CD REVIEWS
Sep 1, 2005 12:00 PM
ADULT.
Gimmie Trouble (Thrill Jockey)
Analog grit meets howling speech on Detroit couple's second
Many journalists lumped Adult. into the electroclash craze, but whereas that movement was all Williamsburg and glitter makeup, Adult.'s music is quintessential Detroit with last night's black eyeliner smeared under each eye. Husband-and-wife production team Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus successfully aimed to make their second full-length album more punk than pop, a venture that was aided by the addition of a third member, Sam Consiglio, on guitars. The only glimmers of electroclash left on Gimmie Trouble are Kuperus' manic vocals and backing synths that growl like a patient off his meds.
Most of the 12 songs on the album start with a minimal, industrial intro before percussion kicks in like a metallic maraca. The title track could run in a nightmarish funhouse ride, with Kuperus supplying the voice of the menacing clown. Ranging from screeching highs to snarling lows, she shouts her adolescent and vaguely sexual lyrics: “Lips just seem to fill the bill / Rattle some bones / Now you feel fulfilled.” Often time-stretched for a stuttered effect, the vocals come off like a deranged nursery rhyme. The outcome is abrasive but impressive. — Genevieve Powers
BOOZOO BAJOU
Dust My Broom (!K7)
Roots can come in many forms
German duo Boozoo Bajou made a memorable dub record with 2001's Satta. Now on its second album, Boozoo picks up the building blocks of blues, jazz, Americana folk and soul music and lays them on top of its drowsy dub foundation. The Deep Southern spoken word by country legend Tony Joe White on “Keep Going” and the Jamaican Foundation — style DJing of U-Brown on “Take It Slow” may seem odd bedfellows, but Boozoo manages to weave something so cohesive that it seems these wildly varied sounds should have always been bound. — Aaron Schultz
BUCKSHOT & 9TH WONDER
Chemistry (Duck Down)
Sonically balanced
The chemistry between Buckshot and Little Brother's 9th Wonder is readily apparent as Buck effortlessly crafts his cadences and tailors his tones to mesh precisely with Wonder's illustrious soundscapes. With rhymes running the gamut from story-style to traditional chest puffery, Buck displays every lyrical sort contained in the rap table of elements to form a flawless musical molecule with Wonder's layered strings and boom-bap drums. “The Ghetto” epitomizes this perfect union with a steady bass line carrying the song and a sampled vocal hook cementing concept with aural context. — DJ Ethx
CLUE TO KALO
One Way, It's Every Way (Mush)
Lush electronics from Down Under
Clue to Kalo's Aussie mastermind, Mark Mitchell, shares a great deal of sonic territory with Caribou, The Notwist, Four Tet (prerave throwback) and Hood, blending digital and analog elements into a heady stream of plaintive melodies, resonant harmonies and densely layered instrumental passages that skew toward lo-fi rock and folk while maintaining a finely honed, unmistakably electronic edge. Having matured past the earnest sentimentality of his 2003 debut, here, Mitchell constructs dense undercurrents of sound that buoy his tender, introspective vocals to the surface. — Christine Hsieh
CURUMIN
Achados e Perdidos (Quannum)
Soaring freak funk from São Paulo
Nothing could be better than the sound of crunchy analog synths, Brazilian percussion and gruff Portuguese vocals, which São Paulo phenom Curumin consistently delivers here. Curumin incorporates beauteous '70s Rio funk (complete with street drumming and Clavinet) in “Samba Japa”; creates a deranged folkadelic vibe with backward loops on a version of Stevie Wonder's “You Haven't Seen Nothing”; and magically morphs flutes, Juno-106 bass and insane operatic vocals in “Indio Danca na Roda.” Like an Amazonian shaman wired for sound, Curumin makes amazing music from natural elements. — Ken Micallef
EIGHT FROZEN MODULES
Crumbling and Responding (G25)
Frozen daiquiris taste better
Ken Gibson's Eight Frozen Modules project bodes well for his glitchy techno; noisy ambient pieces; and manic, piercing dub. His output here is just as scattered as the array of labels he's worked with as it moves erratically from the soothing drone of “Lack of Nursing” to the Moogs and rapid-laptop-beat madness of “Trust These Apart,” with only the buzzes of “A Chiming Segway” separating the two. “Believe That” is as messy as the album cover, on which a scene of overturned cars and burning buildings makes a lot more sense than the apocalypse he recorded. — Dominic Umile
LUKE FAIR
OS_0.3 (Bedrock)
Proof that progressive's not dead
It's nice to see the next generation living up to its predecessors. Canada's hottest export backs up his reputation as an up-and-comer to watch with this collection of upbeat records. Mixed live without a Pro Tools cheat sheet, Luke Fair opts for relatively quick mixes, but the quality of his own edits and remixes makes this CD worthwhile. Pairing a manic fiddle with lush piano chords, Fair's dub mix of “La Serenissima” could pass for an epic film score's climactic moment, and the swerving synth line in Mongoose 1's aptly titled “Synth Song” could have won over any '80s discotheque. — Genevieve Powers
CLEVER
Breakbeat Science Exercise 5 (Breakbeat Science)
Smoothly subtle drum 'n' bass comp to get your pulse pumping
One of the good things about the Exercise drum 'n' bass comp series from Breakbeat Science is that each of its selectors has a distinct style. The fifth in line comes from the Breakbeat Science store's longtime employee Clever. With access to all that comes through the shop, as well as his own Offshore Recordings imprint, Clever has carved a singular sound for himself.
