 |
MATTHEW SHIPP
NuBop (Thirsty Ear)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
Matthew Shipp's audience are unique people in that they don't want to be comfortable. Anyone who required comfort would have jumped Shipp by the third record, because this artist only skis where there are no tracks. A pianist of unparalleled vision, Shipp has the ability to recognize a musical element foreign to him, study it and become its master seemingly overnight. After the avant-garde genius' exposure to electronic keyboards during recent projects with Spring Heel Jack and David S. Ware, we're witness to the birth of NuBop.
On the surface it's still Matthew Shipp's acoustic piano breaking through the jungle of sounds, leading us to places unknown, but the surprise is in what lies beneath, where Guiellermo E. Brown's drumming is acoustic with electronic embellishments. William Parker's bass is often the sound that carries us through the vortex, the tones we rise and fall with, and sometimes Parker gets so funky with it we have to sit back and just feel the groove. When things are placid and introspective, we're off our guard, and the electronic beats catch us and carry us, unsuspecting, lulled, right into the waiting jaws of something crazy like "Rocket Shipp." The current's too fast here; you can't get out. It seems like a familiar Shipp whirlpool except there's that electronic "rip" punctuating the beats, and murmers under the mix, compliments of producer/programmer Chris Flam (DJ Spooky/A Guy Called Gerald).
It's getting scary in there. You can't let your guard down or you won't see the turns coming and SPLAT! That's crazy shit! What's he doing on the piano here in "Select Mode 1"? Can piano's really do that? It's short, but God, what key was that in? Those notes don't go together... but they did. And none of this goes with electronica... but it does. I like electronica when I don't want to think. When I want to surf the net and read things there, it's great background "mind trip" music. This won't let me get away with that.
This won't let me get comfortable long enough to let my attention stray.
Well, I'm not comfortable. I'm aware, awake, intense, curious about the next note and the one after it, and I'm breathing the rarified air up here where the skis don't cross anything but fresh powder. Matthew Shipp's done it again.
© 2002 - DJ Johnson