Instrumental hip hop waxes and wanes as concerns its popularity when neglected the beat makers retreat to B-sides and 7-inch records, keeping the faith alive for the true believers. When lauded, keystone producers delineate new instrumental hip hop blueprints for others to follow. Think Mantronix, DJ Krush, Express Rising, Domu; mix these disparate producers up and add an ADD sensibility, the result wouldn’t be far away from the sound of Los Angeles’ producer Samiyam. Sam Baker’s second album redefines and reinterprets the Day-Glo psychedelic aesthetic found on Rap Beats Vol. 1, coming out swinging (in a punch-drunk fashion) with squealing synths, hand percussion and massively deep bass. Sam Baker’s Album ups the ante, as far as instrumental beats, in any hip hop epoch.
Pushing the Rap Beats formula into new territory, Samiyam extends numerous tracks past the two-minute mark. But there are some great shorter tracks bristling and bumping together over the album’s forty-minute duration. “Already” is all cowbells and pimped out synths, “Kitties” introduces a self-styled Catcher in the Rye friend to the Cats (complete with mewing Kitties); “No Dinner” appears to be headed in one direction (a musical intro to an imagined 80s daytime game show) only to lurch into an unruly universe of malfunctioning engines and metallic handclaps. Starting out with the world’s crappiest (tongue-in-cheek) freestyle, “Wonton Special”‘s massive echoic drums and slow-motion funk doesn’t last much over the minute mark.
On the longer tracks, Samiyam fleshes out the groove, extending and tweaking his funk to infinity. “Frosting Packets” is like Roger Troutman with laryngitis, in a meeting with Brainfeeder head honcho Flying Lotus for a wonky, yet punchy, arpeggio soaked Sino-hop classic. “Where Am I?” is the epitome of the Samiyam sound, a slithery bass line and weird backward-sounding drums, augmented by glockenspiel in the higher register. I’ll have to try mixing a Rakim a Capella into this tune sometime! After winning a “Lifesized Stuffed Animal” at the local fair, Samiyam phattens proceedings up with fairground melodies and shimmering slow-motion breaks that anchor the tune to the Earth, despite its space-bound trajectory.
Oliver Laing
