DJ Z-Trip - Shifting Gears

Genre rap Publisher Hollywood Records External Links Official Website Hollywood Records

Some people hear music in their heads at all hours of the day. They have to express themselves or risk going insane. Beats and lyrics are begging to escape; when they do they come at every angle, at all speeds and can be endless. DJ Z-Trip is one of these people. He suffers from having too many ideas, and not enough time in the day to record every one of them. His new album Shifting Gears is a glorious mess of beats straight out of an after hours basement party from a performer who sounds determined to keep his audience transfixed and waiting for what curve he will throw them next.

Z-Trip brings it from the first full track "Listen to the DJ" with frantic record scratching mixed with a slicing guitar chord. His samples range from Eazy-E to the Fresh Prince. He throws in splashes of trumpet on "All About the Music" and pushes guest rapper Lyrics Born to the front of the mix on "The Get Down" as he spits over handclaps and minimalist beats. Z-Trip wraps his beats around a dazzling drum line on "About Face." Each track has dozens of ideas, but none seem lazily tossed on. You listen to Shifting Gears and feel that each sound is really meant to be there.

The album doesn't come without some weak spots. "Walking Dead" features Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and its biggest fault is that is sounds exactly like a Linkin Park song. "Walking Dead" also does nothing to experiment with Bennington's angst-filled voice. Chuck D shows up to shout anti-war rhymes on "Shock and Awe." He's backed by 80's hair metal-sounding riffs when Z-Trip really needed to lay some of his endless supply of old school beats down instead.

A few missteps don't ruin this album. Supernatural gives the most impressive guest appearance on the album as he shouts, "it don't matter no difference, you all my people" as beats that sound like bombs go off behind him on "For My People." An escalating guitar and Z-Trip's beats trade off on "Bury Me Standing" and "Revolution," this is fifteen minutes of superb DJ overindulgence.

Shifting Gears is not exactly danceable, but just terrifically infectious. The guest appearances fit perfectly on each track, the sounds and samples don't quit until the disc stops spinning. And even then, you'll be hearing Z-Trip's collage of beats at all hours.