The second volume in the mix series from
DJ Andy Smith proves that his
Portishead connection may have gotten him a deal, but it's his skills -- and his ear -- that have kept him working for five years.
The Document II isn't quite a hip-hop mix, though a lot of it is hip-hop (half underground, half Golden Age). It's also not a
Coldcut-style mash-up of the bold and the bizarre, though he does remix whitebread crooner
Jack Jones and follows up Def Jux storyteller
Mr. Lif with a gritty rocker from
Three Dog Night.
Smith appears to love dusty soul 45s (check out
Patti Drew's red-line version of "Hard to Handle"), but he also treasures modern deep funk from contemporary groups like
Quantic Soul Orchestra and
Sugarman 3. The only qualities that unite these tracks are catchy riffs and excellent breakbeats;
The Document II is packed with excellent, obscure tracks, all presented with breathtaking pacing. And to listen to it is to be continually amazed by transitions that surprise but also sound perfectly natural. (For examples, listen to
Smith's seamless mix of a high-stepping hip-hop instrumental by DJ Bombjack into
Serge Gainsbourg's lecher classic "Requiem Pour un C," or the way he deftly allows
Ultramagnetic MC's to bleed into
the Blue Flames.) The only track that isn't mixed is the touching closer,
Barbara Acklin's elegant late-'60s Brunswick nugget "Am I the Same Girl?," a vocal version of Young-Holt Trio's popcorn classic "Soulful Strut." Pure genius. ~ John Bush