Despite
it sounding rather too cool and collected, the name
Conrad Newholmes may ring very few bells, yet, the man,
who currently officiates from rural Illinois, is not
a complete newcomer, having made his mark as producer
under the moniker of Smaze, most notably as part of
Beneath Autumn Sky, a collaborative effort with Zane3,
with whom he released an EP on Chicago-based Hefty.
Newholmes resurfaced last year with his self-titled
debut EP, released on his very own Snakebird Records
imprint. Heavily infused with laidback hip-hop beats
and grooves, this collection of seven impeccably produced
compositions proudly showcased Newholmes’s taste
for subtle and effective tunes.
Originally conceived to accommodate a wide range of
vocal collaborators, Peppermint Styles eventually
turns out to be a simple extension of the EP. This is
not to say that Newholmes doesn’t bring anything
new to the concept here. Expanding on the evocative
nature of his work and flexing his cinematic muscles,
the man refines his beats, grooves and soundscapes and
investigates a much wider and deeper musical range,
finding ground alongside the likes of Daedelus
or Dntel. Newholmes’s
sound is however very much unique and personal. The
fruit of a comprehensive sonic harvest from which elements
of jazz, sixties and seventies TV and film music, dub,
psychedelic pop and kitsch electro are bound together,
stirred, mashed up and patiently reassembled, Peppermint
Styles is, as its title suggest, fresh on the tongue
and long-lasting in the mind. Newholmes calmly tackles
more moods and ideas on one single track that is often
found on a whole full length, but this doesn’t
impact the least on the consistency of the album as
a whole. Newholmes proves an incredibly pertinent and
clever alchemist.
From the slightly off-beat vocal samples and catchy
melody of After All or the eighties electro-funk
of Beat Down Streets to the lazy snaking groove
of Erostika (imagine Ennio Morricone on weed)
and Earth Dirt The Champ, which has something
of a afternoon picnic with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop,
or the dirty urban smog of Phone Booth Bomb
(Starsky & Hutch in Blacksploitation Wonderland),
Newholmes collates a multitude of ambiences and manages
to make sense of every single one. Very much like the
Magritte-inspired cover suggests, there is a slightly
surreal and perverted thread running through these twelve
tracks, yet this happens in the most subtle way, leaving
the listener wondering if this may have all been a truly
enchanting dream in the end.
4.4/5 |
