On a leisurely evening at your local tavern, surrounded by good beer and close friends, have you ever found yourself wishing you could simultaneously revisit your weird uncle’s wedding reception? If so, you certainly should have spent this past Sunday night at Wunderbar, with Canadian alt-hip hop project Socalled.
This isolated, but strong, independent-not-indie pub played house to a lively playdate between Josh Dolgin (Socalled’s creative voice) and a myriad of local hip hop talent - including Mikey Maybe, A.O.K, and surprise appearances by artists Mitchmatic and Joe Gurba (The Joe). A refuge for the weary beer enthusiast, Wunderbar Hofbrauhaus is also known for it’s support of great music. A venue open to all artists within the local and surrounding subculture, it has often been home to Edmonton’s strongest voices in hip hop.
First on the bill was the energetic angst of Mikey Maybe, who is known for creating many of his beats simply with the handheld video Nintendo DS. His low-bit, quick lipped jams were smoothed over by the dapper flow of Omar Mouallem (A.O.K.). Mouallem, a resident journalist and author away from the stage, provided patrons with a higher class of hip hop alongside thickly banging bass lines.
Batting third was long time vocal support for Dolgin - Katie Moore, who has featured on works by Canadian artists such as Chilly Gonzales, Feist, and Patrick Watson. Supported by guitarist-folk singer Mike O’Brien among others, the session formed tightly around Moore’s crisp vibrato. Her country influences clear, this chanteuse of crimson curls seemed unable, however, to settle into the venue on this night. Their talent notwithstanding, the group was the definitive choice for ‘odd one out’ amidst an electronic intent and heavily sample-based rhythmic focus of her fellow artists. For a project that has garnered Moore critical acclaim since 2007, the issue was clearly a case of content vs context.
It took until after midnight, four hours past the advertised start to the show, for Socalled to finish setting up. I had begun to begrudgingly calculate the hours between the time I would anticipate the show closing up, and the time I needed to wake for my first class. Hardly the schedule I anticipated, but my zeal for the night’s showing was resolute.
And, the headlining act did not disappoint. Socalled sealed the night with a wonderfully eclectic mix of funk, rap, urban, klezmer, polka, jazz, traditional, electronic, soul, and accordion folk. The sound is highly transcendental, largely due to Dolgin’s tendency to mix unconventional samples (most notably Jewish Traditional) with hip hop breaks. In the wake of his major releases, Ghettoblaster (2007) and Sleepover (2011) however, this approach has burdened him with a fight against the classification of Jewish Hip Hop artist.
Taxonomy in music is, to him, a venture without purpose. Hip hop has merely been a product of self-expression, not a conscious means to an end. “It’s nothing, he says. “Why do we need it to be anything? Everybody has so much music, why make a choice? If you like all music, work with all your favourite musicians, why limit yourself?”
His mission is simply to preserve a vanishing piece of musical history that has long suffered against political circumstances. “Everybody knows about jazz,” said Dolgin. “Everybody can study jazz in University, but klezmer music is this amazing style that was really just lost, the source of it is gone. When Jews came to North America, they assimilated and stopped speaking Yiddish...They wanted to have a normal, unharrassed existence.” In response, he has dedicated a large part of his musical career to the proliferation of Jewish songs. Though he admits the sound is dated, he fails to understand its limitations as such. “If you like good music it’s another type of good music...People still like Mozart, and that’s old too.”
Socalled is like a plate at the buffet, where foods are of little correlation, but often surprise the consumer with an unexpected mix in the middle of the plate. One that surprises and charms; that blends together two or more things many would think shouldn’t go together. One that, when described for the first time to others, will surely raise a quizzical eyebrow.
The sound, to some, may not be quick to the palate. But whatever remote niche the project occupies, it does so with a sharp creative vision, deft production technique, and keen musical taste. Socalled is a refreshing venture, that has risen to international acclaim on the basis of Dolgin’s own unique blend of world musics. It is a staple experience for the open minded music lover, I recommended sitting down for a sample.
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