the joe beats experiment presents indie rock blues
joe beats is a man on a mission. he has obviously decided to create music that looks to the past, but with eyes on the future, this desire was apparent to anyone who heard his excellent sample heavy production on the superb non-prophets album, 'hope', on which he collaborated with the intense sage francis. so, with the idea to make a mixtape joe has stepped out of the loop and gone into a new universe entirely. the last few years have seen the mixtape genre burst right open, from dj shadow and cut chemists bootleger friendly brainfreeze's recuts of old soul 45s, though to the recent grindie sonic chaos by statik. with this constant strive to find new areas of crush collision in mind, it's great to hear something as organic, and naturally sounding as this 43 minute homage that blends hip hop beats with melancholy indie rock. a novel idea that may sound like a tired cliché on paper, but this is not some mad indie dance beatmonster for the hipsters. no, instead, the beats are warm and welcoming, delicately propelling these underground songs of pain and hardship into the hearts and minds of people who like an easy groove to soundtrack the darker corners of the soul. of course, it goes without saying that large chunks of this album sound like the glory days of dj shadow (especially the mellow songs on the first unkle album), before he realised that crunk/hyphy/baltimore was his new bag, as joe beats applies layers of reverb, ambience, dub bass lines and found interview snippets to the originals and remixes it all together make the album flow and gel with lashings of love, care and attention to the source material, as well stamping his own production style on top to make the results sound perfectly natural.
put simply : album of the year, so far
extras
track listing :
1. M. Ward - "Sad, Sad Song"
2. The Black Heart Procession - "When We Reach The Hill"
3. 90 Day Men / Cursive - "Exploration vs. Solution, Baby" / "Dedication To
Desertion"
4. Belle, Sebastian, and Signify - "Space Boy Dream"
5. Ugly Casanova - "Ice On The Sheets"
6. Pinback / Kid Dakota - "XIY" / "Winterkill"
7. Neutral Milk Hotel - "Naomi"
8. June of 44 - "Doomsday"
9. The Minutemen / Neil Hamburger - "It's Expected I'm Gone" / "Open Ended
Interview"
10. Andrew Bird - "I"
11. Deerhoof - "Panda, Panda, Panda"
12. The Make Up - "Save Yourself"
13. Songs: Ohia - "Coxcomb Red"
spine magazine : interview
