Dymaxion Daydream

Not your typical electro artist, Chachi Jones (aka Donald Bell) resides in the spaces between the genre's sub-stratums, his music slipping amidst the grooves of innovative experimentation, ambient sound scapes, and the rhythm driven. And it's those rhythms that define Dymaxion Daydream, even more so than Jones' debut album, 2003's Claustrophilia. They are often times deliberately at odds with the ethereal dreamscapes he conjures up, as Jones unleashes stuttering hip-hop beats, funky rhythms, jungle-fied drum patterns, and in some places, beats seemingly built out of industrial-lite tools. Add scratching effects, subtle vocal samples, and myriad electro elements (as on "Scrackers"), and you've got one weird and wonderful album. The tracks are mostly short and sharp, the moods forever shifting and altering, the sounds ranging from the subtly shadowed to the big and dramatic, and while some of the pieces have a decided laid-back air, nothing about this album is relaxed, with the entire set quivering with energy, electricity, and the frisson of creativity. And even though you certainly can't dance through this Daydream, Jones still takes you on a journey into musical realms one can barely imagine.