Ubiquity Records reported on March 23 that Greyboy, aka Andreas Stevens, the DJ who helped bring acid jazz to the United States, has delivered rough, initial tracks toward his next full-length release. (Greyboy’s longtime live act, Greyboy Allstars, helped get the careers going for such groove-oriented jam-jazz players as saxophonist Karl Denson and keyboardist Robert Walter.) In advance of the arrival of a full Greyboy disc, there remain a solid 10 free MP3 tracks available on Greyboy’s somewhat out-of-date website.
The tracks, dating from the latter half of 2001, are all drawn from a reportedly unreleased album he recorded with DJ DNO, apparently titled In the Lab. These are all relatively minimalist breakbeat tracks, looped drums enlivened by a small amount of melodic dressing. “Three Gods” layers a short, sharp harp run over a lowdown bass line and a drum pattern that retains the grit of the vinyl from which it was lifted. “Organ Grind,” a great title by the way, runs a taut organ riff over a staunch, lockstep pattern. “Street Tech” opens, uncharacteristically, with what might as well be a sample from the theme from Fame, with small bursts of anthemic, Giorgio Moroder-style synthesizers, but soon the drums come in, and in a subtle way they insinuate some swing into the initially cold keyboards by accenting an off-the-beat rhythm; the result has a light taste of Kraftwerk to it. At under three minutes a pop, these 10 tracks work well as a mini suite of downtempo counterpoint.