[From Excellent Reception : Episode 4]
By lil’dave
If you are looking for music that takes you away from the mundane routine of modern day life and places you decades into the future, then you need to open your ears and your third eye to the music of Computer Jay.
As a veteran of Los Angeles’ extraordinarily fertile music scene, Jay has built a reputation for producing colossal synthesizer filled beats. Over the years he’s been called on to lend his keyboard skills to the Pharcyde’s live shows and he’s played with the futuristic funk band Master Blaster (which consisted of Computer Jay, Dam-Funk, and J-1). Also, he has created some marvelous productions and remixes for artists like Fatima, Electric Wire Hustle, and Quantic.
Computer Jay’s solo material is a whole other world in itself. He takes all sorts of analog synthesizers, including his own specially modified Moog and various circuit bent instruments, to makes these gigantic computerized beats. He released a duo set of EPs called “Savage Planet Discotech part 1 & 2”, which are full of retro-futuristic songs that allude to experimental electronic movie soundtracks from the early 80’s, the hard slap of west coast g-funk and 8-bit music from old Nintendo and Atari video games.
One of the big singles from “Savage Planet Discotech” was the exquisite “Hardship”, which features the vocals of Orfeo (who Jay also collaborated with on an amazing EP of cover songs called “Standards”). On this track, Jay’s apocalyptic synthetics are smoothed out by Orfeo’s gentle falsetto and lush string arrangements.
This is an excerpt from the Excellent Reception podcast. Each episode our host, lil’dave, talks about the stories and influences around a group of carefully selected songs. Subscribe to the podcast now via iTunes.
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