#41 Medeski, Martin, and Wood - Combustication
There's a specific reason why this album immediately follows Mezzanine on our journey and its not due to the progressive hierarchy of inaccessibility and convention that I designated as the working order in my original post. If that were the case this album would appear much further down the list, as it is, by most fan's definition, a jazz album.
No, the reason I've decided to put it at the coveted #41 spot is that to me this album is like a complete inversion of Mezzanine. If it stands to reason that if you could call mezzanine a dark electronica album with jazz elements, then Combustication is definitely a dark Jazz album with electronica elements.
I have owned, at one point or another, every album that this experimental acid-jazz trio- John medeski on keyboards, Billy Martin on drums, and Chris Wood on bass, has produced, and Combustication easily stands out as a masterpiece, and the key element that causes it to rise to the top of the MMW discography is DJ Logic.
DJ logic unlike most conventional DJs that have made a name for themselves did so not by spinning wild sets at random dance clubs and parties around the world, but by sitting in on gigs with jazz musicians every chance he got to set up his turntables. The man has been on a relentless crusade since day one to turn what is often seen as a musical novelty relegated strictly to hip-hop and electronica genres into a viable and expressive organic instrument in its own right. Nowhere are the fruits of his pursuit more apparent than on this record. Whether its the dark "Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole" feel of Start-stop or the surreal and brooding Nocturne. Logic doesn't just punctuate the music with ineffectual scratches, he creates soundscapes that you will get lost in. This is not the only album that MMW have collabrated with Logic on, but it is by far the most interesting and a jazz masterpiece that I believe does not get nearly the credit it deserves.