CD REVIEWS
Jun 1, 2005 12:00 PM
GURU
Version 7.0: The Street Scriptures (7 Grand)
Gang Starr's mouthpiece reveals split-personality gene
It's hard to be a rapper these days. Cash cows drop typical gangsta chatter about glocks, rims and God (“Power, Money and Influence” here) while the more artistic MCs seek underground credibility and longevity. Forget about Guru's jazz joints of yesteryear; the artist also known as Keith Elam wants it all in this fence-leaning epistle, on which he samples covers of Paul McCartney's “Live and Let Die” and Bob Dylan's “Knockin' on Heaven's Door” while enjoying the contributions of Jean Grae, Talib Kweli and B. Real, among others.
Version 7.0 takes just enough production chances to keep it interesting, though its monotonous raps are as predictable as taxes. Opener “No Time” is a jazz-inflected track with a glowing bass line and a psychedelic Clavinet for a moody, midnight vibe. Backward orchestral samples and an ominous requiem choir introduce “False Prophets,” alluding to an entire album of underground subversiveness, but “Step in the Arena,” “Hood Dreamin'” and especially “Cave In” — though stuffed with sinewy sounds, time-stretched vocals and blaxploitation samples — ultimately fail to work up much of a sweat.
— Ken Micallef
BENEVENTO RUSSO DUO
Best Reason to Buy the Sun (Ropeadope)
Drums, keys and recording studio
Organist Marco Benevento and drummer Joe Russo bridge that rare gap between chops and beats, a skill set that's enabled them to work behind rubber-fingered guitarist Charlie Hunter and MC Lyrics Born. Best Reason navigates a path cleared by Medeski, Martin and Wood, as BRD can do jazz freakout or elastic R&B with the best. But these instrumentals — cascading layers of effected Wurli, loops and percussion — also spotlight the duo's songwriting strengths and modern pop ear. “Sunny's Song,” for example, wouldn't sound out of place on Interpol's latest.
— Dan Frio
CHEB I SABBAH
La Kahena (Six Degrees)
Sounds from dunes and dumbeks
Cheb I Sabbah collaborates with female singers from the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) in this head rush of resonant Middle Eastern instruments, soaring vocals and highly sensitive production created in New York, San Francisco and New Delhi: a truly globe-freaking experience. Alternately subtle and supercharged — incorporating every imaginable kind of clamoring beats and sampled or treated sounds (including massive bass tones and swirling strings) — tracks such as “Sadats” and “Jarat Fil Hub” push expectations of cultures on the edge deep into the stratosphere.
— Ken Micallef
C-MURDER
The Truest $#!@ I Ever Said (Koch)
Locked-down rapper opens up
Adding to the soon-to-be-canonized genre of “rap albums made in jail,” C-Murder's latest offering may seem like a last-ditch effort for the former No Limit Allstar serving life in prison for a 2002 murder. However, gone is the flossin', the bling and the bravado and everything else that defined the brash, New Orleans hip-hop scene that C-Murder came up in along with brothers Master P and Silkk the Shocker. Tracks like “My Life” and “Won't Let Me Out” show a more honest, wiser C-Murder — a man who knows he's got nothing to lose and isn't afraid of being genuine with his audience.
— Aaron Schultz
COLETTE
Hypnotized (Om)
Deep-house diva's debut
On Colette's first artist album, this Chicago deep-house DJ's skills and classically trained voice beckon and aim to hypnotize. The title track is classic soulful house — a dangling 4/4 beat with lilting vocals. Meanwhile, “What Will She Do for Love?” and “What's Wrong With Being Lonely?” are timeless dance-pop songs with full-bodied synths. And as Hypnotized winds down, “Joy and Pain” and “Smile for Me” drift into a slow and dreamy mood. It's been awhile since dance music has had a battle cry embodied in more than a single, but eight years in the making, here it is.
