CD REVIEWS
Nov 1, 2006 12:00 PM
THE FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON
Teachings From the Electronic Brain (Astralwerks)
It's all about the past
Since the early '90s, the Future Sound of London has enjoyed a significance in the world of electronic music that has as much to do with the group's extroverted technological savvy as it has to do with its introverted music. Both of those are represented on this “greatest-hits” collection: Teachings From the Electronic Brain, culled from five of the group's albums as FSOL and one of its albums as Amorphous Androgynous. The track FSOL is most easily identified with is the most unlike the rest of its creations; 1992's “Papua New Guinea,” with its numerous remixes, had a place on every dancefloor and made rock stars of its composers. Since that time, however, most of FSOL's music has been far more along the lines of experimental ambient, entertaining soundscapes and nebulous textures than nightclub tracks. That is what makes up Teachings: huge bassy growls are the driving force behind the Tibetan feel of “Yage;” upbeat funk-fueled rhythms and Middle Eastern strings make up “Lover;” and “We Have Explosive” is all about aggressive noise. It's only when FSOL's career is looked at in a package that the band's diversity makes itself apparent. — Lily Moayeri
BEACH HOUSE
Beach House (Carpark)
Baltimore Witch Project
The curious self-titled debut from Maryland's Beach House is suspended in slow motion; its two members virtually shrugging off their responsibility to actually finish the songs. With the reluctant plod of the Velvet Underground's “All Tomorrow's Parties,” Beach House's “Tokyo Witch” stews in wobbly synth lines while Victoria Legrand leads a captivating, spooky rainy-day melody that practically guarantees bedwetting and nightmares. It's all candles and Ouija boards for “Master of None” and “Auburn and Ivory,” where it's so murky that the lo-fi beats barely register. Hypnotic? Yes. Beachy? No way. — Dominic Umile
THAVIUS BECK
Thru (Mush)
Dark beats and futuristic hip-hop
Electronic producer Thavius Beck's new release, Thru, is a 46-minute chunk of densely layered sound, intense beats and experimental hip-hop. The album's instrumental tracks are ominous and dramatic, suggesting industrial (“He's Back”) and drum 'n' bass (“Under Pressure”) influences. The album's best moment comes in the form of “The Storm Before the Calm,” an epic track that sounds like an electronic version of the theme from 2001. Thru's efforts at hip-hop, however, aren't for everyone, with underground MCs like Saul Williams and 2Mex threading poetry together over challenging beats. — Dustin Glick
BONOBO
Days to Come (Ninja Tune)
Downtempo producer's best effort yet
Known in the musical world as Bonobo, producer Simon Green has been creating dark, cinematic beats since 1999 and proves he's just getting better with his fourth album, Days to Come. Bonobo's instrumental tracks are winners as usual, featuring a variety of sounds and instruments (including xylophones and horns) layered over groovy percussion. But Bonobo really steps it up with the addition of vocals from female soul singer Bajka on several tracks, including the hypnotic “Nightlife,” and Fink, who lends his voice to the DJ Shadow-esque slow funk ballad, “If You Stayed Over.” — Dustin Glick
CHIN UP CHIN UP
This Harness Can't Ride Anything (Suicide Squeeze)
No cure for cynicism
Chin Up Chin Up affect all the boyish, shoegazing charm of the Cure with its dizzying, circular melodies, but lead singer Jeremy Bolan isn't writing love songs: “We need ice picks to share these houses on the beachfront where tits cling and time is empty,” he intones on the title track of the group's sophomore full-length. In that mode, the album brims with freewheeling tempos measured in sharp, hollow drum lines, hand claps and plaintiff guitars — a near joyful aesthetic in contrast to the abstract cynicism of Bolan's lyrics, which are at once clever and confusing. — Stacey Dugan
THE DIMINISHER
Imaginary Volcano (Unsound)
The sound of one man napping
On Imaginary Volcano, the Diminisher writes, produces, arranges and plays most of the instruments. The warm, lo-fi production; airy vocals; subtle electronics; and '60s pop influences harken back to his days in Olivia Tremor Control, but his diverse instrumentation and odd funkiness help create his own dreamscape. Tracks such as “Trainstation” sound as if Esquivel's space-age bachelor-pad band was covering the work of DJ Premier. And the languid strings and spooky organ on slower songs like “Timshael” recall some of the trippy, quirky music of Pram and other Too Pure Records groups. — Markkus Rovito
ELECTRIC SIX
Switzerland (Metropolis)
Genre-blurring Motor City madmen
Electric Six's sound can be best described as a rock, disco and new-wave stew. It's a creative blend of flavors that tastes different with each bite. Now sprinkle a crushed-up pill of hilarious lyrics on top, and you get Switzerland. Songs range from the synth-pop laden “Infected Girls” to the anthemic, fist-pumping rocker “I Wish This Song Was Louder.” When singer Dick Valentine delivers the lyrics “You come and see me/but I don't glow in the dark/so you're gonna have to learn to use a little night vision,” he sounds like Adam Sandler as Crazy Protractor Beard on SNL. Now gimme some candy. — Lori J. Kennedy
HI-TEK
Hi-Teknology 2: The Chip (Babygrande)
Cincinnati sound scientist returns
Best known for his work with Talib Kweli in the duo Reflection Eternal, producer Hi-Tek has gone from underground favorite to mainstream hit-maker over the years. Though he doesn't have the instant name recognition as some of his peers, he has provided choice musical accompaniment to some of the biggest stars in hip-hop. Five years after the release of Hi-Teknology (Priority), he returns for The Chip, connecting with a wide range of rappers from both sides of the sonic spectrum.
