A true world beat

For most of us, there are moments when our ears crave an unusual concoction that simply will not be satisfied by a pop song. As though bred for just such occasions, Beats Antique offer listeners a multifaceted sound-circus, ridden with musical acrobatics, animalistic spontaneity and ageless global influences.

The California-based instrumental ensemble introduces creative layering of styles that lesser artists would excuse as unrelated and incapable of being juxtaposed. Their inventive approach has attracted an immense yet diverse following of artists, intellectuals, dancers and subculture enthusiasts, making them an underground talent to be reckoned with. In a recent interview with the Vanguard, group member David Satori expanded upon their ability to seamlessly bridge boundaries of traditional sounds.

“I believe we are bringing a fresh take on cross-cultural fusions,” says Satori. “Fusion can come off as cheesy, but it’s a good description of what we are doing. We are bringing in new styles of electronic music into old world music like bridging dubstep, glitch, hip-hop, downtempo together with gypsy brass band, Middle Eastern, north African, Indian and many other styles.”

The interlacing of such varied sound textures can be a complicated task. Artists run the risk of sounding fragmented, sloppy—even pretentious. But such artists clearly don’t have the enviable abilities each member of Beats Antique may very well contain in their pinky alone.

The company consists of Zoe Jakes, a renowned belly dancer with a flair for wooing large mobs of entertainment-hungry concertgoers instantaneously with her personalized execution of the ancient art form, as well as Tommy Chappel, a veteran of the Extra Action Marching Band and Yard Dog Roadshow. Satori, self-proclaimed “new kid on the block,” leads a triple life greenifying road shows and touring through China with his cheeky side project, Sweet Snacks. Satori explains how each of the wunderkinds lends vital contributions to the project.

“I tend to be the ‘antique’ and Side Car Tommy is the ‘beats,'” he says. “Zoe is in between. We all come together to bring out the best in a composition. I bring melodic ideas and Tommy brings the drums and beats. Zoe has her dancing ears on and helps sculpt on some of the tracks. She fully produced a track called “Slapdash Era” on our new album Collide.”

Released in August 2008, Collide is the critically successful follow-up to their debut album, Tribal Derivations, both of which are available on iTunes and Amazon.com, accompanied by dozens of zealous reviews from happy customers. The album is based in a flavorful variety of tempos and instruments ranging from the viola to the zaboomba, and offering something for everyone because, frankly, everything is there.

It’s astonishing, really, that three individuals can collect and replicate samples from such distinct cross-cultural backgrounds to develop an entirely new body of work. It allows an antiquated art form to be enveloped by modern audiences and spoon-fed to a new generation in a pristine package of audible pleasure. In lieu of their success, however, the ambition of Beats Antique remains fairly humble.

“We hope to open listeners to new sounds and cultures,” Satori explains. “We hope to inspire people to let go and dance and have a transformative experience.”