....sigh... i don't get it.
z funk | portland, OR | 12/31/2004
(2 out of 5 stars)
"ya know, im writing this review at 2:30 in the morning, and i found that in my comatose state it's easier to write about this and express my true sadness. I really and truly am sad about this album. I wanted so badly to like it, but when listening, it really isn't very good. Cam decides to bring out his turntables for some scratching... maybe not a great idea. i have to agree with a fellow reviewer, he's not the best of scratchers. Someone of his reputation could have gotten someone like kid koala, wouldn't you think? The beats sound too generic, too flat, there's not enough substance. The scratching is boring, the music just isn't cam. It's supposed to be like old school cam but it's not, it's just bad. Look at albums like the french connection and mad blunted jazz (one of the best albums ever). Why can't he do something like that. Sadly, he seems to be digressing. But perhaps this is just a sign he's on his way back to creating good musc. Soulshine was just odd. it wasn't cam, but if you look at it like its a different artist altogether, its actually pretty good. But this really isn't very good, its too repetitive, not really jazzy. It just really doesn't seem like cam, or how he used to be. and maybe its just me, but, doesn't the sound of the street sound an awful lot like "skilz" by gangstarr? but i don't know, maybe i'm just dissapointed because this is cam, the greatest french dj to walk the earth. If you looked at this from another perspective such as... it's not dj cam, it's good, but i think he could do so much better. so sorry,"
Liquid Hip-Hop
Mike Newmark | Tarzana, CA United States | 12/17/2004
(2 out of 5 stars)
"A grainy, black and white self-developed photograph of a rain soaked metropolitan boulevard and a strutting pedestrian holding an umbrella. The cover art says it all: a chilled mood, a little hip-hop grime and an artsy swagger...this is DJ Cam's return to the beats-and-bliss, jazz-inflected hip hop he's been tweaking since his 1994 debut. A move like this can only be seen as positive, since Cam's career has slid downward with his smoother-than-smooth approach that Loa Project Vol. 1 suggested and Soulshine flat-out screamed (leaving longtime fans scratching their heads in its wake). Here, Cam squelches the fake jazz and turns up the bass, the modal piano samples, and his best friend and partner in crime, the turntable. He's even got Guru and Jay Dee thrown in there, just in case anyone forgot that he's one of the most prominent musical forces this side of instrumental hip-hop.
So then, why is Liquid Hip-Hop still not a success? For one, it lacks the subtlety of his earliest work. Underground Vibes and Substances weren't speaker-blowing, but because they sounded confident hybridizing hip-hop beats and modal jazz, they packed more of a punch than anything in DJ Cam's catalog. The piano scales on "6th Sense," upright bass on "Premier" and trumpet on "Don Dada" all regress to the green fields of his early material, but everything seems louder, more bombastic, more exposed this time around. For another, along the same lines as what I mentioned before, there's simply too much. Too much sampling, too much attention to beatwork, too much glossy production. "6th Sense" starts out promisingly, with shimmering vibes and one of Cam's most strategic scratching techniques at the end of each phrase, but a little over a minute into the song and synth-strings and an idiotic female vocal sample invade and ruin everything. Cam has succeeded before in doing more with less, so an album that features him doing less with more can only be described as frustrating.
Finally, Liquid Hip-Hop has forced me to reconcile with one of the most dreaded skeletons in the closet I can think of: DJ Cam isn't a very good turntablist. He's not horrible, but with such bright stars as Rob Swift and Kid Koala rapidly taking over the scene, Cam needs to either inject some charisma into his scratching or back off of it altogether. The "wickey-wahs" once provided auxiliary accents to Cam's production, but on Liquid Hip-Hop they're the main attraction, yielding some awkward results the great majority of the time. (Look no further than the confused, overwrought "Kalimba Groove" for validation.)
Cam's latest offering can hardly be deemed a disaster, but only because it's not a failed departure and is instead an extension of his tried-and-true methods that falls flat nine times out of ten. Returning to his jazz-hop roots was a step in the right direction, but now that he knows what he wants, he still has a ways to go before he figures out how to execute it. Fortunately, that shouldn't be too difficult; after all, Cam got it right the first few times. Here's to hoping that he someday reverts his eyes backward instead of blindingly ahead.
"
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1