Zero dB - Bongos Bleeps and Basslines - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Since they started properly working together some 6 years ago, Chris Vogado and Neil Combstock (aka Zero dB) have been concocting a provocative, innovative and addictive brew of hard jazz, electro, latin, hip hop and house, laced throughout with their now signature dirty, heavy basslines. After releasing their early records on Vogado's own Fluid Ounce tag, Zero dB are now signed to Ninja Tune and ready to step it up, with their debut album, InchBongos, Bleeps and BasslinesInch. Their main starting point is usually jazz, but they dip into a multitude of different influences and work with talented musicians and vocalists to create a track. In contrast to the general climate of somewhat old, tired, formulaic and unmemorable dance music, Zero dB's meticulous production forces their audiences to discover previously undeveloped musical places. Incha pomBa girouInch kicks off BB&B by combining disorientating echo with ridiculously fat electronic bass stylings and the kind of rhythm designed to get the hips twitching. Title track InchBongos, Bleeps & BasslinesInch eschews the usual InchniceInch factor inherent in all things proto-jazzy, taking the music's rhythmic drive and harnessing it to earth-rumbling bass noises and enough squelching and bleeping to fill a large aerodrome with monged-out ravers. Inchconga madnessInch is latino-space music, a pummeling, hard-as-nails rhythm. Inchknow what i'm sayin'?Inch heads in a slower, more hip hop-influenced direction, verbals being beautifully delivered by Pase Rock, sometime member of Five Deez and regular Spank Rock collaborator. InchsamBa do umBigoInch returns to the production pair's love of turbocharged, cyber-punk latin, combining - as ever - raw bass with a true musicality which elevates the tune to levels of euphoria it couldn't manage by use of rhythm alone. Heidi Vogel adds the requisite sweetness, the delicacy of her voca