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The next bad kid of the beats has arrived. Born in Germany, his family moved to Japan when he was one. Even though he lived there for a further 20 years, he kept his ties and moved back to Germany at the age of 21.

His first break came in 1995 touring Europe for five years as a DJ in a band called Be. He later got into the German jazz community, and co-produced Till Brönner’s 2002 album, Blue Eyed Soul (this album featured jazz legend Mark Murphy and Mark returned the favour on his most recent album, Love Is What Stays, which is getting some serious German remix interest; as predicted by yours truly).

Most recently, Samon worked with Compost’s Roberto Di Gioa (aka Marmobil) whose latest release included a remix by friends of Fly, Megablast and Makossa. When you find out that he’s warmed up for Guru’s Jazzmatazz, you can believe this guy has all the right credentials.

Now, after watching the Time Out’s The Other Side of Los Angeles with Madlib and Peanut Butter Wolf, Kawamura’s “rough around the edges” hip hop beat production style owes much to the Madlib/Stones Throw school together with the instrumental jazz heritage. Great, I’m going to love this I thought. And I do.

So fans of the leftfield hip hop like Dilla, Dabyre, Carlos Niño and jazzheads of the mellow kind a la Lonnie Liston Smith or Donald Byrd get the best of both. Head nodding in approval to this big time, particularly, ‘Timeless Space’, ‘U-Nu’ and ‘Everlasting’. And then there’s the very laid-back ‘As We Come’, ‘People’ and Destination Blue’. Oooooh! Sythn whispers get really outta space. Guest what? ‘Astral’ is definitely even further out there with ‘Last Call’

1Xtra’s Benji B has picked up on this album already and don’t be surprised if these catchy beats are going work their way into your consciousness. Tipping this one for the Worldwide Award nominations (along with label mate Joy Denalane); ‘One And One’ perhaps? album of the year? John Peel play more jazz award?

In total, 60 minutes of 21 tracks inevitably means that some are cut too short, like ‘Somiya’ and ‘Air’ that’s a little frustrating. That said, you’re going to have trouble getting this CD off your player.

We’re told that Samon is a prolific kind of guy with over 150 more tracks stored on his laptop! If they’re all as good as this, Samon is going to be getting much love.

Hectic Mix nominations: pleased to say you need all of this.

Reviewed: Samon Kawamura — Translations (Nesola) Cat No. NES88697080422 Release date: 16th July, 2007

Tracklisting:
1. Intro (0:55)
2. All About You (4:09)
3. Black Star (3:29)
4. U Nu (4:02)
5. One And One (3:36)
6. Timeless Space (4:14)
7. Somiya (1:35)
8. Everlasting (0:45)
9. Reflections (2:53)
10. As We Come (2:30)
11. You Are The Only One (2:24)
12. Destination Blue (3:10)
13. Astral (2:45)
14. Aaragon (4:36)
15. Air (1:12)
16. Tokyo Love (4:02)
17. People (4:32)
18. How Long? (4:43)
19. Last Call (2:35)
20. Outro (0:34)
21. Wake Up (2:05)

Links:
www.samonkawamura.com
www.myspace.com/samkawamura
www.nesola.de
www.damosuzuki.de
www.markmurphy.com
Benji B :: Tracklistngs 1st June 2007 :: “mixing it up with soulful sounds of the underground…”
Joy Denalane — Soweto 76 — 06 — (Nesola)
Mark Ronson — Oh My God (Instrumental) (Columbia)
Samon Kawamura — Translations (Nesola)
www.myspace.com/gillespeterson
Gilles Peterson :: Tracklistngs 31st May 2007 :: Box of Delights
Mark Murphy — Love Is What Stays (Henrik Schwarz Remix) (White)