Now the cynic in me (and it must be admitted a monkey with somewhat puritan taste when it comes to ‘French Independent Rap’ (I am still somewhat ambivalent toward french ‘rock’ for instance) so it was with some trepidation that when, on one sunny Wednesday afternoon I came across the weird and playful beats of Chinese Man. These guys are a French independent rap outfit and I’m not sure it’s possible to describe this wonderful fizz of sounds but here goes: Try to imagine lindy-hopped, charlston-ridden riffs with a solidly edged rap infused with homages to Louis Armstrong. Now, if you can (and I took a while) get your head around that mezze then overlay it with some riffs created of traditional Chinese singing and you may approximate what this group do.
Chinese Man were formed in 2004 and hail from Marseille. Carried by Chinese Man Records label, they are essentially a collective French trip hop band created in 2004 and originally from Marseille. Influences are mainly drawn from hip-hop, funk, dub, reggae and jazz. Band members who make up this mix are High Ku, beatmaker SLY and Zé Mateo who all fuse to expound profundities like ‘too many mc’s, not enough mikes’- love it.
Highlights include ‘I got that tune’ ‘Indi Groove’, ‘One Past’ and ‘Miss Chang’. ‘If You Please’ will also leave you spinning a fair bit.
Web http://www.chinesemanrecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/chineseman
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