A Day off with Pax and Pry
The Dutch love diaries. Even something as simple as going for a drink is impossible without the inevitable iCal or agenda being pulled out first. It’s not rude, it’s just how things are. So imagine how hard it is to arrange a meeting with Pax and Pry, who continually juggle their own stuff and a mind-boggling array of other musical and community projects.
But happily, in between jobs, they’ve somehow managed to find time to make their second album, the aptly titled A Day Off. Although it’s not so much a ‘new’ entity, as a companion piece to their debut.
Pry: “We see both albums as one whole concept, rather than two different albums. Part of A Day Off was already finished in one way or another when we released A Day At The Office, so it feels like a natural second part of a diptych.”
It’s an impression reinforced by the use of the same artwork as the first record (albeit in a different colour) and the same means of distribution – giving it away for free from their website. But there’s a creative scale and progression to A Day Off that sets it apart from its predecessor. On a simple level, it’s evident in the fact that it’s also available to download in instrumental and a capella form, for producers and MCs to experiment with as they wish. On a musical level it’s present in the growth and progression that comes with moving from one album to the next. As Pax proclaims on “Want To” –“it ain’t quite the thing it used to be, but we still bring ish unusually.’
There’s no better example of this than that selfsame track. It opens with a killer JB horn line that’s chopped off just as soon as you get into it in favour of a bubbling breakbeat coming straight out of leftfield. A lot of acts, and me, would have just ridden out the horn sample for the next two minutes, rather than taken the ‘risk’ of fucking with it. Unsurprisingly, that’s not how Pax and Pry see it.
Pax: I don’t think Pry took a conscious risk of ruining the song by changing it after 4 bars. I think he just figured nice intro, now what?
It’s typical of an album that has that retains the boombap vibe of its predecessor as its base but happily embraces a much broader sonic palate. Just to name a few: Kyteman lends some blissfully tripped out trumpet to “Wake Up,” “In Between Jobs” has a futuristic “spaced out high shit” flavour, while “Dirty It Up Some” sees Pry finally unleash his electric guitar (and distortion pedal).
Pax: On this record we consciously tried to categorize tracks to make sure that there’s not only spaced out tracks and one banger, or only bangers and whatever else pops in. In my head A Day Off is made up of chapters, rather than separate songs.
This view of A Day Off as one complete entity rather than 14 individual songs means that they can’t pick out a favourite track either.
Pry: It’s difficult, I don’t know. I like “Love Shit” a lot, I like “Dirty it up Some” too, different tracks, different things. As a relaxed tune I like A Day Off, it just depends. I prefer to listen to it as a whole record, than as seperate tunes. Nowadays everyone’s just downloading tracks, but when we made the record we were constantly busy in our heads with Side A and Side B. Ultimately, it’s a record, you have to flip it.
And that’s a pretty good metaphor for what they’re trying to do with A Day Off – bring back the values of the old school to contemporary hip-hop. But not just the vinyl or the boombap sound, more the days that hip-hop focused on positivity. Or as Pax puts it slightly more eloquently on “Once & For All’: “I miss the days hip-hop was all about emancipation”.
This burning desire for equality governs everything they do – whether it’s opening their work up for everyone to share, holding the A Day Off release party at Pax’s flat and inviting anyone and everyone to it, right down to the way Pax conducts himself during an open mic. Despite being comfortably the biggest presence on stage, he never hogs the mic or the limelight, preferring to encourage others before almost being pushed to do his thing. But the man who really pushes Pax to do his thing is the quieter Pry, who’s happier to let his beats or the MC do most of the talking. And when it’s something as fat as the window rattling hook on “Sounds Like Music,” it truly speaks volumes.
Their different approaches are highlighted when asked what their message is on A Day Off. Pry doesn’t know. Pax, unsurprisingly, does.
Pax: Slow the fuck down, let it go, quit your job and get back to bed. Be your own boss, as an entrepeneur, not an employee. Decide your own direction. That’s my message as a vocalist. I think Pry’s message is you better fucking move because his beats are crazy!
It’s like he says on “Get Off The Couch”: “Pax fans demand a message, the type that only comes out during Principle sessions.”
While he chuckles when this is brought up (and Pry tactfully takes a swig of wine), this is no empty praise. They’re fond of talking about how Pax and Pry bring the yin and the yang to music, but it’s clear that’s how exactly they complement each other as well.
Pax: Yeah, that’s what happens when we are at the Principle’s office – he makes beats that bring out a sharpness in me. That’s where we collide – he brings the edge and I look more for the soul in things. Whenever there’s an edge and a soul in something, we make a track. That’s how a Pax and Pry album comes out and I don’t know anyone else apart from Pry who I can do that with.
And long may it continue. You can help support them by downloading A Day Off here. And if you really like it, you can really support them by sending them a few euros as well.