Reminder - Continuum

On a label "under the guidance of" Scott Herren (Prefuse 73), Joshua Mikah Abrams releases his first future jazz and instrumental hip hop album under the name Reminder. Abrams' experience, however, dates back to the 90s, with some notable contributions as a professional double bass player for The Roots' Organix, Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Yanqui U. X. O., and (of course) a couple of last albums for Savath & Savalas. Abrams is also a member of Town And Country, which has been consistently outputting downtempo albums for the Chicago's Thrill Jockey label. A little rough around the edges (which is a desired effect in the genre) the composition of trip-hop sampled beats, live instrumental deep grooves and urban rhymes from Thaione Davis, mark Continuum as an ideal entry level album. For the likes of Ninja Tune fans. Favorite tracks : Pinheiro's Message (with Akin's Portuguese spitting vocals), Now I Disappear and Dri (for its lo-fi jazzy vinyl sound).

Although this is the debut album by Joshua Mikah Abrams under the Reminder name, there are some pretty high hopes attached to it. The reason for this is Abrams’ impressive and ever growing list of collaborations, having contributed bass to albums by The Roots, Diverse, Tortoise, Sam Prekop, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and David Grubbs. Furthermore, Abrams comes highly recommended by Guillermo Scott Herren (Prefuse 73, Piano Overlord, Savath + Savalas, Delarosa), who released Continuum on his Eastern Developments label. However, despite the dense history Abrams has in indie rock, Reminder is the name he has designated for production of organically arranged, future-jazz-based downtempo and hip-hop. Well, I suppose “Now I Disappear” is technically drum and bass, but that’s just double-speed hip-hop anyway. Reminder’s cavernous lounge beats are pretty far from Prefuse’s glitch-hop. It’s often hard to tell which instruments are sampled and which ones are played by Abrams, or if it’s both. But even though the sounds are smooth, there is something about Continuum that is distinctly amateur. I suppose there’d be something of a transition period in coming out from under the shadow of so many great artists, so I’m quite interested to hear where he goes with this project. And under the rhymes of Thaione Davis, “Leave What You Came With” shows that Reminder is real close to being something truly special in the rich land of underground hip-hop.