Finger on the Pulse with Dirty Dale

So I’ve been going out a lot lately. And by going out I mean hittin’ da club, posting up in da spot and
sippin’ Cristal.

I’m exaggerating just a little, but here’s the thing I’ve been noticing: most Boise nightclubs have the same basic soundtrack. A friend of mine refers to it as the “Top Three,” meaning that the same three songs, typically the top radio singles, can be heard in every establishment throughout town on any night of the week. These songs definitely have their place, but it’s no good if you’re out on the town looking for some aural stimulation.

And I am, but away from the bass-overload of China Blue or Lush.  Right now, I’m looking for “fresh beats,” as the kids say and I’m finding them on two new albums by two old DJs.  But as one album achieves, the other falls devastatingly flat.

DJ Mayonnaise, one of the influential originals of seminal hip-hop collective Anticon, has returned after an eight-year hiatus to release the hermetically appropriate “Still Alive.”  Mayonnaise is still alive, perhaps, but certainly not still kicking. For one who is counted among legendary contemporaries Jel, Sole, Alias, Moodswing9 and others, this disc seems awfully (meaning awful) far from being influenced by any of those artists.

I’ll put it right out there: it’s bad.  Mayo’s down-tempo grooves lack excitement of any kind.  Considering Mayo’s use of corrosive static throughout the album, I hoped for a little more enthusiasm. The bass lines are repetitive and boring. The only proper hip-hop cadence is provided by MC K-the-I??? on “Strateegery,” a title that nearly dates Mayo back to his last release.  The lyrical delivery is as flaccid as the track is musically, so it’s hard to miss the MC when he’s gone. The only marginal track is May Days, with its earnest, sky-high clarinet and breezy jazz tones, but this moment of clarity comes three tracks in and is fleeting.

Fortunately, I’ve got an album full of beats with this same aesthetic from one of Los Angeles’s resident spinners, DJ Drez. You may have heard Drez ‘s skills under your favorite emcees.  His beats have ridden smoothly below Aceyalone, Living Legends, Abstract Rude, Haikue D’ Tat, Grouch, Black Eyed Pees and many others.

But on his most recent project, “The Complete Moon Bay Sessions,” we see Drez with an atypical collaborator in the form of Bay Area Jazz Pianist Marty Williams. The jazz/hip-hop dynamic is one that has always found harmony in the differences of the two genres.  But here the Drez/Williams pair faces the fusion head on.

The result is a straight West Coast, cool, jazz vibe delivered by two obviously exceptional musicians.  Each plays off the other in a way that only the free form of jazz could exploit, while keeping the 2 to 4 structure of hip-hop rigidly ruling the show. As Drez takes over the foreground with sublime scratching, Williams keeps the piano solid. Conversely, as Drez develops a bass line or rocks a solid beat, Williams lets loose with the trickling piano improvisation of the rainy Bay. Vocals are sparse, yet solid and the music is so good between these tracks, you don’t get hung up on them.

It’s the kind of record you might play on a rainy day you’re enjoying, or maybe at the chilled-out afterparty you’re throwing at 3 a.m. on Sunday.

Listen to songs from these releases and more on Dirty Dale’s Pulp Squeeze, Sundays on the University Pulse, AM 730, and online at www.pulse.boisestate.edu.

DALE W. EISINGER
Special to The Arbiter

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