50hz - Carbon

While his debut album was strictly a cinematic drum & bass affair, on this new album Hz broadens his scope to include elements of dub, downbeat, hip-hop, jazz and funk. An impressive guest list of singers and players enlisted from around Aotearoa have helped flesh out a full live sound throughout the album.

Lead single "Seek Know More" features singer Ladi6, formerly of Christchurch hip hop group Sheelahroc and currently performing in live r&b/soul band Verse 2. Flown to Wellington to sing on a different album track altogether, Ladi's impromptu vocal for "Seek Know More" fell into place at the last minute and has become one of Carbon's highlights. On "Smooth Rhodes" singer Miss La from Auckland jazz band The Torch Set offers an updated interpretation of the jazz standard "Detour Ahead", which has in the past been performed by such legendary jazz singers as Billy Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. Another deep jazzy track, "Infatuation", features vocals by ex-pat British singer Pepsi Demacque, a former full time backing vocalist for Wham and one half of chart topping '80s group Pepsi & Shirley, who now resides in the Wellington suburb of Island Bay.

Other vocalists on Carbon include LOOP Recordings label mate Barnaby Weir, front man for The Black Seeds, who sings the dubby downbeat cut "Every 1 Can See". Barnaby has previously done vocals for tracks by The Nomad and epsilon-blue, fronts Wellington collective The Dub Connection as well as The Black Seeds and is currently working on a solo album as Flash Harry. Watch out for another 50Hz/Barnaby Weir pairing in the form of 50Hz's funky remix of The Black Seeds' "Keep On Pushing" for their forthcoming remix album Pushed. Jeremy discovered Conrad Noema, who features on the upbeat "Folly", singing for te reo Maori r&b group Maia, for whom Jeremy produced a handful of tracks on the Flax Records compilation Tangiora 2. Conrad also has a solo te reo album out as Kaia on Waru Records.

The instrumental tracks on Carbon employ intricate arrangements and expansive live band instrumentation throughout, giving a cohesive feel to this stylistically diverse album. The downbeat dub mash-up "Versionary Dub" features melodica and horns by brothers Ruia and Ranea Aperahama (who founded Southside Of Bombay and released an album produced by Jeremy in 2001), bass by Fat Freddy's Drop guitarist Tehimana Kerr and effects by the legendary DJ Mu (Roots Foundation/Fat Freddy's Drop). Guest musicians elsewhere on the album include Ebb's Iain Gordon and further playing by Tehimana Kerr and Barnaby Weir, whilst elsewhere Jeremy's own pinpoint programming steps to the fore without ever losing touch of Carbon's lush live feel, be it on fat downbeat grooves like "Electrohoney" or rolling breakbeat tracks like the blistering film soundtrack funk of "Soprano" or heavyweight dancefloor feel of "Longitude Zero".

A professional studio engineer by day, Jeremy has recorded and mixed music and sound for films, television shows and Royal New Zealand Ballet productions including Dracula and Ihi Frenzy. He's remixed everybody from The Nomad and The Black Seeds to the full New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, mixed and mastered EPs by Ebb and Footsouljahs and is LOOP's in-house masterer of compilation CDs. With well over a decade's worth of production experience under his belt, 50Hz is surely one of New Zealand's most highly skilled electronic musicians. On Carbon he's put his full repertoire of well-honed studio skills to the test and come up with another top notch album, capturing a full scale live sound with fat, international quality production.

A LOOP RECORDINGS AOT(EAR)OA RELEASE
Catalogue Number: LP009
Distributed in New Zealand by Border Music