He may not have known it at the time but Edan, with his epic 2005 LP Beauty & The Beat, seems to have laid the groundwork for a reinvigoration of late 60s/ early 70s psychedelia through a hip-hop lens in the post-pandemic present. The evidence? Why – three recent works by like-minded producers. The first of these was DJ Format’s 2021 album Devil’s Workshop, born out of all the creative time engendered by long periods of Covid-isolation. The second to arrive was LongDistanceDan’s The Psychedelic Beat Tape from only last summer and now here’s Claude Cooper’s Friendly Sounds Vol. 1. You might argue that psychedelia has had a presence in hip-hop production going back further than Edan of course and point (for example) to to the first Deltron LP in 2000 or parts of the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique in 1989. But a whole LP that Hendrix might’ve made if he was into hip-hop? That was Edan. What sets the albums by Format, LongDistanceDan and now Cooper apart is the fact that they’re not hip-hop in the sense that none of them feature emcees. They are hip-hop however in production sensibilities – a cut n paste sampling approach and heavy beats. What also links these three to Edan’s opus are the kinds of sample sources (in one case the same in Cooper’s case as you’ll see) and the tripped-out psychedelic feel – echo, distortion and dusty breaks – what you might call Generation X’s answer to Boomer psychedelia.
Those with their ears to the ground will know this isn’t Cooper’s first foray into psychedelic breakbeat music since all his releases to date, starting with debut single Tangerine Dreams and followed by 2022’s Myriad Sounds have been resolutely psychedelic. Nor is Cooper averse to working with emcees as 2023 proved with the arrival of More Myriad Sounds when he was joined by rapper Brain Fog on what was basically the original LP tweaked to facilitate rapped vocals. But then you’d expect nothing less given that the mysterious Cooper turned out to be the new alias of veteran Bristol producer Boca 45 – not to mention Brain Fog turning out to be veteran emcee Afrika Baby Bam from Jungle Brothers. In any case, the psychedelia offered by Friendly Sounds Vol. 1 is distinct and makes it very much a kindred spirit to Beauty & The Beat, Devils’ Workshop and The Psychedelic Beat Tape. The album offers no fewer than twenty-two tracks most of which are shorter than two minutes and give it a definite beat tape vibe – like, well, like Dan’s Psychedelic Beat Tape. And like the latter, this is very much designed to be played in its entirety. It’s a long-form listening experience that has gone massively out of fashion with the arrival of iTunes and later Spotify making the creation of playlists a ridiculously easy experience. Yet perhaps the short beat-tape length of the material on offer here with something new coming up every 45 seconds to two minutes is precisely the sort of material to re-introduce long-form listening in an era hooked on digital media. You know – the one designed to keep us addicted through algorithms hardwired to exaggerate existing drama and (create it where none exists) resulting in massive attention deficit if our senses apprehend nothing new within a stupidly short timespan.
Even so, certain tracks (or maybe should that be ‘moments in the whole’) stand out. The antsy funk beats of Scroll should be enough to keep even the twitchiest of digital tweakers happy for example. And Rainbow Eternity has an epicness that belies its two minute seventeen second length (the longest on the LP incidentally) aided perhaps by sampling The Dells ’69 version of I Can Sing A Rainbow – an apparent nod to Edan who sampled the same on Beauty & The Beat’s I See Colours. Check also the equally epic trip-hop of closer Take Flight and the fat breaks, sitar and tabla action on Nerd Nork.
(Out now on Friendly Recordings)