CD REVIEWS
May 1, 2003 12:00 PM
808 STATE
Outpost Transmission (Circus)
Storytelling sounds for film buffs
Many musically important groups have come from Manchester, England, not least of all 808 State, which formed in 1988 and brought dance music to arena-size venues. With their innovative acid-house and IDM tracks, the members of 808 State created dreamy and entrancing electronic music that lured even Björk and New Order's Bernard Sumner to collaborate (Ex: El).
The group's first album of new material since 1996, Outpost Transmission follows along the lines of earlier albums Ex: El and 808:90 with mostly instrumental tracks and a few guest vocalists, in this case including Simian's Simon Lord. Yet the showing on Outpost isn't as awe-inspiring as 808 State's '90s offerings “Magical Dream,” “Ooops” and “Pacific 202.” A certain sense of melody is lacking. But to the band's credit, Outpost's tracks — such as the linear, cinematic “Longfoo” and “Dissadis” — seem more molded for a suspense-film score. In fact, 808's music here is so well-suited for the big screen, it's a wonder the group hasn't done a score of scores.
— Kylee Swenson
3 GENERATIONS WALKING
S/T (Spiritual Life)
Deliciously unpredictable dub house
Don't ever try to guess where 3GW — the NYC/Pittsburgh collective headed up by MKL and Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl — is going with a song. Themes of jazz, house, reggae and dub meet, disperse and reunite as the group makes and breaks the groove. Meanwhile, a large guest list adds sultry vocals, whispering piano, guitar funk, smoky bass and bubbling percussion to curvy electronic elements. Sometimes, the experiments get hectic (“To Live,” complete with flügelhorn), but such loungy perfection as “Love Always Love” more than makes up for it.
— David Weiss
AIR & BARICCO
City Reading (Source/Astralwerks)
Pistol-packing poetry
Spoken word arguably had its heyday as a genre some half-dozen years ago, but don't tell that to Italian author Alessandro Baricco and the members of Air. Over a haunting bed of atmospherics mixed by Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, the bard regales listeners in his native language with tales reminiscent of spaghetti westerns and Jodorowsky's famed “art film” El Topo. Even though it's a risky — and not always riveting — departure for a duo known for its catchy grooves, the opus “Caccia All'uomo (Manhunt)” does have its inventive flights of musical whimsy.
— Bill Murphy
A.R.E. WEAPONS
S/T (Rough Trade)
Arty electro-punk for sullen hipsters
Painfully hip? Overhyped? Well, yes. A.R.E. Weapons is taking itself entirely too seriously to rise above the electro-clash wasteland sprawled before it. The group's self-titled effort is dark, dirty and harsh with plenty of atonal yelling over skittering beats and thrashing guitars (“Changes”) and punky, stripped-down garage-rock moments (as with “A.R.E.”), but overall, A.R.E. Weapons fails to connect its occasional flashes of brilliant electro trashiness into an engaging effort that will warrant more than a half-dozen spins in the stereo system.
— Christine Hsieh
COOLER KIDS
Punk Debutante (DreamWorks)
Club kids not as cool as they think
That title couldn't be any more misleading. It's likely that the only contact the members of this Brooklyn duo ever had with the Sex Pistols was in the pages of a trendy fashion magazine, as their own music is a sugary confection of electronica, disco and kitsch. With former Luscious Jackson mastermind Jill Cunniff serving as the group's Svengali, it's not all bad. But singer Sisely Treasure's vocals could benefit from one or two more octaves, and DJ Kazimir's compositions are clearly the result of too many nights spent listening to vacuous Eurotrash.
— Aidin Vaziri
GREENS KEEPERS
The Ziggy Franklen … (Classic)
Funky house with a vintage flair
You can forget the '80s: The Chicago-based Greens Keepers twosome is taking its cues from the early 1900s, peppering light-hearted, catchy tunes with kitschy “radio” banter and wholesome dance beats. As pioneers of the swing-house sound, Greens Keepers temper hard-hitting Chicago jack tracks with acoustic samples and swinging rhythms. Highlights include the charming pizzicato-filled house of “Low and Sweet” and the funky “Should I Sing Like This?” Get ready to swing, shake and boogie like it's 1939.
— Christine Hsieh
TOMMY GUERRERO
Soul Food Taqueria (Mo' Wax)
Skater turned mellow rocker
The genius of Guerrero's second album lies in the space he leaves within the elements. Playing all of the instruments himself, Guerrero creates introspective, hollowly acoustic folk sounds that fall into lo-fi, hip-hop-tinted rock. With low-key soul threaded through the understated funk, Guerrero has much in common with his Mo' Wax cohort Money Mark. Featuring Blackalicious' Lyrics Born, Guerrero organically slots his vocals into Latin-influenced pluckings. The musical bents are numerous, but Guerrero's minimalist approach makes them all fit.
