Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for me to give a shout-out to the Broolyn Ballers and each of the readers from elsewhere as we get prepared for yet another daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A self-described “Psychedelic Soul Savant” who was born in North-East India, now based between New York and Sydney, moved to New Zealand and Australia to spend his formative years there, later living in monasteries in Thailand and washed-out apartments in London, Jitwam is the co-founder of Chalo, an ambitious creative project alongside Dhruva Balram that supports up-and-coming Indian, Pakistani and Kashmiri artists, with a full-length self-titled album being released via The Jazz Diaries in 2020 that had its proceeds donated to the Human Rights Law Network and the Zindagi Trust. As a solo artist, however, he’s released a string of EP’s and a few albums, with 2019’s ‘Honeycomb’ serving as his latest LP. Jitwam has also collaborated with numerous artists including Dam Swindle, Mike Bloom and renowned Broken Beat maestro Kaidi Tatham. Other career highlights include his placements on Moodyman’s DJ-Kicks compilation series, embarking on a national NTS Radio tour in India, touring across the US and Europe, and opening a show for the acclaimed Funk virtuoso Roy Ayers with his full live backing band. His brand new single – ‘Brooklyn Ballers’ – is a one-off release from what I gather, but it offers an energetic ode to his passion for (just) one of the area’s that he has lived in throughout his eventful lifetime. Give it a spin below.
“Brooklyn Ballers is a homage to the city in all its hustle and bustle“, Jitwam explains about the far-reaching notes of the track which are delivered below the soulful and radiant instrumentation, adding, “The magic in the air, that can make dreams come true and can turn your fears into your worst nightmares“, in his own single’s product description on the Bleep website. The opening reminds me of one of Skule Toyama or Night Tempo’s modern Chillwave records, where the summer atmosphere shines right through thanks to the raucous sampled guitar hook that induce the nostalgia of the 70’s Disco-Rock era, before the track soon evolves into more of a Detroit House style of record with additional elements of Hip-Hop and World Fusion music. The lead vocals have a spoken, but catchy and rhythmic, delivery to them where subtle nods to Guns ‘N’ Roses ‘Paradise City’ and Joe Smooth’s ‘Promised Land’ creep in due to the lyrics and the key song structure. A myriad of styles, including Psychedelic Soul and Vaporwave, make their way into the instrumental-driven sections of the track. Jitwam melds together the Gospel-esque backing vocals, some Madlib-style sampling and some Maribou State-style cues of World-Funk and Dub into the mix too to finalise the package, which plays out as a chilled soundtrack to his simple love for the location and a very deep, percussive groover that acts as an ode to some of New York’s most respected producers. The area’s energy is almost embodied by the Jazz inflections and the Detroit House influences, creating a laid back shuffle that gradually builds and draws upon various elements to expand it beyond the original state. A chef’s kiss.
That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest blog post, and I’ll be ready to take you through a new entry of ‘New Album Release Fridays’ tomorrow as we take a quick preview of one of the weekend’s new and notable album releases. The record in question comes from the Prog-Jazz and Electronica sides of the Alternative Music spectrum by a duo made up of two members from The Comet Is Coming. The duo’s drummer has also toured with Sons Of Kemet, Melt Yourself Down, and Yussef Kamal.
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