CD REVIEWS
Jul 1, 2006 12:00 PM
DR. OCTAGON
The Return of Dr. Octagon (OCD International)
Galactic trips, verbal tics
Getting offed by Kool Keith alter ego Dr. Dooom on the intro to 1999's First Come, First Served doesn't seem to have cramped Dr. Octagon's style much lately. The sketchy, porn-freak doctor is back, as are the left-field, sci-fi lyrics, but original sound provider Dan the Automator is out, Berlin-based electro trio One Watt Sun is in, and a recent flurry of releases has muddied the brand name.
First, the unauthorized 2004 Dr. Octagon 2 dropped. Then, Keith flipped it and reversed it with Iz-Real in April on the almost-Octagon Nogatco Rd. (“Dr. Octagon” spelled backward). But substitutes will no longer suffice. Thankfully, Keith holed up with One Watt Sun in a 12th century turret-turned-studio in Prague, and the trademark galactic verbal tics ensued.
“Trees” tractor beams Keith to robotic German dance party country, while DJ Dexter adds agile, exotic North African turntable flavor to “Ants.” “Our Operators Are Masturbating” picks up right where 1996's potty-mouthed debut left off, and Princess Superstar gets slutty on “Eat It” (and best believe Keith doesn't blush). The Return satisfies, but although fans craved new Octagon for years, Keith now risks oversaturation.
— Rob Kirby
7L & ESOTERIC
A New Dope (Babygrande)
Underground: up, over and out
A good example of resourceful rappers creating clever tracks via ever-changing inspiration, Boston's 7L & Esoteric mix up underground ideas like kids in a candy store. The raps are standard: premature ejaculation, “Gucci vests,” “Gabrielle Union's lips,” etc., but when the duo's sampling/sequencing fingers get frisky, the group reveals historical awareness. “Everywhere” recalls Mezzanine-era Massive Attack, “A.O.S.O.” sounds like a steam engine regurgitating a hip-hop lunch, “Get Dumb” is a breakdance workout, and “Feel the Velvet” recalls doped ambience of Public Enemy.
— Ken Micallef
GEORGE ACOSTA
All Rights Reserved (Moist Music)
Pounding trance assault
Acosta packs a hard punch on another progressive trance voyage with this two-disc comp. Melodic female vocals coast over dark, pounding beats throughout disc one. Synth-heavy and loaded with arpeggios, there are no grand departures from hard trance on this nonstop jam. Disc two continues the build to a crazy crescendo before fading into five of Acosta's own productions that close the set. A butchered “Blue Monday” remix momentarily takes away from his chart-topping “Mellodrama” featuring Truth, but in the end, “The Other Side” redeems the trance heavyweight.
— Elizabeth Mitkos
ALIAS & TARSIER
Brookland/Oaklyn (Anticon)
Bicoastal beat-laden beauty
Long-distance relationships don't have the best track record, but Alias and Tarsier prove that living on separate coasts takes nothing from their creative union. Working in Oakland and Brooklyn, respectively, beatsmith Alias and vocalist Tarsier spent nearly two years crafting this lush collection of dense beats, organic instrumentation and ethereal female vocals. Adding a touch of Anticon lyrical flavor, Alias rhymes on “Last Nail” and labelmate Doseone drops his nasal flow on “Luck and Fear.” Elsewhere, Tarsier's breathy alto leads “Cub,” “Dr. C” and “Ligaya” to swoonful heights.
— Jocelyn Tate
AMMONCONTACT
With Voices (Ninja Tune)
Crowding the beats
Earth lovin' beatmaker duo Ammoncontact hasn't invited many L.A. peers to its parties. Carlos Niño and Fabian Ammon usually roll out jazzy wordless hip-hop, but With Voices features guests over their organ-heavy trips. Modest strings and percussion gloss Mia Doi Todd's nature-tinged folk with minimal wonder on “Earth's Children,” and Lil Sci's spot-on “Like This” gets cut midway for an electro, ambient blastoff. Niño and Ammon are still granola hippies here, but they've stowed the jammy MPC/upright bass/keyboard moans from last year's New Birth in the garage with the frisbees.
