HHV Germany Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Born in the Indian city of Gauhati, Jitwam grew up in New Zealand, Australia and London and lived in Thai monasteries and South African orphanages. Gradually, he gained the tools of an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, singer and producer. He has now arrived in Brooklyn - as sedentary as you can be with such a CV. His musical foundations correspond to a worldly career where he absorbed all that is is good musically: Moondog, Velvet Underground, RD Burman, Asha Bhosle, Jay Dilla, Madlib and Moodymann, to name but a few. The aforementioned Kenny Dixon Jr. used a track of Jitwam's in his DJ Kicks compilation - this did not happen by chance. This self-titled album appears for Berlin's HHV in cooperation with Auckland based Cosmic Compositions. It was mainly mixed and mastered by maverick beatmaker Matthewdavid at California's Stones Throw Studios. A series of stumbling, jazz/soul-rooted beat sculptures, each buried beneath a haze of fuzzy psychedelia, broken microphone blues and articulated through a freestyled process he describes as "first thought, best thought". This album solidifies Jitwam's spot as a major emerging talent.