Midnight Crew: Drawing Dead, the very first theme album, up next.
By Clark “Plazmataz” Powell
Piano, drumset, and bass happens to be my favorite jazz ensemble and man, does this number do that trio justice. There’s a break at around 1:20 where it really cuts loose. That bit didn’t make it into the Flash, and it’s my favorite part of the song. Love hearing that big bass just tear it up.
By Toby “Radiation” Fox
It’s got some great piano and synth hooks, but I have to admit that I think Black is a superior remix. Whereas this tune is driving but measured, Black throws away any pretense of control and just cuts loose.
If this tune is Diamonds Droog, carefully orchestrating and executing his psychopathic plan…
…then Black is Spades Slick (or any of the Jack Noir incarnations, for that matter) spouting one-liners and stabbing everything in front of him as fast as he can.
By Mark Hadley
Harlequin with a side of jazz. The sax and bass interludes between the main cover melody give it a little more of an edge.
By Mark Hadley
Another bass, piano, and drum trio, but this time the piano and the drumset are there for backup. This is a bass-led jam, and it’s that much cooler for it.
By Kevin Regamey
A slow-paced ensemble tune. The sax lead is natural and flows well (which is a bit of an exception for the album: more on that later), and I especially like the clarinet reply in the second half.
By Mark Hadley
The unofficial theme of the Midnight Crew. The saxophone suggests style, but that ominous string section says ‘beat with a sack full of doorknobs first and ask questions later.’
By Hilary “Pie” Troiano
The whole album has a serious noir vibe to it, but this song’s the noirest of them all. I can just picture Spades Slick playing that maudlin trumpet intro in the rain, underneath a single lonely streetlight. Possibly after being stabbed in the eye by a femme fatale.
By Andrew Huo and Ian Taylor
The intro sets the tone, with its hopping around in key and pitch. Vaguely unsettling, which I’m sure is the intended effect. That muffled, phased processing effect suggests that you’re sitting in the very back of a smoky dive while the band plays on.
By Gabe Nezovic
Jazz-concrète. It’s an interesting experiment, but a little too abstract for my tastes.
By Andrew Huo and Michael Guy Bowman
Like Hauntjelly, the intro’s pretty cool, but the trumpet part is just a little too perfectly played, the timing absolutely precise.
RATING: 6 / 13 – It’s goddamn bedlam down here.
The very first theme album. If the Midnight Crew formed a band, what would it sound like? Since they originate from the hard-boiled, ‘two steak dinners’ world of Problem Sleuth, jazz and noir rules the day. The whole album has a very listenable quality to it, and there’s a few great songs (Three in the Morning, Ace of Trump) scattered throughout as well. Lots of jazz piano, bass, and drums. But there’s one thing that holds me back a bit.
Saxophone must be one of the toughest instruments to produce samples for. On some of the songs where the sax leads the charge, I have a hard time ‘suspending my disbelief,’ so to speak. It’s got that throaty, growly tenor sax voice, but it just feels a little bit off in tone and cadence. Compare Liquid Negrocity to the saxophone lead in Blue Atom, which was a live alto sax player. The transitions in the latter are crisp but much more natural (especially near the end when the part gets busy).
And jazz is one of the most organic forms of music there is. When I think of jazz, I think of Miles Davis wailing away on the trumpet, or Blind Willie Buttermilk Stubbs usin’ his twiddlin’ fingers.
All that being said, it’s a good collection of neo-jazz-noir, one that works on its own level throughout (there’s not much in the way of dead spots).
Click here for individual song reviews for Midnight Crew: Drawing Dead.