Antipop Consortium - Antipop vs. Matthew Shipp
(Thirsty Ear)
The idea behind this album is a intriguing though: for jazz to evolve it must embrace other forms of music, specifically in this case hip-hop. It's not a revolutionary idea; this is obviously the way most art moves forward in the absence of an entirely new way to create it, that is, new art is made through the cross-pollination and re-contextualization of older forms until someone comes along and completely reinvents the creative process. However, while not being earth-shaking, or really, even new...didn't Miles Davis work under this idea?...it is interesting nonetheless, especially since jazz, as an evolving art form doesn't seem like it's done anything new since the inception of free jazz. Mind you that's just an amateur's opinion, so please don't take it too seriously, but I just haven't seen a lot of newer jazz that isn't radically different from 40 years ago. Once again though, amateur, still discovering things, so take these comments with a grain of salt.
In regards to Antipop vs. Matthew Shipp though, my problem is that musically, it barely even gets to the point of free jazz. Most of the piano pieces sound like, and I kid you not, cocktail hour jazz. It's like the hors d'oeuvres part of the reception after my sister's Bat Mitzvah—inoffensive bass and piano jazz, the kind of stuff that rich people listen to—and it just doesn't grab me at all. There are a few exceptions: the beginning of "Pieces I've Never Been", the modern composition "Stream Light" and the madness of "Free Hop" seem, while not inspired, at least are a lot more interesting than everything else.
One would expect Antipop Consortium to make up for Shipp's contribution though, his pieces plateauing somewhere around old standard territory; however, they don't bring their A-game to the album either. The rhymes are interesting enough, the kind of stuff you expect out of them and from abstract hip-hop, but it just doesn't seem up to the level of what they've done in the past, and seeing how this is their last album, it is disappointing that they went out on a down note. The worst thing about this album though, is that my expectations were so much higher and then listening to it, I was just dissatisfied. I guess I wanted some mind-blowing mixture of hip hop and jazz, which is maybe a tad unrealistic, but this album was never gripping enough to reach more than background music status for me (um, with the exception of having to listen to it intently to review it...).
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