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Sixtoo - Chewing On Glass & Other Miracle Cures (ninja Tune)
Hip hop is now a many-headed hydra. In the hands of the criminally avaricious gangsta crews, it's become a Hollywood movie of princely playas, sultry starlets and artful product placement - with the music as its main marketing tool. Deep in the recording studios of the true believers, however, and far from the gaze of the tabloid hacks, it's mutating into an arcane religion that has its eyes firmly fixed on a higher prize than earthly riches.
Such, at least, are the thoughts that this marvellously uncommercial record bring to mind. Recorded in Montreal for the most part using a Rhodes electric piano, live drums and a heap of old samplers and midi-automated digital rack units that are Greek to me, it journeys through a gritty cityscape of rough and ready textures, hugely diverse rhythms, and sudden vistas of unexpected beauty and poetry. It feels remarkably immediate and unpretentious - unmediated almost, as if it were simply the product of one long jam.
Indeed, the recording process is so lovingly detailed in the chatty liner notes - revealing that no computer effects are used here - that I feel that this is music created by the instruments first and foremost, with Sixtoo acting more in the role of medium or moderator than artist or auteur. If that sounds bonkers to you, at least you're getting some idea of what listening to this record can do to you… it has an aura of deep secrets and arcane knowledge about it. Which is about right - for isn't it mysterious how a junkload of old metal, wood and circuitry can bring forth these extraordinary moments in sound?
For my money, it's the 'Boxcutter Emporium' sequence - recently showcased on a separate 12 - that captures best what Sixtoo is up to here. He and his crew of collaborators - Damo Suzuki from Can, another chap from Godspeed - aren't interested in tunes so much as texture and mood, so this album is at its best when the tracks slide into one another, taking you on a cinematic journey through the junkyard of Western civilization. Listening to it on my Walkman one incredibly wet night in the city, its raw beauty complemented the rain-sodden streets quite perfectly.
Summer chilling it certainly ain't. Ninja themselves are billing it as psyche rock/jazz filtered through a hip hop sensibility, and they should know, because nobody does this kind of hybrid hip hop better than them. Determinedly underground and uncompromising, it's tailormade for a very specific audience. You know who you are…
Freddie B.
Skalpel's debut LP reviewed by Freddie B
Sixtoo's new site
Worthless art
Written: 17th Jun, 04
Read: 2075 times