Just this side of liquid funk (the sound currently relieving listeners from the headbanging side of drum 'n' bass), Clever's tendencies lean toward more subtle sounds. Choosing liberally from the Offshore catalog as well as from Klute's Commercial Suicide label and Breakbeat Science, Clever has enough on this comp to keep you moving but not so much to make you tired. Accessible for simply listening or for livening up an event, Exercise 5 works on a variety of levels. Not concerned with collecting a bunch of namedropper artists, the focus is more on the cohesion of the tracks. Endemic Void's moody “Off the Market” starts things off on the right note, and Klute's gentle “Oshima” provides a strong core for collection; Amit's exotic “Motherland” anchors the entire mix. — Lily Moayeri
FAITHLESS
Forever Faithless (Sony BMG/Cheeky)
Tomorrow never knows
Not every group can pull off a greatest-hits release — especially when most of those hits emerge from the fickle vortex of club ephemera, where what's hot tonight can be mangy meat-loaf tomorrow. Faithless separates itself from the chaff with gems such as “Reverence,” the still-fresh slow-groove title cut from the group's 1996 debut. Although the same can't be said of dated house tracks “Insomnia,” “Salva Mea” or even last year's “I Want More” (stripped of its superior dub intro), when you have Dido rocking “One Step Too Far” or Estelle crooning on “Why Go?” some sins can be forgiven. — Bill Murphy
FUNKSTÖRUNG
The Return to the Acid Planet 10 (!K7)
Let's do the time warp again
Back in 1995, Acid Planet was a fledgling experimental dance label founded by the IDM group Unit Moebius, and Funkstörung — the Munich-based duo of Chris de Luca and Michael Fakesch — was among its first contributors. Those early sides get dusted off and tattooed here with all manner of nu-school digital tweaks for a nostalgia trip that's part synth-bass psychedelia (“Shuffled & Buffered”) and loping electrofunk (“The Ripple Twist”). Return is not always riveting, but the deluxe double-vinyl package makes it something of a rarity — enough to keep you cool until the next studio album. — Bill Murphy
ALEX GOLD
Back From a Break (Xtravaganza)
Unbreakable breaks and backs
After a near-fatal accident in Thailand a couple years ago, it's a safe bet that Alex Gold has put aside paragliding for a while. But his return to bending the rules of dance music on his first artist album sometimes pays off more than extreme sports do. Sure, Gold employs a repetitive house formula in club burners like “Energy Bomb” and “Who Decides,” but he proficiently lays busy atmospherics over warm, pulsing electronics for “String Theory” and the title track. “Flying” boasts deep downtempo grooves and again proves that hazardous risks are better taken in the studio. — Dominic Umile
JULIET
Random Order (Virgin)
A little rock, a little dance
You've likely heard “Avalon,” the debut single from Juliet's debut artist album; it was numero uno on Billboard's “Hot Dance Music/Club Play” chart. Accessible though it may be, Random Order isn't just another poorly executed attempt to meld rock and dance, partly because the man behind Les Rhythmes Digitales and Jacques Lu Cont was also the man beside Juliet in the studio. Written during an ambitious two weeks with Stuart Price, the album goes from electronic (“Au”) to acoustic (“Pot of Gold”), but its real strength is Juliet's chameleonlike voice, which drones as well as soars. — Genevieve Powers
KASKADE
House of Om (Om)
Order your sangria now
San Francisco — based DJ and producer Kaskade (aka Ryan Raddon) weaves a warm mix in typical Om style to serenade the sultry nights of the summer months. A devout Pro Tools supporter, Kaskade often layers and chops up samples within a track — a practice showcased on his remix of David Morales' “Here I Am.” A bouncy, upbeat bass line runs through most of the mix while synths and piano chords swirl around vocals that range from whispered and dreamy (Kaskade's mixes of “I Knew You When” and “Give It Up for Free”) to all-out diva (DJ Hal's “Don't Give Up”). — Genevieve Powers
KID606
Resilience (Tigerbeat6)
Kid of a thousand faces returns
From hardcore gabba madness and clicks-and-cuts passivity to mash-up mixes, Kid606 (aka Miguel Depedro) has, since 1998, messed with preconceptions and flaunted electronic-music convention. Resilience is possibly his most personal deviation yet and easily the most unusual. Combining ambient textures with diverse rhythm elements, Kid606 tempers his tracks with found sounds (“Xmas Funk”), dancehall downbeats (“Hold It Together”), tweaked-out techno variations (“Sugarcoated”) and Hawaiian island bliss (“I Miss You”). Regardless of style, Resilience is as lush as a rainforest canopy. — Ken Micallef
DAKAH HIP HOP ORCHESTRA
Unfinished Symphony (Kufula)
Slamming collective returns reanimated but keeps its groove
Historians will decide whether this is the future of hip-hop, but with its daring arrangements and grounded street vibe, Unfinished Symphony is one of the most forward-looking records to come out this year — or the year of its original release, 2002. Led by conductor and composer Geoff “Double G” Gallegos, Dakah is a bona fide orchestra with full string, brass and percussion sections augmenting eight MCs, three vocalists, two turntablists and a rhythm section.
