4 out of 5

Label: Un Je-Ne-Sais-Quois

Produced by: Monsieur K (?)

The fifth entry in Un Je-Ne-Sais-Quois’ mixtape series, “Calypso Air Shuttle” pulls from a radio show called the Big Bazounga Boogaloo, on Tours, France’s Radio Béton, collected by a Monsieur K – whom I would perhaps know more about if I was French and / or listened to Radio Béton, but neither of those things are the case. As such, I go into this cold, with the raised eyebrow with which I’ve approached all of these mixtapes… and emerge warmed over by a pretty damned good time.

Taking the title as a guide, the 80ish minute set is essentially a tour through decades of Calypso music, stretching from “classic to contemporary.” Unschooled in the genre, I can’t tell you exactly what that covers, but there’s definitely some archival stuff on here based on the recording quality- very much mastered to be in line with the modern stuff, but you can hear the clicks and static of recordings that’ve been significantly cleaned up – and it looks like there are recordings available going back to the 40s or so, but I’d probably guess “Air Shuttle” is a fair amount of 50s – 70s stuff (which is also mentioned as Monsieur K’s collection’s focus), going at least up to the early 00s, based on select tracks I was able to source.

What’s cool is that that’s sequenced somewhat chronologically, giving the A-side of this cassette that “classic” vibe that touches on jazz and funk and some big band elements, with the B-side shifting into ska and hip-hop and reggae. While my first pass at the mix had me thinking it might’ve been better to mix old and new, after I settled in for the ride more fully, I think the tour – riding a shuttle along the timeline – is a lot more satisfying, as Monsieur K’s smart selections show us how much variation there was / can be, while delivering tunes that could probably be easily confused if you heard them at a distance and, like me, were not familiar with the artists and genre.

That said, the mix isn’t seamless, though it’s damn close. On both sides we hit a couple blips in the flow, where K either misses the beat slightly or just does a weird mash-up, or, on one occasion, chooses two songs with the same beat and same-sounding vocalist back to back, which makes for a longer stretch; and sometimes – mostly on the A-side – some tracks just go on too long, either naturally or as if they were looped. Of course, keeping this vibe alive for this long is a magic trick in itself, so I’m really nitpicking: the set moves from super upbeat numbers in the first half-hour to slightly more jazzy laid-back numbers, then on the B-side it does the same but with modern tunes, pretty aggressive with remixes / political lyricism and then switching to a somewhat chilled vibe. The sheer breadth of tunes able to be covered in the runtime is staggering, as is how modern it all sounds – this is not your typical “Day-O” stuff, far from it: the classic era is ridiculously progressive at points, going for really odd song structures and delivering pretty sharp (and often funny) lyrics… I can’t call myself a Calypso fan by any means, but as often happens with the selections on these UJNSQ mixes, I emerge with a handle of [insert genre] artists who I can now appreciate.