From the opening sample of Sixtoo’s second Ninja Tune release Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man, its obvious he’ll be giving every geek head electronic junky the fix their collective veins beg for: a quirky little mindfuck of beat-laden experimentalism.
What the Montreal-based sound maestro (aka Six Vicious) does on JaViEoM is completely fascinating. He cuts, weaves, and patches vast amounts of live instrumentation with his self-produced beats to produce a sample sounding record of spatial hip-hop minded soundscapes.
Much like his previous Ninja Tune full length, Chewing On Glass and Other Miracle Cures, or any of his excursions on other labels (Anticon, Mush, etc.), Sixtoo pushes music into new territories not often seen. At times the gentile instrumentation turns menacing and dark only to turn out subtle and gorgeous before giving way to rapid-fire cutting between the tracks. Think—equal parts paranoia to improvisational ingenuity just to keep it all interesting.
Never knowing what to expect, the music from track-to-track is fused by sampling brilliance. It’s like turning a big cockroach onto its back and waiting to see what happens next. It thrashes and begs for balance, only to find itself a directionless shell trapped out of its element.
Sixtoo’s heady compositions, denoted by parts one through 13, sound like one long string of interactive collages bound by complete self-reflective strangeness. For fans of DJ Shadow-era Entroducing to Godspeed! You Black Emperor to Amon Tobin and even cLOUDDEAD, buy this album. It’ll transform your head.
