Artiste: Robert Nacken
Album: It Could Be So Easy
Spotlight Track: Won’t Be
Label: Parallax Records BSCIJ-13
I know you must be scratching your heads thinking who the f*%k is Robert Nacken? His name and his music really doesn’t match, but here’s the thing, when you check out his tunes, then you’ll really know why he needs to be called Robert Nacken and not some other fanciful name.
Robert is true to his musical forms and plays the guitar and keyboards. Again, I know you’d be thinking why choose his own name for music that is so club jazz oriented and hip and I found the reason to be that it’s kind of catchy and easy to recall when you say Robert Nacken out loud. (Give it a try “ROBERT NACKEN”).
Anyways back to his craft. This dude hails from Germany and has 11 tracks to his name in his album titled ” It Could Be So Easy.” I would say the full length album can be hailed as quite experimental and covers quite a varied scope of styles ranging from Fusion Jazz, Clubby Jazzy Bossa, House, Latin etc… Yeah you said it, Nacken’s got it all covered…and I must add, his flavors and approach are pretty interesting to say the least.
For this week’s spotlight track and quite a tough one to spot amongst the 11 tracks, it has to be the airy, stringy, sexxy, euphoric reverbish track titled “Won’t Be”. Quite easy to describe this one as the sound is kind of 80’s in some ways at the intro (the pads will most definitely keep you flying high) , yet it has that clean minimal Japanese feel to the production (at the chorus breakdown, the Samba Bossa Nova gets strong) and reminds you of a carnival feel type of vibe.
The club jazz appeal for this 11 tracker is strong and in my opinion, I would give Mr. Nacken a nine outta ten for his efforts. Musically he deserves some credit for his efforts as each track as this album is totally different and has a unique flavor to it.
Call me a sucker for the pads and airy feel to the whole production (kind of like J Magik’s solo album), but when I hear Nacken’s production on this spotlight track, I know it’s a sure route to flyin’ high in the Brooklyn sky. For those keen into the experimental club jazz crossovers, do visit the folks at Parrallax Records Japan.
You are bound to find some new shit and hidden gems to collect. Savvy?
Tangkap This!!!
-Marcel
