Music Banter - View Single Post - Anteater's Muzak 101: Legitimizing Smooth Jazz For The Unwashed Masses

Anteater · 07-02-2012, 05:30 PM

Paul Hardcastle - Paul Hardcastle (1985)

ARTIST BACKGROUND
Unlike the majority of bands and artists associated with contemporary jazz, Paul Hardcastle started out as a dance-circuit DJ and keyboardist in the early 80's. Despite his growing technical prowess and a thirty some-going year career in music, he's the sort of guy who likes to stay out of the limelight and focus on what makes him happiest: crafting smooth tunes that blow most of his competition out of the water on the quality front.

THE ALBUM
Released after a couple of singles he made cracked the Top 20, this self-titled record did quite well during its time, though some reviewers criticized the overtly-electronic nature of the music, claiming it was 'monotonous' over a full length LP. The previously mentioned tracks that turned this guy into a household name, '19' and 'Rainforest', catapulted Hardcastle's career into the stratosphere and beyond.

WHY YOU WANT THIS
Smooth jazz, my friends, tends to come in one of several flavors. There's the stuff that plays it real safe, and there's the stuff that pushes the envelope within whatever established aesthetic is associated with the genre. This debut LP falls squarely into the latter camp: at the time of its release, there weren't too many people out there who were combining elements of early Chicago House, synth-pop, New Wave funk and a lot of smooth jazz elements into a cohesive, club-oriented sound.

Sonically, I consider this album to be rather underrated, as well as being ahead of its time in some respects. The production is astonishing in places even for '85, and in a weird way is reminiscent of 90's video game music as far as Hardcastle's arrangements and choice of synths are concerned. The programming is immaculate, particularly on the two big singles and some of the other hi-tech groovers such as 'Moonhopper' and 'Don't Waste My TIme'.

CLOSING REMARKS
Despite being completely synthetic on the instrumental side of things and being tied to a controversial time in dance music, this self-titled remains a big influence on the smooth jazz format, as well as jump-starting Hardcastle's career into the monstrously good thing it is today.

FINAL GRADE