How will bounce be reinterpreted, embraced and marketed by the (sorta) mainstream? The question lingers in the air, with a smattering of answers for consideration. See Mr. Ghetto on YouTube. Big Freedia slays Jimmy Kimmel. Diplo visits Manchu. Arranged as such, things appear to be improving, from bad joke to respectful hipster appropriation.
Regardless of direction or outside approval, bounce remains the ubiquitous street music of New Orleans, 2012. In Volume 2 of their Gypsyphonic collaboration, Quickie Mart and Galactic saxophonist Ben Ellman continue to turn fecund soil while charting fresh adventures for the triggaman.
Gypsy/klezmer/circus music isn’t an instant fit. A few tracks feature a synched tempo but little else to connect the sides. Fortunately, forced pairings are the exception, with Ellman and Quickie Mart broadening the mix to include samples from ever more exotic locations. The really interesting tracks marry bounce to tropical dance music, as on the Big Freedia/Systema Solar track and the remix of Yolanda Be Cool’s international hit, “We No Speak Americano”. Other DJs have made similar experiments, and we can only marvel at the possibilities of bounce as a global threat.
Raised in New Orleans, it’s no surprise that bounce fits well with punchy brass, as in the brief “Fela Phonic” and the more expansive version of Galactic’s “You Don’t Know.” Note, too, that this is yet another batch of creative music from the House of Galactic, one of the most productive forces in the last 20 years of local music.
For the second time, Gypsyphonic draws a stellar map. The ferocity and charisma of the sissy bounce spitters make them standouts on this album.