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IG CULTURE spinning as part of the Milkaudio.com LAUNCH PARTY with MARK HOLMES & BOBBI GUY and FELIX & GANI at Roxy Blu (12 Brant), Friday (May 24). $12. 416-202-8839. www.milkevents.com
While many of IG Culture’s acid jazz contemporaries from back in the day seem to have vanished in a thumb-pop of a fretless bass, the Dodge City survivor continues pushing forward, spearheading an adventurous outgrowth of the West London broken beat scene with his New Sector Movements crew and Main Squeeze label.
The IG Culture sound draws inspiration from the free-flowing spiritual jazz of the 70s — most notably in his production work with singer/songwriter Bembe Segue — but takes advantage of the latest advances in beat science to make a soul-stirring move toward the future.
Just as experiments in cross-genre fusions were the going concern 30 years ago, similar collisions within the contemporary club scene are happening at an alarming rate, producing exciting new hybrids almost daily.
“We’re into a process of merging,” says IG Culture from a London studio. “You’ve got the crisp, tough sound of UK garage on one end and the really organic sort of broken beat stuff that I do on the other. What’s happening now is that everything is being tossed in a blender, and people are trying to see if they can make something coherent from what’s coming out.
“Some DJs and producers working to create a signature sound are repeating themselves, which doesn’t do the scene any good. It’s important to keep things moving ahead and mixing in all kinds of different sounds. Once there’s some specific thing that defines the music, that’s when it becomes stale.”
That should be taken as good indication that the forthcoming New Sector Movements album that IG Culture is currently working on won’t bear any resemblance to the first. The fact that he’s been checking out records by MF Doom, EL-P, Jay-Dee and Madlib lately makes a turn toward an underground hiphop vibe seem like a distinct possibility.
“I’ve been doing production on the Les Nubians album, which has been taking up most of my time since the beginning of the year, but now I’m deep into demoing for the Sector album.
“I’m moving in a whole new direction. There will definitely be hiphop tracks on it, some rhyming and collaborations with different artists, although I don’t want to say who until it happens. Let’s just say there’ll definitely be some surprises.”
TIM PERLICH
