Moments by Alex B
LABEL: Elm and Oak

If you follow music with even a modest interest, you’re all too familiar with the buckets of praise critics and fans alike tend to shower upon the next big flavor of the minute. From the early nerdy drum beat for Animal Collective to the unimaginable lightning crack success of Lady Gaga, media coverage surrounding new talent is equal parts annoying and exciting and pretentious and blinding.

On the flipside of this trend, producer Alex B’s debut full-length Moments will not find its way to our local radio stations. Ever. But it is, for this genre, an impressive opening salvo that very much deserves of a lot more attention than it will receive in these honeymoon months following the release.

“Although this one has the hallmarks of an “electronic” disc that might fly under many a radar, the superior quality of Alex B’s knob twiddling and pad mashing would make that fate a shame.”

The album owes a lot to the twisted and talented thinking man’s hip-hop producers who stand atop the heap in this loose and free flowing musical breed. From the Aphex Twin meets Ice Cube mind melting employed by Flying Lotus to the cannabis steeped mental trips launched by Madlib, Alex B pulls bits and pieces from those who have come before to distill his own unique blend on Moments.

When he’s at his best, Mr. B is channeling the late great J Dilla on bouncy, focused joints like “You and I Both Know” or “Getting to Know You.” The former makes the best of Love Movement era Tribe Called Quest beats and Grandaddy’s “The Crystal Lake” synth insanity. The latter creatively sews together muted big beats with a hypnotic female vocal that injects a healthy dose of mind novocain directly into your frontal lobe.

The Flying Lotus nods are most noticeable in the textured, alien vocals folded into “Nothing is Always Something” or the shaky, spacey and undulating “Talk it Out.”

Truthfully, the only point in the album that completely fails is when half-assed backpack rap lines are incorporated into “Kick Drones” and “Drip Splatter.” The goal was seemingly some sort of MF DOOM homage and the result, both lyrically and musically, was anything but.

Although this one has the hallmarks of an “electronic” disc that might fly under many a radar, the superior quality of Alex B’s knob twiddling and pad mashing would make that fate a shame. From excellent atmospheres to a keen understanding of pleasantly disjointed beats, Alex B is most certainly a star on the rise. Make sure you get in on the ground floor.


REVIEWED BY ALEC BRINEGAR
ALEC’S FAVORITE TRACKS: “Take it Out” • “Getting To Know You” • “Impressions”



FREE MP3: “You & I Both Know” (right-click & save)



**Download/stream a podcast Alex B produced for Brainfeeder