— Tamara Warren
C-RAYZ WALZ
Year of the Beast (Definitive Jux)
MCs should hide more often
After locking himself away for a year-and-a-half, C-Rayz Walz returns luminously with his second Def Jux LP. The Bronx MC's fantastical “Paradise” paints bleakness over El-P's chunky, ascending backdrop before the two join on the chorus in perfect confrontational harmony. And on “Pink,” producer Belief's dub fixation complements Walz's finger-pointing as he and Jean Grae comically deconstruct paper-thin gangsta-rap bravado. Although it's filled with fierce guest spots from Rob Sonic, M-1 of Dead Prez and Vordul Mega, Walz's producer lineup is just as diverse and noteworthy.
— Dominic Umile
DJ HEATHER
Fabric 21 (Fabric)
See this Super Jane groove
As part of the Chicago-based Super Jane collective of superior female DJs, DJ Heather's deep and thoughtfully selected sets are renowned. Her singular take on the 4/4 house beat veers away from easy choices, instead focusing on building a groove. On this collection named after the UK club, Heather takes her time with creating a mood, much as she would live. Setting herself up with Mario Fabriani's “Release,” she slowly upshifts into a more bumping vibe with Justin Martin's “Snow Day (JT Donaldson Remix)” and C Pen's “Puffin Stuff (JT Donaldson's Rework).”
— Lily Moayeri
SATOSHI TOMIIE
ES (SAW)
Listen in to an ominous-sounding underground party scene
The first of a couple of mix CDs that Satoshi Tomiie is releasing this summer, ES is pure party — albeit a sinister party. Tomiie has known a thing or two about rocking house music since before his days as a partner of Def Mix with Frankie Knuckles and David Morales in the late '80s and '90s. A purveyor of darker, trance-inflected house, Tomiie is not one to swim in “take me higher” — style vocals. For example, on ES, when vocals do come into play, they can be more frightening than diva-esque — as on the wicked, whispered phrases of Maskio's “Wait (I Know What You Need).”
Although this party might have a menacing flavor, it's still body-moving and even funky (check the modulated, wobbly bass of Uppfade's “Friday Loops”). And Tomiie is also conscious of creating a seamless mix journey: ES starts out tech house with perfectly robotic hi-hats on Kevin Freeman's “Time for Revolution” and carefully ends up at a more goth-electro house destination with the vocal-heavy “Fake,” by Beckers, and “Lonely Child,” by Slok. Expect Tomiie's chilled-out, deep-house mix ESB to arrive later this summer, to be followed by a comp from his label, SAW, and an artist album in 2006.
— Kylee Swenson
DJ PREMIER AND MR. THING
The Kings of Hip Hop (BBE/Rapster)
History teaches the future
BBE's Kings Of series returns with hand-selected mixes from the masterful DJ Premier and UK DMC champion Mr. Thing. Disc 1 finds Premier showcasing the original boom-bap with a mix of funk and soul that helped shape the minds of and provide direction for hip-hop's pioneers. Grover Washington's “Mister Magic” and Wilson Pickett's “In the Midnight Hour” are contextualized differently when seen under hip-hop's spotlight. In contrast, Mr. Thing's disc showcases nothing but classics from hip-hop's golden age: source material that provides for tomorrow's producers.
— Aaron Schultz
GOLDIE LOOKIN CHAIN
Straight Outta Newport (Record Collection)
Internationally humorous tales
Beastie Boys references are the most common when speaking about Goldie Lookin Chain's debut album, Straight Outta Newport. With tracks like “Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do” and “Your Mother's Got a Penis,” it becomes obvious that what was previously missing from hip-hop was Welsh rapping. Told in the distinct voices (one like a demonic cookie monster) of eight core members, the Chain's stories detail smoking, going out, smoking, life in Newport and smoking. Despite their British take on things, the group's delivery is globally funny.
