sa-ra creative partners

gumdrops

Well-known member
anyone into these guys? theyve done a lot of outside production, but their own album is out on ubiquity this year some time. some of their tracks are too firmly in that lethargic, momentum-less jay dilla trademark sound, but the tracks that lift them out of that are great. theyre not the best songwriters but then neither was timbaland (non hip hop timbaland that is), and nobody seems to care about that sort of thing in neo soul/R&B these days anyway but theyve got about three to four great ones on the demo cd-r that was doing the rounds. theyre excellent producers anyway, they have this really great spartan, almost detroit techno-ish feel to their tracks. theres a slight 80s soul vibe to them, but not in a self conscious pastiche type of way.
 

hint

party record with a siren
you kinda sum up my sentiments exactly

all their stuff sounds fantastic, so your brain is already thinking "wow! this is music of a very high quality!"... but then if you listen a bit more you notice that they're basically mumbling something vague over the top, like they're embarassed to write a proper song or really get loose.

the tracks where they actually get a bit of substance in the vocals work really well though. as you point out, however - we're only talking 3 or 4 tracks.

there's a lot of this style about and getting a lot of exposure - sa-ra, plant life, jneiro jarel, vanishing system... I guess the success of outkast has given this type of prince-inspired / synthy / squelchy hip hop music a higher profile.
 
fantastic vampere is the s*** that made me take notice of them


my jury is still out till I hear their LP but mostly everything I've heard has been quite hot.


Are they really crack heads? There always going about cosmic dust?
 

AshRa

Well-known member
They've just put out a cover of Sun Ra "Theme Of The Stargazers" which is pretty nice...

I do like the weird tracks that they put at the end of their 12"s, but the main tracks while being full of dead interesting sounds and ideas just don't have the songwriting skills of OutKast.

They're the best of the post-"Love Below" bunch that are doing the rounds at the moment though...
 

afrobongo

Third Worldist
I don't like :
- how they sound live (i heard some live recordings)
- their boring jay-dee-esque tracks


I like:
- the fact that most of the songs we've heard are 2 years old.
- the fact that few of them will be on the album
- their balls (*pause* ?)
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
where can one get these live tracks?

im really curious to hear what they sound like on stage. i cant imagine them being too hot though as on record, they dont have the best voices. and i dont mean 'not the best' as in i want or need them to sound like bilal or jill scott, just something where i feel theyre doing more than murmuring over tracks. this might just be to do with the fact they dont really have any melodies as such to sing though.
 
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Radioclit

Active member
big dada has commisioned them to remix roots manuva next single, too cold.

now i'm not at all into this post jay dee vibe but their remix is pretty good.

it's coming out at the end of march
 

ryan17

Well-known member
i think the potential for them to be fantastic is clearly there. they just need to come into their own a bit and really find their sound.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
i think they already have their sound for the most part, they just need to work on their songwriting skills.
 

Plasticman

Active member
I met Sa-Ra at the Red Bull Music Academy last year. The guys were really cool.

Their music is soooo coooool too.

I can't really think of any word that describes them better than that. I really like their stuff. As far as I know they haven't released a full length yet ?
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
yeah, they seem cool guys. and the music most definitely oozes cool. i kinda think at times the coolness of their stuff is a bit of a strait jacket as its like for guys standing up against the bar all night rather than getting sweaty and letting loose, but maybe not everything needs to be like that....
 

boomnoise

♫
So Sa-Ra have a new album out. K-Punk is calling it one of the albums of the decade. I've only heard four tracks but it sounds just as disappointing as Hollywood recordings, if not more so.

It sounds so conservative. The opposite of rude. Unlike how there best stuff is: Glorious, Agent Orange, etc.

Their production for Badu was amazing. i'm just perplexed how this can be so lacklustre as their first proper album. The funk has been polished out. The groove diluted with glossy production values and rnbfunk formula; nothing about it resonates with me.

It's like the good funk shit. Only it's been cut. Polluted.

I'm hoping when i hear the whole album there will be some redemption.

Anyone else heard any of it and have any thoughts?
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
never thought the production for badu was that amazing to be honest, though i did like it, but yeah, the album is a bit more 'traditional' (which is what i thought of their stuff on the badu album actually) than say butterscotch, bitch, etc. theres a few songs on the new one in that direction, and those are my favourites, but i need to hear it some more. album of the decade seems a bit strong but maybe its a grower. i like sara but a lot of what they put out is kinda stuck in between trying to stay true to traditionalism and some sort of futurism, which i find a bit unsatisfying. and when they stick to dilla-isms (like say, on agent orange or glorious), even though they give it a bit of real squelchy funkiness, i wish theyd just go full throttle and not worry so much about staying true to the past etc... sometimes theyre a bit over reverent.
 
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the Dark Matter & Pornography album/mixtape (?) is one the greatest things I've heard this millenium. I haven't downloaded or bought anything else by them, mind.
 

mms

sometimes
new album out next week and of course there is on'mas keith and mark pritchard's 'wind it up track' soon come on hyperdub
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
traffika on the new album is great, regardless of anything else. but by now i think everyone knows the score with sara. theyre not the most consistent artists, which combined with the fact they mine a pretty wide seam, can make them a bit frustrating/uneven.
 
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