The only thing I knew about Jamie Lidell in 2005 was that he was on Warp Records and he made a lot of bleep-bloop electronic music that was not for me. I liked a few artists on Warp at the time (like, Autechre and Aphex Twin and that’s pretty much it), but for the most part, that style of electronic music did nothing for me. Still does nothing for me, really. So when Multiply came out in that year, I decided to put it on for in-store
play at the record store where I worked at the time. I figured that it would be
filled with random computer noises that I could easily ignore, and maybe we’d
sell a copy in the process. Little did I know that when I hit play that day
that it would become one of my most listened to albums of all-time.
Allow me to explain: Multiply is not just a change in
direction for Lidell. With one prior solo full-length under his belt and a
handful of releases from his duo Super_Collider with fellow electronic artist Christian
Vogel, Lidell had already made a name for himself in techno and electronica
circles. However, on Multiply, he
makes a complete 180-degree turn into a new genre with the addition of vocals
to these new compositions. What makes this addition so striking is that the man
had evidently been hiding an incredibly soulful crooning voice and a knack for
writing clever lyrics all these years, giving this album the soul and spirit of
classic Motown or Stax. He puts these hitherto unknown skills to use with a
dynamic blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, while still retaining
his unique ear for modern dance styles.
It takes a
minute. The opener, “You Got Me Up,” is a short little dance number with some
effective disco-style vocals. But it’s not enough of a departure to really
predict what’s in store with the rest of the album. It’s only when the second
track, the stellar and infectious title cut, kicks in with its abrupt drum
break intro that you realize that this guy is decidedly not fucking around. The
influences here span across decades and
across genres. There are elements of Funkadelic (“When I Come Back Around”),
Otis Redding (“What Is It This Time?”), Night
Beat-era Sam Cooke (“Game for Fools”) and Prince (“New Me”). Where his
prior talent as a turntablist/laptop artist really comes into play are in
tracks like “A Little Bit More” where he effectively uses a loop of his own
vocals to act as a layer of percussion throughout the song. The Motown-esque
“Music Will Not Last” showcases his uncanny ability to harmonize (albeit, with
himself), and the closing track “Game for Fools” is quite possibly a better
version of an Al Green ballad than even the Reverend himself could do these
days.
And let’s
back up a second. Again, a mere three years before the release of Multiply, Lidell was pretty much doing
straight-up IDM exclusively and playing second stage on festivals like Sonar with
no name DJs. Since Multiply, he’s
released four more phenomenal neo-soul records that would put Harry Connick Jr.
to shame. On his most recent, 2016’s Building
a Beginning, he’s even ditched the electronic instruments altogether in
favor of a live band.
These days, you can’t spit without
hitting a nerdy-looking white guy trying to sound like a classic soul
singer. I can’t tell you how many times
I’ve heard a new release within the last few years that sounded like Rufus or
like Cameo, and then looked up the artist and found that he was a bespectacled
white dude mugging to the camera like a total asshole. It would be kind of
funny if it wasn’t so infuriating, even more so when I find myself actually
digging some of these artists. I’m not saying that in 2005 there wasn’t any of
this. Hell, Sean Tillman was doing his Sean Na Na/Har Mar Superstar thing long
before 2005. Nor am I saying that Jamie Lidell was the first to successfully
mix electronic music and R&B. There was a time in the 90s when I couldn’t
get away from that shitty Jamiroquai song to save my life. What I am saying is
that Multiply spoke to me in a way
that I hadn’t to been spoken to before. And I am forever grateful that I gave
this album a chance and didn’t see the Warp Records logo on the back of the
album and ignore it like I’d done so many times before.
-
Jonathan Eagle
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