That's a great post Kent - I'll have to check out the album myself! cheers
Jason On 2 January 2012 16:31, kent williams <[email protected]> wrote: > This fall I was contacted by Kalle from Yore with news about the new > Andy Vaz album "Straight Vacationing." I liked this album quite a bit, > played a track on my radio show, and then was distracted by other > music coming through the promo feed* > > Then, the other day Mr. Vaz e-mailed me out of the blue to ask me > about how I felt about the record. I'm enough of a fanboy to still > get a charge out of talking to artists I admire, but his e-mail > prompted me to go back and listen to the record again. And I think > that it's definitely an album with a lot of depth, and a unique take > on Detroit-influenced techno. The lead track is called "Detroit In > Me," after all. > > Over the past couple years in Europe, using Detroit as a marketing > come-on has become more common -- often from producers whose music has > little to do with Detroit Techno. 'Detroit' as an empty signifier > apparently has some sort of cachet, but anyone who actually cares > about Detroit and it's music should be offended by it. Too many people > worked too hard for too long in Detroit to make something special, and > slapping 'Detroit' on your music because you want some of the cool to > rub off is dishonest and Insulting. > > That's not what Andy Vaz is about. If you listen to "Detroit In Me" > you can definitely get a Detroit vibe, but there's something > idiosyncratic and unusual about how Vaz puts the track together. > There's so many different elements -- a burbling acid line, deep house > piano, and the sustained jazzy chords, the vocal sample -- that get > woven together. A lesser producer would end up with a busy, > incoherent mess, but in Vaz's hands, it all hangs together. > > And it's well worth looking for the download release for the remixes > by Alton Miller, Rick Wade, Patrice Scott, and others (mostly people > who Vaz has released records by on Yore) solidify the authentic > connection Vaz has to the Detroit music scene. > > But this is not some sort of slavish imitation of the stylistic > identifiers of Detroit music. Vaz is full of musical ideas, and > doesn't limit himself to the safe bounds of techno or deep house. > What makes this record good is the way he is able to balance and > overlap many elements in each track, and get them to mesh into > something organic, warm, and always dancey. Yes, Vaz loves Detroit, > and with his label Yore he's sought out some of Detroit's best > musicians to release new music. But he's also has his own musical > ideas, and the way he blends his influences with them is what keeps > "Straight Vacationing" vital and interesting.
