What do you get when you cross DJ Shadow, James Brown and A Tribe Called Quest? I’m not sure either, but if I had to guess I would say something like DJ Day’s ‘The Day Before’. DJ Day aka Damien Beebe started DJing in 1989 and putting out solid wax since 1999 from his hometown of Palm Springs. In his first full length release he provides us with a prelude to his second album by providing us with a back catalogue of his work including singles, remixes, Japan exclusives and unreleased tracks. Beebe scratches, transforms, scribbles and tears his way through Northern soul, classic hip hop, bad ass drum breaks and tickles the Fender Rhodes with a result that is an amazing amalgamation of sounds that are funky, soulful and all around cool.

The album opens up with the very Shadowesque ‘Four Hills’, melancholy strings sit across a funky set of beats expertly programmed. This album is far from gloomy with Beebe weighing in with such good time vibes as ‘A Place To Go’, cut up piano and an excellent vocal sample work incredibly well together. Through years of digging Beebe has accumulated a large range of breaks and beats, picking out the funkier ones for ‘What Planet What Station’ (instrumental). Coupling some hot breaks with car chase bass, funky scratching and classic hip hop samples he brings out one of the highlights that was previously only available on a promo 12”. The follow up release is also featured with ‘Gone Bad’; cool beats are combined with excellent use of the highly sampled soul artist Marlena Shaw’s ‘Liberation Conversation’.

Although a lot of the tracks feature samples of MCing, the only track to feature live performance is ‘Closer’, featuring the amazing vocal talents of Aloe Blacc. Sombre, haunting piano samples provide a beautiful canvas for Blacc’s laidback style of Mcing and singing. Beebe keeps the beats on a very subtle tip, allowing the crackles of the original records to come to the forefront resulting in an extremely rich sound. Beebe’s style runs deep across the spectrum, touching on Latin vibes in ‘Mo Horizons – Ay Y N’ama’ and ‘Lucien’. However, if turntablism is more your thing then you will love hearing Beebe in his element serving up the tasty cuts on ‘Close Your Eyes’ and the absolute scratch fest in his unnamed bonus tracks that is better hidden than most. It is worth the wait as he goes to town on an array of vocal cuts.

Possibly one of the funk/hip hop releases of the year, I have nothing but good things to say about this album, except for the length. Measuring in at under 45 minutes it really is all over too soon. I guess we will just have to wait for his full length to drop later this year. In a word: Fanfunkingtabulous.