— Dominic Umile
ANDY CALDWELL
Universal Truth (Om)
Proof in the pudding
Although he's strutted his stuff as a DJ, Andy Caldwell is a premier producer. After more than a decade of creating some of the finest electronic dance music in the States, Caldwell has finally arrived with Universal Truth, his debut artist album. He's broken much ground since his days with supergroup Soulstice, and this introspective collection is nothing short of exceptional. With gems strewn throughout — most notably, the '80s-style synthesized rock-tronic “Runaway” and the sleek, funk-dropping “Don't You Love Me” — Universal Truth offers nothing short of a 2006 house classic.
— Chris Clark
CIBELLE
The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves (Six Degrees)
Sublime vocal and digital interplay
Cibelle has one of those marvelous voices that defy characterization, sweeping easily through smoky, speakeasy jazz to crystalline pop and gutsy folk with ease and surprising grace. What a relief, then, that the myriad electronic flourishes here serve only to accentuate her chameleonic vocals. Be it a duet (“London, London” with Devendra Banhart), cover song (Tom Waits' “Green Grass”) or low-key number (“Phoenix”), Cibelle and her collaborators present listeners with an album that's lush, intimate and beautifully restrained.
— Christine Hsieh
DAZ DILLINGER
So So Gangsta (So So Def)
West Coast MC travels East
The West Coast low rider rides strictly on East Coast rims on So So Gangsta, combining his snarling flow with crisp production by Jermaine Dupri, No I.D. and Scott Storch. Daz flexes his gangsta with Miami dope boy Rick Ross on “On Some Real Shit” but also meshes surprisingly well with the syrupy R&B crooning of Jagged Edge on “The One.” Throwback joint “It's My Thang” sees Daz and Dogg Pound homie Kurupt paying homage to the EPMD track of the same name, each adopting EPMD's flow over the original Syl Johnson funk sample. The old dog still has that bite, and he's been learning new tricks.
— Rob Kirby
FOUR TET
DJ-Kicks (!k7)
Hebden's head trip
Frenetic bedlam makes for a freakout of a DJ-Kicks entry from London's Four Tet. Born Kieran Hebden, the laptop manhandler mines a vast spread of LPs for his shot at the series. His Curtis Mayfield pick, “If I Were Only a Child Again,” stews in gooey bell-bottomed funk, and its party claps are quite welcome, ahead of the unbridled soul lunacy of Gary Davis and French '70s electronic rockers Heldon. It's a capricious throwdown, and Hebden's own unreleased “Pockets” scorches with bleeps and blips, while a subtle house pulse counters the breaks that ripped defiantly through Everything Ecstatic in 2005.
— Dominic Umile
PEACHES
Impeach My Bush (XL/Beggars)
Double entendre strikes again
If Peaches caught your attention with her borderline offensive looks and sound on Fatherfucker, she'll really make you fall in love with her on the follow-up, Impeach My Bush. From the title alone, it's obvious Peaches hasn't become a retiring, understated artist. If anything, she has become more confrontational, more upfront and more ballsy. Her in-your-face statements range in topic from “Two Guys (For Every Girl)” to “Tent in Your Pants,” “Slippery Dick” and “Stick It to the Pimp,” all of which have names that sum up their sentiments.
Balancing on a backdrop of punchy, buzzing electro rhythms that come across more forcefully than a wall of crushing guitars, Impeach is not about keeping the electronics in their place; it's about making them as stimulating as the lyrics. When instruments are used, they deliver their parts like they've been put through a meat grinder and sound all the better for it. Not that Peaches needs any help, but she does have the assistance of Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, Hole's Samantha Maloney and Joan Jett. Straddling her rapping delivery style with minimal attempts at actual singing, Peaches' point is made loud and clear.
