BnB Review: Mark Farina – Mushroom Jazz 7
Written by Manu Ekanayake
ALBUM REVIEW - The San Francisco house don is back with his more chilled side-project, Mushroom Jazz, Volume 7 And this time, it’s even jazzier…
Mark Farina
Mark Farina met Derrick Carter in a record shop in 1988 – and in the world of dance music, that’s all you need to know. They both went on to become stalwarts of house’s first city, different sides of the same musical coin. Mark went on to hone his DJ skills in Chicago’s clubs, working in both the back rooms and the main rooms as experience warranted. This led him to develop a mixed-up style that was slower than pure house sets, and more inclusive of other sounds like hip-hop and jazzy downtempo beats, which he called ‘Mushroom Jazz’.
Mushroom Jazz
Mushroom Jazz started out as a small-scale mix series of just 50 copies – the next run was 500, which showcased Mark’s mix of the likes of De La Soul and Herbie Hancock blended in with funk classics, all mixed-up as smoothly as any house music mix. Then in 1992 Mark and partner Patty Ryan started the Jazid Up nights in their new locale, San Francisco, a city that Mr Farina is now firmly identified with. It was here that Mark and Patty partied for five years, until the club closed its doors. But by this point Mark’s Mushroom Jazz sound had a huge following and so he teamed up with Om Records to release the Mushroom Jazz series. This seventh edition is the first one not to be released on Om but comes on Farina's own label Mushroom Jazz Recordings.
Our verdict:
If you only know Mark through his prime-time sets in clubs, then this is something very different. It’s a lot more chilled, for one thing, plus there’s a lot of jazzy stuff that will get the Gilles Peterson fans nodding their heads and mouthing the words. It’s the perfect thing to have on when your mates pop round or you’re trying to put your head together after a long weekend (Stop complaining and get back to work! – BnB ed.)
Anyway, it’s the jazzy hip-hop flavours are that hit the hardest – Colossus’ Introduce is HUGE when it drops into the mix, plus Billa Quase’s All Night is a stone-cold killer near the end. And while the ‘magic mushroom’ samples might seem a bit juvenile, there’s nothing immature about the mixing or the track selection, as evidenced by the lush R&B of Colourblind by Nathan G and the wonderfully funky More by Joshua Heath. Derek Dunbar’s Please Be Mine is also a little piece of sonic gold. A real grower from Mr Farina, then, even if the concept is a little bit ‘90s chill-out compilation’.
Rating: 7.5/10
Label: Mushroom Jazz Recordings
Release date: Out now
Tracklisting
01. Lurob - Down The Road
02. Slakah the Beatchild - Macheeto
03. Nathan G - Colorblind
04. Andy Caldwell feat. Rico de Largo - Southern Plumperz
05. Joshua Heath - More
06. Tommy Largo - It’s The Beat
07. King Kooba - Bad Back
08. Colossus - Introduce (SLAP Mix)
09. Uneaq - Just Move
10. Jazz Spastiks - (Never Been To) California
11. Live Forever - Mark Oakland
12. Tommy Largo - Night Time
13. Derek Dunbar - Please Be Mine
14. Giano & Michael Knight - Walking The Dog
15. Jazz Spastiks - Amber Leaf
16. The Hue feat. Kissey Asplund - Stressin
17. Slakah the Beatchild - Living For The Rush
18. Billa Qause - All Night
19. Dave Allison - Brooklyn’s Groove
