Black Jazz Consortium – Structure review

Artist: Black Jazz Consortium
Title: Structure
Label: Soul People US
Genre: Deep House
Format: CD, Digital
Buy From: Juno Records, Juno Download

Now available digitally, Fred Peterkin’s Black Jazz Consortium brings a refreshingly innovative take on deep house. With distinct jazzy influences, this album is full of complex rhythm structures, shifting instrumental components and hazy keys that display 11 unique and experimental productions on an album that is both captivating and accessible.

“Deep Love” opens the album in restrained fashion – or so it would seem. The high hats shift patterns constantly, adding an experimental feel to the slow tempo and soft beat. “New Horizon,” by contrast is led by a prominent beat but still manages to trip away into airy moments courtesy of some big chords and crescendos. Like “Tribal Dance,” a truly rhythmic track which has an almost jacking feel to it, “Levels” is an upbeat offering. It draws on the techno music of old, shaking the walls and floor with huge bass and big claps. “Teapot Science” takes in wobbling basslines and clicking percussion in a futuristic tech-house tinged number.

“Living the Dream” is a string-laden, dramatic piece of deep house, in the same way that “It Takes Two ” uses low end bass and atmospherics to build feeling within the track. “Something Old” combines dark synths and a piano loop to hypnotic effect before “Watching You Vouge” washes the listener in jangling keys in a tune that probably fits the label of tech-jazz more than most.

Throughout Structure, Peterkin uses raw and basic sounds, but he arranges them in complex ways to create totally original and interesting tracks. The tracks compiled here complement each other very well, playing themselves off one another. However, at whatever point you drop into Structure, you will be greeted by deep house in its most experimental and underground form.

Review: Tom Jones