While he also gets busy on the microphone himself, most of the vocal duties come from an A-list of MCs. Ghostface spits a typically stellar verse on “Josephine,” and Busta Rhymes gets rowdy on the high-octane “March,” while Nas, Common and the late, great J Dilla team up on “Music for Life.” Other standout cuts include the soulful Manhattan anthem “Where It Started At (NY)” with Jadakiss, Papoose and Raekwon, and the mellow, piano-propelled “Can We Go Back,” featuring Talib and rising songstress Ayak. Though he doesn't have a signature sound, he knows how to make a quality record, he comes through with a very solid effort here. — Brolin Winning
FOUR TET
Remixes (Domino)
Duller LP titles don't exist
The lesser known “remix artist half” of Four Tet gets a diverse look on the first disc of Remixes, while CD2 finds his catalog up for interpretation. The London producer's skittering background arrangement for Bloc Party's “So Here We Are” holds off long enough so that the payoff is nothing short of epic, and a hummable synth loop drives Madvillain's “Money Folder” into bliss. Jay Dee twists “As Serious as Your Life” on CD2 into a soulful, sunny hip-hop joint that bursts in jubilant choruses and cutthroat guest verses from Guilty Simpson; hearing it is undoubtedly as serious as your life is. — Dominic Umile
JEAN-PAUL BONDY
The Path of Most Resistors (Compost)
Digging deep into the Compost heap
The dark, twisted beats on “Something Is Not Right,” the opening track on this stellar solo debut by Jean-Paul Bondy, set an interesting tone for the rest of the album. At times lyrical (“Cold Reformer”), coldly clinical (done marvelously in “Xeno Persuasion”) and often a combination of both (“Monochrome”), The Path teeters precipitously between a flat-out, electro-tinged two-step rumble and introspective melodic ambience. This tension makes for one hell of an interesting listen, particularly when he descends into gut-rattling technoid breaks in the last tracks of the album. — Christine Hsieh
LES GEORGES LENINGRAD
Sangue Puro (Tomlab)
Get your French kicks
Channeling Grace Slick and Blondie at once, singer Poney P has her thumb on the unlikely cross-section of post-punk and tribal music. This third LP from the Montreal art-rockers cum real-rockers is a parade of influential styles, and if you couldn't tell from the trio's perpetual eerie costuming, Les Georges Leningrad know how to throw themselves into a role. “Eli Eli Lamma Sabachtani” is driven by a tense conga heartbeat and religiously passionate chanting in some indistinguishable language, while “Sleek Answer” grooves along a bass line in minor, augmented by lean guitars and Poney's sing-speak rap style. — Stacey Dugan
LINDSTRØM
It's a Feedelity Affair (Feedelity)
Suit up for leisure
When a Norwegian musician who never listened to dance music until he decided to make it puts out a collection this good, it makes you want to burn all your 12 inches. Lindstrøm's spacey vibe sounds as if Giorgio Moroder helped produce Dark Side of the Moon — especially the 11-minute disco-trance epic, “There's a Drink in My Bedroom and I Need a Hot Lady.” With its rolling arppegiated analog synth lines, “I Feel Space” may be a direct shout out to Moroder's “I Feel Love.” On “Music (In My Mind),” Lindstrøm writes a decent song first and then dresses it up with electronics — a lesson for young producers. — Markkus Rovito
MAIN FLOW AND 7L
Flow Season (Brick)
Cincinnati/Boston connection prevails
It's official: The ideal hip-hop formula of one producer and one MC is back. For his new album, Cincinnati MC Main Flow connects exclusively with Boston producer 7L (of 7L & Esoteric) for a dozen tracks of mostly pleasing thugged-out boom-bap. On “Where I'm From,” 7L complements Main Flow's grimy raps about the ills of his city well; the heavy drums laced with a stand-up bass loop and spacey synths here are undeniably hot. And when Main Flow kicks rhymes about a lady in his sights (“Recipe”), 7L proves that he can turn the tempo down a notch and still keep things bumping. — Max Herman
NINA SIMONE
Remixed and Reimagined (RCA/Legacy)
Not just a marketing ruse?
Legacy's first real attempt to ride the wave of Verve's acclaimed Remixed series is a mixed bag: on the plus side, Jazzeem's drum 'n' bass version of “Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter” preserves the bone-dry basement vibe of Simone's original, while Coldcut's tribal-psychedelic approach to “Save Me” is a natural extension of the soul-blues diva's smoldering delivery. But Tony Humphries' house retread of “Turn Me On” and Francois K's dimly lightweight “Here Comes the Sun” sound phoned in for the money — the downside to having a major label rework the music of an untouchable icon like Simone. — Bill Murphy
KID KOALA
Your Mom's Favorite DJ (Ninja Tune)
What you say 'bout my mom?
