Pitchfork: El-P To Release Collaboration With Thirsty Ear's Blue Series Continuum

El-P To Release Collaboration With Thirsty Ear's Blue Series Continuum
Obvious attempt to stir up some kind of east-coast-west-coast thing with Norah Jones

[Updated Wednesday, February 4th, 2004 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Perhaps producing hip-hop records day in and day out is a tad stifling. Even when your work takes place in the forward-thinking context of Definitive Jux Records, it's a fairly safe argument to make that genre-normality and the undeniable mores of hip-hop can get in the way of creative expression. Hell, look at Ice-T. Tossing gnarled synth lines and old soul samples over hackneyed beats drove him to experiment with (gasp) metal in the abysmally abysmal Body Count. And then the fucker starred in prime-time crime dramas. Damn! So, maybe it doesn't always work out for the best.

But in the case of Def Jux impresario El-P, stepping outside of the comfort zone of the hip-hop milieu promises to be a bit more successful. On the soon-to-be-released collaboration with Thirsty Ear's free jazz collective The Blue Series Continuum, entitled High Water, P stretches out his arms and legs, flexing a bit of compositional muscle. And while there might not be a "Cop Killa" on the album, you really oughta hear Matt Shipp pummel them ivories like they were Rodney King's knee caps.

Recorded at Sorcerer Sound in New York City, High Water is slated for release February 17th via Thirsty Ear. This is the second venture into jazz for El-P, who dabbled in the genre a bit with last July's Sunrise Over Brooklyn. Now facing the task again with the same cast of characters, Thirsty Ear promises a "forest of sounds and ideas" revealing an underlying connection in the form of the basic language of music.

The players-- Guillermo Brown on drums; Roy Campbell on trumpet; Daniel Carter on reeds; William Parker on bass; Matthew Shipp on piano; and Steve Swell on trombone-- took cues from original El-P compositions. Then P sliced, diced, processed, reconfigured and refracted. The end result, according to the label, is a "unique, progressive, respectful and ultimately triumphant expression of his musical ideas." Tracklist:

01 Please Stay (Yesterday)
02 Sunrise Over BKLYN
03 Get Your Hand Off My Shoulder, Pig
04 Get Modal
05 Intrigue In the House of India
06 Something is Wrong
07 When the Moon Was Blue [featuring Harry Keys]
08 Please Leave (Yesterday)