Teebs – Why Like This?

Los Angelite Teebs (Mtendere Mandowa) is another protégé of beatsmith Flying Lotus, whose music is released on his burgeoning Brainfeeder imprint. But while his contemporaries look largely to the future, Teebs' approach is more traditional, sticking with mellow jazz samples and chopped breakbeats to create something which wouldn't sound out of place in the better parts of DJ Shadow's discography.

One wonders if Teebs ever stuggles to find his MPC through the thick clouds of weed smoke, given the laid-back bluntedness of the title cut Why Like This? and the two tracks that follow. The highlight is Arthur's Birds, which takes a simple chord sample of glistening bells and strains it through heavy compression and staggered beats, with hypnotic results. [Martin Skivington]