Sam Baker’s Album by Samiyam
LABEL: Brainfeeder

Obligatory background information: Samiyam relocated form Ann Arbor to Los Angeles in 2006. Close friend Flying Lotus is his mentor, and the two have in fact collaborated as FLYamSAM (check out their Bootleg Beats, 2009). Samiyam’s first record, Rap Beats Vol. 1, was the first Brainfeeder release, and I’ve been anticipating this sophomore effort since then — the two EPs released in the interim only whetting my appetite. Finally, just to get it out the way: yes, Samiyam’s bass-heavy, mutated funk is post-Dilla, and yes, it sometimes sounds 8-bit. Is ’wonky’ still being thrown around? For real, though, I made a promise to myself that Dilla won’t be mentioned again in this review.

The pretensions are clear here. The title and the Illmatic-referencing cover art seem to imply to the soon-to-be listener that Samiyam’s second album is not simply Rap Beats Vol. 2, another stellar beat tape in need of Ritalin, but a mature, fully-realized piece of art. Sure, but it certainly plays like a beat tape. There’s no real narrative thread (as a side note, Rap Beats Vol. 2 is apparently in the works). That’s not a shock, given his aesthetic, and neither is it something I sought from this. Indeed, as Samiyam himself has said, it’s a collection of “my favorite stuff.” The implications of this are dire for a Samiyam geek like me, since much of the material here had been skulking around the internet’s back alleys as early as eighteen months ago, albeit resurfacing here in reworked, fleshed-out versions: leak circulation, the perennial plague of the bass scene. Of course, that’s entirely my fault; I could have held off until album release.

“Working within an oft-trodden framework and familiar parameters, Samiyam has really crafted a signature sound, indelible and unmistakeable.”

Familiarity can come as a sinking feeling, even if I brought it on myself. Really, though, I’m only griping over good news, because this record is exactly what I expected, and it’s good: overcompressed, fat-ass beats churned out on the SP 303 (for the record, Madlib is a big fan of that sampler, too), digitally-made music which wants to be analog, bass which is like trekking through sludge. If Rap Beats Vol. 1 was a textbook ADD case snorting Pixy Stix and wearing a backwards New Era, then Sam Baker’s Album is a teenage stoner realizing the benefits of weaning himself off the medication. But it’s still the same guy: check the fitted cap and the pen he wont stop clicking. Check some of the absurdity on the record, like the handling of meow samples on “Kitties,” which is most definitely too short.

This is less an exploration of new sonic vistas and more a solidification of the sound Samiyam has been developing. Having explored his catalog, Samiyam nowadays rarely surprises me, but his music continues to satisfy, if not more than ever. The chunky low end is still the chopped, stumbling bastard child of funk and electro, half-timed by the wobbly drums which are sometimes arid (e.g “Escape,” “Taco Delay”) and sometimes resounding (e.g “Bricks,” which is pure boom-bap). The hats are either barely there or crashing full-speed like an echoing thunderstorm (see “Cushion” and others). Samples and synths still swirl around each other, reveling in an unhinged synergy: see how spotlessly “No Dinner” slinks from the sample into the beat proper, nothing quite congealing but the whole still solid, not nearly as unhinged as Samiyam’s past work, but no less detailed.

The Hammond organs, cheesy synths, and other such instruments still manage not to sound dated. The instruments and off-kilter sample handling give an organic touch to the beats’ unquantized rumble-and-crunch. Consider the scratchy play of timbres on album closer “Sometimes,” a track in fact devoid of bloated bass, instead creating a shimmering miniature city of sound. It’s on of the headiest tracks on here. While on the whole, the beatcraft is more focused, there are still sore moments like when the aforementioned “Kitties” simply fades out instead of developing, or at the least riding out for another few measures.

Clearly some of these tracks are fuller, more complete than others, and it betrays the album’s lack of cohesion, making it clear that some tracks received more attention than others. Most of all, it’s disappointing to see vignettes with significant potential simply fade out, but any stalwart Samiyam fan has steeled herself against this kind of pang, given the guy’s average song length. Curiously, it never stings any less, and the desire to hear the track keep going never fades...

This stuff is fat. I expect a lot from Samiyam because I think he’s brilliant, but at the end of the end of the day the record has to deliver and this record really does. Working within an oft-trodden framework and familiar parameters, Samiyam has really crafted a signature sound, indelible and unmistakeable. Even the shorter, less-developed tracks, while disappointing for me at a visceral level, only serve to indicate that Samiyam is probably cranking out beat-sketches like waffles right now, as you read this. And I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.


REVIEWED BY MANUEL ABREU
MANUEL’S FAVORITE TRACKS: “Escape”•  “My Buddy” • “Sometimes”

FREE MP3: “Cushion”