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Detroit's dj Theo Parrish joined the crowded ranks of deep house (a hybrid
of house, jazz, funk and soul) with
dozens of EPs and singles, notably
the senselessly propulsive single Took Me All The Way Back (1997),
the EP Moonlight Music & You (1997), that contains
the twelve-minute Music, with a convoluted beat, and the eight-minute Moonlite, with a frenzied beat,
the single Smile (1997),
the EP Musical Metaphors (1997), that contains
the twelve-minute Carpet People Don't Drink Steak Soda,
the EP Roots Revisited (1998),
with the eleven-minute African-polyrhythmic Dan Ryan, probably the apex
of this period,
and the EP Pieces Of A Paradox (1998), that contains
the more aggressive eleven-minute Ebonics and the
comic twelve-minute novelty Dusty Cabinets.
The sprawling First Floor (Peacefrog, 1998) stood as a demonstration
of the genre's potential eclecticism.
First Floor Metaphor (9:36) blends a
piano reminiscent of orchestral soul, an oneiric electronic loop, sporadic
hyper-bass lines, and a loop of chopped-up vocals.
Parrish's method clearly borrows from the repetitive technique of the minimalists and this is nowhere more evident than in the saxophone and piano pulsations of Love Is War For Miles (9:01).
One of the most elegant tricks take place in Electric Alleycat (10:01),
in the intersection of a piano carillon and funk syncopation that leads to a foridable polyrhythm before decaying into a melancholic funk-jazz jam.
A booming hyper-bass and swinging hi-hats coexist in Paradise Architects (6:02) over an undulating piano motif.
The virtuoso dj does what he wants with the quacking beat of Dark Patterns (11:07), not only stretching it but also drowning it into a sorrowful atmosphere.
The rhythm ranges from the
graceful, feathery lounge-oriented Heal Yourself And Move (10:17)
to the
exuberant, quasi-charleston propulsion of Sweet Sticky (7:15).
The EP Overyohead (1999) contains
the 13-minute Overyohead
and the liquid, suspenseful, jazzy, nine-minute Dance of the Drunken Drums
Parallel Dimensions (Sound Signature, 2000) opens with a piece
(So Now What) that exploits the sound of big-band jazz, and later
Summertime is Here (a 1999 single) indulges in romantic saxophone melodies and wordless crooning,
but the
rest expands way beyond snippets of jazz, and in particular towards
the third world.
Anansies Dance enhances an Afro-Caribbean beat with vocal effects (a collage of dissected vocal samples) until they are displaced by a Dollar Brand-esque piano motif.
There is less grandeur in this album and more subtlety.
The breathing-like electronic undulation and the African percussion of Serengeti Echoes are intersected by a crowd of vocal snippets.
Violet Green weds the timid minimalist repetition of the first album
with the African percussion.
There is also the more conventional thumping ecstasy of Reaction To Plastic.
Meanwhile, Parrish was also a member of the Detroit project 3 Chairs with
Kenny "Moodymann" Dixon and Rick Wilhite.
They released the EP Three Chairs (1998), that contains
Parrish's Rain For Jimmy (the closest to a poppy melody he had been yet),
and the full-length Three Chairs 3 (2004), with the 17-minute Blackbone Waltz and the 13-minute Dance Of Nubia.
Spectrum (2009) is a 3 Chairs retrospective.
The single I Can Take It (2001) displayed little more than
soul vocals.
The eleven-minute Suns Of Osiris, off
the EP Location Of Lost Colors (2001), is another piece that fuses
minimalist patterns and jazz horns.
The single Instant Insanity (2001) sampled
Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues and weaved in testimonies of the
September 11 terrorist attacks of that year.
The EP Natural Aspirations (2003) contains the side-long suites
Friendly Children, a La Lambada remix with children singing the
refrain, and
industrial Timeislafinacharunninout, first bordering on musique concrete
and then delving into a percussive orgy with poppy vocals.
The exuberant single Capritarious #7 (2005), with jazzy keyboards,
and the single You Forgot/ Dirt Rhodes (2008) were relatively minor,
but overall these years between the second and third album represented
a peak of creativity.
The triple-EP Sound Sculptures Volume 1 (Sound Signature, 2007)
entered boldly into jazz and soul territory with the
fantasia Galactic Ancestors, whose jazzy melody is introduced midway
by keyboards,
the soul lament Second Chances,
the torch ballad Soul Control,
but it was the exact opposite of "creative".
The monotonous Synthetic Flemm was emblematic of the dearth of ideas.
(The CD version is completely different, almost a remix album with unreleased
material).
Much better was
the double-disc American Intelligence (Sound Signature, 2014),
another exhilarating whirlwind of percussive strategies, from the
oneiric and hypnotic Drive (10:50), despite the hysterical beat,
to the martial and android Life Spice (7:35),
from the funk and jazz orgy of Tympanic Warfare (9:36)
to the acrobatic tapping of Fallen Funk (9:58),
from the hyper-jazzy Helmut Lampshade (8:44) to
to the disco-soul inferno of Be In Yo Self (13:07)
But half of the album is taken up by redundant and monotonous tracks.
Sound Signature Sounds (2000) is a compilation that contains
a 13-minute version of Ebonics.
Its Vol 2 (2012) contains
I Can Take It (16:36),
Suns Of Osiris (7:06),
Rain For Jimmy (9:07),
Capritarious (7:42),
Dirt Rhodes (7:01),
Instant Insanity (12:10) and
Timeislafinacharunninout (10:29).
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