Slingbaum One

This month, jazz producer Terry Slingbaum released his debut record, Slingbaum One, an excellent three track EP featuring Erykah Badu, D'angelo, FKA Twigs, Oumou Sangare, Nick Hakim, Damon Albarn, Bilal, Syd, Ahmad Jamal, Ron Carter, Cory Henry, Masayuki ''Bigyuki'' Hirano, Jameel Bruner, Marcus Strickland, Chris Dave, Justin Brown, Keyon Harrold, Nicholas Semrad, Aaron Liao, Bendji Allonce, William ''Cito'' Vjvas, Ben Tiptonford, Rob Moose, Zach Brock, Celia Hatton, Malcolm Parson, Perrin Moss, Fernando Diaz, Simon Mavin, Jake Sherman, Paul Kowert, Amani Fela Greene, Austin Williamson, Rashad Ringo ''Tumblin Dice'' Smith, And Tariq Khan.

It's a fantastic little mystery.

Who is this little-known person and how was he able to put out a record with all of these huge names in jazz and R&B? Alarm bells are ringing. Sirens are blaring. Something is up.

The official story is that he's a 32 year old Brooklyn resident who, via years of networking and industry connections, has built up a quiet reputation. Dozens of artists (many hugely famous) in his broad circle agreed to record for him for this simple release. A personal project. Vinyl only, never streaming. Three odd tracks not meant to attract much attention, nor income.

Sure. Could be. I'm doubting it's that simple, though. The alarm bells, remember? So let's have some fun and see if this isn't a playful little conspiracy.

First sign something is afoot is that the album art looks to be by Robert Del Naja. Robert Del Naja is Massive Attack, and some people (including me) believe him to be Banksy (or one of many who are, collectively, "Banksy"). The music itself, also sounds like Massive Attack, with a jazzier flavor than any of their other releases. That Damon Albarn is on the record strengthens this case. Albarn and Del Naja are close friends, and have put out at least one track together. It's also worth mentioning that Banksy did the album art for Blur's 2003 album Think Tank. That's a small, tight circle. And Albarn has said at least once he knows Banksy.

With all this in mind, it's clearly plausible that Del Naja, is involved. Does that mean Terry Slingbaum is not a real person. Nah. There's no reason to believe Slingbaum isn't real, that he doesn't actually live in Brooklyn, ghost-writing and ghost-producing for major artists. But the character of Terry Slingbaum has major echoes of Theirry Guetta, the artist from Banksy's film Exit Through the Gift Shop. Guetta was also real guy, an actual cousin of Space Invader, and really did the things in that doc. What made ETtGS so great was how it played in the gray area between reality and perception. Guetta produced graffiti and art himself, but the extent which Banksy was involved in the production of his art was highly disguised. Much of Guetta's art was really Banksy's (Banksy knocking off his own work).

The conspiracy of Slingbaum One is essentially the same thing, but instead of street art, it's music. Terry Slingbaum is the face of the project just as Theirry Guetta was the face for Banksy's comment on street art, celebrity, and the art world. He might have actually run the studio, facilitating the recording, but I'm suggesting the tracks themselves are written and produced by Del Naja. I listen to these and I hear Massive Attack.

Am I wrong? Maybe! There's no obvious reason why Del Naja would go to all this trouble to obscure himself for this release, if not for the fun of it. If he didn't want it to be a Massive Attack record, he could have put it out under his own name. There are also dozens of artists involved in making this recording, greatly increasing the difficulty in keeping anything sneaky a secret.

At this point. I accept the official story. It, too, is perfectly plausible. A well connected producer could believably want to put out a record like this without any interest in attracting media attention. No conspiracy needed. Not everyone wants to be famous. But I won't be surprised if we learn all this secrecy around this album was in fact concealing an entirely different truth.

In any case, these are three great tracks which sound like Massive Attack playing with the sounds of modern jazz/R&B/soul. If you can find them, I highly recommend it.

Addendum: Another report has connected Jamie Hewlett, co-founder of Gorillaz with Albarn, with ownership of the companies associated with Banksy. While I don't believe Hewlett to be Banksy, I'm not shocked that he's in the mix of Banksy business. Gorillaz, as a fake band, is also very similar to Guetta being something of a Banksy front, or Slingbaum maybe being one also. These are cheeky people who love having fun with this kind of thing.