Jaunted

The beauty of it all is that it helps people realize just how much amazing talent is out there in the world, waiting to be discovered. The musicians in these videos aren't big names at all, they're small, hungry, and motivated by nothing else than sharing their creativity. Take "I'm New" for example. You've got a young Asian guy playing Bach's Cello Suite No. 5, a tech-geek pulsing Gameboy sounds through a MicroMoog filter, and a tremendously skilled Cincinnati-based emcee named Juice Lee whose smart mid-song rhyme easily stands up to anything on the hip-hop charts today. Seriously, based on the Kutiman video, I'm a lot more interested in hearing Juice Lee's solo stuff than I am in Kanye or Lil Wayne's latest effort. I think we've finally found a good definition for "keeping it real."

We know who the collaborators are because Kutiman provides a full list of credits to each video. He's no ripoff artist, but he does have a talent for collecting seemingly unrelated clips and fusing them together with some self-created beats to create what could easily become club hits. And as for the travel angle, well, let's just say that I had no idea how funky Israel could be, and I imagine that the nightclubs lucky enough to have Kutiman behind the tables are about to see lines wrapping around the block. In the meantime, I can't think of better travel music than this. If anybody finds a tour list or information on where, exactly, Kutiman will show up next, do share in the comments.

[Photo: exclaim.ca]

Related Stories:
· thru-you.com [Official Site]
· Juice Lee [MySpace]
· Kutiman Killed the Video Star [techcrunch.com]
· Kutiman Album Review [Pitchfork]
· Music Coverage [Jaunted]