— Lily Moayeri
KASKADE
Here & Now (Om)
Works both ways
Kaskade is one of those rare artists who has managed to create songs that have crossover appeal without losing his credibility in the underground. Here & Now is a “greatest hits” of sorts for Kaskade. It might seem premature, but there's a wealth of material to draw from. Primarily mid-tempo, Here & Now is organized as a listening album, with the occasional uptempo number thrown in for good measure. What's noticeable is an actual song at the core of every track. “I Like the Way (Troydon Mix)” showcases the gentle, TV-friendly side while “It's You, It's Me” is about feeling good on the floor.
— Lily Moayeri
KRS-ONE
Life (Antagonist)
NYC legend still drops the knowledge
The Teacher still has a fire in his belly. KRS-One drops knowledge with a voice that booms like a megaphone and, backed by on-point production by The Resistance, he has found a fresh platform to preach the word. Militant and righteous, KRS blasts racial employment bias on “Mr. Percy” over a buzz-saw guitar line, while orchestral flourishes flutter over insistent bass and drum claps as he takes materialism to task on “Bling Blung.” The R&B-flavored “The Way We Live” flops, but when KRS returns to boom-bap basics on “I'm on the Mic,” he commands full respect. Class is in session.
— Rob Kirby
MATHEMATICS
Soul of a Man (Nature Sounds)
Wu-Tang soul symphonies
Southside Jamaica, Queens producer Norman Porter's Mathematics alias is an apt choice; his efforts for the Wu-Tang Clan rely on subtle aural addition and subtraction. For this two-disc all-instrumental solo outing, Porter reshapes classic R&B and funk records by redacting out vocals and pitch-shifting loops to create an impressionistic boom bap. His beats evoke an era when '70s soul and psychedelic rock were having free-love relations against a wartime backdrop. These 32 untitled beats soundtrack another conflict generation and provide a perfect blank book for aspiring MCs. Do the math.
— Tomas Palermo
MOTOR
Klunk (Novamute)
Industrial techno delight
After remixing tracks by Depeche Mode, Throbbing Gristle and Marilyn Manson, Mr. No and Bryan Black — the duo behind Motor — have created their own industrial gem. Dark synths, intense dancefloor beats and twinges of '80s techno permeate Klunk. “Black Powder” has a buzzing synth and an infectious beat that builds and breaks, making for a fuzzed-out head trip. “MDXT-A” has a retro-cheesy-cool Atari 2600 feel, with video game — like synth stabs. “Sweatbox” and “Spazm” miss the mark, with repetitive synths that make you reach for the fast-forward button. But all in all, Klunk's hard, cold, industrial vibe feels warm and cozy.
— Lori J. Kennedy
VARIOUS ARTISTS
GU10 (Global Underground)
Has it really been 10 years?
By the sound of it, the Global Underground stable certainly doesn't feel its age. As one of the biggest brands in the business, GU has certainly affected the development of electronic music into a viable commercial venture, making few missteps along the way. Even the label's early releases still strike a chord — without, amazingly enough, the cringe-factor that can come when dusting off old favorites.
Celebrating its anniversary with a multidisc box set befits the collector-friendly output; the breadth of material offered on these discs (two span the past decade and the third revisits '87-'95) is almost overwhelming. Tracks like Laurent Garnier's “Man With Red Face” and Jark Prongo's brilliant “Movin' Thru Your System” sound just as great as they did the first time around, and Tilt's “I Dream” and Cass & Slide's “Perception” bring back the goosebump-inducing breakdown. Listening to each disc is indeed one of those rare experiences where amidst the bass kicks and steady 4/4, the ears prick, the heart pounds, and suddenly it feels like the inside of a sweaty, haze-filled club fully under a DJ's spell.
