Like the intro to a books-and-CD language course, spoken welcomes and a quirky sample of musical culture on 'Solid Steel Intro' introduces the listener to the world of noughties' mixtapes in this seventh outing in the much-respected Solid Steel series. Hosted by and featuring southern Briton Bonobo, it not only fixes its gaze on the latest fusions of cultural and 'ethnic' musics with urban-universal rhythm fetishism, but also showcases the hotbed of broken beats generation that is Brighton.
See famous contributions by Diesler, the Karminsky Experience, Flevans and Black Grass for more. An hour's worth of music from 20 tracks means many only feature for a minute or two, bass-drum thuds underscoring throughout. The grimy Afrobeat of I-wolf and DJ Collage's Belgradeyard Sound System 'Munchies' remix is the hardest of the lot, cushioned as it merges with Paul Murphy's abstract, jazzy 'Soul Call', before the whole affair simply starts begging to be put to pod as 'in-flight music'.
The large goodness of King Seven's 'Hidden' carries on with Bonobo's own 'Recurring', and 'Change Down' (fused to 'The Sugar Rhyme'), which features a bit of double-bass and thus a jazz hint that in turn feeds into the vibed-out, spoken 'Introduction' to the symbolism of next-stage astrology with Nat Adderley on trumpet and mic.
There is a gripe: Jazz Juice's key sample of a classic Jobim tune on 'Morra Bossa' departs from the flow and relative grace around it and is naggingly repetitive. But you can live with it, and for the rest 'It Came from the Sea' is supple, full-bodied listening that seamlessly shifts between solid beats-based grooves and broader, airier tableaux with an ambient lean.
~Tor Solberg
8.
