It is always being on the edge when you work outside any specific, strictly defined music genre. Quite risky, for the artist, as you have to seek listeners that have a more open musical mind that will accept genre-crossing, but one that actually works.
Portland-based producer and composer Andre Burgos, who operates under the moniker Brown Calvin is certainly one such artist, as his latest release dimension//perspective amply shows.
Throughout the album, Burgos operates through open-ended genres such as spiritual jazz, experimental hip-hop, and electronica often touching on artists like Sun Ra, and Alice Coltrane, but also Shabazz Palaces and an array of Warp Records artists.
He combines all these elements, both through the 18-minute-long ‘dimensions’ and through the series of brief ‘perspective’ tracks, exhibiting an excellent sense of tonal movement and some off-kilter beats. The music has an easy flow that is both improvisational and structured, something that is so hard to achieve for many artists taking a similar path.
It is mostly Burgos and his Rhodes electric piano and electronics throughout the album, but he is able to achieve a staggering variety of sounds throughout that exhibits some serious musical sense and imagination.
