The Beat Surrender

For any of you that aren’t aware of the funk fuelled eclectic work of Treva Whateva then I’ll give you a brief run down of his past. He’s released a number of records over the last five years, he’s helped the lovely people at Grand Central compile their Mystic Brew compilations and his still found the time to build a solid reputation as a DJ, with dates all over the globe.

Despite his relentless work ethic he has yet to release a long player his self. That is until now, on the 18th July Treva delivered his musical first born into the world. Music’s Made of Memories weighs fourteen tracks on the CD version and is a healthy bouncing album that will have your whole body moving and shaking with joy.

The album title suggests that this is a retro album, or draws heavily on the past as its influence. While it’s impossible not to be influenced in some way by what has gone before you, the truth is that Music’s Made of Memories is as modern a sounding album as you will hear this year, yes the odd moment may take you back to a period of when you grew up listening to dance, funk, drum and bass etc but it is only a memory that’s triggered. This is an unashamedly contemporary album, everything has a fresh twist of today about it, be it the many instruments and the way they are played through to the production on the album.

The only time I felt myself thinking “this takes me back� is the skits in between the tracks. As with De La Soul’s seminal 3 Feet High And Rising album from 1989 these are used to break up the tracks, with four of them evenly punctuating the album with witty and amusing snappy anecdotes, advice and conversation. The best of which is probably Breakfast of Champions which muses over getting high for breakfast. I’m not sure if it’s an intentional homage to De La Soul in doing this, but either way the skits serve a purpose and help to give the album a structure, particularly as so many different sounds, styles and genres are used within it, the skits stop tracks that wouldn’t otherwise work next to each other on the album jarring together.

So what of the music then. Well as I alluded to earlier it’s an ass shaking ride of tunes that get every part of your body moving. You are treated to a lesson in scratching on the turntable-istic hip-hop of Bouncing Bomb. The brass breakdown on Singalong follows the funky keyboard and repetitive vocal that encourage you to “clap your hands� as you listen to it you find that even people like me with no rhythm suddenly find various limbs moving in time to the music. Havana Ball is a superb funk wiggler that turns into a 1920’s Charleston midway through, it’s like a slightly more deranged Greenskeepers track, brilliant stuff!

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