Quannum: Quannum Leap - Raygun July 1999
By: Aidin Vaziri
DJ Shadow, Blackalicious and Latryx trade in the Solesides moniker for a fresher perspective: the Quannum collective.
DJ Shadow is lost in the groove. Again. With the ubiquitous baseball cap masking his face, the diligent turntable maestro is standing behind the decks, creating a shrill and funky racket out of a pair of hapless pieces of vinyl. He reaches a particularly volatile crescendo of beats and scratching – presumably the precise moment the crowd would normally break into ecstasy. Except today, Shadow isn’t on stage. He’s just a muggy rehearsal space in an industrial part of Oakland, and the only onlookers are a small group of his longtime friends and musical accomplices who are used to this sonic bravado.
Dressed casually in baggy chinos and plaid button up shirts, Lyrics Born and Lateef (better known as rap duo Latryx) and Blackalicious’ Chief Xcel and Gift of Gab lounge distractedly around the room, nodding their heads and chit-chatting. It may not look like it, but metaphysically they are all very much locked into the same abstract groove.
For nearly a decade, this misfit group operated under the name Solesides, ranking collectively as some of the Bay Area’s finest representatives of underground hip-hop. Last year, following a series of successful independent projects, they decided to bury the past and rechristen themselves as Quannum. The only things that remained were their progressive musical objectives.
"This is the nucleus right here," Lyrics Born explains. "But when we shut down Solesides and started up Quannum it was also a sort of rebirth. We all felt we had met our goals, so we wanted to cut it off and start again. We wanted to have a new angle."
Quannum’s extravagant mission statement can be found on its debut, Spectrum, a concise sampler of the group’s latest artistic forays. Presenting an inspired hip-hop and R&B soundclash, the album is conceptually framed by a fictitious radio show, and bound together by the considerable turntable wizardry of Shadow. Apart from expanding its musical template, the quintet has also opened up its exclusive club to a handful of new associates, including Divine Styler, Souls of Mischief and Jurassic Five.
"Spectrum is a celebration of our differences," Chief Xcel relates. "We all have been increasingly influenced by different things over the years and the album reflects a lot of that diversity."
Indeed, while DJ Shadow may have the international profile as a result of his major label solo output and his involvement in the Mo’ Wax/UNKLE stable, both Latryx and Blackalicious have been steadily garnering props for their radical work in breaking down the boundaries of rap.
"I don’t think we’ve ever entertained the thought of not working together," Lateef says. "Even when we made the shift to the other projects, they were only satellite dishes to what was going on. We always knew the five people here are linked."
Which explains why Shadow, who could be king of the world by now, finds himself conducting his abstruse symphonies in this sweaty storehouse, rather than on some Mediterranean cruise ship.
"The best part about doing this independently is that you know everything is about you," he insists. "If a record comes out and it looks good and sounds good and whatever, you know you were responsible for every single aspect. There’s a satisfaction you get out of that. It’s definitely more satisfying, even if the extrinsic rewards aren’t that great."
By: Aidin Vaziri
DJ Shadow, Blackalicious and Latryx trade in the Solesides moniker for a fresher perspective: the Quannum collective.
DJ Shadow is lost in the groove. Again. With the ubiquitous baseball cap masking his face, the diligent turntable maestro is standing behind the decks, creating a shrill and funky racket out of a pair of hapless pieces of vinyl. He reaches a particularly volatile crescendo of beats and scratching – presumably the precise moment the crowd would normally break into ecstasy. Except today, Shadow isn’t on stage. He’s just a muggy rehearsal space in an industrial part of Oakland, and the only onlookers are a small group of his longtime friends and musical accomplices who are used to this sonic bravado.
Dressed casually in baggy chinos and plaid button up shirts, Lyrics Born and Lateef (better known as rap duo Latryx) and Blackalicious’ Chief Xcel and Gift of Gab lounge distractedly around the room, nodding their heads and chit-chatting. It may not look like it, but metaphysically they are all very much locked into the same abstract groove.
For nearly a decade, this misfit group operated under the name Solesides, ranking collectively as some of the Bay Area’s finest representatives of underground hip-hop. Last year, following a series of successful independent projects, they decided to bury the past and rechristen themselves as Quannum. The only things that remained were their progressive musical objectives.
"This is the nucleus right here," Lyrics Born explains. "But when we shut down Solesides and started up Quannum it was also a sort of rebirth. We all felt we had met our goals, so we wanted to cut it off and start again. We wanted to have a new angle."
Quannum’s extravagant mission statement can be found on its debut, Spectrum, a concise sampler of the group’s latest artistic forays. Presenting an inspired hip-hop and R&B soundclash, the album is conceptually framed by a fictitious radio show, and bound together by the considerable turntable wizardry of Shadow. Apart from expanding its musical template, the quintet has also opened up its exclusive club to a handful of new associates, including Divine Styler, Souls of Mischief and Jurassic Five.
"Spectrum is a celebration of our differences," Chief Xcel relates. "We all have been increasingly influenced by different things over the years and the album reflects a lot of that diversity."
Indeed, while DJ Shadow may have the international profile as a result of his major label solo output and his involvement in the Mo’ Wax/UNKLE stable, both Latryx and Blackalicious have been steadily garnering props for their radical work in breaking down the boundaries of rap.
"I don’t think we’ve ever entertained the thought of not working together," Lateef says. "Even when we made the shift to the other projects, they were only satellite dishes to what was going on. We always knew the five people here are linked."
Which explains why Shadow, who could be king of the world by now, finds himself conducting his abstruse symphonies in this sweaty storehouse, rather than on some Mediterranean cruise ship.
"The best part about doing this independently is that you know everything is about you," he insists. "If a record comes out and it looks good and sounds good and whatever, you know you were responsible for every single aspect. There’s a satisfaction you get out of that. It’s definitely more satisfying, even if the extrinsic rewards aren’t that great."