DJ Zeph – Sunset Scavenger (Wide Hive)
DJ Zeph is a long time San Francisco turntablist and this is his 2nd full length release. On this record he seems to be focusing a lot less on turntable experiments and much more on song writing and production. That said this album offers a lot of different sounds from instrumental break beats, the use of a handful of Middle Eastern instruments but played and sampled, some nice scratching, and some straight forward hiphop tracks with guest rappers that include The Coup, Lyrics Born, Life Sava, and Vursatyl among others.
1. Instrumental turntablist track. Smooth jazz bass intro that changes into a fairly down tempo track. DJ Quest is helping out on this track. Piano loop.
2. Straight forward, slightly dance-y beat with a laid back rhyme from The Coup’s, Boots.
3. Slightly funky, with that total 70s jazz/watered down funk feel. Instrumental. Nice simple organ.
4. Starts with female vocal sample, which is looped. Lyrics Born does a quick but non-descript rhyme and the vocal sample keeps returning. Drums sound a bit like hand drums. Lyrics born speeds up at one point really showing off his rhyming.
**5. Female soul vocal samples, congas, jangling guitar and fat bass. Better than, say, RJD2. Ends with people talking about scratching.
**6. Is that a Beatles sample? Maybe not since these are not samples they are people playing the violin and cello. Some vocal samples but mostly instrumental. Quick funk samples and Middle Eastern sounds scratched in.
**7. Disco/funk sample. This was a 12” a year or more ago. Old school sound for sure. Rahaan Ahmed does a good Kurtis Blow. Wanna bring back the late 70s?
9. Slight samba rhythm with live flute and trumpet. Is this the theme song to some cheesy 70s TV show?
**10. What an odd mix of sounds. Snare and guitar loop, frog sounds, a Gang Star sample, with a great rhyme from Azeem. This just has a nice flow, “Slowly I creep through the world of deceit and grief/On my feet everything seen disintegrates like silhouettes/Cinnamon mints, smoke from cigarettes, LSD trips”.
11. Tabla break symphonic sounds and mellow with some nice scratching. Vursatyl doesn’t show until almost the 2 minute mark.
**12. Nice down tempo beat, guitar samples all with hiphop poet, Time Barsky’s somewhat in the background , doing poetry all about SF.
13. Tabla, Hammond organ, drums played by Tower of Power drummer, Ron Beck. Syncopated beat.
14. Like the title suggests, lots of Middle Eastern sounds, including tabla and doumbek. A sample I can’t place. “You’re not going to put Charlie Parker in with the rock-n-roll, would you? Would you?”
15. Straight break, slightly funky. Flute.
Good stuff -mph

Nice effort from up and coming San Francisco Hip-hop/Electronica artist DJ Zeph. Lots of nice scratching, sample work, and a few killer MC guest appearances make this a really strong disc. He works in Indian and Latin sounds well and has a really diverse sound.
Play: 1,2,3,9,11,12
FCC: One “asshole” in track 10
1)Piano piano hook over various breaks. Real funky turntable work. Sweet cut. 2)Sick track with a jazzy beat and nice flow by Boots out of The Coup. 3)Funk guitar riffing, tight horn licks, upbeat breaks, sexy Eq tweaking. This may be perfection. PLAY! 4)Slightly disappointing given the callaboration. Lyrics born has a ton of energy and swing in his flow as usual. The beat is kinda weird and off-kilter though, and uses strange samples that add nothing. The track is also not really about anything, and has a really lame chorus. 5)Congas and simple breakbeat with a bit of guitar riffing and a vocal loop going “ha ha baby”. Funny little sample about scratching at the end. Catchy, but definitely not exciting. 6)A sitar loop is dropped over a fat and funky beat with dope scratching work. Vocal samples about “party people” add little in my view, but overall it’s a really fun cut. 7)Real upbeat 80s style beat with nice Blackalicious-esque flow by Rashaan Ahmed. Funky and energetic. 8)I love this raw little interlude. Just a simple break with a cool little acoustic guitar loop and a bit of scratching in the middle. Only a minute long. 9)Muted horns and mellow keys with a swinging beat give this a sort of latin feel. Very chilled, and has some real funky, swinging breaks. 10)Rediculous but awesome track featuring Azeem. The chorus is “Frogs, they hop to that”, and the verses are real tight and well layed down. Lots of hyper scratching and frog samples. FCC: one subtle “asshole” near the beginning. 11)Simple hard break adorned by tabla beats, a little looped keyboard sample, frenetic scratching, and nice work by Vursatyl. Definitely a nice cut, give it a spin. 12)Very spacey, tripped out cut. Haunting flute loop over a real slow pulsing breakbeat with bongos. Eirie spoken work about San Francisco. 13) Lots of little organ samples over uptempo breaks. Tribe Called Quest sample “The boom, the bip, the boom bip” is a nice touch. 13)Indian percussion duet for 1:42 and then a guy yelling at a girl about misfiling a record. 14)Accoustic guitar sample with flutes along with dissonant little piano hook great a real funky vibe.
The Professor