Stevie

Fusion Jazzy Instrumental covers of Stevie Wonder songs. YNQ is the instrumental side project of Stones Throw's ubiquitous producer Madlib. Real instruments (all played by Madlib under various pseudonyms) are mixed with samples, resulting in a mellow, jazzy album. Madlib's production style is sometimes a bit loose. The notes are sometimes off beat and the volume levels waiver, but the album is overall very pleasant and listenable. The music is pretty, and the songs covered represent some of the better portions of the Stevie Wonder catalog, before he got really cheesy in the 80's. A crude mix of this album was actually released about a year ago as a limited promo CD, which was fairly sought after due to its rarity and the obsessive nature of Madlib fans.
1) Sparse, flowing intro
2) Choppy, funky with a sort of ringing quality
3) *Up tempo Latin flavored percussion
4) *Solid groove, sampled drums with synth and dubbed crowd noise
5) *Down tempo flowing with a heavy beat
6) *Flowing but with a harder sampled drum loop
7) Bleepy intro, slightly loose
8) *Crunchy, funky and chugging. Pretty mellow compared to Stevie's original
9) *Mellow, funky
10) Rolling mid tempo with drums at the forefront
11) Phone message intro, slow, sparse
Tom Purcell May 2004