Though the words “Kid Koala” on a record sleeve don't indicate what's between its grooves, there are a few things that come along with the name. The Canadian turntablist/writer/artist is the genre's quirkiest. He's an expert with a catalog of provocatively structured instrumental works, even if the LPs don't differ much from each other. With monstrously tweaked brass samples (such that new notes are painstakingly born) and brilliant scratch routines, Some of My Best Friends Are DJs and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome would make an excellent double album.
On Your Mom's Favorite DJ, Kid keeps things short, as the CD is split into two tracks that progress in the format that his Scratchcratchratchatch mixtape did. Complete but brief, tracks “Lunch With Pavlov” and “Slew Test 2” are dominated by fuzzed guitar, crusty drum breaks and Kid's ubiquitous cuts. But blitzes like those are balanced with Kid's mild manners. The somber “Things'll Be Good Again” is lovely with piano, soothing background swirls and an endearing sample of a woman discussing the gramophone's importance in a young lad's life. It's as if she's reading from Kid Koala's diary. — Dominic Umile
PLUS DEVICE
Puncture (Hefty)
Sleek and sexy wins the night
While publicists clam up over whom the two allegedly legendary people are behind Plus Device, listeners should focus more on the music than the people behind it. Song titles like the Miami booty bass-thumper “Sexual Harassment” and “Ultra Seductive” bolster the sleek, sexy feel of the album, as most tracks bring it back to the electro and acid-house lovin' days of Detroit and Chicago. Elsewhere, tracks like “Sell This for Drug Addiction” are tailor-made for that German S&M theme party you've been meaning to throw. Vocoder and '80s synth lovers rejoice! — Jason Newman
RELAY
Still Point of Turning (Bubble Core)
Gazer guitars glow and growl
Let's pretend Ride, Slowdive or Lush never made their classic early-'90s Brit-rock records. Would we still embrace today's crop of dream-pop purveyors with nothing to be nostalgic for? The Philadelphia-based group challenges us to consider shoegaze rock with brand new ears. Our reward is this majestic album where psychedelic organs and layered guitars swirl like honeybees in a sunflower field. Relay's dense but clean studio production make songs like “Season” sparkle. The melodic and moody songs on Still Point of Turning point here to something new. — Tomas Palermo
RUB-N-TUG
Fabric30: Rub-N-Tug (Fabric)
Down ‘n’ dirty dance party
Rub-N-Tug certainly has a lot to live up to, given its fabulously descriptive working name. The duo's Fabric installment certainly doesn't disappoint. All squelching bass lines and sassy rhythms, Rub-N-Tug has an uncanny way of making music the ultimate guilty pleasure. By interspersing over-the-top, campy house (the fab “Let's Get Busy” by Curtis McClaine and The House, for instance) with sly, sultry beats (Foolish and Sly's “Come a Little Closer”) and roiling electro (Lifelike & Chris Menace's “Discopolis”), Rub-N-Tug creates a wild, expansive soundscape that's hard to forget. — Christine Hsieh
SOULWAX
Nite Versions (Modular)
2 more DJs
Old-school dance-rock bands didn't know the formula we do now: rock, remix, repeat. Remixers such as the DFA, LCD Soundsystem and MSTRKRFT turn rock songs into club bangers that seem to finally solve the dance-rock mystery. But Soulwax has them all beat, royalty-wise. This Belgian duo (the dudes behind 2 Many DJs) remixes its own rock tunes into a continuous set. The cuts use only snippets of the original vocals and can be funky as hell, like “Compute,” which uses a Commodore 64-type lead synth. But the evidence of the consistently rocking original material gives Nite Versions a unique identity. — Markkus Rovito
STEREOTYP
Keepin' Me (G-Stone)
Vienna dub with NY street cred
Finding a meeting ground between broken-beat, sharply produced electronic and vocal aesthetics tending toward hip-hop and soul, Vienna-based producer Stefan Moerth returns with another eerie, emotionally invasive concoction. His beats don't just cause movement; they tend to consume you. From the gorgeous opening title track to the tormented “Fool for You,” Moerth wraps penetrative bass into every style accessible. From urban street head nods and I Ching philosophy to chalice-filled reggae politrickin', his crafty bottom end sets the perfect stage for all his vocal guests to shine. — Derek Beres
ZION I & THE GROUCH
Heroes in the City of Dope (Om)
Cali rappers speak their mind
Bay Area fixtures Zion I (producer Amp Live and MC Zion) and Living Legends mainstay The Grouch make a rare thing these days: the consistently engaging hip-hop album. With politics virtually nonexistent in today's hip-hop, refreshing themes of homeland security (“Current Affairs”) and individual rights (“Kickin' It”) are bluntly tackled, yet Amp Live's beats, ranging from electro-futuristic (“Hit 'Em”) to soulful (“Digital Dirt”) are never sacrificed in the process. Dope sounds like what it is: a natural collaboration between artists who have run in the same circles for years. — Jason Newman
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