CD of the week: DJ VADIM "Don't Be Scared"

Mr eclectic electric, Mr internationalist (69 countries to date), part time Fat Freddy’s Drop collaborator/remixer and DJ (Electric Freddy), the John Coltrane of electronic music, Grammy nominated (2002), multi award winning DJ and producer, Daddy Vad returns with his 6th solo album entitled ‘Don’t Be Scared’.

Is it possible to create something entirely new? What does one of the fathers of the new beat scene do in a time of such huge tectonic plate movements? ‘Don’t Be Scared’ is an album about change, about progress, about moulting the old, cutting the dead wood away and bringing in the new. Part hip hop in mind-set, part electronic in sound, and part soulful in spirit with undertones of tribalism and some very ethnic and hypnotic elements, this album is rooted to bass culture, connecting dots along the way. Abstract dark sounds from previous albums such as USSR Repertoire (96) get rediscovered. Twisted dancehall crunked bass lines meet traditional African rhythms in a Bollywood cinema, whilst lush strings and grand pianos sit next to haunting morphed keyboards; afro beat licks and smo! ked out grooves.

This album focuses on the instrumental and brings the beat to the foreground, but look forward to vocals from long-time collaborator and fellow ‘Oneselfer’ Yarah Bravo, Sabira Jade (The Electric) gets political, and new sounds resonate from upcoming singers D’Angelo’esque Jazz Bailey, Hawaiian soulstress Karen Be and gruff funkman Greg Blackman. More pensive than recent albums, melancholy meets tropical vibes meets a strange BBC reporter high on eboga root. Even Jamie Fox makes a guest appearance talking dance moves.

This is global music, peng bass. What genre is this? Not sure, but one thing’s for sure; there is no one else who makes music quite like DJ Vadim.

This album is perhaps the danciest we have witnessed from Vadim and this is something that for those who have seen him live in the last few years will have felt. Its a tropical bass extravaganza with no limits, no boundaries, no boxes. A nod to your mind, body and soul.