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DJ Vadim (aka Vadim Peare) is a prolific DJ from Russia who has been based in London for years and has been purveying quality hip-hop, soul, reggae and electronica. He signed to Ninja Tune in 1992 and released loads of 3 solo albums, 2 group albums (One Self’s Children Of Possibility and The Isolationist), countless 12s, 7s, CDs, EPs, remixes, mixtapes and loads of tours, most recently with with Fat Freddy’s Drop, DJ Krush and Slick Rick.

A couple of years ago, he moved from Ninja Tune to BBE (last seen on FLY with the David Rodigan compilation Real Authentic Reggae Vol.2) and released The Sound Catcher album and not content “running around with a net picking out the best beats and pinning them down in an album”, there was the even more impressive The Soundcatcher Extras.

After that he couldn’t have imagined how bad 2008 would have been for this personal health and that of his family; suffice to say he beat off eye cancer and got on with producing this album, the title of which U Can’t Lurn Imaginashun having a metaphorical dig at upstart DJ/producers who bang out a dozen or so of near identical tracks off the computer.

Sticking to a genre is not Vadim’s way and if you needed proof, this album more than provides it. Not only that, there’s some killer tracks like the beats of ‘I Want To Shout Out’ that features Sabira Jade. It’s a new name to me but he’s found another great soulful vocalist here and sensibly uses her talents on many of the tracks including hot tracks like ‘Thrill Seeker’ and ska-bounce single, ‘Hidden Treasure’.

DJ Vadim and Jade have already had a warm-up gig at Favela Chic but the proper album launch party is at next week (21st May 2009) and it should be a corker as I expect some of the other artists on the album will be keen to show up.

Like Heidi Vogel (yes, she of ‘Wind, Sand And Stars’ from Emanative’s Space album), who turns up on the classically inspired hip-hop global beat of ‘Beijos’ (talk about imaginashun?) and then there’s the De La Soul meets Roger Troutman old skool of ‘Saturday’ with Pugz Atomz (what a great name?) and another one of our favourite ladies, Kathrin DeBoer (of Belleruche) keeps it ‘Under Your Hat’ with Governor Tiggy on a sunny reggae tip (as an aside, Belleruche brilliant on Mark Lamarr’s ‘God’s Jukebox’ last week, the only show that can play Little Anthony & The Imperials, Public Enemy and Belleruche in a row).

Talking of Northern Soul, another killer track is the neo-Northern Soul-rap of ‘That Lite’ (with Juice Lee and RJay) and getting back to the women in Vadim’s life, the No. 1 features on ‘You Are Yours’, namely Yarah Bravo. Regular readers will know we like some French hip-hop beats and La Methode give us the ‘Maximum’ and do not disappoint.

Whilst I keep coming back to ‘I Want To Shout Out’, there’s loads of gems here including the instrumental beats of ‘Game Tight’, the reggae opener ‘Soldier’ and the experimental closing track ‘Tu He Ma Ne Toddy’.

If you get the CD, in itunes player the genre defaults to ‘Unclassifiable’ and whilst that’s true, you could change it to ‘Vadim’ as he stands out on his own, a true fighter and originator - class album.

Reviewed: DJ Vadim - U Can’t Lurn Imaginashun (BBE) Cat. No: BBE145ACD Release date: May 2009
Tracklisting:
1 Soldier featuring 5nizza & Big Red (4:17)
2 R3 Imaginashun (4:14)
3 That Lite featuring Juice Lee & RJay (4:55)
4 Thrill 103 featuring Heidi Vogel (4:39)
5 Beijos (3:43)
6 Saturday featuring Pugs Atomz (4:19)
7 Maximum featuring La Methode (5:06)
8 Under Your Hat featuring Governor Tiggy & Kathrin Deboer (4:44)
9 Game Tight (3:17)
10 You Are Yours featuring Yarah Bravo (3:05)
11 I Want To Shout Out featuring Sabira Jade (4:19)
12 Always Lady featuring Pugs Atomz & Wes Restless (3:50)
13 Strictly Rockers 215 (3:45)
14 Pink Stiletoes featuring Sunny Singh(2:56)
15 Thrill Seeker featuring - Sabira Jade (3:31)
16 Rock Dem Hot (4:10)
17 Hidden Treasure featuring Sabira Jade (3:32)
18 Tu He Ma Ne Toddy (4:25)

Links:
www.djvadim.com
www.myspace.com/djvadim
www.myspace.com/sabirajade
www.sabirajade.co.uk
www.bbemusic.com
One Self is DJ Vadim, Yarah Bravo & Blu Rum 13.
www.myspace.com/yarahbravo “I shake it, but I’m saying don’t let it be your number one priority in life” Rugged Issue #17 Winter 08/09 www.rugged.tv
www.one-self.net
www.myspace.com/0neself
www.rhythmfactory.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk Mark Lamarr