DJ-Kicks
Nightmares on Wax's DJ Ease is best known for producing a pacific (even come-down) version of hip-hop or downtempo music. Compiling and mixing this album for the DJ Kicks series (which has included rapturously received collections fromStereo MCsandKruder & Dorfmeister), he presents a subtle mix that moves from hazy breakbeat jazz into left-field, modern (and politically correct) U.K. and U.S. hip-hop. Using material from Mo'Wax (the high-velocity delivery of Blackalicious), A Tribe Called Quest, New York's Kenny Dope, and Manchester's Grand Central, Ease scratches and fuses an expert selection of alt-hip-hop. At times he layers tunes which themselves sample other tunes to create a complex mesh of meaning and reference. He also includes a couple of his own productions and narcissistic sound-alikes (DJ Trax's "This Place" is more N.O.W. than N.O.W.). "Overall Ease" journeys from serious music toward the light--he finishes, exultantly, with disco-inflected work from Deadbeats and Syrup. Going out on a high note.--Tony Marcus