Old Shady Grady & The Neighborhood Character - The Wilderness Sessions Part 2: Tales From Caturday

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  • Oakland producer Eric Douglas Porter has based his Afrikan Sciences project around looseness in both style and execution. His tracks often inhabit an uncanny valley between jazzy house and experimental techno, and he thrives there, roaming the fringes of Chicago and Detroit. So it's interesting that Porter's collaboration with newcomer Ari, under the name Old Shady Grady & The Neighborhood Character, manages to pare down his outré tendencies without erasing his distinctive qualities. The duo's three-track EP may not sound so left-of-center as, say, Afrikan Sciences' Circuitous album, but it's no less daring in its attempts to reconfigure house from the inside out. All jerky rhythms, deadpan vocal hooks and live bass riffs, "Fox N' Hound" dabbles in a kind of house-oriented '80s No Wave. At first it sounds like an unreleased DFA record, but as its light electronic funk unfolds, it ends up feeling like an alien ESG homage. The record's two remaining tracks, "Futonjam" and "Zukunft/Silber," feel more directly related to Afrikan Sciences. Both have a strong jazz influence and drums featured prominently in the mix. "Futonjam" moves confidently through a single smokey mood, while "Zukunft/Silber" weaves between abstract soundscapes and heavy-stepping beats. It's satisfying to hear Porter use his deep musicality and complex grooves to touch on a sound Theo Parrish might have explored in the early 2000s—and better still when he takes the collaboration to places only his ear could.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Fox ‘N Hound A2 Futonjam B1 Zukunft/Silber
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