In experimental music, a lack of formal training is usually less a liability than a badge of honor. Not knowing exactly what you're doing, or claiming you don't, opens up new worlds of possibility, whether you are John Cage studiously applying thumbtacks to piano strings or George Crumb dipping cymbals in water. Dutch artist Jameszoo, aka Mitchel Van Dinther, calls his debut album Fool a collection of “naive, computer jazz," but while he may be untrained as a performer of jazz, he’s no naif as an artist, establishing himself clearly in the tradition of creative, mischievous tinkerers who sometimes hide behind the tag of “naive” as a means of avoiding heavier scrutiny.
Fool is the latest release by Brainfeeder, the label founded in 2008 by Warp’s experimental savant Flying Lotus, whose stated goal for the label was to “do the leftfield stuff no one else wants to do in the beat-driven world.” Since then, Brainfeeder has been home to a great number of warm, wonderful and weird records, some of which has been awesome and inspiring and others which were not. It’s clear from first listen that Fool too is without doubt an “out there” disc, both in the most literal and clichéd ideas of the term. Not only does the record burst at the seams with ideas, but nearly each song does so, with each of the free-flowing tracks careening internally from moments of austere beauty to jazzy breakdowns, to burbling bleeps and blaps and even Pierre Boulez-style musique concrete. It’s a lot of ideas and sounds to cram into a 43 minute record in general, made only a little bit easier to digest by the fact that there are hardly discernible pauses between most of the eleven tracks.
Despite the clutter, there are a number of moments on Fool where everything clicks, in particular the album’s bookends. Opener “Flake” begins with traditional IDM electronic/synth tones that belie the rest of the record’s feel, before falling away to a startling hybrid of G-Funk and chiptune. The beautiful noise here hearkens back to some of the more effervescent and fun experimental electronic music of the late '90s and early 2000 (Plone and early Jamie Lidell in particular come to mind). Closer “Teeth” starts slowly from a lovely interplay of reverbed organ and bass underneath some creaking metal sounds and a soaring violin, before building to a sort of tiny toy orgasm, similar to (but shorter and humbler than) the climax of Daft Punk’s “Contact” from Random Access Memories*—*and all in two-and-a-half minutes. It's the most focused track on the record, and perhaps not coincidentally the shortest.
There are other great moments on Fool as well, though Van Dinther’s haphazard compositional style means the record seesaws frequently from the sublime to the mundane, and vice versa. “Lose” follows the killer “Flake” intro but loses its momentum with what sounds like a synthetic orchestra tuning up. However after two-and-a-half minutes of dithering, the noise suddenly builds and breaks way to a gorgeous and alluring melody. The synths continue bleating but the melodic underpinnings take what were tedious sounds and turn it all into something worth remembering. Penultimate number “Toots” is structured similarly, with a warm church organ penetrating 3 minutes in, turning unfocused chirps into something powerful and direct.
Two other tracks of note on Fool feature noteworthy albeit obscure guests: “The Zoo,” featuring undersung '70s jazzbo Steve Kuhn and “Flu” featuring Brazilian bossa nova player Arthur Verocai. The former is a bit of a Take 2 on Kuhn’s original “Pearlie’s Swine” from his 1971 self-titled record, featuring a similar musical approach and with Kuhn repeating some of the spoke-sung lyrics from that song. Despite a nice and very Arthur Russell-esque electric cello intro, “The Zoo” is one of Fool’s most straight-forward jazz tracks, with some lovely vibraphones and mellifluous bass from Brainfeeder staple artist Thundercat. But for this reason it’s also less experimental, and comes off as a lesser version of the jazz which it apes. And unlike “Zoo,” which channels Kuhn directly, “Flu” seems like another Jameszoo fusion except two brief and pretty 20 second bursts of Verocai’s samba guitar in the middle of the song. But after each of the 20 second parts, the guitar disappears and the fusion returns, making Verocai’s contributions seem to be swallowed up by the earth.
Jameszoo's work is strongest when he tones down the overt jazz and instead parses the genre for specific sounds and ideas to embellish his electronic experimentations. It’s easy to imagine how a creative, introspective artist like Van Dinther might be able to harness his ample curiosity and ability in the future, but for now, a lack of focus keeps him grounded. Hopefully next time he gets there.
