Novelist and infamous junky William Burroughs famously invented the cut ‘n’ paste technique, which he used to explore chaos theory through language - and to help him write when he was so whacked out he could no longer put words in their right and meaningful order.
The sonic equivalent is the sampler, which made the albums "3 Feet High & Rising", "Paul’s Boutique" and "Endtroducing" all benchmarks of collage-built hip hop. The technique peaked in 2001 with The Avalanches’ debut LP, lovingly and painstakingly constructed from around 9000 individual samples. So painstakingly, in fact, that they haven’t recorded a single note since.
Sometimes, a methodology is in danger of overshadowing the very thing it created. Producer/DJ Ramble Jon Krohn emerged as RJD2 in 2002 with "Deadringer", an album of sample-stacked, cinematic hip hop, the title of which seemed heavily ironic to those who judged it to be too obviously in thrall to DJ Shadow’s groundbreaking "Endtroducing". For the all-important follow-up, however, RJD2 has radically changed his working practice and made a very different kind of album as a result.
"Since We Last Spoke" favours The Song over ambient abstraction and real-time playing over rejigged samples, with RJD2 writing and orchestrating all the music himself. The spirits of Quincy Jones, Lalo Schifrin and Sergio Mendes hover close by and a certain kinship with David Holmes is apparent, but RJD2 ranges much farther and wider than that suggests. Here, the sensuously lapping melodies of "Someone’s Second Kiss" recall Café del Mar’s hallmark chilled house, "Through The Walls" flashes elements of The Cars, Steely Dan and Bon Jovi while "To All Of You" suggests Barry White as imagined by Zero 7, then plays out with some fine, old-school scratch work.
With his sophomore effort, RJD2 has realised that, however weird and wonderful the pudding of your imagination, it’s likely to still involve butter, eggs and sugar, so ditching the old recipe is the only way to make a real difference. "Since We Last Spoke" is conclusively sweet proof.
