; it stands on its own with inviting \u2013 and very melodic \u2013 tracks like \u201cBe So Glad\u201d and \u201cHappy Serving,\u201d respectively full of understated, crystalline piano and warm synthesizer textures.<\/p>\n<p><i>Work Songs<\/i> isn&#8217;t solely concerned with the past: \u201c2113\u201d suggests a future in which we&#8217;re mining on Mars, and \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 the drudgery is still performed by lowly humans, not machines. While the saxophone trills out a hypnotic line, the percussion brings alive the ambience of mine workers performing their endlessly repetitive (and endless) tasks. Some wild electric guitar sneaks in here and there.<\/p>\n<p><i>Work Songs<\/i> is an odd album. It&#8217;s a serious one, too. And there&#8217;s no neat genre classification into which it can fit. But it&#8217;s deeply intriguing, and worth hearing for anyone interested in something a little outside the mainstream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a music reviewer, I get a lot of albums for potential coverage. A lot. And to manage the flow, I keep a spreadsheet, cataloging those slated for eventual review [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,42,49,65],"tags":[2649],"class_list":["post-10408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avant-garde","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-review","tag-jaimeo-brown","cat-7-id","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10410,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10408\/revisions\/10410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}