— Lily Moayeri
TIMO MAAS
Music for the Maases 2 (Kinetic)
Sonics without boundaries
Acolytes of the German dance scene know Timo Maas for his edgy reworking of the Azzido da Bass single “Dooms Night,” which became an internationally hyped club staple and led off the first Music for the Maases comp released in late 2000. After following that up with his solo debut as a producer — the often moody and at times even downtempo Loud — Maas has collected another trove of his more prominent remixes from the past two years and sequenced them into a continuous suite of near-relentless, 125 bpm bumpability.
What's mad cool about Maas is his knack for making a vocal feel like it has always belonged in the groove that he builds around it. Kelis' mic attack is seamlessly tempo-shifted in the smoothed-out “Young Fresh and New” while Shirley Manson floats luxuriously in the liquefied breakbeat aura of Garbage's “Breaking Up the Girl.” But the real surprise gem here is “We Are All Made of Stars,” on which Moby emerges from a vocoded filter as if trance-mitting from deep space.
— Bill Murphy
MANITOBA
Up in Flames (Domino)
Trading IDM for shoegaze
Like David Holmes, Dan “Manitoba” Snaith finds the ghost in the machine of electronic music. His 2001 debut, Start Breaking My Heart, fits nicely alongside the post-techno lap-hop of Boards of Canada. But on Up in Flames, Straith does away with the machine all together, orchestrating shimmering ragas of churning breakbeats and chiming melodies that recall Spiritualized and even Their Satanic Majesty's Request — era Stones with lush, expansive arrangements that circumvent the chilly conventions of electronic music without just sounding chilled-out.
— Hobey Echlin
MR. C
Change (End)
Ex-Shamen morphs seamlessly
A strictly solo venture for Mr. C since the disbanding of The Shamen, the highly personal nature of these compositions manages to shine cleanly through studio-generated noises. Drawing from the multitude of genres experienced at his club, The End, the tracks on Change segue into each other smoothly from style to style. Using tech house not so much as a type of music as a method, the malleable blueprint is applied to infuse trance-tinged techno and percolating breaks with impulsive but manicured beats, well-arranged vocals and melodically groovy rhythms.
— Lily Moayeri
ODD NOSDAM
no more wig for ohio (anticon)
Sonic soup for the sampled soul
You know you're in for something good when a CD comes without song titles. As if to not disturb your perception of these 24 tracks by assigning them names, odd nosdam instead splits the album into two distinct parts: The first 11 tracks bounce down a quirky, light-hearted path, with stops at Sunday school and an organ dealer along the way. The second part takes a moodier, ethereal turn, fusing cozy record pops and crackles with menacing keys and determined beats. Silly, sad and eerie, this is easily the most unique and inventive release this year.
— Erin Hutton
PREFUSE 73
One Word Extinguisher (Warp)
Enticing glitch-hop fantasyland
Scott Herren, aka Prefuse 73, is no amateur when it comes to crafting intricate soundscapes. With One Word Extinguisher, he turns an oddball collection of funk, soul, spoken-word samples and hip-hop into a futuristic yet vintage collage — like a remote-control run-through of TV's past. Veering from sampled and stuttered jazz (“Busy Signal”) to up-front hip-hop (“Plastic”) and syncopated funk (“Detchibe”) with remarkable restraint and control, Herren gives another dose of ear candy that pleases, teases and leaves the listener reaching for the Ritalin.
— Christine Hsieh
PRINCE PAUL
Politics of the Business (Razor & Tie)
Inside the rap game
Highly respected for his pioneering work with De La Soul and Stetsasonic, as well as more recent projects A Prince Among Thieves and Handsome Boy Modeling School, Prince Paul addresses the shady ways of the rap game on his latest endeavor. With help from a slew of guests, he combines rock-solid beats with his trademark intelligent and bugged-out humor. Standouts include “Drama Queen,” with Trugoy and Truth Enola; the title track, featuring Ice T and Chuck D; and “People, Places and Things,” starring Chubb Rock, Wordsworth and MF Doom.
— Brolin Winning
ROB SWIFT
Under the Influence (Six Degrees)
Fresh funk, deep decks
Following last year's excellent Sound Event, New York super-DJ Rob Swift returns with a top-notch compilation disc, the second in a series from Six Degrees (DJ Spooky did the first). Mixing much-loved funk standards, old-school gems and Spanish-flavored throwdowns, he flaunts his deck dexterity throughout, manipulating the beats with searing scratches and making fresh tracks even fresher. Featuring neck-breaking joints from Eddie Bo, Davey DMX and Marley Marl, these 15 tracks never waver, lighting up the speakers from start to finish.
— Brolin Winning
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