telephone jim jesus

Anywhere Out Of The Everything

*Now available on Vinyl* The sophomore album from Telephone Jim Jesus (aka George Chadwick) is something of a melancholy affair. That's not to say that usually an Anticon album is a barrel of laughs, but there's a definite sense of sadness and disillusion on offer on 'Anywhere Out of the Everything', which becomes clearer when you read about the conditions it was created under. Chadwick tumbled on tour after the break up of an eight year relationship and ended up staying in Europe for four months, hopping from city to city before eventually returning to the USA. But far from go back to his everyday life he managed to get involved with doing reconstruction work in a Vietnamese community on the Gulf Coast and taking part in anti-war demonstrations, all of which contributes to the cut-and-paste imagery of the record. There might be nothing new in the lo-fi sample based compositions, but the mood is such that they draw you in, somewhere inbetween the sadness of college rock and the mystery of DJ Shadow, with a hint of electronic experimentalism thrown in for good measure. Opening track 'Did you hear?' is my pick, with nods to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in its inventive collage and to Sixtoo in the grumbly lo-fidelity production. Apparently much of the material was collected on Dictaphone in London, where Chadwick would record everything from buskers to conversations on the train, all of which is added to the tapestry of the recording. An intriguing listen and anything but a straight-forward instrumental hip hop record.