- DJ Zeph is a bay area DJ and producer who started off his music career as part of a breakdancing crew in his hometown of Santa Cruz, California. Renowned producer Kut Masta Kurt often invited Zeph to his studio and this is where Zeph began to concentrate on his DJing skills. Zeph then finished with a degree in Audio Production from San Francisco State University and had also hosted a radio show at the university's radio station KSFS. May 2001 saw the release of Zeph's self titled debut which placed him at number #1 on the CMJ hip hop charts beating artists such as Jay-Z and Blacklicious. Now in 2004, Zeph releases his follow up Sunset Scavenger.
The DJ Shadow-esque Unsubtractable with its melancholic piano riff, a deep and jazzy double bass line and heavy hip hop drums features the scratching talents of fellow bay area DJ Quest of the Bulletproof Space Travellers. Boots Riley of The Coup features on the mellow Shake It On Down going for a more subdued rhyming style (leaning towards spoken word) compared to his rough anti-political stance he's displayed on many of the Coup's releases.
Midnight Crewsade leans towards uptempo 70s disco incorporating the use of latin style beats, horns arrangements and a funky keyboard solo - begs the question whether or not you're actually listening to a hip hop album or a cheesy contemporary jazz radio station had barged in on your listening space.
One of the bay area MCs who's been making big waves since the release of his debut album, Lyrics Born features on the jazz infused Hands Up which features a scatty female vocal sample, swing style drums with Lyrics Born tongue twisting his way through his verses.
Zeph then returns to his turntablist roots on the funky cut & paster Underscore featuring plenty of familiar hip hop samples blended together with an arabian string melody and b-boy style beat. More b-boy action follows on with Floorwax - a nice tribute to bass driven styles of the late 70s incorporating lots of funk and electro elements, old skool hip hop samples and featuring the vocal stylings of Rahsaan Ahmed.
Sunset Samba as the name implies is a summery latin groove utilising lush flute arrangements, samba style keys and laden with latin percussion all the way through. Comarmant takes on a much moodier vibe featuring deep abstract beats and mellow instrumentation with a dark spoken word routine courtesy of Tim Barsky.
As seen on previous Earshot releases, the label has managed to secure a bonus track for the Australian release. Meta456 features the MC lyrics of Ken Flow on a dreamy xylophone led rhythm that sounds like its been lifted from a sci-fi movie.
Zeph's covered quite a lot of ground on this release leaving no stone unturned embracing the sounds of jazz, latino beats, electro and abstract hip hop all taken into a hip hop context loaded with turntablist extras - I guess you can't be named SF Music Weekly Awards' Best DJ/Turntablist and not pull out mad scratching skills in your own product! Sunset Scavenger is full of variety and should appeal to hip hop fans with an eclectic pallette.