Music Blogs

When the first Akai samplers hit the market in the mid-1980s, working them was a time consuming affair with little music to show for your effort. Typically, the Akai could only sample a tiny snippet of time, maybe a cymbal hit or the flash of a drum beat. Smart punters nonetheless used those ancient samplers to create iconic beats like those sampled from the Winstons' "Amen, Brother" or the Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache," featuring the great drummer (and "Layla" co-writer) Jim Gordon.

But with the ensuing digital revolution, sampling times increased while the samplers literally shrunk in size, to the point where programs like Apple Logic and Digidesign Pro Tools include incredibly powerful software samplers that dwarf those old, large, and now antiquated Akai models of yesteryear. That's all served to put quick'n'easy technology at the fingertips of 1000s of DJs, quacks, losers, morons and geniuses. Anyone can sample a beat, disguise a melodic sample, drop in some subsonic bass from a synth, and call it Muzak (or press a CD). The bins are full of wannabes praying to be the next DJ Shadow or Cut Chemist. But talented individuals with the talent to truly challenge those dudes are few and far between. Enter Metaform.

Metaform's PR blather doesn't tell you much, only that he hails from West Coast, and now "secretly migrates between L.A., San Francisco and Tokyo. His anonymity, coupled with a divine knack for gleaning the essence of countless genres has both positioned him as an act to be reckoned with, as well as enhanced the mystery of his identity."

Okay, he's a precious little fart who deems himself too cool to reveal his identity. Like anyone really cares. Except that his Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants (isn't that an Oasis album title?) is the real deal, jockeying between 70s R&B vocal swooners like the O'Jays to slow mo drugged landscapes ala DJ Shadow, giant big beat parades ala the reign of trip hop and Portishead, the rhythmic madness of Squarepusher, and the esoteric glow of David Amram all name-checked within an elaborately constructed sonic pastiche that, like the best DJ Shadow, transports your mind...elsewhere.

Metaform: "Metaform"  (MP3, 3:17)

Jenny Scheinman...she got legs!: Best known as the hottest violinist on two legs (multiple DownBeat awards, top ten polls from the New York Times), Jenny Scheinman is an artist beyond easy categorization. Sure, my misogynist pig headline grabs your attention, perhaps, but Scheinman is that rare thing in American music these days, an inspired artist whose ties to vintage Americana and modernist jazz are practically unparalleled.

Simultaneously releasing Crossing The Field (the "jazz" album) and Jenny Scheinman (the "vocal" album), Scheinman comes on like the triple threat she is, whether arranging tracks for Bono, backing up Bill Frisell on tour or having Norah Jones back her up at New York's East Village hangout, the Living Room.

Scheinman puts her mighty violin in its case (well, some of the time) for Jenny Scheinman, replacing her versatile musicianship with plaintive vocals cut from the same cloth as old timers like Bonnie Raitt, Loretta Lynn, June Carter Cash and Tom Waits. Jenny Scheinman moves at its own lazy tempo, as slow moving, earthy and deliberate as your grandparents relaxing on a screened-in porch, or old dogs sitting in the shade of a tree in 95 degree heat. Backed by master guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Kenny Wollesen, Scheinman's message is more that of someone chronicling her journey through life, reflections and observations drawn out in black and white. She's not a natural singer, her voice is thin and sometimes lacking in color, but like the dustbowl depression photos of Dorthea Lange, Scheinman's voice and songs are the stuff of real life. And she does have legs!