Although the immense artistic success of
DJ Shadow
and
Tricky
in the mid-'90s should have sparked a creative powder keg among independent-minded
hip-hop
producers, most of those who followed were either uninspired or rather over-inspired (i.e., slavish).
Diplo
, a Philadelphian by way of Mississippi and Florida, does much better than most with his debut record for Britain's
Big Dada
, although he also shows he's learned the lessons of the past rather too well.
Florida
is definitely an ambitious album, one that finds him not just attempting to take over
Shadow
's considerable mantle, but trying to be all things to a variety of
dance
genres --
rap
,
trip-hop
, even
dancehall
.
"Big Lost"
"Sarah"
are the
vehicles, both featuring rugged breakbeats layered underneath a melange of violins and organ (on the former) and a guitar flameout with evocative
Peanuts
-style piano accompaniment (on the latter).
then conjures a warped
pop
arrangement as a vehicle for former
ingenue
Martina Topley-Bird
on the fourth track, but begins stretching out soon afterward with features for
production phenom
Vybz Kartel
Freestyle Fellowship
's
P.E.A.C.E.
Near the end,
's production finesse reaches epic proportions with the nearly nine-minute
"Summer's Gonna Hurt You,"
a moody set piece of seasonal
wouldn't allow a few of these all-too-traceable samples onto a record of his, but overall
does his job very well. After all, it's dead easy to sample obscure records, but very difficult to make them sound evocative. ~ John Bush