Kaidi Tatham: An Insight Into All Minds
Author: Kevin Le Gendre
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Musicians: |
B Roberson |
Label: |
First Word Records |
Magazine Review Date: |
May/2021 |
Media Format: |
CD |
Catalogue Number: |
FW228 |
RecordDate: |
Rec. 2020 |
To his great credit, British pianist-producer Kaidi Tatham has been resistant to categorisation for the best part of two decades. Although he was an integral part of the broken beat scene, where a collision of skewed drum programming, ‘Afro-tronica’ and jazz yielded compelling music in the 2000s, he always managed to carve a personal niche for himself. Herbie Hancock and Roy Ayers are key role models but Tatham was millennial in his synth sounds and rhythmic ideas. This new work picks up coherently where previous offerings such as 2018's It's A World Before You left off, which essentially means much of the material has a whirling, danceable energy, often bolstered by a driving cowbell with a clear Latin and Caribbean imprint, and keyboard textures that keep an analogue whimsy within the realm of modern digital efficiency. A producer as well as player Tatham has crafted a studio-assisted, very sculpted album in line with today's techno and hip-hop, though there are sufficient dynamics in his one-man band to keep things emphatically ‘lived in’. The closing track is a swish pianodouble bass duet that suggests Tatham, as much as all things ‘plugged in’ are second nature to him, could make sparks fly if he fully unplugged.
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