MASS PRO AND JAKE SNOW FOUND A TIME MACHINE: THEY PUSHED THEIR HANDS AND MPC’S THROUGH IT AND RECORDED SOME TRACKS..
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| this is the best picture of them I could find.. |
In the back of an old mill factory right down 63 a few miles from where I normally spend my time in the coffee shops of the 413 is a bunch of converted rental space that local hopefuls use to bang out the next generation of tracks. It’s poorly lit and hard to find and holds that kind of creepy too-deep-in-the-woods feel that makes the mind wander to horror movies of the 80’s. It is here that a fledgling group of MCs and producers decided they were gonna start putting their minds on tape and make a somewhat concerted effort to bring their style out of the woods and into a least a few near-by and far-away speaker boxes. The result of this effort is a 46.7 minute gateway. Its similar in size and dimensions to the one Donnie Darko used to push the jet engine out of the way of his bed, and due to this size Mass Pro is able to push a good chunk of their own resources through this gaping gash in the space/time continuum.
And yet this is only one of the laws of physics the crew breaks as I end an evening of experimental saxophone improvisation set over a live performance of drum and rhythm samples played by Jake Snow in his dungeon lair, a room in the Renovation Supplies Building in Miller’s Falls which houses a host of rock and pop-punk amalgamations fine tuning what seems to have become a brand more than a sound. Nameless powerchord riffs tumble out of a black orifice splattered with remnants of gig posters and notes to band members about rent dues on the rehearsal space for the month. All in all, the noise level is abrasive and the air tanged with red-bull and wrist-band sweat; it’s the perfect setting to go spelunking and find a truly precious gem of analog-to-digital conversion, warped vinyl and over-heated mixing board power supplies.
But back to the scene in Jake Snow’s particular corner of this condemned mill structure. The only word I want to use as I survey Jake’s gear and fire-hazardous cable-and-chord braids is “LAB”. Jake appears to work from an actual mad scientist set for a martial arts movie shot in the early 70’s with already outdated equipment. I’ve met and spoken to Jake before but never actually gotten the chance to sit down and try to absorb his music and, quite frankly, I’m a bit wary of what I see. Its not the first time a young would-be producer or MC has gotten me to sit down and spend some time listening to the verse or the 4-bar sample that is going to relegate said hopeful to the A-List of hip-hop royalty and alter the game forever. I admire those that keep that drive they feel in their hearts positioned so squarely on their sleeves but reserve enthusiasm.
Jake isn’t too sure I’m going to like anything he plays for me I can see in his eyes that he is actually concerned that my opinion is going to be way south of his as to the artistry he has managed to capture. The simple fact that he isn’t trying to glare me into believing that he IS, in fact, THE ONE is enough to keep me engaged, but it’s soundwaves Jake manages to output from his MPC 1000 and AKAI SB 1200 that make my eyes narrow and really start to listen, and then stop listening and shut my eyes all together. Jake and his compatriots in MASS PRO have, like a rose growing in a concrete jungle, found a thread and pulled hard. They don’t show any signs of letting go, and their collaborative effort entitled THE BOOM BAM drips with true hip-hop, the sights, scents and smells of Brooklyn in ’94 are there, as is the heat and sweat of the early 2000’s in Silver Lake and Echo Park where young producers like Mad Lib were casting off Hollywood’s glitter quotient for something that spoke to them in a stronger fashion. Arguments can be made about almost any period or era of almost any timeline that any particular sector is the truest, the realest, the one with the claim to embody most the spirit of said vehicle. For me, what hip-hop meant in the mid-90’s and for a short while there-after was the claim to this sector in my soul’s ear. Listening to the sounds Jake had mastered, and was creating right in front of my eyes layering drops and samples from the MPC directly over the recorded beat gave me a sense of nostalgia but also a feeling of true grit and a connection that radio hip-hop had long since abandoned.
Taking all this in and at the same time beginning to write these very words in my head I came to a conclusion, and was immediately satisfied with my decision to drive to Miller’s Falls on this sub zero evening on the Eve of the Second Storm of Destruction during the Winter of 2010-11, and especially that I had brought my saxophone in order to immediately take the chance to throw my own sense of ’94 on his casually calculated vibraphone samples and quantized drum hits.
Of course, without great depths there can be no great heights.
While Jake and his crew work with several examples of the canonized equipment, the essentials that Pete Rock, Premier, RZA and others slaved over in order to great the sounds that defined a generation, there is a lack of other basics. We plugged in borrowed headphones and draped extension chords across the console desk to get started. And there is no real output recording module in the room. Everything Jake has needs to be loaded into the MPC before it can be recorded. Nothing he has is mixed down or mastered. A 16-track hard disk recording unit carries the brunt of his operation. I stare blankly for a minute and begin to ask him about backing up his music but the words choke off in my throat. I know he doesn’t have an external drive to store his compositions. It’s a game of chicken that many of us play with fate, I lost my own hard drive a few weeks ago and there are few things more frustrating in life. Scarcity of resources creates desperate measures and I’d be the first to admit that part of the raw appeal of Jake’s music comes from the raw material he works with, the sparse nature of the surroundings, the isolation of the building and several other environmental factors that seem to coax a level of emotion from his equipment which can’t be found in more traditional work spaces. A thought process that could well be used to explain the transition some of my favorite MCs made between their 1st and 3rd albums..from the street to the mansion. Most unfortunate.
