geshSMOC’s taste of the week (5.4.08)
juez
Shemspeed Alt Schule
label: modular moods
There is no better way to introduce this brand new rhythm and review ingredient to the Shemspeed stew than to serve up a sample that offers far more than just a little kick to the taste.
Although first concocted a few years back, the freshman LP by the frenetic klezmer hipsters that make up juez is just as sizzlin’ and fresh today as when it was when it first tantalized jazz, ska, and hip-hop enthusiasts alike. The clandestine jive of the opener “Sitra Achra” makes for the perfect appetizer for what’s to come, sneaking up on the listener with a drooling panther of a crawling bass groove guided by a patient horn crescendo before the percussion pounces, rendering the listener powerless to resist the jams to come. A meager quartet by first glance, juez never lets up as the album continues, playfully barraging its audience with slick shifting tempo and harmonization in “New Yemenite,” dynamic breadth and pure fun with the tongue-in-cheek blessing “Upon Seeing Exceptionally Strange-Looking People or Animals,” and the irresistibly catchy “Aniti,” which is easily the album’s catchiest track perhaps subconsciously inspired by a riff from the Israeli national anthem “Hatikva.”
Bottom line: juez more than makes and breaks the beat ’til it sweeps you off your feet.
* If you dig the taste, tame the craving and pick up your copy in the Shemspeed shop by clicking here!
Choice cuts: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7
For satisfied customers of: Charlie “Bird” Parker, Soulive, and the Bad Plus.
*MUSICIANS:
Are you a solo artist or member of a band anxious to give hungry music lovers everywhere a taste?
Contact Jeremy (a.k.a. “geshSMOC”) at geshSMOC@yahoo.com for the recipe for cookin’ up music reviews and interviews for this new Shemspeed feature!
As your Bubby would say, “try it – you’ll like it!”
