Hot Sax on the Beats

The association between Misled Children and Clutchy Hopkins is convoluted – purposefully. No one can really even say who Clutchy actually is. Some speculate that it’s actually some conglomeration of the Beastie Boys masquerading beyond this mirage of constructed personalities. Maybe.

But regardless of who Clutchy is, he’s been on a tear over the last year and change. He first released a single of remixes featuring the raps of MF Doom. The production was more than fitting, moving some to speculate that perhaps Clutchy was actually Doom and not the New York rap crew. It’s possible.

Since that disc, he’s gone on to release a number of disc, all with a very strict adherence to stylistic integrity. The effort of Misled Children and Clutchy together too focused on a very narrow musical pallet. It’s all lazy funk drumming, percussion and acoustic guitar leads. Beautiful really, but not too close to anything that could be called virtuosity. And their collaboration, Walking Backwards, seemed a bit toned down from Clutchy’s other work.

But now, Misled Children – sans Clutchy – have returned with a sax stalwart player on The Misled Children Meet Odean Pope

Pope’s career is filled with names that any jazzbo is more than familiar with. Max Roach, Art Blakey, Ray Bryant and Jimmy McGriff have all counted the sax player amongst their ranks. And the later two probably offered Pope ample training to fit in with the musical settings provided by Misled Children.

More languid beats – still not to be confused with hip hop – almost touching on acid jazz territory allow Pope to punctuate various (and simple) melodic lines. But the reason that his actually works is because Pope understands the most important thing that musicians need to know – how to listen.

Misled Children don’t overwhelm listeners with layers of instruments. All of the playing is poignant and straightforward. Pope is able to easily catch on and add only the slightest embellishments, which actually end up making or breaking the track. But as a result of the sax’s inclusion here, there’s scant acoustic guitar work. A really minor criticism to levy on such a fine release.