the hum / By Bob Doran

Collective Consciousness

A new Humboldt comp, Django tunes, classical haps and a mission

(Jan. 22, 2009)  Is there such a thing as the Humboldt sound? Maybe, but then again, maybe not. There are a lot of distinct music scenes in the county, some of them intersecting, some discrete. Identifying a common thread is well nigh impossible.

There is, however, something of a Humboldt groove that ties together one big slice of the local music scene. What goes into it? A touch of funk, a little reggae, a taste of hip hop, maybe some stringband jams, definitely a big dollop of rock. You’ll find all of the above on a new compilation CD about to drop called The Humboldt Collective.

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The album has an unusual origin: It’s basically a school project assembled by students attending the Globe Institute of Recording and Production in San Francisco. One of the students, Ajeet Singh Campbell, lived in Humboldt for a few years, played a little music and made some friends on the local scene. When he took a Globe class on the music biz, the final assignment was to create a record label, produce a CD, get the tunes on iTunes and put together a CD release party.

Ajeet and two fellow students came up with a label name: TetraGroove Records. When his classmates threw their hands up with no idea what to do next, Ajeet told them, “I know some people.” He called his old friend from Humboldt, Chris Noonan, a sax player who jams with just about every funk outfit in town. Noonan happened to be riding in a car with keyboard whiz Brian Swizlo when he took the call. Swiz is always looking for ways to move the Humboldt scene forward. He saw an opportunity.

“Chris and I figured we could make it part of something we’ve been dreaming about for years: The Humboldt Collective; something that could bring together and showcase the prominent bands in different genres, hip hop, funk, whatever. That’s where it started,” said Swiz.

Ajeet ultimately pulled together six Humboldt bands: Absynth Quintet, Bump Foundation, Ishi Dube and Massagana, Moo-Got-2, The Nucleus and Subliminal Sabotage, with two or more tracks from each making up a 15-track disc.

I asked Ajeet the big question: What is the Humboldt sound? “It’s so diverse …” he began, temporarily stuck for an answer. “People up there listen to some many different genes of music, going to see hip hop one day, going to see The Nucleus the next. Do the bands we chose have something in common? In some way it comes down to the groove — music that makes you want to move.

“But on another level it’s almost a religious experience, healing the people one note at a time. For some it’s probably the closest they will get to bliss, collective consciousness, and, dare I say, God.”

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