Honeymoon Selected By Cam

by John Bush\nHoneyMoon, a downtempo mix date for Chronowax, finds Parisian DJ Cam on what he calls "a journey through the beauty of music." He certainly starts in the right place, with the groovy, downtempo, horn-driven "Loran's Dance" from Grover Washington, Jr.'s 1979 LP Reed Seed. From there, Cam concentrates on smooth underground rap by a few obscure names: 3582, with the jazzy "Early Morning"; Que-D, on the minimal, stuttered-piano-sampling "Cash Flow"; and Phat Kat, a harder rapper who looks back to G-funk with "Microphone Master." Cam deftly breaks up the set with Coldcut's classic deep-groove version of "Autumn Leaves," then returns to the hip-hop underground with great tracks from Londoner TY ("The Tale"), Lil Dap ("Brooklyn Zone"), and Bahamadia ("Philadelphia"). With one more trick up his sleeve, Cam breaks from Mr. Scruff's "So Long" into the final track, a lush Henry Mancini instrumental named "Lujon." It's a clever, understated mix that works equally well for relaxation or concentrated listening.