reviews
The Misled Children Meet Odean Pope
Odean Pope’s musical compatibility with the instrumental hip-hop aggregate The Misled Children isn’t as precarious as it might sound at first mention. His four-album sojourn as a member of the Seventies fusion band Catalyst and a pair of later trio platters for the Moers imprint all have their share of heavy grooves as responsive contexts for his horns. Pope’s hard-edged tenor shears through the duo’s syncopated rhythms, contributing an emotional urgency that enhances the context and serves as a buffer against stylistic stasis. His advanced arranger’s touch also comes in handy in hatching the horn parts that glide over the succession of breakbeat architectures cobbled mainly from keyboards and drums.
The collaborators wisely keep the cuts concise and the choice for brevity works their favor. Segues are for the most part hitch-free and the album has an overarching medley feel as beat patterns bubble up and recede. A small cadre of musicians earns credit as providers of “musical input”, but the absence of specifics also emphasizes the project’s grounding in ego-erasing collaboration. It’s the holistic constructions that deserve consideration, not the minutiae of who is doing what and when. Track titles reveal little in the way of explicit meaning either, but their ambiguity is hardly a minus with the music speaking perfectly fine on its own.
“Foregone” brings tight funk that unfurls into the expansive ambient textures of the soprano-driven “Grimey”. “Misled Kid” almost sounds like an archival Ethiopiques outtake in its highly Africanized amalgam of minor key horn riffs and dark-hued processional percussion. Such transitions feel organic rather than forced or canned, the vocalized muscle undergirding Pope’s blowing complementing the spongy resiliency of the surrounding rhythms. It’s a relatively short trip, but one that invites immediate replay and seems custom-suited for both individual ear goggle and speaker-fed group consumption.
~ Derek Taylor
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Points of Interest
Shit Derek, you beat me to it!
I like this record.
Hah! It’s rare, but it happens sometimes. ;-)
There’s a “fresh produce” feel to the beats on this one that beats out the usual “canned peas” style standard for commercial hip-hop.
I dunno, I’m just listening to this one now - for the first time - and it sounds a bit sort of.. tired. Much prefer the trio with Sunny Murray and Lee Smith. But I’m going through my Odean discs after reading Cliff’s interview with Joe Giardullo I posted last month at the other place.
Dan, if you haven’t heard it, Odean’s Serenity on CIMPoL is one to check out.
Nope, haven’t got that - those Cadence / CIMPs aren’t all that easy to find this side of the pond.
Thanks for the info, anyway Derek.