File under HBA (Hip-hop By Association). The syllogism goes: Stones Throw is a hip-hop label. Koushik Ghosh is on Stones Throw. Therefore, Koushik is hip-hop. Seems cogent enough. But let me tell you, friend-- this doesn't sound much like hip-hop to me. Koushik doesn't rap; he breathily sings, and Be With is more about gauzy collages of ephemeral melodies than hot beats. But, hey, it's on Stones Throw, got to be hip-hop. Genres are tricky like that. Cex made hip-hop safe for Radiohead fans by pretending it was indie rock. If Stones Throw signed Coldplay, would they then become hip-hop? It's a side issue anyway; let's paddle back to shallow waters before it gets any metaphysicaler up in here...
Be With collects three vinyl EPs onto one compact disc: Not so hot for DJs, but top-slot for casual listeners. The first four tracks on the album are taken from an upcoming twelve-inch EP of the same name. The middle tracks are from Koushik's 2003 Stones Throw debut, One in a Day, and the final four are from his 2001 Text Records seven-inch, Battle Times.
Koushik is a talented producer who's crafted remixes for high profile friends like Four Tet and Manitoba. He cobbles together frugal astral jazz, gentle funk, and 60s pop and folk using an array of keyboards and samplers-- and it's nice. But it frequently fails to transcend nice, leaving behind a scanty impression. Thus does this amalgam of temporally diverse EPs wind up weirdly blank in its total effect. It stretches out in a long, foggy procession of pleasant monotony-- soothing yet mundane aural wallpaper.
That said, Koushik's newest material is his strongest, and one understands that the first two EPs were the product of a nascent musician finding his feet. They're spotty, but the third is consistently engaging, beginning with the title track, which reveals Koushik's favorite suspension: Hip-hop drums, a funk bass line, poppy acoustic guitar, jazzy melodic trills and sighing vocals (My Bloody Valentine type shit y'all). The brief "Homage" is more typical IDM fare, but displays Koushik's knack for pairing charming melodies with assertive, variegated drum patterns to good effect. And "Pretty Soon" begins as a pretty standard folk song (a pretty bleak one at that: "Pretty soon I'll be ready to die", Koushik sings in his monochromatic lilt), but quickly accumulates clattering sound effects that conceal this traditional core.
The two earlier EPs hold to this formula, but tend to be heavier on drone and lighter on detail: Koushik had yet to achieve the clarity of vision evinced by the new material, and the songs blur one into the next without his current aptitude for effectively juxtaposing soft and hard sounds. But there are still bright, flashing instances amid the filler, and it has to be mentioned that the album's most exciting song is from the first EP-- "Battle Rhymes for Battle Times". The track is brocaded with screwball raygun zaps, brassy jazz embellishments, one of Koushik's least tedious vocal performances, and absolutely explosive drums, making the meandering Bitch's Brewisms of the following song, "Younger Than Today Part 1", more frustrating. Koushik is hit-or-miss, but his misses aren't disagreeable-- they're simply lackluster. The progression of these EPs shows him tipping toward the hit side of the equation, and I expect Koushik will continue to refine his strengths and downplay his weaknesses on future recordings.
