Bonafide Magazine @ MSN: Review: Teebs – E S T A R A

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Review: Teebs – E S T A R A Posted: 07 Apr 2014 03:44 AM PDT   Teebs makes music like Flying Lotus would, if he wanted to reproduce Los Angeles again but all his work took place on a tropical island in space. Teebs is Mtendere Mandowa, an artist in the music sense and artist in the painting sense, from California. An alumnus of the 2008 Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona, Mandowa co-founded artistic collective 'My Hollow Drum' before getting involved with Brainfeeder shortly after. His musical style is one of the most unique on the LA label. Most instrumental beat music you can position somewhere on a long scale of production. At the one end, you have the raw lo-fi instrumentals ripped from a computer’s insides – made by the likes of Samiyam, Culp and Dibiase. In between you have an incredible spectrum of bleeps and bloops, but right at the other end you would find Teebs. Teebs' music sounds alive, organic and lush – bursting out of headphones like it's birthed into existence on the spot. In 2010 Teebs released Ardour, shaking up up what was, at the time, a beat scene which was still working out its place in the wider soundscape of both LA and the post-Myspace internet. Prefuse 73's One Word Extinguisher was seven years old, Dilla had passed away four years earlier, and the now revered Brainfeeder was celebrating only its second birthday. What Teebs created was beats that were accessible to those outside of the inner circles. Whilst the secrets of Dimlite, Daedalus and Dabrye might come to those who have the patience and the ear to enjoy them, Ardour was electronic candy – instantly gratifying and easy to have too much. Teebs’ second proper LP, E S T A R A, retains his unique production style, but boils down the raw materials of its predecessor’s success into a more mature package. That's not to say that E S T A R A is without its fun. Hi-hat cracks and fizzles with the liveliest Ardour had to offer, but as a whole this album is more thoughtful than anything before it. Much of the album's second leg is dedicated to this subtle approach, with NY parts 1 and 2, as well as Piano Days and Piano Months pulling Teebs closer to the music of Baths, Gold Panda and Shigeto than of Ardour's most maximalist moments. Nevertheless, E S T A R A remains a wondrous album, rewarding on its first play through as much as its fifth. Immerse yourself in E S T A R A‘s warm waters and you’re unlikely to regret it. Words: Rory Foster