By Mark Kirby

Electronica and the rise of machines in music, like machines everywhere, are moving to include, eclipse, and displace people and the human touch. iPods replace DJ's in clubs. A buddy of mine pointed out that from Broadway to Las Vegas, living musicians are being replaced by synthesizers and drum machines. Karaoke is now considered an art form and folks who pay $50 to $500 to see a "live show" see a "band" playing computer music. And if there is a live band, as in the case of, say, Beyonce's ongoing tour, the musicians interface with and are subservient to, the almighty machine in the form of click tracks, videos and other special effects.

On new his EP 'Four Keys To Zen', Mashed Buddha, a.k.a John Corda, flies in the face of this trend. In his last record, 'Subdue Your Mind', he added various tempos and feels and actual compositional elements such as recognizable melodies and arrangements to a barren mechanoid music style. On this new EP, he adds something else to the collection of his trademark mix of drum 'n' bass, soundtrack funk, hypnotically swinging grooves, and electro jazz.

[Kirby] In what ways is this EP and your forthcoming full length CD a departure from your last release 'Subdue Your Mind'?

[John Corda] The biggest difference is the addition of more improvisation over the grooves and beats that I create. These new tracks were created with fewer restrictions on me in terms of song form and trying to tackle any particular style. I think the music flows better this way and, ironically, the compositions themselves seem tighter. There is a dichotomy of complex vs. simple beats from one track to the next.

There are also some guest musicians, which there weren't on 'Subdue Your Mind'. I have a percussionist laying down a plethora of world rhythms on some tracks, and some funk guitar from my bandmate, Brian Leccese. I also plan on further fleshing out a couple tracks with help from my drummer and sax player.

With regard to the keyboard soloing on this record, I have been playing piano for more than 20 years and have been performing live on various keyboards for over a decade. When I first started Mashed Buddha, it was really all about the composition and an interest in the large array of subgenres of electronic music. Basically, now I'm combining that approach with live keyboard jamming interspersed appropriately.

[Kirby] The opening track to 'Four Keys To Zen', "Hype," picks up where he left off on 'Subdue Your Mind': humanizing electro grooves and mining the various styles of electronic music to recombine and produce something fresh. "Hype" nods back to the '90's, the classic era of electro jazz and jazz house groups like Black Jazz Chronicles or Innerzone Orchestra. Corda kicks an intensely mellow groove of mid-tempo jazz-funk drums and Fender Rhodes electric piano mixed with rushing and stuttering electronic sound bursts. The song builds and glides as Corda, in his unique fashion, uses interlocking synth melodies, chords and percussion to ebb and flow in a sophisticated musical and compositional way. It also has vocals by the legendary O.G. guru of all things enlightening and bender of spoons Uri Geller waxing hypnotic and poetic.

Why Uri Geller?

[John Corda] He has a compelling voice and a unique career that has reached people all over the world from many walks of life. He agreed to let me use his voice on "Hype" and I was able to alter it to make it perfectly rhythmic with the music.

[Kirby] "Mystery Dropper" is a stoner's delight. It starts out with disembodied microchips of sound, and a simple, spacey cycle of ringing Rhodes chords, of lush mellowness. A smoothly driving drum 'n' bass drum beat emerges in a trance state from underneath this sonic cloud, as the piano licks become more aggressive and spin off into a solo that builds, like a blues or Indian sitar solo, on simple, emotionally charged melodic statements. The song then shifts into a half-time, downtempo bac

http://musicdish.net/mashedbuddha/fo...

- 4 FREE high quality MP3s (320kbs stereo)
* Hype * Mystery Dropper * Spikes * Temptation *

- Drum 'n' Bass, Electronica, Jamming Keyboards
- licensed under creative commons, so you can download & share it all you want!
- other free digital goodies such as wallpaper

http://musicdish.net/mashedbuddha/fo...