Aloysius

Shawn Lee's Ping-Pong Orchestra - World of Funk

An ambitious project that works really well. Using the sort of world music elements he does always prensents a dilema, in that you will inevitably dilute parts of the musical traditions you are are borrowing from, simplifying rhythmic and melodic elements so that the borrowed material will fit with the western framework. Shawn doesn't solve this dilema, but he does end up with a simbiosis that ends up being starkly original even if it's not particularly risky. I'll definitely keep this in my library and will probably search out other stuff he's done.
9/10

OccultHawk

Well said. Even though you like it you hit the nail on the head about what I didn't like. I'm surprised you think it's original enough to hang its hat on that though. Isn't fusing world music with western music pretty common?

Aloysius

It's indeed very common but to my ears Shawn Lee does it better than most others. The textures sit well together and the sharp edges haven't been overly smoothed out.

TechnicLePanther

Shawn Lee's Ping-Pong Orchestra - World of Funk

A decent attempt at combining worldbeat and trip hop; there's admittedly very little keeping this from being a flat-out bad album, but the features and performances are often pretty good, and even if the songwriting does get stale after a while, there are enough good tracks towards the beginning to keep it at least decent. This album doesn't really shine anywhere, which is sad because with a bit of improved songwriting, it could have been good as well. As it is, just a generic funk/trip hop album with some worldbeat influence.
5/10

On my favorite to not albums list:
Gong - Shamal
Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - World of Funk
The Flamin' Groovies - Teenage Head

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SUGGEST ME AN ALBUM - I'm probably not going to listen to it but I will if you bother me enough.

Frownland

Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - World of Funk

What more can really be said about this album? It's a fun funk record that isn't the most innovative but the inclusion of world music certainly added a flavour to it that moved it past pretty neat background music to something I might throw on once in a while. I think that it would have been stronger as an instrumental album, but that's just personal preference since the vocals don't weigh down the music at all, they just don't seem necessary to me and a little extra spotlight on the instrumentals is always welcome. I'll go with a 7/10.

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OccultHawk

Good point. I've been thinking that about all kinds of stuff. It's like everything fits except the vocals. Maybe good singers are the rarest find. I like Nanny Jee's vocals on Ghost in the Rain though. In general, recently I'm more receptive to vocals if they're not in English.

Frownland

Very much agree with the bolded. Bad, inappropriate (as in out of place, not raunchy), and clearly tacked-on vocals are the easiest way to make me hate an artist/album/song, even if the music is amazing. A good example that comes to mind is how Yorke's annoying voice is the biggest thing keeping me from being a Radiohead fan.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

OccultHawk

I love Radiohead but I would listen to them more if about 80% of their music was instrumental. Another killer is an unnecessary drum or beat.

Anteater

Shawn Lee's Ping-Pong Orchestra - World Of Funk

While I'm very familiar with Shawn Lee's fantastic other band Young Gun Silver Fox (a Hall & Oates-styled yacht rock duo with Andy Platts), this World Of Funk album is a very different beast and a pleasant surprise for me, as it let me dive a little deeper and see a different side of an artist I was already atleast half-familiar with.

As a funk experience, this fares way better than the Bootsy Collins album. Partly because it sticks to a consistent aesthetic, but also because even within the worldbeat / Curtis Mayfield hybridized stylings here there's a whole spectrum of different sounds being explored here. Lots of instruments, synthesizers here and there and that sound crosshatched from three different subgenres.

I appreciated the fact that this is definitely less of a song-by-song experience and more of a full album ride. Generally, one of the things that draws me to genres like 80's and 90's R&B, smooth jazz, yacht rock, progressive rock, etc. is that all these genres demonstrate clear melodic identities within their respective frameworks and emphasize individual song identity. So the easiest way to gel with the material here was to approach it like you would an experimental mood piece or ambient music.

Unlike a lot of what I enjoy however, this is something where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and even though you can sense a bit of R&B and smooth jazz, they are only minor accents to a cologne with a very different demographic in mind.

When dealing with more free-form excursions like World Of Funk, an album that could be the ideal soundtrack to a jittery 70's thriller where James Bond and Shaft get lost in the now defunct city of Kowloon...the criteria is definitely different. And as a free flowing experience, this is a great trip indeed.

8.5 out of 10

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innerspaceboy

“Machines were mice and men were lions once upon a time. But now that it's the opposite it's twice upon a time.”

Moondog is one of the most pivotal and iconic figures of the classical avant-garde. The man certainly commanded attention - a blind, long-bearded fellow often adorned with a cloak and Viking-style horned helmet living on the streets of New York City, he quickly earned the moniker, The Viking of 6th Avenue. But his eccentricity was far from superficial, and Moondog (1969) serves an as exquisite specimen of his unique compositional style and his expertly-seamless fusion of classical and jazz musics. And how many individuals can claim to have ascended from street musicianship to conducting the Brooklyn Philharmonic in their lifetimes?

In the early ‘40s when Moondog moved to New York, he met Leonard Bernstein, Charlie Parker, and Benny Goodman, the influence of which is certainly evident throughout his catalog, but particularly so on Moondog (1969). The upbeat tempos and often humorous compositional style of this LP are likely the result of these encounters.

The album's opening selections, “Theme” and “Stamping Ground”, (aka “that song from Lebowski”), are instantly indicative of the sort of ride you're in for with this record. The tracks are epic and theatrical, with a lush orchestral quality. But simultaneously, there is a humbling intimacy and a flare of smart minimalism at play all throughout the album, adding an understated intellectualism to the whimsical interplay of traditional and invented instrumentation. Tracks like “Symphonique #3 (Ode to Venus)” and the brief vocal interludes sprinkled throughout work brilliantly to counterpoint the captivating rhythmic energy of selections like “Symphonique #6 (Good for Goodie)” and “Lament I (Bird's Lament).”

There’s a curious and mysterious mannerism to the music on this record, and its inspiration reveals the nature of its oddity. In an interview with Robert Scotto, who went on to publish his biography, Moondog described his music as being directly inspired from street sounds, characterized by what he called "snaketime", described as "a slithery rhythm, in times that are not ordinary,” and saying, “I'm not gonna die in 4/4 time". It is this snaketime that gives Moondog’s compositions their enchanting peculiarity. There’s an off-beat, quirky eccentricity and playfulness to every one of the songs here, and together they form a cohesive and rewarding listening experience unlike any other.

10/10

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