The Mole — An instrumental pictorial of North San Juan
That Mole guy seems pretty open-minded but there is one thing that features very high on his agenda: hiphop, quality hiphop... He set up his own label (well, how do you want to release your music any other way when you’re from Hawaii and you don’t rap Nelly-style?) and puts out his stuff and other people’s music on CD-R. He seems quite confident about his and his partners abilities, Motion Recordings promotional compilation being subtitled “the best in post hip hop...” or maybe it’s just a matter of having fun?
As the title implies, the CD is instrumental and “is supposed to be some sort of musical pictorial of my home town, North San Juan, California”. Well it seems that North San Juan was quite a nice city to grow up in, the mood being mostly happy and chilled out throughout the record. The first track reminds me quite a bit of Tha Blue Herb (great Japanese hiphop crew –check the review), same kind of overall vibe and melodies. You might also link it to some DJ Krush tunes (not the darkest ones though). A very nice beginning. The next track, Field, mid-morning brings to my mind some clear images: little Jonah (aka The Mole) discovering nature under the watchful and amused eyes of his parents (“oh, butterfly come here”). I’m probably out of my depth on this but, well, those images in my head... Oh and it also features a bass and a guitar, thought I’ll let you know. Job site, late morning melody sounds like it could be a theme from Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi), the wonderful anime by Miyazaki Hayao, and that’s very good to me. I will quickly pass over the next track which sounds too much like a bad chase in some corny sitcom. Pond, early afternoon is much much better with its very nice combination of a guitar theme and beats, sounding like a not-heavy-DJ Shadow, a genre I recommend Josh Davis to explore, The Mole could give him a trick or two. Trailer park, sunset is another track benefiting from guitars and is equally good. Erm, even more actually, the beats being a tad more “complicated” and digitally worked. Someone’s dream, midnight is a Krush-like song, only a bit more out-there. The man’s dream seemed to be quite fun... Still about dreams, the next track is much more agitated, going from quiet moments to more rocking bits (enhanced by an harmonica) to a jazzy passage and an ending mixing each of those elements. Very enjoyable.
Town overview, late afternoon, Moonrise, night (funny tune) and Leaving town, first light are also good tracks.
The bonus track is the only on the album to feature vocals. The Mole has a voice of his own, the song reminds me a bit of Anticon but 2:14 is too short to be able to judge.
Overall, this CD lacks of very strong tracks and is somewhat “naïve”. It was released in 2001, probably recorded quite a while before and The Mole has stopped carrying it. When you listen to his newer, non-instrumental stuff, you can’t help but notice that his music has matured a lot and, of course, got better. However, North San Juan is a very good listen, a step towards greater things, never boring and much better than most of MTV-friendly hiphop. You can’t get this CD anymore but do not hesitate to get his other stuff, because he deserves it and most of all because it’s excellent: you'd do yourself a favour...
With his CD, The Mole also sent me two comps. The first one, MAUI? was done in collaboration with Tang Li Wheebs and is available for free download here. Good to excellent hiphop, electronica, alt rock/pop (just avoid Khrinj). Special mentions go to Juha, Hinterlander, Terms/One, the excellent Loganprojects (remind me to order their stuff one day) and #20 Dragonfly. The other one is a promotional copy featuring various Motion Recordings artists. Teachings? The Mole tracks are excellent (especially the ones from his Beloved retard babies album). Check out Nomar Slevik, JDWalker, Joe Rath, and Loganprojects (once again).
Info, MP3’s and orders: http://www.motionrecordings.com/