Wendel Patrick

Wendel Patrick :: Sound:----RE:UP Magazine review by Beau Lamontagne----
Wendel Patrick died a week after he was born a month premature back in 1973. So how does he have a full-length album released in 2007? Wendel Patrick is the righteous alias of Kevin Gift, Wendel’s twin brother who survived the childbirth - not a bad way to pay homage to the departed.
Gift is a classically trained pianist who grew up in Venezuela and Jamaica, where he played in reggae bands with his other siblings. Now residing in Baltimore, Gift has produced Sound:, which has nary a trace of obvious piano licks nor island vibes, it’s pure beat-ridden downtempo and hip-hop with sprinkles of drum and bass throughout. Gift’s strong musical background makes for a great safety net to support his experiments in rhythmic sounds and time signature (for most producers in these genres it’s usually the other way around). "Stonesthrow" (clever song title) weaves in and out of skippity drum and bass and classic Shadow breaks, playfully fooling your ears when the song slips into double-time. While not shy with the two-step beat, most of the drum and bass found on Sound: is of the delicate nature - like Squarepusher when he’s nice or LTJ when he’s not hoarding every ambient sound possible.
Like any proper "producer" today, Gift puts lyrics over a handful of his beats, enlisting MCs Salim (also representing B-more) and Napoleon Solo to spit on two songs each. The most original of these vocal tracks is "My CD Has a Scratch II," where Salim’s flow - sounding like a mellow Ghostface - is amusingly interrupted by the stuttering bas kicks and hi-hats with a tease of tasteful jazz chords that make it more than just a skit interlude. "Mass Media II" has a nice guitar hook and the drum-set break sits in the pocket while Salim rolls along effortlessly, calling out the forced franticness of nightly news broadcasts.
According to Gift, the record is essentially sample-free, yet he segments his own sounds using the same blueprint of a break-oriented song. This makes Gift’s meanderings sound not like a novice noodling around in the studio, but like a perfectly placed sample from a dusty record of old. Sound: just gets better and better upon each listen and it’s easy to tell that Gift is no one trick pony. Keep your eyes and ears on this one.
Wendel Patrick :: Sound:----URB Magazine review by Cherri Moon----
"Patrick was born to a Trinidadan father and a Jamaican mother and, by the tender age of four, was taking piano lessons in his family’s new country, Venezuela. This global influence may not be an audibly prominent force in his music, but it’s certainly an undercurrent. So is the memory of his twin brother, who did not survive their premature delivery, and whose name Patrick uses as a music maker and artist.
Sound: is an atmospheric album akin to skipping stones or a pebble being dropped in a river with circles that reverberate from the impact. It’s not heavy, but it is deep, often reminding the listener of that haunting, dusty DJ Shadow sound of abandoned houses and attics filled with old belongings and memories before a bright new day emerges through a newly opened window. A perfect, effusive and certainly trippy record to spin on a Sunday afternoon. ****"
Pianist Kevin Gift’s alter ego Wendel Patrick is rapidly making a name for himself as a producer to be recognized. Wendel Patrick fuses together different elements of jazz, electronica and Hip Hop to create lush musical collages that are entirely and undoubtedly his own. Visit www.wendelpatrick.com.