Like all good producers, phaseone’s remixes are reinterpretations. Raekwon removed from his concrete criminology raps and placed afloat an aqueous ambient sample from Blind Man’s Colour. Bon Iver’s wood-cutter hymns wrapped inside El-P’s apocalyptic abandoned building aesthetic. Rich Boy over some greasy synth-funk. Panda Bear given some snapping Southern-sounding drums. YoungbloodZ drawling over a bass-heavy beat that sounds straight out of Bristol.
More than just a Girl Talk with taste, St. Louis’ best producer (according to the Riverfront Times) reflects the omniverous appetites of his generation about as well as anyone working. Raised on hip-hop but equally eager to talk about Washed Out, Dam-Funk, or Joker, if blogs have taken notice of 24-year old Andrew Jernigan, it’s because he effectively synthesizes these disparate sounds into something singular. It’s possible that it’s all a matter of vanity–after all, everyone wants to hear their tastes affirmed. But ultimately, the beats bang and that’s enough to suspect that phaseone is just getting started.
phaseone’s Top 5 of ’09
It’s technically dubstep, but there’s no wobble bass. It’s just really sexy and soulful and really musical, with lots of layers. It’s definitely my favorite dub step album of the year. Apparently, Silkie named it City Limits because he’d never actually left London, which is crazy. I went to London once, nine years ago, and it’s such a powerful and overwhelming place I can understand going your whole life without leaving. Whenever I think of this album, it makes me think of London.
MP3: Silkie-“Head Butt Da Deck”
Kryptic Minds are two drum and bass guys who started making dark, minimal dub step. My favorite song on the album is “Six Degrees,” which originally came out as a B-Side. There’s just something organic about the way it sounds.
MP3: Kryptic Minds-“Six Degrees”
This is just classic Doom, unorthodox rhymes and great beats. In April of 2008, Madlib and Egon came to St. Louis and DJ’d at a club here. They played the version of “Lightworks” with Doom rapping on it and it ended up being the one that wound up on the album. I didn’t think I’d ever hear it again and remember just being floored…I’m not trying to pretend that I’m the world’s most obsessive Dilla fan or anything, but Donuts had a pretty big influence on me.
I’ve been a fan of Doom since Vaudeville Villain. The guy just raps about the weirdest shit, and I think it’s cool that he’s an old, and fat, and bald, and somehow made it work. Usually when I listen to rap, I visualize the guy rapping in my head. You can’t do that with Doom. It’s like words floating in air.
MP3: DOOM-“Lightworks”
I love what I’ve heard of Toeachizown thus far, but I’m going to go with Rhythm Tracks 4 because that was the first Dam-Funk that I heard. It’s just chock-full of mind-blowing rhythm tracks. Especially “Galactic Fun,” the B-Side to “Burgundy City.” That’s probably my favorite song of the year. Dam is a ridiculously talented guy and such a nice dude. He’s
definitely one of the best creative minds to come out this year.
The whole album is just a home run. We play this stuff a lot when we DJ. It’s kind of a shame that the album came out as late as it did, because it’s definitely summer music. But I think we all got a pretty good dose of it over the summer. I was just really glad that the whole album was as good as the first couple of songs that I heard from it. It’s kind of funny that he’s had so many other projects and he’s just now blowing up. I thought Vega was really great, but this is the best thing he’s done thus far.
MP3: Neon Indian-“I Should’ve Taken Acid With You”
Honorable Mentions:
Drake-So Far Gone
Animal Collective-Merriweather Post Pavilion
Raekwon-Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2
Download:
ZIP: Phaseone-White Collar Crime (Left-Click)
ZIP: Phaseone-Thanks But No Thanks (Left-Click)
