(Compost/Creative Vibes)

Best known as one-half of UK-based future-jazz / broken beat house duo Modaji, Dominic Jacobson has built a sterling reputation amongst the European and Japanese nu-jazz scenes through his work as a member of Restless Soul, as well as support from the likes of Bugz In The Attic, Gilles Peterson and Ashley Beedle. This third album released by Jacobson under his Harvey Lindo pseudonym follows on the heels of the collapse of his ill-fated Super8 label, an event that effectively left Modaji without a home, and which resulted in the UK producer taking his music abroad – in this case, to Japan. Originally released in Japan only last June through local imprint Planetgroove, this wider release through Compost represents a much-needed opportunity for this latest excellent solo effort from Jacobson the reach the larger audience base it richly deserves. For many listeners accustomed to Jacobson’s jazzy broken-beat output as one-half of Modaji, the contents of ‘Kid Gloves’ are also likely to come across as quite a surprise, with this album leaning directly towards smooth downbeat hiphop, fronted by a selection of lesser known vocalists, including Maspyke’s Tableek & Harif, Count Bass D and Lacks.

Opening track ‘Tomorrow’s World’ kicks things off on a smooth tip, Lacks’ bleak rhymes slowly emerging from shimmering vocal processing and curiously phased / reversed instrumental samples as dry cracking hiphop beats lock down beneath a swirling, vaguely blues-tinged backdrop of samples that calls to mind ‘Deadringer’-period RJD2. In this case, Lack’s melancholy subject matter and the borderline-eerie combination of sampled soul vocals, swirling pianos and droning ambience results in a highly emotive fusion as a well as a spectacular first offering that bodes well for the rest of this record. Phillippa Alexander’s sweet soul vocal on the crunked-up and laidback ‘Lifeforce’ takes things into sunny melodic territory similar to a more angular, bass-heavy take on David Holmes’ Free Association or Nightmares On Wax, gently chiming guitars rippling against snapping hiphop breaks and subtle scratching, before ‘Rugged Individuals’ places Count Bass D’s deep baritone MC vocals over a curiously swinging backing of tumbling pianos, jazzy double-bass runs and snapping hiphop beats that veers directly into jazz-scat flow, courtesy of a curiously Count Basie-esque vocal sample that drops in during the chorus hook. The hilarious ‘Miller’s Lattice’ by comparison represents an excellent instrumental segue that lifts a sample that I guessed might have come from ‘Repo Man’ of a guy talking about “the lattice of coincidence that lies on top of everything” as well as the apparent fact that “the more you, drive, the less intelligent you get – that’s why I don’t drive, see”, as slow G-Stone-esque hiphop beats, echoing samples and funky clavinet runs get their groove on in the background.

‘This Lonely Girl’ represents one of this record’s most deeply atmospheric highlight moments, with Maspyke’s Roddy Rod’s verbal flow detailing the story of a young girl’s descent into despair as she’s taken advantage of and then left with a child over darkly noir-ish funk guitar bends and cracking snare hits, Rod’s stiff MC flow shifting unexpectedly into smooth soul croon, in one of this album’s more RNB-tinged moments that still carries a perceptible hiphop boom in its stride, before Kat Johnson’s literate verbal assault on political ignorance on the delicate ‘The Times’ calls to mind Ursula Rucker’s conscious Philly hiphop-soul given a Latino twist over snapping programmed rhythms and glinting, multilayered flamenco guitars. ‘A Slow Decay’ throws the more overt hiphop influences back to the fore, with Maspyke’s Tableek & Hanif rapidly trading verses aimed squarely at complacent commercial labels over a low-slung hiphop backing that sits somewhere between swinging G-funk (courtesy of a vaguely Dre-esque distorted synth bassline) and the sort of distorted wall-of-sound samplecrash unleashed by the likes of Def Jux. Finally, glittering instrumental ‘Kalima’ takes things out suitably on an epic downbeat nu-jazz wander that carries more than a hint of samba in its flickering programmed snares, rich, melancholy horns and synth drones gliding against icy xylophones.

‘Kid Gloves’ represents a stunning third album from Dominic Jacobson under his Harvey Lindo persona that thankfully is now enjoying a much deserved wider release thanks to the good folk at Compost – in this case, some clearly astute A&R work has saved one of this year’s most promising downbeat hiphop releases from being heard by only a select few. Beautifully conceived and based around a close circle of underground vocalists rather than big names, fans of the likes of Nightmares On Wax, RJD2 and DJ Mitsu The Beats certainly have a treat in store for them.

Check out http://www.planetgroove.jp and http://www.compost-records.com.