Jeanrenaud, Joan and PC Muñoz: Pop-Pop

Joan Jeanrenaud is a fabulous cello player and joined the Kronos Quartet in 1978 and over the years has played on over thirty recordings and has been involved with countless performances. In 1999 she decided to leave the band in pursuit of a solo career. The move paid off as she won a Grammy award in 2008 for her album entitled Strange Toys.

PC Muñoz is a San Francisco based percussionist and producer who has dabbled in funk, hip-hop and avant-garde forms of beat music. He has worked with a variety of people including Jackson Browne, Ingrid Chavez and Dr. Fink of Prince and the Revolution and is the leader of his own funk ensemble (PC Muñoz's Left Hook). He helped out on a couple of tracks on the Strange Toys album so it comes as no surprise the duo decided to collaborate on an entire album which leads us to their new release Pop-Pop.

It is an interesting combination to say the least and I can honestly say I have not heard anything like this before which speaks of the originality of this music. The songs do sound a bit similar to one another but this was still a fun listen and although only a couple of instruments are used the sounds are quite intriguing. Muñoz keeps the tempo varied and uses an interesting combination of acoustic and electronic percussion melding with Jeanrenaud's wild string work. Jeanrenaud's swirling cello often has a trance like effect such as the hypnotic "33 1/3" or in the strangely seductive "Reveille" where droning cello and sparse jumbled beats forges the backdrop for her more dissonant endeavors. Her playing often pushes the outer limits, like in the spacey "Dive" with its huge wall of sound, and one is never quite sure where she will go next. For some real tripped out funky beats and percussion blasts check out "Snake" and the album ending "Freakbeat" where the song's title says it all.

Jeanrenaud and Muñoz give us a unique collaboration where hip-hop, jazz and the avant-garde form the latticework where the unexpected is common place and the norm is not quite what it seems.

Track Listing:
1. 33 1/3
2. Noise
3. Where's Raymond?
4. Panama Canal
5. Reveille
6. Snake
7. Helicopter
8. Hopper
9. Dive
10. Freakbeat

Added: December 1st 2010
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score:
Related Link: Record Label Site
Hits: 1906
Language: english

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