We're New Here

Alloy of youth and experience

In 2010, Gil Scott-Heron delivered a long player under an ironical title, I’m New Here. With his debut studio work released in 1971, he can be anybody except a new artist. It looks like Gil simply wanted to say that there has gone lots of water under the bridge since he started, and today there’s too much in the music business he does not understand or struggles to get familiar with. Having never changed much in his individual style in forty years on the stage, he feels like someone new, a shy fresher in the new cultural environment. Scott-Heron’s striving to get closer to the contemporary music tendencies without tarnishing the shape and the content of his approach brought him to making a very specific and gripping record which he prepared with a young performer Jamie XX. This studio effort came out in 2011 titled We’re New Here, which is quite explainable. The reason is that this release is a collection of remakes on the basis of Scott-Heron’s songs, the largest part of which is borrowed from his previous solo effort having a similar name. Only this time this title looks more suitable for we are to listen to the first product of a very young collaboration between two musicians giving very little in common.

Who did what on We’re New Here

Next to his established and experienced partner, Jamie XX is likely to look a frustrated debutante, which is certainly a wrong impression. His real name is Jamie Smith while the stage name is connected with his best known project, The XX, whose producer he is. Moreover, Jamie XX, in fact, is the dominant creative and performing drive behind We’re New Here. What Gil Scott-Heron did for this record is giving his solo material for Jamie to sample, while Jamie himself is credited with making new songs on the basis of the original tracks. The main outcome, which might be one of the main goals of the whole project, is to show how different the famous singer may sound in a different musical surrounding. Actually, Scott-Heron addresses his young partner in the opening I’m New Here as he admits that he has never been here (in this music) before. As distant as their worlds are from each other (instrumental minimalism and abundant wordiness against powerful electronic wave), Jamie XX shortens the distance between them. In order not to bring the listener back to the I’m Here album, the duet makes a very wise decision to replace the mentioned album’s best track, Me And The Devil, with a piece from another record. The original for Home, called Home Is Where The Hatred Is, is borrowed from Scott-Heron’s debut long player.

An interesting experiment worthy to be listened to

The prevailing portion of the We’re New Here tracks are totally fresh pieces behind which you can hardly distinguish traces of their remake-rooted origin. While Scott-Heron’s solo effort, I’m New Here, is depressive and darkly philosophical, the record that seems to be built solely on its songs, brings a whole lot of other emotions. You find more life and energy here, with each statement made by Gil sounding more confident, convincing and compelling. My Cloud grew into an enchanting beautiful ballad. The Crutch turned into an infectious dance hymn, while the sensation of the approaching calamity in New York Is Killing Me reaches its highest possible pitch. We’re New Here is not another version of an album made by one of the duet’s members. This is a completely different project with a completely different type of music. It even makes you believe that Gil sings anew. His vocal manner is very suitable for this music, where instruments are supposed and prepared to follow a particular tune of the voice. As an experimental form of combining two styles standing far from each other, this music raises a lot of questions. However, the audacity and creativity of these musicians, Jamie XX, who processed the original material so thoroughly, and Gil Scott-Heron, who dared to try an absolutely unknown accompaniment, deserve nothing but respect and praise.