cooly g - what airtime

i don't remember if it was "narst" or "phat si" that i heard first but it was some seriously forward thinking bassmusic and cooly g became a name that i was to remember. cooly g aka merrisa campbell said in a radio interview that coming from a soundsystem culture where campbell's father and uncle and other relatives was involved in different sounds. it all stemmed from the fascination of bass and the power of bass and this led to mixing at an early age but also production.

cooly g says that the music doesn't take to long to make and that an hour or so is all it takes for ideas of rhythm, bass and sometimes vocals to come rushing out. with regards to the different sounds and rhythms that has been coming out from out campbell's output i am incredibly impressed and is definantly looking for more. so did kode9 that seeked out cooly g's music for hyperdub which is why i know of the music in the first place as both "narts" and "phat si" was released on the label.

a full length album was also ordered up which came out last year in june and it has been in my head to have a listen to it for a long time. "playin' me" is in general filled with the ideas of rhythm and bass that you expect from cooly g but it still surprises me how they are executed. some of the tracks is somewhat straightforward tracks for the club like "what this world need now" and the titletrack "playin' me" and "is it gone".

however all of them question the idea of the "club banger", just like my second favourite track "sunshine" which is the exact opposite of that... but only on a glance. "sunshine" sounds like a dub ballad but hides a subtle counter rhythm which makes it perfect for the club. my favourite cut on the album is called "what airtime" and puts the atmosphere up front while a really driving broken rhythm is almost being undermined by it at first.

i like it also because it uses almost the same chordprogression for the deekline & ed209 remix of ol' dirty bastard's "got your money" for the atmospheric bits. but it then launches into a nice section of those driving drums rattling away with a heavy delay and a powerful subbass. it's a quite dubby effect when coupled together with some occasional sounds coming in at some "offbeat" parts so to speak.

the effect on a dancefloor is definitely vicious and especially as all the delay creates this incredible amount of tension. it does get it's release about three quarters in with a small ambient drop where the pads make an appearance again. even though it's not the typical uk bass kind of drop, it's an effective one with the nature of this track.

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