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(Camobear Records)
Halifax, Canada-based MC Josh Martinez’s ‘Buck Up Princess’ album of last year released through the Cocteau Twins’ Bella Union label (curiously enough) made significant ripples on the US independent hiphop scene, but in reality ‘Buck Up Princess’ was actually Martinez’s fourth artist album, being the latest instalment in a prolific studio and live performance schedule that started in 1998 with the independent release of his debut ‘Maximum Wellbeing EP’. After two more releases (1999’s ‘Josh Martinez and the Hooded Fang’ and 2001’s ‘Made In China’) Martinez formed his own label Camobear Records, at the same time somehow fitting time to record around a prolific touring schedule that’s seen him perform as support act to the likes of Sage Francis, Sole and Aceyalone. This latest fifth album ‘Midriff Music’ sees Martinez combining his lyrical skills with the turntable and beat production talents of California-based DJ Samix (of Lost & Found Generation), and although Josh initially arranged to meet Samix at an LA show, the collaboration took the form of remote correspondence, the two sending CDs and files back and forth through the post and email.
Opening track ‘Intro’ sets the predominantly laidback and good humoured, easy tone for the album, with Martinez’s lazily-rapped “This is the intro to my album / read the info on the artwork / there’ll be a barcode and a logo / and it’ll tell you how to reach me’ opening giving way to a backdrop of vaguely DJ Premier-meets Format styled downbeats, howling blues guitar samples adding a slightly melancholic vibe to the blunted-out beats and turntable spinbacks that also recalls Everlast’s countryfied Southern hiphop. ‘Cheers’ captures Martinez in a contemplative mood, musing on “What’s stopping you from dropping me’ over a warm fluid backdrop of looped beats and flute samples that calls to mind Paul’s Boutique-era Dust Brothers (“you see I used to steal kisses and now I give them back”), before ‘Regular Day’ lightens up the vibe, with an airy funk guitar loop, clunky-sounding MPC beats and rich warm bass sitting snugly under Martinez’s lyrics as he switches from rhymed verses to gently-sung sun-tinged pop chorus that almost harks back to the Daisy Age. ‘Tranzar’ emerges from what almost sounds like a Godfather sample into clicking low-slung hiphop beats, showcasing Samix’s lush production and deft sense of beat science in a instrumental moment, as feathery flamenco-styled guitars curve their way around the head-nod smoky beats and filmic samples of what sound like ‘Carlito’s Way’-esque gangsters flit around the rhythms.
‘Come And Gone’ offers one of the most immediately-catchy moments on this album, Martinez’s rhymes riding over a backdrop of boom-bap hiphop beats and Philly Soul keyboard fills and sampled horn swells, Martinez’s vocals dropping out completely during the chorus in place of a curiously sped-up female soul sample that squeals “another day has come and gone” in the most blues-forlorn way against the broad, rich horns and loping beats, while ‘Tour Is War’ recounts the emotional and physical rigours of life on the road, a curiously-phased acoustic guitar twinkling it’s way below Martinez’s sung refrain of “I don’t know much, but I know what’s sure / what goes on tour stays on tour.” ‘Time Alone’ offers a lush melancholic and downbeat instrumental moment, with a sample of a woman saying “I haven’t met all that many happy people in my life” as bluesy guitars and shimmering organs rise up around a beat that sits somewhere between RJD2 and Guru, graceful pianos tinkling their way around the dry cracking hi-hats and Southern-tinged downbeat ambience. ‘Played Out’ shows Martinez trading rapid verses with Kunga 219 over a bleeping electro-infused backdrop of bright-sounding synths and clicking drum machine beats while turntables scrub back and forth around a curious looped female sample that adds a vague disco vibe to proceedings in one of this album’s most stellar moments, before ‘Nightmare Rmx’ takes things to a close, Samix relinquishing the production seat to Aalo Guha, who lays down a lush downbeat landscape of gentle pianos, clicking beats and rich bass underneath Martinez’s lazily resigned-sounding rhymes (“Can’t see the clouds for the rain”).
‘Midriff Music’ is an excellent album that shows Martinez’s lyrical skills merging smoothly with Samix’s formidable downbeat beat science, resulting in a collaboration so fluid that if I hadn’t read it in the bio, I probably wouldn’t have guessed that the two had never actually occupied the same studio during its creation. Most of all, it’s the abiding tone of the lyrical and instrumental elements here that merges perfectly, with Samix’s warm Southern blues-inflected beats and funk / soul samples providing the perfect rhythmic backdrop to Martinez’s easy-going, self-effacing persona – he sounds like the archetypal ‘regular guy who’s just trying to get by’ and you’d share the last beer you had in the fridge with him if he came over to your crib. Fiercely competant laidback hiphop that at times carries the ghost of older Daisy Age-era beats amongst the tracks here – fans of the likes of DJ Format and Premier should definitely check out ‘Midriff Music.’
Check out www.joshmartinez.ca and http://www.camobear.ca.
