js Listening to ‘Double Fine Zone’ wasn’t the first time I heard a drumnbass CD with a pronounced jazz element, but it was the first CD I heard that mixed the two genres in such a seamless and sophisticated way. This music is very relaxed and abstract, the ultimate in jazzy techno lounging. It was meant to sound exotic and futuristic in 1999, and it probably will for a long time to come. Brian Iddenden and Damien Masterson provide the excellent saxophone work. Sometimes they solo, and sometimes they just add nice counter melodies to Jonah Sharp’s keyboard ensemble work. Masterson also doubles on harmonica, but he doesn’t play simple bluesy lines, instead he is a master of the jazzy chromatic harp in the style of Toots Thielman.

Another plus on here is the keyboard and drum skills of Spacetime Contuuum’s mastermind, Jonah Sharp. Jonah splices and dices his jazzy syncopated trap set lines into modern abstract fusion that never sounds mechanical unless he goes for that effect on purpose. His sparse and innovative voicings on a real Fender Rhodes also help add that authentic ‘jazz sound’. Not every rhythm on here is pure drumnbass, Sharp keeps things interesting with some ambient techno and even some 4 on the floor ambient house, but the beats are never overbearing or too plastic.

To some, this CD could probably function as some kind of slick background music, but if you listen closely to some of the better cuts, Sharp serves up a very cool and unique version of future-jazz.