FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 2000. All Rights Reserved

CD Review by Rob Faust BEANFIELD Human Patterns Compost/Fusion III · Latest album from German electronic trio. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future. Coming in under the "breaks meet house" banner, the German trio Beanfield have managed to produce an album that stands on equal ground with St Germain’s Tourist and is yet another chronicle of how sweet the beat-dependent hybrid of electronics and jazz can be. While Beanfield’s first album aimed more for an electro hip hop feel, Human Patterns finds them running through ’70s Brazilica, which is updated with revved up organic/electronic bossa, the percussion side of electro hip hop (rather than the synthesizer), and an undercurrent of jungle. Like labelmates Ruby Traner Trio, there is an incredible sense of freedom and space in the hybridization – sort of space jazz meets Rio. Add to this the brilliant, Holidayesque spoken-word work of Czech poet Bajka and you have a necessary piece in the future of jazz ’n’ beat that’s essential for those top-down sunlit days. 5/5

| Back To This Issue Table of Contents | Back To Main Index |