The Chameleon Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 The Chameleon Project is featured in a 3 page story in the Hamilton View! Bitchin'. Here's the story..... [color:red]The CHAMELEON PROJECT ARE ALL MUSICAL COLOURS IN ONE Sometimes you just want to say nuts to the singer– songwriters of the world, with all the introspection and headiness that comes with their kind of music. Sometimes you just want to shake your ass. That’s where Toronto–based jazz/drum&bass/dub/ breaks/funk/ disco (phew!) wunderkinds The Chameleon Project come in. Dedicated to the fine art of inspiring booty movement, Chameleon Project are set to hit Pepper Jack’s this Saturday, with their bag of tricks in tow. Composed of Josh Laing (Guitar, FX, Real–time Sampling), Snappy Homefry (Bass), Adam Hutchison (keys) and Tyrone Caissie (Drums), CP’s influences are all over the map, ranging from Art Blakey and Amon Tobin to Lee Morgan and The Crown Heights Affair. Their music, however, while wide–ranging in spirit, is in reality a cohesive, dance–tastic whole. If that above–listed fusion of genres seems daunting to you, don’t fear. This is a salad–bowl versus melting pot kind of situation, where each part serves a distinct purpose in making the whole instead of being, well, a hodge podge. As Laing says, “We all do what we do for the good of the project. Everyone brings a piece of the puzzle to the musical table… “The hybrid of what we play came about for many reasons, but one of the most overriding was to push the jazz repertoire into new, progressive territory and to push drum and bass and electronic music into more vital territory and out of its current state of general malaise. “We just want to strike a blow in our own little way for music that can rock the dance floor and your brain all at once.” It seemed to me that Chameleon Project aren’t what one might call a jam–band, but Laing set me straight. “Well, I would say we are a jam band,” he explains, “only we’re trained jazz players who use jazz harmony as our basis as opposed to (the) rock harmony that most jam bands use. We’re a jam–band in the sense that our sets rely a lot on in the moment—improv and on–stage communication. “The clearest way to describe what we do is a fusion of jazz, dub and drum and bass—we call it breakbeat dub– jazz. But in reality, we play groove oriented, improvised music, and what you hear is a blend of what we listen to, are inspired by, and what we reflect back to the listener.” And they are jazzy, alright, not only in certain rhythms and some of their instrumentation, but also thanks to that aforementioned improv. “Being jazz players—that’s at the heart of what we do,” Laing explains. “The improv provides the perfect foil for the repetitive and propulsive grooves of the rhythm section that drives the jam. The drum and the bass takes care of your body and your booty, while the improvisation over top speaks to your mind.” Chameleon Project have been doing a bit of improv off– stage lately, too, launching a new record label (Reptile Vision Records) and finding a replacement for original bassist, Jamie Kidd, who left CP to focus on production and DJing. To fill Kidd’s space in a band with such a multi–faceted sound required “a very particular type of bassist,” Laing says, “one that could handle jazz standards, drum and bass and breaks feels, but also understood the bass principles of dub. That bassist ended up being the very capable Snappy Homefry from Toronto, who is fitting in perfectly. We’ve been rehearsing like crazy, and the Pepper Jack gig comes hot on the heels of our vinyl release at the El Mocambo in Toronto, which went amazing…” Speaking of Pepper Jack’s, what can you expect if you make it out this weekend? “Lots of groove and phat beats,” Lang lists. “Thoughtful improvisations and interesting textures. Music that digs in and gets urgent, and then becomes flowing and pastoral, sometimes in one song. A type of modern psychedelia played by jazz musicians on acid, to sum up. In essence, a cool party where we just happen to be playing. The overall vibe is paramount. We also enjoy doing original arrangements of choice cover songs along with our own originals. Oh, and one more curveball—we’re all instrumental.” As noted at the start of all this, that’s the kind of curveball you can’t help but want to catch sometimes. For more info, you can check out CP on the web at, strangely enough, chameleonproject.com. V and here's the actual link to the view... www.viewmag.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2935&... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynamo Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 Awesome!!Way to go CP!! Have a great time tomorrow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhishyK Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 Ya mon! That's not easy or common to score like that - nice job.Now for the west coast tour, right? :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chameleon Posted April 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2005 Thanks Phish Kev. West coast tour hopefully in the future, but more realistically East-Coast first. It's closer.Keep rockin' your phat bass! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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