Rating: 7 / Format: CD/LP / Label: Stones Throw
J Dilla had Donuts, Madlib has Beat Konducta - his series of CDs closest aligned to Dilla‘s beat tape style, and one that shifts conceptually from volume to volume (i.e. Vols 1-2 compiled the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, 3-4 was based on Indian samples). But never before has a Beat Konducta album seemed more equal to the sum of its parts – not only do Vols 5-6 pay tribute to Dilla, the man Otis Jackson called the King of Beats, they reveal more similarities between the BK series and Donuts than ever before.
The BK series has always been a showcase for Madlib’s ability to cultivate music from a number of sources, applying his own boom-bap flavoured bumpy aesthetic to it. Here the tracks blend seamlessly across one palette; slow jam titbits and vocal samples acting like choruses binding the collection – and this is something that has to be viewed as a total package rather than individual tracks; like a jigsaw, the minute you lift one piece of the puzzle it becomes incomplete.
Sonically it doesn’t top 3-4, where the sounds of Indian cinema were harnessed into a patchwork of cultural convergence, equating to another intriguing new strain of the Madlib sound. Being a tribute collection, the tendency for the production here to drift too obviously into Dilla territory is present, especially in tracks like ‘In Jah Hands’ and ‘Lifeline’. But as a homage, it works – ‘The Main Inspiration (Coltrane of Beats)’ ends with the line “this is also a tribute to the music that has kept us going for so long”, representing both the musical and spirtual parallels ‘Lib percieves between Dilla and John Coltrane, and the love and admiration he had for his Champion Sound collaborator.
Chris McShee