monkey mafia - the whore of babylon

i did not know a whole lot about jon carters music when i, a few years ago, saw the "15 steps" ep in a secondhand store. i'd heard the almighty club hit "blow the whole joint up" and new that the name of the game is big beat, in the best way possible.

i fell in love with this project after hearing more than just "lion in the hall" and "work mi body" & "blow the whole joint up". now when someone says something like that, it's usually with a noting that the rest of the project sounds nothing or little like them. in this case it doesn't, infact it's very much rooted within sample driven breakbeat music.

naturally after getting hold of singles and some remixes done by mr. carter as monkey mafia, i was trying to get hold of the album. i'd heard a number of tracks of it and wanted it badly for a little time but it fell out of priority. but when i went cratedigging a month ago with my good friends jan henrik and mikael, jan henrik found the album in the box of cd's that he was going through.

he handed it over to me and i was really pleased since i managed get hold of the album as i think it's a really solid piece of work. carter built his album well and showed a little more range but i knew that he had a dubby side which showed in tracks like "ward 10" and the cover of clearence clearwater revival's "long as i can see the light"

but the highlight of the album is this track by the name of "the whore of babylon" and while that's a biblical reference there is nothing christian about the track. the track consists of two distinctive parts, where the first is the long and excellently tension building build and the second part is the drum & bass part.

this track blew my mind on the first listen but i don't know why as it isn't that original but it was just something else. the first two minutes are just heavy soundscapes and it slowly teases in the midrangy bassriff that is driving the track. it then goes into this drop where the riff is soloed and then it builds from there and it's a whole haze of hypnotic melodic elements, reverbed out sounds and this thick bed of bass.

i heard the track again after buying the album and when playing it fairly loud on a good soundsystem, the track showed it's capabilities. it could be this intro piece for a driving jungle set or an epic closer but if one would pitch it down a bit, it'd be excellent in bass music. now this is because i heard the song with a dj's ear but fact is that i wouldn't play it in any set except for a closer with limited mixing.

listen here (youtube)

i also found out that jon carter resurrected his monkey mafia project a few months ago, which is a good thing. while i'm not that big on the comeback single "royal ascot", it's up to par with his previous work and i'm eagerly awaiting more material from him.