Review Summary: There might be a lo-fi in the title of this EP, but the jazz-funk presented is of high quality.
Los Angeles bassist Nick Campbell has been around for a while, but may not exactly be a household name. The reason could lie in the fact that he is more of a session man than a solo artist. So far, that is. But that session work obviously got him the experience and chops to try his hand on his own. So here he is with “Lo-Fi Bass Music for Quarantine” EP, with a bit of help of artists like Michael Mayo (Herbie Hancock, Jacob Collier and Danica Pinner (HAIM, Moonchild, Deadamus5).
Judging by the title you might think that help would come because other musicians had nothing else to do in these times of the virus pandemic. Sure, that is possible, but Campbell, who operates here under an elongated name of Nick Campbell Destroys has obviously done some serious work, particularly playing jazzy funk and R&B. Although the EP contains only three tracks, they show that he has immersed himself in the sound long and good enough to be able to come up with some interesting and above all quirky touches that move the EP just enough out of the usual.
Campbell puts it this way: “I played almost all of the instruments and recorded almost everything myself in my bedroom. It features some arrangements of my favorite Jazz standards and a song from my favorite TV show, Rick and Morty, and a few remote collaborations with some of my favorite musicians and humans.”
By giving the music his own personal touches, Campbell at the same time keeps the original structure and sidesteps to present his own ideas. That’s what happens when you have enough time alone to develop the music, but for those ideas to turn out into something good you need quite a bit of talent and experience, and on the evidence of “Lo-Fi Bass Music for Quarantine” Nick Campbell obviously has both.
