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20JAZZFUNKGREATS - MP3s AND SAMURAI


PHOTO: SALEM

In a year of regurgitation of forgotten classics and unearthed gems – otherwise known as edits – it's nice that a story of moderate underground success can shine like a tarnished sheet of corrugated metal fashioned into some sort of award for being generally awesome. SALEM are one such entity.

In 2008 they beamed with strobing black light straight to the bitter hearts of poor indie students and rich kid designer-miserablists alike. They were even more appealing because you didn't hear them blasted out of every hipster's DIY disco nite at the nearest basement bar. Not that that would happen of course, because SALEM are not that kind of band – they dwell in the dark recesses of shadowy forests and the oily puddles soaking the grounds of bleak abandoned factories. Sure there's a beat that's close to grime and 2-step, but with added shades of psychotropic crack addiction and prescription drug happy-hours, tracks like "Trapdoor" arch across the bass bins of East London's grime fraternity like a flinching black rainbow with a pile of corpses at the end instead of a pot of gold.

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SALEM – 'Trapdoor'

But if these shades of demonic suicide and soundtracks to the credit crunch aren't for you, then maybe try out Young Cream, cohorts of SALEM. The claps and thuds of 2-step are still spiralling through the air like flaming chrome banshees, but there's a rush of afro-euphoria as if tribal Africa had been given a Cassette Playa makeover and shoved down the Sonic The Hedgehog Green Hill Zone catwalk in full spaz mode tripping back and forth like an A.D.D. robot.

Young Cream – '0'

We end today with a track presented to us by legendary party overlord JD Twitch of Optimo, Glasgow. In our eyes Twitch travelled to Japan to fight giant pink Samurai made of smoke and glass, he fought fierce and swift to claim his prize of the princess' hand in marriage, but instead of matrimony he sliced her throat clean open in a flash of his blade and her blood gushed forth into the base of a giant cherry blossom tree. A storm brewed in the grey skies above and a fork of lightning split the tree in half, revealing a frozen staircase that led down to a vault containing the CD "Utakata no Hibi" from the 1983 new wave dynasty.

Mariah – 'Shinzo No Tobira'

ROBIN 20JAZZFUNKGREATS