March 23, 2005
Paris's DJ Cam Comes Correct on Liquid Hip-Hop
We've been listening to the new DJ Cam album "Liquid Hip Hop" a lot since we first took it for a spin over a month ago. We were in LA for a few days on a half-business, half-pleasure trip and had bulked up with a few CDs -- remember those? -- at the HEAR Store in Santa Monica so that we'd have some new music to play in the rental car. As soon we got back to New York City, we ripped the disc and put on our iPods and in out iTunes. Since then we've been playing DJ Cam's "Liquid Hip Hop" daily as we spend our days and nights running around Manhattan or tethered to our workstations.
Laurent Daumail is the real name behind the DJ Cam moniker. He's based in Paris and since the mid-1990's Cam has been turning out chilled-out abstract hip hop from what may what once have seemed the unlikeliest hip hop city. "Liquid Hip Hop" is mostly a collection of downtempo tunes with a sophisticated, cool twist that relies on funk and jazz samples and upbeat ol' school-meets-new school flavored beats that will keep your head bobbing side to side, to and fro, up and down for nearly forty minutes.
Like works by other abstract hip hop artists, such as DJ Shadow and DJ Krush, "Liquid Hip Hop" is mostly instrumental but has a couple of rap tracks on it, including a solid, respectable MCing appearance from Guru on the excellent "Espionage" remix. Cameo and J Dilla weigh in with rhymes on "Love Junkee."
But DJ Cam is the real star. His delicate art of the mix and encyclopedic hip hop aesthetic make "Liquid Hip Hop" one of our most played and beloved discs in months, if not years. DJ Cam, wherever you are, "Felicitation" and respect! "Liquid Hip Hop" is another beautiful piece of hip hop artistry.
RELATED LINKS
DJ Cam Biography [Radio France International]
Posted by Robsam at March 23, 2005 10:17 PM
