| Jel's 10 Seconds is a celebratory exercise in connecting music (in this case, hip-hop) with the machines that make that music possible. 10 Seconds refers to the amount of sample time that a producer can squeeze out of a vintage E-mu SP-1200 sampler, something that Jel argues is a seminal driving force behind hip-hop music production. While hip-hop may not owe as big a debt to the SP-1200 as it does to the Technics SL-1200, he makes a convincing case for the machine's place in the hip-hop arsenal, and demonstrates its versatility across twenty-three mostly short instrumental jams. The SP-1200's gross limitation on sample time meant that hip-hop producers of years past who relied on samplers rather than turntables to construct their beats were required to find creative ways to cut up the samples, loops, and beats to keep a three to four minute song interesting. Listening to 10 Seconds, it seems apparent that not all of the sounds here come from an SP-1200, but judicious use of editing and loop splicing generates some terrific grooves. The grainy, lo-fi quality to most of the beats and melodic fragments on 10 Seconds owes less to an attempt at kitsch and more to a DIY ethic of music production, where bedroom producers take a place of gear with hefty limitations and tear up their record collections, only to piece them together again into something new. But the most refreshing thing about 10 Seconds is not that it demonstrates the depth the depth that an SP-1200 is capable of in the right hands - it's that Jel freely expresses a love for music and a vibrant spirit that throws polished studio production to the wind in favor of a direct connection between the composer and the rhythms he constructs. - The Brainwashed Brain |
2XLP/Out Of Print