Shape of Broad Minds - "Blue Experience EP"

Shape of Broad Minds - Let's Go feat. MF Doom (Lex 2007)

Shape of Broad Minds – Blue Experience EP / Lex

Last August, before Audiversity really clicked in its new releases format, I did a column on impressive new hip-hop albums coming out. Along with highlighting the latest from Oxnard, CA’s Oh No and the excellent Anticon reissue of Darc Mind’s lost ’97 classic Symptomatic of a Greater Ill, I touched on a bright young producer by the name of Jneiro Jarel. Under the moniker Dr. Who Dat?, Jarel crafted a hell of an instrumental hip-hop album in Beat Journey (which was actually a domestic reissue by Lex Records, it was originally released in 2005) by flipping worldly samples and intertwining them within synthesizer escapades and some classic boom-bap beats. A no-brainer entry into Audiversity’s Top 60 of 06, Beat Journey also crowned the traveled multi-instrumentalist as one of the most promising producers in years following in the footsteps of fellow Lex artist Danger Mouse but with less of a pop bend. Now less than a year later, Jarel is back, but in a group setting akin to another one of his obvious influences, Madlib. Wonderfully dubbed the Shape of Broad Minds, Jarel and company are dropping a teaser EP that I guarantee will have you snatching the up coming full-length the day it comes out.

“So Dilla and Madlib are the uncontested champions of the beat conducting circuits no doubt, but being seated on top of the boom-bap hierarchy means constantly fending off eager producers who want to uncrown the demigods and tend to cop their style and flip it all their own (just like they had to do when Premiere and Pete Rock ruled the land).” Though I am obnoxiously quoting myself, I did somewhat hit the nail on the head with this one. Not only is Jarel spinning Jackson and Yancey’s left-field hip-hop style into a sound distinctly his own, but the Shape of Broad Minds is a group that easily falls in line with the Soulquarians, Madvillain, Jaylib or Yesterday’s New Quintet both in sound and spirit. The official members of the group are Jarel, Jawaad (which I have also seen written as Jawwaad), Rocque Won, Panama Black and Dr. Who Dat? Four of these five members are the multiple personalities of Jarel, each distinctive to the city they were conjured up in during his traveled upbringing as the son of a U.S. Army mother. According to the press release, Jawaad is the Houston-raised multi-instrumentalist (keyboards, trumpet), Rocque Won is a west coast psychedelic singer inspired by Hendrix and Prince, and Dr. Who Dat? calls Philadelphia home and is known as an introvert, record collector and studio wizard. Panama Black is (at least to the best of my knowledge) a real living, breathing person, a rapper from Atlanta, GA to be precise. Together they form the Shape of Broad Minds, an innovative rap group that is quickly reinvigorating my love of the genre.

The spotlight single of this Blue Experience EP is an ode to Jay Dee himself, and of course features the man who maybe loves split personalities the most, MF Doom. A bright but hazy mix of arcing keyboard lines, proto-disco samples and a simple boom-bap beat, “Let’s Go” sounds like a Jaylib song pared down in a Beat Konducta style but with a more exotic feel. Jarel has a great handle on how to mix vocals as well, panning, echoing and overdubbing with precision and style. Though Doom only drops a brief verse, he sounds very comfortable teaming with Black’s more laid-back easily Atlanta drawl and Jarel’s swiveling lyrical style. Later, the song gets the Who Dat? remix treatment by dropping the club-ready pace for a more quirky, odd-beat tick akin to a Quasimoto beat. “Electric Blue” finds the group in a more sexy setting; it features an eclectic lady plea over wetly pinging synths and sub-bass groove. It has a very Platinum Pied Piper vibe with Sa-Ra’s penchant for space-love, which is only further purveyed on the final track “Love Continues,” no doubt a Rocque Won-helmed number with a heavy Dilla influence.

I feel bad continually referencing Jay Dee and Madlib, but the truth of the matter is Jarel owes them a drink or two. But don’t get me wrong though, he very much stands on his own, and with each subsequent release you can hear an idiosyncratic style taking mold. Jarel seems like one of those cats that sits back and absorbs everything going on around him, and then channels it all into one cohesive sound that in itself will become something completely new. I have a feeling the Shape of Broad Minds is going to be that next step for Jarel, and he will be getting a lot of positive and warranted attention for it. Do yourself a favor and get on the bandwagon before it’s too full, and be prepared for something spectacular in Craft of the Lost Art, due out in the coming months and featuring along with Doom, Count Bass D and Q-Tip among others. I have a feeling it’s going to be one of the strongest hip-hop albums of 2007.