Smokey Joe & The Kid are a pair of "beat maestros" from Bordeaux, France with a self proclaimed hip-hop obsession and plenty of energy to burn.
For their second album, the duo gathered their musical family for a project they apparently wanted to work either as a party album or as a more sober at home listening experience.
The mash-up of old-time Swing, Jump-Jiving Jazz, Blues, Soul, scratchy beats and rap is restless to the point of being downright manic. The thirteen tracks hop from style to style interspersed with a plethora of samples from movies or clips "inspired by the traditional American music repertoire"; Funny Guy, for instance, has clips from Goodfellas.
Bank Holiday features some sultry late-night female vocals while So Sexy dispenses with any romantic niceties with US rapper Blake Worrell coming on strong.
Prohibition 2, featuring Yoshi, has an unmistakably French flavour but the rest is in thrall to the U.S.A and comes to a head with Smokid Allstars an all hands to the pump track where guests line up to take their allotted turns in the spotlight.
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If you're interested, the pool of artists on call include: US trombonist Fred Wesley, LA rapper Pigeon John, French DJ Netik , ASM (a trio), Chill Bump (a duo), UK's Youthstar, Ua Tea (a French "Enthno-Folk trio") and Californian MC NON Genetic.
To my ears, all this razzamatazz has a very specific target audience in mind. Forget any spurious notion that this album could be enjoyed in the tranquillity of your living room since this is the kind of music tailor-made for a pumped up crowd in a club or disco.
If it's subtlety you're after, look elsewhere.
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