The Numb Project, an alter ego of Portland-based musician Chris Calarco, specializes in creating mellow vibes, abstract hip-hop beats, and complex, ever-changing rhythms. His latest album, “Transmissions from a Troubled Radio,” is in the studio today, and it’s smooth sailing throughout— keep reading for my thoughts!
This album represents the true essence of experimental electronic music— with its seemingly never-ending roster of sound elements, its mastery of texture, and consistency across the board that don’t take long to set in at all. From the first track, “Jump Switch”, Chris constantly plays around with glitches, vocal chops, and lays it atop a solid, soul-shaking bass line with tons of switch-ups in the percussion department. There’s some play happening from the strings, too, and overall, great sampling work going on— in particular, there’s this sample of a page being turned on a book that makes its appearance often through the song, but every time, manages to surprise the listener pleasantly.
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Lest he make the rest of the album more normal, he one-ups his opener on the second track, “Candy And Connie”— this time taking on more a cheerful, mid tempo vibe that’s marked by keys and ping-pong delays that seem to defy any meaningful limit on stereo width; the bass-sics remain as solid as ever, but this time, it manifests in the kind of track that one would groove to, in a more conventional sense of the word. The silken texture of the pads evolve, ebb and swell just as the drums fade into a lo-fi-esque outro, and there’s few other ways in which one can finish off a track with this much elegance.
“Duke’s Dream” takes on a rich, piano-heavy sound that more closely resembles lo-fi hip-hop as a genre, and a byproduct of this is that the song sounds relaxing, therapeutic and laid back— it’s not sparse on the experimental department, either. Seamlessly shifting between the basses and the stick-like timbre of the hi-hats, the atmosphere here is that of an ethereal happy mood; and I’m a fan.
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The production is the easy stand-out on “Transmissions From A Troubled Radio”, with bold, carefree experimentation that takes a genius to drum up; especially with the synths on “Last Of The Swallowheads”, an interlude on this album, that for its whole runtime, reminds me of “Faap de oiad” (Lateralus (2001), Tool), and the seamless chemistry between the harsher, darker textures and the smooth, mellow basses and synths that dot this album. “Inattention”, the second interlude, adopts a much darker sound, with an eerie voice forming part of the sonic atmosphere, again a masterclass in sample and synth work.
The latter part of “Transmissions From A Troubled Radio” include songs like “Dog Gone It”, which turns the voice in the intro into a whole instrument, blending seamlessly with the growling, powerful bass synths; and with the scratching work, gives a very boom-bap influenced feel to the track; and “7am, Forest Park Underworld” that takes the downtempo game very seriously, settling the listener into a gentle bob of the head from start to finish. The album calls it wraps with “Sad Eyes”, a sombre track that blends the cheery high synths with the more mellow, sober rhodes chords that work much better than a description of it may sound. Here’s The Numb Project in interview!
- Why did you start The Numb Project, and how is it different from your other music?
I started creating music as The Numb Project was back in 2000 when I got curious about how to make beats while listening to and being inspired artists like DJ Krush and DJ Cam, that atmospheric abstract hip-hop sound. I felt like the beats were living inside me and I wanted to get them out.
- How do you make all those different sounds and music textures in your album? What’s your process like?
These days I use Ableton and a Push 2. Thats all I’ve got. The limitless nature of DAWs and plug-ins gives us access to absolutely everything we could ever want and a gazillion times more. Often I have a good feel where I want to go sound design wise and its usually warm, moody, and tonally draws you in. I am greatly indebted to the amazing people over at Spitfire Audio for their incredible plug-ins, especially their LABS platform. Its incredible. And free!
- Your music mixes hip-hop with electronic stuff in a cool way. How do you make sure it all fits together?
I don’t differentiate between those genres too much as they have been hybridized for decades now and music is music. I mean the pioneers of Trip Hop were the ones that took us there, people like Massive Attack and Portishead and Krush himself and obviously so many others. But its all there for the making.
- I noticed you use a lot of different sounds from different places in your songs. How do you decide which ones to use and where to put them?
Sound design is an essential element to electronic music and I think a lot of new producers struggle with it. I find sound design easier than arrangement but I am trying to get better at the later. But mostly, I make decisions on feel – the texture and the vibe of the sounds and song come first – the arrangement and structure come later.
- Each song on your album feels different. How do you decide what feeling you want each song to have?
Well I hope the songs on Transmissions from a Troubled Radio feel like the belong in the same family together! They are threaded together in a bit of a concept so I hope they don’t sound too different from one another because they are designed to be really connected thematically.
- What does the future of The Numb Project look like in terms of collaborations? Are there any artists you want to collaborate with?
Just keep cranking out tunes. I’m almost done with my next four tracks and have sketches beyond that I am working on. I am talking to some folks about possibly getting my music ready for some live performances but we’ll see how far down the road I get with that. Some collaborations might be coming down the pipeline in the next couple months but nothing I am sure of just yet. I’m not really seeking out collaboration per se but lets see where the music takes me.
All in all, “Transmissions From A Troubled Radio”, by The Numb Project: This is the kind of album that serves as a masterclass in experimental hip-hop music production, with nothing to separate the imagination of the artist from the interpretation of the one that’s lucky enough to listen to it. An easy two-thumbs-up for this one! Check out the album here:
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