- Here's a tip if you're a newbie to buying vinyl online: if you're looking through the store catalog and the artist name says THEO PARRISH, this means that the release is sold out. Such is the case for Theo's latest album, Sketches, which came out on wax last year and then disappeared into the ether—so fast that you could practically feel the gust of wind that whisked those LPs out the door. Vinyl junkies who missed out on a Theo fix, however, can still cop this 12-inch, which features two extremely bugged out cuts from the full-length.
The opening bassline from "Feel Free to Be Who You Need to Be" is caked in grit and subterranean skank, wobbling and warbling through a hypnotic set of permutations. Theo's goblin-treated rap/chant floats overhead for a long, long while, until you've lost your bearings… and then a driving Detroit low-end kicks in. Noodle-y, spaced-out and murky as hell, it definitely shows the guy feeling free as he needs to be.
On the flip, the inscrutably titled "360@129on696" further cements a certain parallel between Parrish and Sly Stone say, around the time of There's a Riot Goin' On, when Sly's composing style went from radio-friendly to brooding and brilliantly eccentric. "360" exudes a weird lo-fi warmth that sounds like it's being played off a reel-to-reel. Originality of melodic elements and strong instrumental chops often set Parrish apart from his contemporaries, and here the keys and guitar coalesce into loose patterns that unfurl like the curlicues of cigarette smoke, underpinned by gorgeous Rhodes playing that gives the whole thing a velvety, In A Silent Way comedown vibe. For some reason it's merely twelve minutes long.
Tracklist A Feel Free To Be Who You Need To Be
B 360@129on696 feat. Duminnie Deporres