Friday, July 10, 2009

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JAHCOOZI

We made this song last August. We went to a very underpopulated part of what used to East Germany to make it... Prignitz. Highly exotic, right?!!

It actually felt like a forgotten part of the world. There was a post-communist greyness and austerity about it...maybe this atmosphere actually influenced the song!!

We had no internet connection and there was a long road (which reminded me of that Cormac McCarthy book) with no cars on it, we would actually lie in the road for at least and hour and nothing would come in either direction. Occasionally we'd come across a toothless farmer with a big smile and a German flag on his roof would come our way!!

The woman who we rented the little holiday house/converted barn from looked at us kinda funny when we arrived. We didn't tell her that we were gonna convert her kitchen into a studio, so I assume she assumed that we were there to film low budget pornos. We of course didnt.(!)...but u know...two white boys and a brown girl in that part of the world (and many other parts of the world for that matter!) can have a stigma attatched.

The Song

To me it sounds like wave-step or something...sort of like a mix between dub-step and dark-wave, with these epic, almost emo/gothic cellos going on. We recorded a friend (Sneaky, a Berlin based Ninja Tune artist) playing the cello and double bass. I guess we managed to create a pretty weird atmosphere on this tune! Maybe not what BLN fans were expecting from us, but I think it's great to surprise the listener. Maybe the weirdly dark atmosphere in Prignitz had an influence us!

Having said that, people who have a comprehensive knowledge of the music we've made over the years has seen that side of us with tracks like Fish or Ali Mc Bills on our first album. We've always been somewhat schizophrenic in terms of sound or atmosphere. Even a track like Chill Jill on our second album highlights this schizophrenia within one track.

In the song, I am playing the part of a paranoid and obsessive lover who longs to nurture her loved one until the point of suffocation. It is about the fine line between being the subject of unconditional love and being smothered till the point claustrophobia. Love/nuture/care/protection and how it can be used as a control mechanism or emotional blackmail.

Love can be as freeing as it can imprisoning when it turns into obsessive jealousy. It depends on the individuals involved but in the right combination it can end up like a sick psycho film from the 80s!! Like Fatal Attraction with Glen Close or Misery with Cathy Bates...great characters!!

So just watch out who you take home with you or let into your life!! That hot girl standing at the bar, in the baby-doll dress, just might be someone who would rather hack off your legs than have you ever run away and leave her...!!

I guess the whole concept of the song can also be de-personalized and can also be perceived as the way in which we are constantly under surveillance in modern urban societies (i.e. CCTV, surveillance, control, trust, fear, nanny-state, protection, security issues). Such themes can arise within relationships with a partner or a with the state or with your employer, etc.


The Remixes

The remixes of the track are from quite wide-ranging artists, not just from one specific genre. I guess a bit like Jahcoozi itself, as we tend to jump around stylistically.

Two fingers (Amon Tobin & Doubleclick) brought out an amazing album on Big Dada recently. You HAVE to listen to it. It's like post-grime RnB shit meets Blade Runner cyberpunk futurism or something. Robot and I are big fans of Amon Tobin's cinematic production, which is why we decided to ask them to remix our track.


Oliver $ had done some fat bass-heavy dance remixes of vocal tracks in the past (eg. for RQM on Shir Khan's label, Exploited) which is why we asked him to make a remix for us. Some dance producers shy away from vocals because they don't always like or know how to work with them. This isn't the case with Oliver $, who ended up having so much fun that he did two versions! I also think it's pretty cool to feature other Berlin-based artists, which was also a reason to ask him. I guess it is exactly what the Crookers and all their fans are listening to right now...in fact they've already put it on a load of their mixes, etc. Give the kids what they want!




Plastic Little are a pretty fun neo-hip hop combo from Philadelphia who's last album featured Baltimore's finest Spankrock and Amanda Blank. They are good friends of the Philadelphia-based label Sugarcane Recordings, so it seemed cool to try and showcase some talent from over there, too. The nicest thing about the Plastic Little track is that it's just not what you'd expect from them or us on this EP I guess. It's really downbeat hippy shit, actually! So again, it's cool to surprise the listener...while giving them what they want...even though they don't know it!


Loose Cannons are also friends of Marcus at Sugarcane Recordings. They are from the UK and have remixed just about everything under the sun...even that pile of 80's vomit (a.k.a. Lady Gaga...ouch!!!) They have a weekly show on KISS FM where they play everything from tropical bass to zulu house.

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