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Carlos Niño and Fabian Ammon are dabblers in various west coast musical scenes. They play a part in the jazz, underground hip-hop, and soul/rare groove communities. Granted, they aren't the only people overlapping genres, but to approach this record you have to see them sitting at something of an intersection between the various musical paths they travel.
With Voices is a production album. They go it alone for two tracks (including the incredible "Elevation"), but the focus of the project is working with vocalists. At this point, the fate of most producers is determined by their ear. Just as some gifted vocalists have no ear for music (think Ras Kass), some producers who make wonderful music are not up to the task of choosing vocalists to enhance it. With the exception of Sach, Niño and Ammon make excellent choices.
From the jazz community, they tap Yusef Lateef, Kamau Daaood, and Dwight Trible. Trible you might expect as Niño has played such a large role in his recent work. Daaood takes a stellar poetic turn over a huge bass line that makes everything else irrelevant on "A Zillion Tambourines." Lateef and Trible join Prince Po in making "Beautiful Flowers" one of the best songs on the album. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Prince Po has never sounded this good on a record that didn't feature Pharoahe Monch. The bare-bones track built around a simple and compelling rhythm section showcases him perfectly.
The Ammoncontact treatment also sounds good on Lil Sci. I don't have any complaints about his other material, but he sounds rejuvenated on "Like This." He also graces the title track. With Voices, the song version, is a carnival sounding track with incredible swing and the bass line from the only song you remember by Chubb Rock thrown in during the change. Speaking of nostalgia touches, check "Worth It" for Ammoncontact and Abstract Rude's tribute to Arrested Development.
The pinnacle of the hip-hop side of With Voices is "Drum Riders." I don't remember Brother J ever sounding this good. Of course, it could be the production. Niño and Ammon approach hip-hop production with a perfect simplicity. There's never too much of anything. Vibes echo a simple bass here and the combination sets things off.
Moving away from the hip-hop feel of the record, "Earth's Children" forced me to re-recognize the talent of Mia Doi Todd. I use to check her records when I was in college, but then I lost track somewhere along the line. The vaguely atmospheric feel that Ammoncontact indulge in at various points of the album is perfectly matched to what Mia does naturally. I would love to hear this collaboration expanded to album length. Then again, I can say that for most of the collaborations on With Voices. For a production project, that might be the highest possible praise.
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