CD of the Week: We're New HereXL * * * *
It seems like an incongruous match at first. In the red corner, there’s Gil Scott-Heron, hip-hop originator and the performer with that hugely authoritative, grizzled voice that has bested the slings and arrows of a life well lived. In the blue corner you have Jamie Smith, a London kid who is one-third of The xx and a producer who knows the ins and outs of the post-dubstep bass scene. This marriage of the seen-it-all veteran and the quiet whippersnapper shouldn’t work, but it does – and how.
Smith is following a grand tradition of dub grandmasters reworking albums in this manner. Adrian Sherwood reimagined Primal Scream's Vanishing Pointalbum as Echo Dek, and Mad Professor's No Protectiondid a similar job on Massive Attack. But compared to these, Smith is a relative newbie, and a producer who has yet to truly establish his credentials beyond that wonderful xx debut.
Yet there's nothing here to suggest that Smith was inhibited by the task at hand. He twists, turns and tacks Scott-Heron's voice around futuristic washes of electronica, and never once takes the easy way out. What results from his dedicated, intense handiwork is a string of diamonds, from haunted voodoo soul ( New York Is Killing Me) and dark melancholic lullabies ( My Cloud) to occasional bursts of euphoria ( I'll Take Care of You).
It may have helped that Scott-Heron and Smith never actually met, the tapes going to the producer via Richard Russell at XL, the label both acts have in common. There were a few letters between the two, but Scott-Heron didn’t make any demands and Smith didn’t look for any retakes as he worked up his own designs. It was a brave move by all concerned, and one that has paid off in spades.
As for this being an incongruous match? Scratch that – this is much more of a meeting of equals than it might at first seem. See xlrecordings. com
Download tracks: New York Is Killing Me, My Cloud, I'll Take Care of You
