The late DJ Rashad was supposedly an early supporter of the work of Aussie ex-pat (and current Brooklyn DJ) Alexander Shaw a.k.a. Lil Jabba; but over the course of two albums, Shaw has footworked himself right off the Teklife-brand Footwork Reservation and onto a vaster pleateau of electronic wilderness. His debut album Scales certainly exists in confluence with other footwork releases, but his subsequent album GROTTO all but abandoned a reliance on the Chicago-borne sub-genre in favor of accepting any and all others. Basically, Shaw refuses to both pay for and build the wall that keeps out musical influences. Here he is giving the universal hand signal for “acceptance”:
Potential listeners, meanwhile, don’t need to be forced to accept the fact that Shaw’s latest album as Jabba —entitled MiZO — is scheduled for release April 20 on the London-based GETME! label, whose official commentary on the new album paints it as a wild scene where “familiar dance styles are lured and devoured one gulp at a time.” That description would work for GROTTO as well, given the bites of drum & bass, jungle, and ambient that aurally appeared at various points and seamlessly to a degree.
Unfortunately, we’re still waiting on those pesky details like pre-ordering info and new music to sample from MiZO, sooooo…that you’ve been nicely primed for the Jabba-to-come, you’ll have to content yourself with reliving Grotto’s title track and gazing greedily at MiZO’s mysterious and rune-like cover art and full tracklisting. Oh, what a world!
MiZO tracklisting:
01. WiCKeT
02. DisTilleR
03. Hot BloC
04. WouND
05. ForeST EdGE
06. MiZO
07. MiZO (WiTU Mix / exclusive to tape)