By Mark Kirby
When a DJ opens his liner notes with a shout out of thanks to his mom and dad, you know he's on some different trip. In a music genre that is all about the DJ-as-God, that is about excess of sex, clubs, drugs, and power, it's unusual to find someone who seeks to uplift and feed the soul. Well, DJ Jaspa is on a different level.
This comes as no surprise since, hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, he comes out of the traditionally, culturally adventurous northwest and in that refined country sometimes referred to as "America, but cooler and more European." This city is racially and culturally diverse and the closest city North American has to Asia. In a place with all of these different forces bouncing off each other, it follows that rules can be broken or bent - but in a refined way, minus all the chest thumping and look-at-me-ism that plagues the ego-driven scenes of New York, London and other places.
DJ Jaspa's record 'A Long Time Coming' is a mix of ambient, trance, and jazzy house grooves, with dollops of hip hop and rock. The opening track, "A Long Time Coming", is like the opening dream sequence of a French film, replete with subliminal voices, thick droning synthesizer, and breathy, French-spoken words. This is ambient music at it's best.
The next cut "Get Into The Groove," evokes trance music, but the groove is heavier and has more swing than usual, and has a warmth more evocative of late eighties, early ninety's electronica, especially with the drum machine hand claps, and the jagged wash of Ian Moar's guitar. This is the beginning of the action of his imaginary film of which this CD is the soundtrack. While most electronica worships the machine, DJ Jaspa comes from the heart, the ghost in the machine.
Read an interview with DJ Jaspa
http://www.musicdish.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=58
Website:
http://www.djjaspa.com
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