Search - Kyoto Jazz Massive :: BY KJM

Hat Trick Complete!

bordersj2 | Boston | 10/27/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First there was RE: KJM and For: KJM, two albums simultaneously released (red and white covered) that had Kyoto Jazz Massive songs remixed by soem of the very best artists in broken beats/nu-jazz/nu-soul genre; along with For: KJM which was a five star effort with tremendous cuts, most of which exclusives at the time, with beats & melodies that would make any musician proud. Rounding out the hat-trick of cd's is the black covered "BY: KJM", a set of 11 tracks that are ALL remixed works by Kyoto Jazz Massive. Being a HUGE KJM fan since back in the day (especially when they had the incredibly sexy woman on the cover of an album), there was no way in the world I couldn't check this out!



How does this one stack up in the 3 disc series? Pretty darn good! They mix and cross-fade most of these tracks into one another with relative easy and most of the cuts have this sweet jazz touch along with hints of the perfect KJM production and percussion lines that I've come to not only enjoy but respect. I'd love to talk about all the cuts but will cut it to some of the highlights. This one starts out with Eddie Henderson's "Kudu" - feel the soul, the voice and the beat with this powerful track! Incognito follows up with "Where Love Shines", given the nice smooth vibe laced with nu-jazz and those strong vocals again. Other highlights were "Feel My Love" by Susumu Yokota, their classic remix to Jazzanova's monster cut "Fedime's Flight", a percussion laced remix in typical KJM fashion to Nicola Conte's "The In Samba", a dreamy nightlife twinged remake to Soul Bossa Trio's "Hope". The others??? Pretty darn good as well... like "Agua De beber" by Sandra Cross or how about Ananda Project's "Bahia"?



I certainly recommend this one. Being a KJM fan, no doubt, I'm biased. But to be honest I was first pulled to their sound when I heard one of their remixes - to "Sob O Mar", a beautiful song by Jaime Alem and Nair which oddly enough isn't featured and is one of the only noticeable omissions to the album. And this isn't by any means all of KJM's remixes that they've put out in their 10 years of spinning, club-leading and collaborations. One suggestion I have is to listen to this on a good stereo, and listen to it all the way through... I actually wasn't as drawn into this when I skipped through the songs but when I just sat and listened on a nice system, this album grew on me by leaps and bounds. If you like this, of course I recommend the other two pieces for their music tribute, their "Fueled For the Future" set on Compost, their "Crossbreed" series, "Bossa Tres... Jazz" series and work by Sleepwalker, Hajime Yoshizawa, Jazzanova, Truby Trio, Lava, Amon Tobin, Gilles Peterson, Povo and Nicola Conte among several others.



And... like the other two, the linear notes are in Kanji. But unlike the other two, it's not retailed on Amazon at $50.00... and you can generally find it far cheaper than the price listed here too."