— Christine Hsieh
OPPENHEIMER
Oppenheimer (Bar/None)
Sugary pop hooks cause cavities
Formed in late 2004, Belfast, Ireland duo Oppenheimer gelled fast. Everywhere you drop in on the duo's debut album, you're bound to hit an electro-fused indie-pop hook. Meanwhile, singer and schoolteacher Shaun Robinson is ever sweet and reassuring, singing lines like “Come on, you know your heart's still beating” (“Nine Words”). Although distorted guitar ups the ante on several songs, sometimes it's a gritty, thick synth (“Breakfast in NYC”) that injects dynamics or a fat vocoder (“OK, Let's Take This Outside”) that kicks a demur verse into overdrive — a sweet ass-beating.
— Kylee Swenson
LISA PAPINEAU
Night Moves (Lunaticworks/Sony BMG)
Guest vocalist makes her move
Best known for her serene vocal appearances with Air and M83, Lisa Papineau marks her solo debut with Night Moves. Slow and beautiful yet tense and brooding, the album's focus is on jazz, but it ventures from dance-pop to trip-hop. On “Shucking Jiving,” Papineau's traditionally clean vocals are muffled for a grittier edge to match the song's dirty bass-blown beats, while “LP Beat” starts off sparsely before filling with organ and self-harmonized vocals. Shining on her own with songs like these, it's time this guest star became a celebrity.
— David C. Obenour
DJ PATIFE
Na Estrada (Trama)
Lather, rinse, repeat
On Na Estrada, the Brazilian electronic artist DJ Patife duplicates the successful formula of his last two albums. The smooth and elegant mix of drum 'n' bass, soul and popular Brazilian music (bossa nova in particular) is just as charming and effective as before. And the crystal-clear production is at least as good as on the earlier albums. Some tracks are sung in Portuguese while others, such as a cover of Steve Wonder's “Overjoyed,” are in English; regardless, the energizing “Made in Bahia” stands out from the rest because of its heavy, typically Bahian, drum beat.
— Philip Jandovsky
DUDLEY PERKINS
Expressions (Stones Throw)
How did he get so funky?
With help from hip-hop and rap producer Madlib, Dudley Perkins' Expressions brims with '70s funk, soul, gospel, hip-hop, profanity and, as Perkins says, “a little bit of weed.” A George Clinton-esque tune called “Funky Dudley” opens with a rousing bass and has Dudley asking, “How did you get so funky, Dudley?” Dudley's voice and the background vocals help Expressions rise above its predictable rhymes. The album's high point, “The Last Stand,” is haunting, with techno pulses enriching Dudley's sermon. However, its nadir detracts, with “Domestic Interlude” featuring an argument with police and whining background vocals.
— Henry Springs
PSAPP
The Only Thing I Ever Wanted (Domino)
Wide-eyed junkshop experiment
The Psapp duo creates loopy, lush lullabies with oddities like ashtrays, wood and rubber chickens, all without losing rhythm or devolving into cacophony. Though toys play a role in their arrangements, Psapp's doe eyes belie sophistication. Wacky instruments are given as much room as customary devices — and to great loungy electronic effect. Galia Durant's midrange voice is sometimes steady and soothing amidst twinkling keys and found sounds (“This Way”), and other times it forges the melody in syllabic turns after a Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones — like intro (“Hi”).
— Melody Caraballo
SISSY
All Under (Global Underground)
All under cloudy skies
In the doom and gloom of drowsy, late-night beats, Canadian duo Sissy plumbs resonant depths previously reserved for President Bush's approval ratings. Johanne Williams' sultry delivery (a la Beth Gibbons) is often buried by fuzz or echo on this bleak debut, slinking along producer David Trusz's beat programming and warbling analog synths. The brawny trip-hop thud of “Anyone but You” drags itself along swirls and piano tones before peaking in radiant strings. “In the Dark” gets no sunnier but feels as hot as drunken August nights in its '80s keyboard buzzes and crisp dance beats.
— Dominic Umile
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