Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 26/05/2003
Label: Nonplace

Cologne-resident Burnt Friedman is the pal of former Cologne-resident Uwe Schmidt (aka Senor Coconut, aka Atomheart, aka 34 billion other aliases). The two worked - and still work - together on the fabulous Flanger project (Ninja Tune), creating supreme nano-jazz from intricately constructed sound samples.

When not working together, the pair take similar approached to music-making, albeit with very different results. Like Schmidt, Friedman likes to take an academic approach to creating sounds and albums, thinking up a concept and then using imaginative techniques and methods to fulfil his goal.

In this way, he has made some intriguingly original albums which pay close attention to the production intricacies of dub, the rhythmic nuances of Latin music, and the power that lies at the root of funk and soul music. 'Can't Cool' is perhaps an apposite title for a white intellectual bent on re-inventing black music styles into something more abstract but without too much loss of roots n feelin'.

Created with over twenty musicians and vocalists the album was recorded mainly in New Zealand where Burnt's dub guru Stinky Jim resides. There is a distinct absence of digital applications here, as the kooky and delicately blanched afro-funk of recent single 'Fuck Back' (featuring singer/performance artist Theo Altenberg) shows. That tune, in fact, has already done a solid job of alerting the cognoscenti to Friedman's cunning innovations, and highlights what could be considered the producer's first real attempts towards cohesive songwriting.

There are plenty more such attempts on 'Can't Cool', most of them carrying curiously off-kilter arrangements - a result of Friedman's eagerness to avoid obvious rhythmic patterns and his love of incorporating dub techniques.

It maybe hard to imagine, but this album is like a cross between the smoky studio trickery of King Tubby, the raw, artsy songs of 70s German experimental groups, and skinny, less dancefloor-oriented versions of the West London scene's stuttering riddims. It sounds like an acquired taste perhaps, but then if you're not prepared to work a little bit in the name of original and thought-provoking music, then you probably can't cool anyway.

    by Paul Sullivan