Plasticine – Psy-Clone
Similar artists: Snarky Puppy, Bokanté, GoGoPenguin, Bruno Pernadas
Genre: Jazz Fusion, World Music
Sometimes it’s hard to understand while people take drugs. I don’t mean this in a disparaging way. Sure, there are plenty of thrills to be had with chemical refreshments.
The thing, though, is that there are alternatives. Music and meditation, for example, produce the same high. Trust me! Moreover, music, and art in general, is far more interesting and get you to talk to fascinating people. Chemical refreshments get you talking to the local conspiracy theorists or conversing with trashcans.
World music, in particular, can be like a pill that, almost by magic, lets you enter a different world. A few minutes of music can reveal something completely new. Among other things, it can show the very essence of a different group of people.
Plasticine’s Psy-Clone is, by definition, a mix of jazz and world music. But look at what this music is trying to achieve. Is it any different from your modern psych-rockers? This is music meant to trigger unpredictable visions in your brain. It succeeds in doing this.
Hot Mustard – Mustard Green
Similar artists: Antibalas, Budos Band, Blockhead, El Michels Affair, DJ Shadow, Menehan Street Band, DJ Premier
Genre: Study beats, Jazz-hop, Chill-hop, Instrumental Hip-Hop
It used to be that the music you played was wholly dependent on what your hands could do. Not able to play a rock solo or pick a country riff? Well, there’s no way you were playing guitar in a rock or country band.
It also used to be that bands strictly played one genre. Not if you were The Beatles, or Frank Zappa, of course. Everyone else, however, catered to their audiences.
Things changed once samples made their controversial entrance. Suddenly, technology was geared towards slicing up and splicing musical motifs. By the 1990s, new forms of music, blending countless genres, were finding fans. Good taste and knowledge of modern music-making techniques were the new requirements.
Hot Mustard’s Mustard Green is the equivalent of a DJ-powered balloon ride into the colored sky. It’s a sound that references jazz, soul, and pop. But, it does not pay the debt to those genres. It’s music made as an amusement park for the brain. It’s a song that feels like it’s always existed and, at the same time, becoming what it is in front of your very eyes.