Familiar hip-hop themes of booty-busting beats and call-and-response vocals are given tremendous breadth and projection as the orchestra builds each track to grand proportions while never detracting from the all-essential groove. Remixed and remastered, with a new second disc of radio-friendly (shorter) tracks, Unfinished Symphony still sounds vital, provocative and groove-righteous. This is a smoking jazz joint, for sure, but experimental hip-hop is well-represented in the vocal scats of “Reap What You Flow,” the popping rhythms of “Invocation of the Duke” and the turntablism of “Invocation of the Clown.” Like Charles Mingus conducting De La Soul, this is old-school fantastic. — Ken Micallef
FELIX LABAND
Dark Days Exit (Compost)
Slow-burning electronic daydream
The first languid tracks of Felix Laband's release on the superpolished Compost label might lull the listener into a false reverie; indeed, it does take a good bit of time before the South African Laband abandons his delicate keys and feather-light compositions to plunge into the darker recesses of his musical mind. And that is precisely where Dark Days Exit starts to shine, passing all too briefly through the haunting disquiet of “Red Handed” and sinister tension of “Black Shoes” before pulling back into orchestral grace, making this a fine album of elegant, unexpected malaise. — Christine Hsieh
LITTLE BROTHER
The Chittlin Circuit 1.5 (Fastlife)
Tarheel-styled hip-hop with soul
For those still on the lookout for Little Brother's impending major-label debut, The Minstrel Show, the trio of Big Pooh, Phonte and 9th Wonder (with a friendly boost from the Justus League) more than fills the gap on this funked-up set of unreleased studio tracks and select remixes. The real linchpin is Wonder, who, along with guest producer Khrysis, tastefully taps into Salsoul and Stax, creating a dynamic flow for Phonte (“On the Way”), O-Dash (“Nobody Like Me”) and the one and only Big Daddy Kane (“Welcome to Durham”) to rap over with supreme confidence. — Bill Murphy
MOUSE ON MARS
Live 04 (Sonig)
German noiseniks rock the house
Culled from 600 hours of live performance during MOM's 2004 world tour, Live 04 proves that the outstanding German electronic trio is also a stupendous live act. After the group refused to release a live album for 10 years, Live 04 is a revelation of familiar MOM songs stretched, contorted and partially reimagined. That the three principals — Toma, St. Werner and Nkishi — can reproduce live the intricate sonics of their studio albums is remarkable. Tracks such as “Mine Is in Yours” and “Frosch” sound as crunchy and chaotic as a night on some radiation-saturated Russian dancefloor. — Ken Micallef
SHIHAN
The Poet (Groove Gravy)
Longtime linguist delivers
Shihan has been blessing the mic for more than a dozen years as a traditional MC and an accomplished spoken-word artist. He's done work for corporate players Nike, Reebok and Pepsi; won numerous poetry slam championships; and become a regular on HBO's Def Poetry showcase. His first album is on the conscious-lyrics and jazzy-beats tip with mellow, earthy tracks and positive verses. Taking aim at ignorance, materialism and stereotypical rappers, he can be preachy, but his message is on point. It's grown-folks hip-hop for heads jaded by the icy pseudothugs ruling the charts. — Brolin Winning
ARMIN VAN BUUREN
Shivers (Ultra)
Dutch trance master shakes it up
Coming in a close second to Tiësto's “royal” status is Armin Van Buuren, who delivers his sophomore artist album. Although the CD aims straight at the trance massive, it certainly has more substance; it isn't all about the usual clichéd uplifting moments. The highlight is “Who Is Watching,” Van Buuren's acoustic collaboration with Nadia Ali (ex-Iio). Ali shows that she is more than just the voice behind “Rapture” and helps create a track with honest crossover potential. Elsewhere, guests Gabriel & Dresden add their touch, and Ray Wilson and Justine Suissa add sugary vocals. — Justin Kleinfeld
OHMEGA WATTS
The Find (Ubiquity)
Energetic, frenetic, melodic
Although his Lightheaded compadres make brief appearances on The Find, Ohmega Watts has the chops necessary to make it alone. His vocal stylings lie somewhere between Mos Def and Diverse, and his beat-making approach is reminiscent of both Z-Trip's liveliness and RJD2's mood-evoking sample selection. He does the mic relay effortlessly with guests on “That Sound” and “Long Ago” à la J5, lectures on love lessons over a smooth yet lackadaisical jazz note on “Mind Power” and then changes modes yet again on the reggae-influenced “Treasure Hunt” — an electrifying solo debut! — DJ Ethx
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