New Music

It’s great. Get it. And boys, on the next one, we await your Slayer-influenced version of “Elusive Butterfly” like a born-againer awaits the Rapture. (Johnny Angel)

YESTERDAY’S NEW QUINTET
Elle’s Theme EP (Stones Throw)

Music people the world over have cheered the buzz on Otis Jackson Jr. He’s Madlib, the one who stepped onto the stage at El Rey Theater next to a head-to-toe-suited blue-anteater-looking thing. It was the record-release party for Quasimoto — the above-mentioned creature as well as Madlib’s alter ego. Which made everybody wonder who Lord Quas really was. Maybe Madlib really isn’t Quasimoto, many pondered. And how did they get the rhymes to sync from the sped-up analog tapes used to give Quasimoto’s voice its high pitch? Doesn’t matter.

With the heat of Quasimoto’s first single, “Microphone Mathematics,” blazing underground radio, the words “produced by Madlib” began to be something to look for. Madlib had already made an impact with his Oxnard trio Lootpack. Being affiliated with the Likwit crew helped, but it was Madlib’s stoned, bobbing rhymes and lush sample-driven beats that made true listeners become faithful fans. And now it’s a true Madlib Invazion — that’s the name of his publishing and production company. In the retro interiors of the former Stones Throw house in Playa del Rey, Madlib and Peanut Butter Wolf sat and listened to hours of recordings of Yesterday’s New Quintet, yet another Madlib project, to pick songs for an upcoming LP. This process has probably ended by now; Stones Throw has relocated to Mount Washington, with the same decorating and with Madlib still nonstop recording. The one thing they did figure out was what should comprise an YNQ EP.

Many call this EP Sunrays, although the record is actually nameless, with four listed tracks: “Elle’s Theme,” “Rerev,” “Herbal Scent” and “Sunrays.” (Though if you were to go to stonesthrow.com, it would appear as the Elle’s Theme EP.) It’s just that “Sunrays” is the song that has the most going for it. Strings, vintage keys and an incredible broken-beat all stream while James Brown chants about taking some and leaving some. The charm of this project may not be felt by ears hung up on technique. It’s a project about hip-hop retracing and flipping styles from its roots, not about virtuosity. This record is funky, jazzy and all that. With Madlib’s ventures into playing vibes, bass, guitar, Rhodes and drums, the YNQ records are going to express the feelings of hip-hop in new ways. Yes, there are hip-hop bands, but not many producer/MC/DJs who are a one-man band. (Carlos Niño)