— Lily Moayeri
GRUF
Hopeless (Peanuts & Corn)
Solid beats north of the border
Gruf's humble Hopeless features his sensitive-guy flow and even a guest spot from his sister. The loop-heavy beats come from P&C label head McEnroe, who digs for eerie, ancient orchestral samples and enlists posse Hunicutt and Brace for cuts duty. Gruf's inward offerings are commonplace on Hopeless, but he spins emotion-heavy tales, as on “Sheltered Child” and “Hopeless Romantic.” McEnroe's finishing touches range from humorous, circuslike accompaniment to lush and sometimes dissonant madness. Canada: good for Bush dodgin' and crate diggin', too.
— Dominic Umile
HEADPHONES
Headphones (Suicide Squeeze)
Songs to drown out a rainy day
David Bazan sings about disturbing subjects — as on “Natural Disasters” and “I Never Wanted You” — in a tortured voice appropriate for the discussion. “Pink and Brown” is a song for the conscience: “If you want to end it / Pull the plug and shut it down.” Pedro the Lion fans will recognize this distinct voice, along with the backbeat of drummer Tim Walsh. With all the moroseness and melancholy, childlike synths add a pulse that politicizes and pushes the music forward. “Hot Girls” and “Hello Operator” lighten the mood, but keep tissues handy and prepare to sigh, deeply.
— Tamara Warren
MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO
At the Center (Thirsty Ear)
Cut-up jazz in the dead zone
Rolling through a murky world of mushy electric piano, trippy drum loops and spoken-word absurdity, Meat Beat Manifesto joins the DJ and avant-jazz roster of Thirsty Ear's Blue Series. Meat Beat Manifesto, aka Jack Dangers, has its origins in the '80s Wax Trax label, but At the Center is far more ethereal by comparison, with formless, floating mixes that spin in place despite their jazzy grooves. In a couple of tracks, a senior citizen reads personals — like “Overweight people wanted for travel” — over amorphous accompaniment, sounding like a salesman dying in the desert.
— Ken Micallef
ONE SELF
Children of Possibility (Ninja Tune)
UK's Mr. Tireless does it again
Back by popular demand, DJ Vadim returns with One Self, a soulful new project featuring Blu Rum 13 and Yarah Bravo. Vadim's sparse but precise beats coupled with tight MC interplay, string arrangements and funked-out wah-wah guitars create a post-production sheen glistening off each track. From the futuristic-meets-old-school-hip-hop appeal of “Trying to Speak” to Bravo's sultry-smooth lyrical delivery on “Blue Bird” and the gliding bass lines and vocal harmonies between Bravo and Blu Rum 13 on “Awlalyawl,” Children of Possibility contains an extensive bag of tricks.
— Chris Clark
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Dub Massive Chapters One and Two (Trojan/Sanctuary)
Bill Laswell transports early dub catalog into the future
When sound-system pioneer Arthur “Duke” Reid founded his Trojan imprint in the late 1950s, odds are, he never dreamed that the label would one day become an international beacon for Jamaican music (though tales of his legendary ego say otherwise). Trojan not only helped launch the careers of stars such as Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals and Bob Marley and the Wailers but also became the home for selected work from the island's leading producers, including Lee Perry, King Tubby, Prince Jammy and Scientist.
It's the latter thread that New York bassist and producer Bill Laswell takes to task in this two-volume excursion, pushing the dub style to psychedelic extremes. Classic '70s dubs such as Tappa Zukie's “Man a Warrior,” The Upsetters' “Washroom Skank” and Jammy's “Fist of Fury” get squeezed through all manner of lowpass filtering, reverb regeneration and digital distortion — with a reverence for the original form that would escape most producers today. Add to that an expanded low end, increased fidelity and newly thickened bass lines stirred in by Laswell himself, and you've got two rough-and-ready comps to bump in your ride this summer.
