Meister Lampe is the name of a rabbit from an old German fairy tale. It is also the stage name of a Basel-based DJ. At least, I'm pretty sure he's based in Basel. There's not a whole lot about him on the Interwebs, either in German or English.

Meister Lampe Orb (ok wow)

What makes this nine-track set so arresting isn't the slinky beatwork (which is very nice), but rather the melodic samples used as the base of each song. Meister Lampe takes a snippet of an old recording (generally from a non-Western European culture) and builds a spare apparatus around it. These aren't grand symphonic statements. They're smooth, simple interpretations of other worlds.

For all the stuff being spit out about cultural appropriation, that just doesn't apply here. Meister Lampe isn't claiming to be an expert on these sounds, and he's not inhabiting someone else's experience. Instead, he is using his creativity to blend disparate sounds into his own métier. These are chill-down hip-hop beats infused with wonderfulness. I'm bending over backwards to see the other side (as regular readers may know, I'm not very patient with the overuse of the term "cultural appropriation"), but there is no appropriation here.

Man, I hate to have to write that line. Times are what they are, though. In any case, Meister Lampe takes his listeners on a curated time-traveling tour of the world. It's possible to simply get immersed in the sound and drift away. Me, I prefer to dance as well. Mind and body in a swirl. Spectacular.

Jon Worley