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"If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together."

~ Richard M. Nixon

I don't think there are many musical biographies that start with quotations of Richard M. Nixon but DJ Vadim, the John Coltrane of hip hop isn't your average around the way producer.

These days producer / DJ's come a dime a dozen. If you are expecting to hear the same old, the average, the normal, the mundane 12 tracks looping the same soul records for 4 minutes; you may be disappointed.  This is different, this is Independent music, it's from the earth, organic, single estate, nutritious, whole-grain, wholesome: soul music. For DJ Vadim, it's a journey, and with every album comes new expressions and colours. For those who have just joined the adventure, you couldn't have joined at a better time. The new album is without doubt the best so far.

DJ Vadim has made a long career out of travelling the world and delivering innovative head pounding beats.  4 solo albums, 2 group albums (One Self, The Isolationist), 1 remix album, countless mix tapes, EPs, remixes, all the 12's and 7's under his belt; and 14 years later we arrive at 'U Can't Lurn Imaginashun,' the new DJ Vadim album. It's a continuation of the journey but much more than that. For an artist with such a long recording pedigree it would be easy to sit in cruise control, knock out music by numbers, and stay in the box... ...however that isn't DJ Vadim and 2008 wasn't the average year for this musicista.

"2008 has been the worst year of my life. I went through the most gut wrenching emotions with family trauma and personal health. My father went partially blind after having 3 failed cataract operations.  My mother nearly lost her house in the credit crunch and ended up having anxiety attacks. My wife was very ill and I went blind in my left eye. I was diagnosed with eye cancer at the end of the summer and had a very precarious operation to remove it. It was the darkest moment of my life. For the first time I had to dwell with the idea of death and not being invincible, but I felt kindness, love and appreciation from so many people around the world praying and sending positive energy, thank you to you all. The surgeons saved my eye, got rid of the cancer and since then I've gone on to complete a new album."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge" ~ Albert Einstein

"U Can't Lurn Imaginashun' is about having to go within the deepest parts of you to find inspiration. In life we are taught so much; at school, in courses to learn languages, computer studies, science, religion and sport; we live in a time of unprecedented technology which is available at our finger tips. Each year we get cheaper, more powerful, more portable computers, phones and music programmes; new tools to help us create and communicate. Imagination is one thing you must go inside yourself to find and none of this technology helps us with that; neither cheap computers or more powerful software can make the music for you. Imagination, the will to fight for your life, to love and to struggle; these must come from within. Imagination in a way is the basis of all of life. It's about thinking about possibilities; 'what if that wasn't like that, if that was different, if...' So many people live their life without asking why, or if; just accepting the rules, accepting the cards they're dealt, accepting authority, governments, companies, pollution and waste; We're not  looking forward to what could be; what can be, if we take responsibility and just do it. We can build a better world and we don't have to accept our fates and give in.

Being diagnosed with the unimaginable; cancer, I had to fight for my life. I wasn't going to let the cancer overcome me, my body or my passion - music. With tragedy at the door I looked within myself to create something new. I felt kindness, love and appreciation from so many people around the world praying and sending positive energy... ...I didn't accept the cards dealt to me and since recovering I feel healthier for it. I know who my real friends are. I would never wish what I went through on anyone else but I wouldn't change it for the world because it made me, is making me, into a better me."

'U Can't Lurn Imaginashun' is a testament to 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger,' and beyond that, it's a call to realize dreams despite adversity. The creative juices condensed by a tough year, 2008, the year where banks crashed, governments quaked, and DJ Vadim faced up to his fears and realized his own mortality. The ocular melanoma that grew unseen in Vadim's eye and the whirlwind operation that saved his life did nothing to dampen his spirit, Vadim got through it and thankfully 2008 wasn't all bad. From adversity came touring worldwide with Fat Freddy's Drop, DJ Krush and Slick Rick. 2008 also found Vadim digging deep to find something new within to write a new album, find new expressions and even skills. The new album debuts Vadim's foray into playing keyboards and 'singing' (through a vocoder, talkbox and autotune!); stepping out from behind the desk. For this album, it's about crafting the song.

"This is something I never would have done 10 years ago, let alone even on my last album. I feel like the album musically bridges gaps between the eclectic and what is more 'mainstream.' Bridging genres and drawing elements from soul, hip hop, reggae, downtempo, this is defiantly a move to more electronic sounds from my 'Soundcatcher' album of 2007. Perhaps you could describe the sound as 'Soul 2 Soul' meets Daft Punk for 2009!' 'Eh, maybe we'll call it 'Soul-step!"

Like a fine wine that takes exceptional ingredients, years to mature, space to breathe and take on the flavours of its environment; a great producer must experience life, sound, humanity, nature and emotion and use these as his ingredients. The truly international DJ Vadim has journeyed around 60 countries playing over 1500 gigs on a musical and life forming adventure; Vadim brings with him these ingredients; sounds he's heard, artists he's met from long and far, experiences and emotions, as he steps into his basement studio to sonically distil.  The musical vocabulary that he expresses in this album show flavours from all corners of planet earth, and ultimately what it is to be alive in this day and age, a world full of diversity and possibility, where musicians and artists can work together through telephone wires, separated by continents; where we are only held back by the limits of our imagination. 

If you think you know what DJ Vadim does, then think again. 'U Can't Lurn Imaginashun' is black and white notes and every colour in between. This is by far the most open and eclectic of DJ Vadim's albums, and yet more focused and refined.

"Music rots when it gets too far from the dance.  Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music." ~Ezra Pound

Adversity, creativity, imagination, longevity, legendary status in the game... …But what does the album sound like? Though inevitably this album may be labeled as 'underground,' it is greater than that. It's fun, fresh, new and NOW. It has jams that could sit next to Desmond Decker, Q Tip or Jill Scott as well as Flying Lotus or Dilla. It is rap, soul, reggae, daft punk'esque inspired down-tempo; all that, and still more. You can feel that journey, that boom-bap, that wholesome organic freedom and love for all music and creativity. This is music for the dance and poetry simultaneously. That feel good factor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

www.djvadim.com | www.myspace.com/djvadim 

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