HVW8 (or Heavyweight if you want to avoid acronyms) is a three man art collective hailing from Montreal/Canada. The approach of Gene Pendon, Tyler Gibney and Dan Buller towards their art is different from most painters. They like to paint live in front of other people and take away the mysterious nimbus of the creative process one normally never sees when a painting is created. “We approach things the same way a DJ would if he were remixing, but instead doing audio, we’re painting,” says Tyler Gibney. Their art “pays respect to the past, but it’s also fused with familiar aspects of hip-hop or drum ‘n’ bass. It’s like how producers sample old shit but then remix it for today.”
The compilation Music Is My Art is an extension of HVW8’s work showing their multifaceted musical influences of hip hop, soul, electronic and house with most of the tracks being exclusives.
Being not the biggest fan of hip hop (well, I’ve mentioned it on various occasions on this website) I rather skip these songs although I must admit that the underground feeling of Radio City’s The Hop does appeal to me. But there are more than enough fine songs that make this compilation worthwile. Take the soulful Blue Jay by Owusu And Hannibal for example, a tune somewhere between Amp Fiddler and Dwele.
Plantlife’s Your Love take us into P-Funk territory while John Arnold presents a tasty breakbeat/funk clone with Rise Up.
Blue Miles is a relaxed electro-soul inspired song with soothing vocals by Lindsay Caldwell.
Steve Spacek adds his vocal magic to Kingbread’s sparse instrumented modern soulsong It’s Alright, which wouldn’t be out of place on a Vikter Duplaix’ release.
Yam Who?, who are famous for their remixes for musicians like N’Dambi, Raphael Saadiq or Alison Crockett, team up with Christian Fontana to give us the great disco-funk inspired track Wrap U Up. With nearly nine minutes this is a sure dancefloor winner.
Osunlade’s Tambores Te Llaman is a future late night favourite with its percussion driven groove, trumpet and flute graced by spoken words. One of my favourite spoken words artist, Rich Medina, closes the album with Uptown.
Music Is My Art is an eclectic compilation and a cornucopia of good music and new artists for the musically open-minded listener.

Tracklisting of Music Is My Art: 1. Blade Spade - To Serve With Love/ 2. Radio City feat. Bajka - The Hop/ 3. Owusu and Hannibal - Blue Jay/ 4. Plantlife feat. Dena Deadly - Your Love/ 5. John Arnold w/Paul Randolph - Rise Up/ 6. Seiji - Bruqwah/ 7. DJ Language w/Lindsey Caldwell - Blue Miles/ 8. Kingsbread feat. Steve Spacek - It’s Alright/ 9. J-Boogie w/ Crown City Rockers - Higher/ 10. Ohmega Watts feat. Othello - Long Ago/ 11. Yam Who? Feat. Christian Fontana - Wrap You Up/ 12. Osunlade - Tambores Te Llaman/ 13. Rich Medina - Uptown | released 2005 Ubiquity Recordings

For more infos visit ubiquityrecords.com and hvw8.com.

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