This is the moment :brownstudy begins to yield the fruit of his innate dedication to music. “I’ve been doing music in some way since elementary school” says Hogans. “Violin, trumpet, piano/keys, electronics, percussion, vocals, etc. Some formal training (classical theory, jazz theory, jazz improv, sight singing/ear training, creative writing), but ultimately relying on my ear & heart.”
Tastemakers around the World have took notice, with decent reviews from Mojo, Noisey and Guardian.
:Brownstudy is Jason Hogans, a multi-instrumentalist and singer who first impacted Detroit’s electronic music scene with an impressive EP under his birth name called Peter And The Rooster back in ’98. He followed that with a debut album for Guy McCreery’s Third Ear label, ‘Tell Me More About Bubbles’, in 2005. Now, Hogans returns to Third Ear for his next LP, ‘Life Well Lived’, with eleven tracks that further illustrate his lush, vocal-led style that fuse together the elements of jazz, hip-hop and electronic sounds.
‘Life Well Lived‘ is adventurous, yet unhurried and minimal. Kendrick Lamar, Radio-Inactive and J Cole have recently added weight to the heap of laid-back Hip-Hop artists, but :Brownstudy manages to reflect a musical maturity and his beats are fresh and pure, singular in fact.
However, the often erratic and repetitive nature of the vocals (Towards Improvement), and beats (Dead Doldrums) may prove too much for those sweetened to the laid-back hip-hop sound. For me his vocals and social commentary are brilliant, particularly in the title track but ultimately we don’t hear enough of them.
For the majority of hip-hop fans ‘Life Well Lived’ would be considered too alternative but you never know.. weeks, months, years down the line this album may be picked up and viewed as a major stepping stone for people interested and keen to explore the genre.
Listen to ‘Stupid Dummy Dance‘ below. The track is taken from :brownstudy’s forthcoming album.
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‘Life Well Lived’ by :brownstudy is out tomorrow (14 – 03 – 14) via Third Ear Recordings on iTunes.
Keep up-to-date with :brownstudy on Twitter.