Teebs / Caural featuring Meagan Simone: Ceiba EP
Strange Neighbor
“Good things come in small packages.” The cliche is typically used for things like diamond earrings and engagement rings but could just as easily apply to this fourth release on the LA-based Strange Neighbor imprint. The split affair weds two cuts by Caural with one by Teebs, the EP tipping the scales at a svelte eight minutes. Teebs, real name Mtendere Mandowa, is recognized as one of the central artists on Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label, whereas Caural's the long-standing alias of Chicago-born Zachary Mastoon, who after recording his first music at age six on a Casio and studying experimental music at NYU went on to release influential albums (e.g., Mirrors for Eyes) and work with kindred spirits like Busdriver, Dimlite, and Adventure Time. The Ceiba material and his recent Word is Bond soundtrack release find Mastoon operating in classic Caural mode.
Teebs' stunning “Mapito” actually appeared a year ago on Strange Neighbor's Oscillations compilation but sounds no worse for wear in this new context. It's a dizzying headrush of crackle-smeared beat magic, all blazing kicks, ride cymbals, bass thump, and hazy synth washes, its only regrettable detail the blink-and-you'll-miss-it running time—a shame a second track wasn't added to match Mastoon's. While the first of the Caural cuts, “Kings,” is short, too, it's long enough to cast a mesmerizing spell when the soulful voice of Meagan Simone's involved. With a little help from Jason Hunt on Fender Rhodes, Mastoon wraps her in an elegant swirl of acoustic piano sprinkles, cymbal flourishes, and drum fills, after which “Sanza Eclipse” plants us solidly in Caural territory with a tripped-out flow of kalimbas, hip-hop thrust, and cosmic jazz. If the EP's representative of Strange Neighbor's blend of future soul, jazz, hip-hop, and electronica, it definitely speaks strongly on behalf of the label, however short the release is.August 2019