Jaymz Nylon

Jaymz Nylon’s music, as he writes in the liner notes, is a new chapter in the evolution of drum-based communication of African Americans. He name-checks contemporaries such as Theo Parrish, Moodyman and Toronto’s Nick Holder as like-minded musicians. Despite Afrotech’s title, the samples do not conjure up Africa itself so much as they are in the tradition of Nylon’s overtly Afrocentric American forbears, like the Oneness of Juju or the Jungle Brothers. Like the JB’s Straight Out the Jungle, Nylon has assembled Afrotech from lo-tech gear. As with Sun Ra (another stated influence) or DJ Smash’s “Jazzy Grooves” series, this record impresses with its ideas, not its gear. Old DX7’s and 12-bit sounding samples come together for a gritty good time. Sometimes it sounds as though the samples aren’t even looping perfectly, but that’s okay — it makes the music move around more, avoiding the banality of so many neo-groove artists. The slower, more abstract tracks (“One Nation,” “Believe”) benefit most from the intentional, funky imperfection. Occasionally the more frenetic tunes overstay their welcome, but this doesn’t detract from a solid, experimental and culturally significant CD.