Album Review: V/A - The Real Thing (Mind)

Writer: John Armstrong

Mind Records is the new brainchild of former Comet A&R man Manu Boubli and Paris remixmeister Doctor L. After an encouraging start with an imaginary rare-groove compilation (Rare Moods) and a well-received debut solo-artist set (Psycho On Da Bus), the label notches up a gear for this eclectic and satisfying foray through a variety of downbeat moods, from Cubano (Waiting For El Sun, featuring Orishas) through broken (Roldan Gonzalez Rivero), blues (Rare Mood’s Warm Up For A Second), loft jazz/spoken word (Dom Farkas, Omar Sosa), and Bugz-type brukbeat (Dom Farkas again, Da Linck). The one familiar cut will be the Doctor L rework of last year’s David Murray underground jazz hit Gwotet, a milestone of a composition that takes up where tenorist John Stubblefield left off two decades ago, with the creative combination of African American jazz and Guadeloupian gwo-ka drumming traditions.

The fourteen tracks here are not immediately accessible, but that’s what they said twelve years ago when Mo’Wax Records hit the scene, and look how that sound has now become an indivisible part of modern music’s lexicon. Play this more than twice or three times, and the hidden treasures will begin to reveal themselves – that’s a promise.

RELATED LINKS:
Mind Records - label for The Real Thing



Buy The Real Thing at Amazon UK (CD)



PUBLISHED: 6 June 2005

RELEASE DATE: 9 May 2005 (UK)

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