Hipology

4Hero’s Marc Mac originally started his Visioneers project with a series of 7” singles in the early-mid 00s to pay tribute to his favourite hip hop producers — he name checked particularly Jazzy Jeff, Jay Dee (aka J Dilla) and Pete Rock — by reverse engineering what they did and using live musicians to create the kind of grooves they sampled. By the time Visioneers reached album number two in 2012, this already personal project had become a kind of exploration of the groove — with the Hipology blog digging into the connections between jazz, funk, hip hop and jungle, and the album of the same name purifying a laid back groove style that still kicks on a club soundsystem. Some of it literally remakes past tracks (“Apache - Battle Dub”), some recreates classic psychedelic soul (“Shine” with the gospel tones of Jimetta Rose), and there’s some golden age hip hop with MCs Baron and T.R.A.C. on “Back in Time.” It’s so unabashed in its love for its source material, though, it doesn’t feel like a museum piece: this project, like hip hop sampling, is about finding what still has immediate value in the here and now.