Wax Tailor
Hope and Sorrow is a entente of melancholy and inspiration
"With a sampler any drum beat, any guitar riff, any sound could be recorded can be used as a new composition, a new contextualization". In his biography Wax Tailor (France) uses the analogy of cinema and the use of his music as a sound track to personal narratives that has "no beginning". It's a musical project where he tailor makes dark, melodic and melancholy down tempo hip hop with the dramatic flourishes of film noir. Hope And Sorrow is a project that often features international artists assisting in its track, some singing and in others rhyming including ASM and Marina Quaisse and The Voice.
Nostalgic and other times almost otherworldly, it's like a long drawl in the cold desert with eerily sounding voices and 50's radio advertisements/samples scratched over drum beats and string arrangements.
The opening notes of his music are filled with chanting to the background of an old western soundtrack and break beats with poignant punctuating cellos and emotive strings. The mood lightens up a bit with later tracks such as "The games we play" and "The Way We Were Featuring Sharon Stone" with samples from the swinging beats from the jazz age, piping flute and electronic organ. In "The Games We Play" it finishes off with a mellow trumpeting that works in seamlessly. He brings out the funk and soul in "Tune" and "That Case." "Radio broadcast" has lovely vocals from Charlotte Savory; "To Dry Up" is apprehensive and foreboding with sighing--- "take shelter in summer, nothing is safe anymore…don't go out on your own darling."
"House of Wax" brings things up a notch with a more aggressive feel with rhyming from The Others over layered beats and socking bold trumpeting. Ursula Rucker probes questions about human spirituality while a clip plays—"Why do you insist on keeping us caged. You know all it does is intensify rage. The word knowledge seize the tide. All power to the people" in the track "We Be."
Overall a reflective, introspective album that's meant to be lulled over and immersed into its emotional landscape. It takes a few listens to get into the groove but it does inspire head nodding to nice beats. Wax Tailor pieces together a sound, while not necessarily new, it's intelligent and well crafted. It's definitely worth a listen.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
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