kza: dig & edit 2

Together with his buddy DJ Kent, the Japanese producer and ardent record collector KZA made music history. Under the name Force Of Nature the two friends from Tokyo created a rich oeuvre of fresh music using their extensive vinyl collection. Besides their own work, they produced and remixed artists such as DJ Shadow, Five Deez, Sly Mongoose, and Keiichi Sokabe. KZA, who started his career as a hip-hop and funk/soul DJ, released a solo album and a string of highly-acclaimed 12" EPs on Endless Flight. Now he is ready to release his second solo album Dig & Edit 2 -- an album whose title says a lot about the production itself. Like Dig And Edit, KZA used a voluminous record collection and his highly developed listening ability to shape these unique, sample-based arrangements. He went through his vinyl library with new eyes and ears between midnight and morning, searching for miscellaneous rhythms, harmonies, and melodies that he could turn into something fresh and singular. As he is in love with loops and was trained through the work of sample grandmasters such as Pete Rock, Large Professor, and Marley Marl, he knows exactly where to cut and edit -- a skill that keeps his music from sounding like a conventional edit production. With plenty of studio artifice, the help of his friend Kuniyuki, and some super tight additional bass and rhythm programming, he produced tracks that gently sway between breezy disco fever, laid-back Balearian slow-mo emotions, and high-flying house attacks. Each of them is full of sensual grooves and is charged with catchy folk, rock, disco, and library samples whose origin can only be deciphered by those who dig records as deep as KZA does. Of course, listeners who aren't into record digging will find plenty of pleasure here, too, because it is not necessary to know which mysterious source KZA has used to make his music. One can easily be carried away by his arrangements without thinking about where they originated. Some of the tracks evoke the feeling of a sweaty disco night, some feed hungry house floors with real deep fodder, and others are ready to function as sunset soundtracks wherever the sun goes down.