— Bill Murphy
MARTIN PETER
Enough of This?! (Angora Steel)
Drunken digital pogo
Angora Steel is a new offshoot of the Compost label, and Martin Peter offers the imprint's first release. Peter has indeed released the type of cold, dirty record you might expect from Germany right now: gritty disco-punk tracks featuring screamy, distorted vocals and digital thrash from the likes of Alec Empire (“Bypass”) and punk-funk legend Mark Stewart (“Psychoville”). But just when you think it's all electro-thrash, Peter does an about-face with mellow guitar-driven ditties such as “Edinburgh” and “Superstar,” perhaps purposely giving aging Digital Hardcore fans a chance to catch their breath.
— Erin Hutton
POPULOUS
Queue for Love (Morr)
Elegant electronics, Italian-style
Italian computer nerd Andrea Mangia uses his student space (and probably student loans) wisely, loading live and sampled instrumentation onto bouncy hip-hop beats. Queue for Love is mostly warm psychedelia, and on opener “The Breakfast Drama,” channel-traveling chimes augment a guitar-driven melody. Mangia's summery folk experimentation is pinned against soulful grooves in “Hip-Hop Cocotte,” as tragically short turntablism is ushered out of the foreground by his thoughtful rose-colored organic-electro formula. It's almost as good as Italian dessert, with less carbs.
— Dominic Umile
MARIA TAYLOR
11:11 (Saddle Creek)
Lullabies with hooks
Make a wish: It's 11:11, and this is exactly the time to hear Azure Ray member Maria Taylor's debut solo album. It's a sleepy, before-bed record yet hook-laden-enough to get you singing in your sleep (“Song Beneath the Song,” “One for the Shareholder”). Productionwise, the album has fresh electronic elements as well as moments that hark back to the shoegaze days of Slowdive (“Xanax”). But it's Taylor's voice that — while not to be compared with Elizabeth Fraser's (Cocteau Twins) — has a similar sultry and lulling quality that makes you want to curl up and close your eyes with a smile on your face.
— Kylee Swenson
TOSCA
J.A.C. (G-Stone/!K7)
Laid-back but still laying it down
Now several years into one of the alt-dance set's premier collaborations, Rupert Huber and Richard Dorfmeister seem to have eased off the gas a bit. Opting less for the hard, beat-driven focus of 2000's infectious Suzuki, the duo creates an airy feel that is by turns jazzy (“Heidi Brühl,” with French-Egyptian chanteuse Samiah Farah), lightly clubby (“Pyjama”) or altogether ambient (“Naschkatze”). “Damentag” suffers from a cheesy (or cheeky?) disco fetish, but it's cancelled out by the brilliant “Superrob,” with the gravelly-voiced Earl Zinger out in front of a liquid bass groove.
— Bill Murphy
US3
Questions (Us3.com)
Modern jazz finds a nu-soul
If the name Us3 rings a distant bell, think back to 1994. The act sampled Herbie Hancock's “Cantaloupe Island,” and the resulting “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)” was a worldwide hit. Ten years and four albums later, London-based producer Geoff Wilkinson has successfully given up sampling in favor of live instrumentation. Trumpets and rapper Reggi Wyns' verbal clip punctuate twinkling flute melodies (“Why Not?”) while South African vocalist Mpho adds an R&B edge (“The Truth”). Questions won't resurrect Us3 from one-hit-wonder status, but it could be the soulful score to your summer.
— Genevieve Powers
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Poker Flat, Volume 4 (Poker Flat)
Techtastic label comp
Rarely does one label have enough great singles to fill two discs, but Steve Bug proves his prowess as both A&R exec and producer on this retrospective. Both discs contain an impressive collection of music that manages atmosphere and accessibility despite being stripped to its rawest core. On the first unmixed disc, Bug's remix of his own “Loverboy” is more ominous seduction than sweet romance, and the pitched-down disc 2 (mixed by Jeff Samuel) goes from gritty to downright sinister with tracks like John Tejada's “Sweat (On the Walls)” and ADJD's “Getting Closer.”
— Genevieve Powers
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