Posted on 08/29/2005

 

Want to know what musicians do when they’re bored? Cop this album. On what is easily their most experimental venture to date, The Procussions give the listener a pair of documentary eyes for ears on their Japanese release, Up All Night. The concept behind the album is simple: record a jam session from 10 pm to 6 am (actually engineered by J Skills), cut it up, and press the dopeness to a disc. While the jams (drums and Rhodes done by Stro the 89th Key) may or may not be your cup of tea, the concept is undeniably cool, not to mention some serious freestyle by Mr. J Medeiros and, perhaps most worth the buy, four previously unreleased tracks to end the album (with Mr., Resonant and Stro spitting).

Hailing from mountainous Colorado (they’ve since relocated to Los Angeles), The Procussions understand music diversity and have a unique perspective, both as ridiculous MCs and skilled instrumentalists. While Up All Night is reflective of the group's style, the album briefly touches on the group's overall talent. The idea behind the album is excellent, but I’m not sure that my particular liking for “concepts” is universal, especially given the efforts put forth on their finished, previously unreleased tracks such as “Here We Are” and “Life of Brian”—both of which are absolute fire.



ome people have dubbed the album a jazz EP. As much as I dearly love jazz, I have trouble calling this a jazz record. I’ve dicked around in a studio before and someone called it jazz… no… this is a dude who layered live drums and live Rhodes progressions. So let’s do this: Up All Night is a concept record with jazz and hip hop overtones.

Yeah, I like that.