After several loops and a few trips outside to let Rocky, my 90 lb dog child, run around in the snow banks near the transformed mill, I ask Jake if he would be ok with me playing some sax over his beats. His eyes light up and I can tell he has been waiting for the opportunity for some time. I’m actually a bit nervous. This type of creation, playing over beats and then re-sampling to distribute over even more beats, has been a goal of mine since early in the days of my tenure with Audible Mainframe. So in a way I’m actually achieving a long-term goal. And I can tell that Jake has only had the chance to create with a handful of instruments and having an actual horn player in his recording space almost seems too good to be true. We try a couple runs through one of his medium, 85 to 90 bpm, loops with several piano riffs and a nice vocal sample thrown in. We are working on how to run the inputs into his 16 track machine and we make a decision to improvise as much as possible, simply letting the beat run while Jake manipulates the piano and vocal samples and I sit back throwing phrases over and over, trying to give several examples of similar ideas so that the best ones can be harvested and used again, the great tradition of reducing, reusing and recycling in hip-hop allowed to continue. After several minutes just playing for each other we stop to take a break and listen back to a few riffs. Jake is clearly quite pleased and I’m more than satisfied, happy to be still finding new and unique moments of inspiration in my own playing, and to be sharing a recording space with a player who is so singularly driven to just make good music.
Stepping outside again I let Rocky peruse the snowy wooded edges of the lot housing the Renovators Supply building and take a good look the landscape. As stated, we are certainly off the beaten path. Jake is guy who grew up out here, more woods than lights and no strong penchant for flashy attire, quite the opposite, its all Kurt Cobain-era flannels and ripped jeans. Like myself, he does have an eye for sneakers and footwear, and we comment on the fact that we’re both wearing Nike boots..even in the depths of winter and environmental hardship fashion must sometimes get eye to eye with function. Jake is the kind of person whose disposition, upbringing and love for music and hip-hop would make certain social groups of uninitiated and uncultured mallrats and couture classists ask stupid questions like “where did you even learn to like hip-hop? Why do you think you can make that kind of music?” the usual diatribes of lower intelligence and underlying bigotry; inability to accept or understand even the slightest differences. I long ago stopped trying to understand what drives people to create their own boxes and then distribute every human being they meet into one of these pre-fabricated boxes. It’s a psychological affliction I suppose we are all guilty of at times. What strikes me about Jake is that he doesn’t seem to realize that he doesn’t exactly fit the profile. He is almost overly layed back, even-tempered, the picture of easy-going hilltown Americana. Part of our conversation about current hip-hop (which is short) 90’s hip-hop (which could go on forever) and his own group and goals turns towards his public persona. In this age of internet MCs and YouTube superstars I simply want to know where he is at when it comes to promotional materials. Mass Pro have a website, its got information and lots of music. The basics are there but there isn’t even an attempt to create a lasting impression. I look under Jake’s profile on the website. He is listed as Red Idea. I ask him about the nickname and he tells me he has tried a few different ones and none have really stuck. Then he says something truly profound, “I’m not even sure what the big deal is about having a name,” he quips while I’m prodding him again about promo. I stop and think about this statement, which I realize completely defines his stance and perspective on the music he loves. His casual, perhaps even subconscious resistance to the spotlight is the opposite side of the braggadocio and ridiculous clothing, cars etc. rap that has taken its place in the mainstream of hip-hop, attracting the street dreams of teenagers and solidifying the disgust for the art form held by older generations and the status quo. In this sentence he shows once again how easily he breaks the boundaries of physics by proving that in fact not everyone out there is doing it strictly for the Benjamins. It’s a nice reminder that physics is not the only set of rules at work in the universe and that there is a time and place to break those rules and if you are to be bound at all, to be bound by something on a higher plane that twists physics and science into just another cup of morning coffee and makes hip-hop that makes you want to put your headphones back on. Maybe even makes you want to go look for your walkman and play some tapes and force a hard listen, all the way through the whole side of an album instead of just your top 10 favorite songs of last month determined by…who? Ryan Seacrest?
It’s hard to know what Jake even expects or hopes to gain from his music, maybe nothing. If that’s the case then I can only hope Jake Snow and his Mass Pro cohorts continue making their brand of time-travel hip-hop, taking us back to when people rhythmed and rhymed for reasons that had nothing to do with champagne or foreign cars. I hope I get a chance to make more music like this with Jake and I hope that someone reads this and takes the time to search out Mass Pro, light something and enjoy music for all the right reasons again.
*check out their website where the generously offer many of their tracks for free
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