I-HOP MP3: Scouring the Internet for free downloads leads to unintended mashups. This often occurs when various websites with embedded background music play simultaneously: a little rhythm here, some beats there, some atmosphere. If websites and pop-up ads persist in including background music, someday we might see the emergence of browser DJs.
Anyhow, as a result of these commonplace chance overlays, discovering a particularly dense and layered, structurally complex track can lead to doubt. Take “B-Boy Portrait in Spain” (MP3), which the Lex Records label posted as a promotional teaser for the album Beat Journey by Dr Who Dat? (That isn’t a question. The punctuation is part of the studio moniker of Jneiro Jarel.) The nearly three-minute piece opens with staggered beats that never quite match up, before being scratched into an extended bit of hazy trumpet, a la late-period Miles Davis, all atmospheric and tonal. There’s so much going on, it seems almost too good to be true. More info at lexrecords.com and jneirojarel.com.