Customer Reviews

Grains [Vinyl]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Grains is an album that continues to grow on you. The tracks are more song-based than previous Boozoo efforts, with compelling lead vocals on many cuts. The songs "Grains" and "Same Sun" could almost be on a folk record. There's still a lot of the lush instrumentation and dub experimentation I've enjoyed on previous Boozoo efforts, but the album sounds more cohesive as a whole. Perfect listening for a lazy summer afternoon.

It's too bad when these acts decide to "re-invent" themselves, because usually something valuable gets lost in the process. Boozoo Bajou had carved out a unique niche for themselves with "Satta", a dubby, textured, largely instumental masterpiece. Their second release, "Dust My Broom", introduces more vocals into the mix. Okay, you've got to evolve. At least they were channeling the same influences. Unfortunately, with this third outing, about half the disc is devoted to some fairly insipid, forgettable chillout music, or so it seems to me. None of these tracks has much of an edge - they seem designed to be mellow, soothing background music, nothing more. No appearances from Top Cat on this one, I'm afraid. On the plus side, there are a few "Satta" type instrumental tracks here too, so it's not a total bust. Overall, they've created a soft, shapeless hodgepodge of a album, neither one thing or another, likely to disappoint old fans while earning few new ones. Kind of a boring album with a few good tracks. Too bad, I was looking forward to this one.

Which, of course, depends on what you think's good or bad. If you're looking for more of those heavily charged, deeply atmospheric Boozoo Bajou tracks such as "Blast", "Killer", "Divers", "Keep Going" or "Yoruba Road" then the first half of this CD will seriously disappoint. But... much of the second half - in particular "Kinder Ohne Strom" which is up there with the very best of them - should restore your faith. Or, if you're looking for some superbly produced "lazy Sunday" lounge tracks then the first half will deliver exactly what you want and the second half may take you into areas that you're not too comfortable with. Nothing wrong with either, but they're odd bedfellows.

Maybe Boozoo Bajou should spend more time deciding which audience they're targeting... but, then again, maybe the reason they're so good is because they're not constrained by such obvious things. In the end "Grains" is probably half an album you want: which half depends on where you're coming from.

As with Texas, Florida, Utah, and New York, stereotypes stick to the state of California like barnacles on a beached rock. You know what they are. Ironically, the only stereotype that seems to hold water is that California is, by and large, amazingly diverse, which is reflected quite pointedly by its musical identity. There's been ska and skate punk in Orange County, sludge metal in Palm Desert, hip-hop in Vallejo, and minimal techno in San Francisco. Los Angeles--a city far too slippery to deserve its unflattering, one-note characterizations--has had a hand in more movements than I can name succinctly. At present, it's one of the leading suppliers of both glitch-hop (Flying Lotus, Ras G) and indie rock (all the boys and girls from the Smell). FlyLo and Brad Laner live within, like, five miles of each other in the San Fernando Valley.

So when Boozoo Bajou's Peter Heider and Florian Seyberth tell us that Grains is inspired by "that laidback California thing" with such glib familiarity, I can only assume that their idea of California is nothing but a great big hippie pot party. What the Nuremberg, Germany duo were after was the sound of Laurel Canyon in the late `60s and early `70s, the Los Angeles neighborhood/zeitgeist that gave us the unplugged incarnations of Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, and Neil Young, among others. And the two chase that inspiration with an almost blinding idealism. Tempos are lazily slow, the mood consistently ragged from heat waves and so much marijuana smoke. The Horst Schäfer photograph on the front cover, depicting a fenceless basketball court in the middle of God's Country in 90-degree weather, is just a little too on-the-nose in describing Grains` vision of extreme, impractical leisure.

This new approach is billed as a departure from their previous recordings of electronic soul-jazz, but it really isn't. Part of the downtempo scene that includes Fila Brazillia and Kruder & Dorfmeister, which peaked around 1999, Boozoo Bajou followed suit with a handful of mixes and two albums of own-productions that capitalized on their love of funk, blues, dub, and folk. Not only is the archetypal Laurel Canyon material fairly contiguous with this earthier side of downtempo, the duo also seemed less interested in jazz than their contemporaries. So Grains, as a concept, shouldn't elicit more than a hearty shrug from those who have followed their career in any capacity.

The good news is that Boozoo Bajou are about as successful playing in this style as they've been with the plethora of others, which is to say, mildly to moderately so. "Tonschraube" (German titles? Really now?) and "Big Nicks" are languid and sensuous atmosphere pieces that do more to plunk the listener in Schäfer's sun-baked scene than any of their neighbors in the tracklist. Each is just one hook repeated over and over for several minutes, but they work better than almost all of the look-at-me songs with choruses and vocals, which is interesting. "Fuersattel" is also a bit of a departure in that its feel is decidedly `80s, its ambling rhythmic clops and multiple rolling guitar parts suggesting Michael Franks or Acoustic Alchemy circa Reference Point. It needs a singer, but it scores valuable uniqueness points on a record that's so dead-set on performing a single trick.

Speaking of singers, Grains has a bunch of them. The first voice we hear is that of Slackwax vocalist Bernd Batke, who fronts the opener "Flickers" with a cracked and very off-key croon. Maybe his voice would sound fine in another context, but laying him over the track's endearing Rob McConnell-ish cheez whiz is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Noticeably better is Mr. Day's Eric Duperray, providing perfectly appropriate faceless soul singing to the faceless soul of "Sign". But it's British singer-songwriter newbie Rumer that Boozoo Bajou consider to be their secret weapon, and they're right, she's good--but it's remarkable how the quality of her voice changes depending on the song she's in. On the tired late-album blues of "Messengers", all I could hear in her contribution was Sarah McLachlan with less character, but she's a revelation on "Same Sun", where her delicate yet full-bodied voice slinks along Grains` most mellifluous backing track. Like a typecast actress who's finally been handed a good script, Rumer works with Boozoo Bajou's best music in a way that highlights both parties' skills, and it makes me wonder whether some material on the Sonar Kollektiv label could have seriously benefited from higher-caliber singers (with all due respect to Clara Hill).

The bad news is that even at its best, Grains still sounds like it was engineered in a laboratory. The duo's extensive musical pedigrees and their knowledge of music theory is something of a mixed blessing, since the songs' rock-solid constructions don't allow any room for the spontaneity that was the province of the Laurel Canyon cohort to begin with. Heider and Seyberth go out of their way to explain that Grains was not an attempt to be authentically Californian, but after spending this past spring OD'ing on Quiet Village's Silent Movie (a record that revives every certifiably uncool genre of the `60s and `70s) and the Caretaker's We'll All Go Riding on a Rainbow (which casts a haunting light on the corpse of 1930s ballroom music), I realize how much authenticity matters. Grains is the sound of two dreamers imagining the Golden State from halfway around the world, who try valiantly to capture the idea of California without the insight to see that no definitive idea exists.

(This was published in PopMatters on 7/23/09)

I have "Satta", and "Dust My Broom". They were both great to listen to. This, their third cd is quite a change. I don't like to get too deep or technical. I don't like to over analyze. This cd is the most mellow of the three. It sounds like a combination of Zero 7, Bonobo, and Alpha all mixed together. Every track blends right into the next. The vocals seem a little mismatched for some off the tracks. But don't let that stop you from getting this cd. Trust me buy you'll like it!!!!!

I own everything available on cd from Boozoo Bajou and this is by far the most sensual one yet! There is some seriously sexy music on here.

EAGERLY AWAITED THIS SELF PRODUCED RELEASE

REMINDS ME OF WASHED OUT B SIDES THAT NEVER

MADE THE CUT FROM THEIR TWO PREVIOUS ALBUMS.

ELEVEN TRACKS MOSTLY DEVOTED TO LACK LUSTER

SLOW MID TEMPO ARRANGEMENTS DOES NOT A GOOD

CD MAKE.

IN THIS EVER INCREASING TIGHT MUSIC MARKET

K7 THEIR RECORD LABEL MUST BE HELD LARGELY

RESPONSIBLE FOR RELEASING THIS.

NOT ONE INVIGORATING OR INVENTIVE CUT TO BE

FOUND INCLUDING THE TITLE TRACK GRAINS.

BEST TRACKS - SIGN A SADE ADU TYPE DITTY AND

THE ETHNIC SAME SUN.

MEDIOCRE TRACKS FLICKERS & BIG NICKS.

THE OTHER SEVEN ARE JUST B FILLERS.

K7 FIND THIS BAND A PRODUCER - SET SOME

STANDARDS SO YOU CAN PROMOTE BOOZOO

BAJOU'S TALENTS.

GRAINS - VALUE FOR MONEY ON A SCALE OF

ONE TO TEN A DISAPPOINTING "ONE"

FLY IT OR BUY IT - IT'S A FLYER.

P C - L A.

Boozoo Bajou's "Grains" is a real aural delight, unexpected, brighter and warmer than their earlier work, but with more than enough of the trippy touches they're known for. This cd is every bit as addictive as their first two collections, "Satta" and "Dust My Broom," but in a different way that is still familiar for those who love their style. It's always great when an artist matures and takes you on a side trip, yet doesn't forget the qualities that made them unique in the first place. Highly recommended!