CD Reviews
Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM
GOLDFRAPP
Seventh Tree (Mute)
British siren taps into emotional side
It appears the glitter and glam bug has been exorcised. Not that the dancefloor possession was bad for the duo; it did thrust Alison Goldfrapp and composer Will Gregory into instant icon status. But on Seventh Tree, it's time to get to know the artists within. The result is a side of Goldfrapp that is so beautiful, it makes you wonder, where has she been hiding?
Not that her fans didn't already have visions of her sensuality, but here she can be heard as a deep, emotional woman. Beyond the disco ball, beyond the flamboyance of glitzy electronic, the British singer reveals a serious side. From the opening folkish lullaby of “Clowns,” Seventh Tree immediately captivates you with crystalline vocals that lock themselves in your heart. Floating above acoustic guitar pluckings and orchestral strings, the tone is set for a particularly emotive ride. Goldfrapp then unleashes her inner Lennon, constructing soaring vocal harmonies and background ahhs reminiscent of the bespectacled legend, especially on “Happiness.” Seventh Tree is, daring as it is to say, an electronic version of the Magical Mystery Tour.
For those looking for more of the same lighthearted club tracks, it seems Goldfrapp has left those on the dancefloor. — Jason Jurgens
4 BONJOUR'S PARTIES
Pigments Drift Down to the Brook (Mush)
Japanese septet's epic dreamscapes
The debut album from Tokyo seven-piece 4 Bonjour's Parties takes listeners on a journey through a world of expansive, dreamy pop. With a sound somewhere between Stereolab and Sufjan Stevens, 4 Bonjour's Parties makes good use of everything from horns and synths to flute and accordion, as well as male and female vocals, to create tracks that start off mellow, groove toward the middle, then build to epic, sparkling cacophonies. When at their best, like on “Satellite” and “Amalthea,” 4 Bonjour's Parties' music has a big sound with a sense of wonder to it. — Dustin Glick
AIR TRAFFIC
Fractured Life (Astralwerks)
Fresh yet familiar
You can tell this one's going to be different right when the jungle drums of “No More Running Away” roll incongruously yet perfectly into the rhythmic piano and ethereal vocals of Chris Wall. It's immediately engaging, as is the rest of the album — the contemplative “I Can't Understand,” the retro-wave “Get in Line,” the heartsick “Empty Space” and the perfect pop strata of “Shooting Star.” The strangely wonderful thing is that these songs sound completely distinctive, yet somehow feel like songs you already know — a dichotomy you'll stop trying to figure out because you'll be too busy listening. — Kristi Kates
BEACH HOUSE
Devotion (Car Park)
It's shoegazing season
Although Beach House is from Baltimore, these songs conjure up visions of an autumnal Atlantic City, when the quaint boardwalk is still and the pace slow and even more nostalgic. “Heart of Chambers” offers up spare rhythms and a fainting-away chorus, while Alex Scally's slide guitar adds pinpoint focus to the tinny organ of “All the Years,” the perfect song for a Sandra Dee whose beach days may not have been so sunny. Elsewhere, singer Victoria Legrand channels Petula Clark through the '60s melody of “D.A.R.L.I.N.G.” and skims along the top of “Gila,” with its echoey, Nico-like refrain. — Kristi Kates
BONDE DO ROLÊ
Marina Gasolina (Domino)
Friends, remixes keep party going
Anyone that can make the sound of a croaking frog danceable (“Contaminada”) has either run out of ideas or is so far ahead of the game that nothing is unusable. With the current Bonde do Role craze sweeping clubs, Remix's money is on the latter. An ability to craft the grimiest bass-heavy beats drenched in the sweat of baile funk has club goers, as well as Diplo (who signed them), going dumb. Bonde do Role will do anything to get you on the dancefloor; if that means tapping into amphibians, so be it. And if that doesn't work, remixes from the likes of Peaches, CSS and Ladytron will do the trick. — Jason Jurgens
DRI
Smoke Rings (Range Life)
Sleeping one off
Alongside Kansas beatmakers Nezbeat and more, Adrianne Verhoeven (“Dri”) serves soulful electronic pop on Smoke Rings, her slumped-in-the-easy-chair solo LP. Known for her work in The Anniversary, multi-instrumentalist Dri's “girl group” fervor goes over magnificently on “Inspiration.” Tender sentiments hit home over coos and SayMyName's crackly doo-wop piano samples, or glitchy pulses on opener “Two Are One,” but not so much on the teen soap-esque “Don't Wait.” Smoke Rings' charm filters out of its hangover haze, when the cigarettes ingested last night are the least of your problems. — Dominic Umile
FAIRMONT
Coloured in Memory (Border Community)
Tuneful techno-pop
Deftly produced, melodic and casually complicated, Jake Fairley invites some indie-pop over to mix this one up with the techno approach for which he's best known. “Mobula,” “All Good Things” and “Flight of the Albatross” stay rooted in Fairley's customary sound, but other tracks go out on a limb. “Pomegranate” is all laziness, hidden insects and mood swings; “I Need Medicine” leans on an ever-morphing drone; and “Darling Waltz” ballroom-dances with androids. All are especially impressive in headphones, where Fairley shows off the art of the über-pan. — Kristi Kates
INFAMOUS MOBB
Reality Rap (Sure Shot)
Queensbridge customs
While Mobb Deep made its sound somewhat more accessible upon getting down with G-Unit, the group's Queensbridge affiliates Infamous Mobb upholds the gritty, “go hard or go home” stance on its third LP, Reality Rap. MCs Ty Nitty, Gambino and Godfather Pt. 3 don't claim to be the best lyricists, but as the title implies, they're more concerned with capturing the rawness of QB strife life than getting complex. And they hit their mark on cuts like the suspenseful “Itz a Gift.” But it's also the knocking beats of the Alchemist, Erick Sermon and others that make this album a hot commodity. — Max Herman
KAMERA
Resurrection (Nettwerk)
Swedish pop takes a crack at the '80s
Getting lost in a label shuffle and losing band members may have left Kamera pondering the future; it may have also been the best thing to happen to the group. It's going to take more than a corporate uppercut to keep this band from embracing their inner '80s fetishes. The Swedish quartet proudly waves the Duran Duran/Erasure flag. You can just picture vocalist Joakim Hjelm biting his bottom lip, as eyeliner streams down his face, particularly on the ballad “Loves Surrounds Us.” On Resurrection, emotions run high, romance abounds, and the pop is palpable. Hmm, sounds like the '80s. — Jason Jurgens
HOT CHIP
Made in the Dark (Astralwerks)
Improvisational dancefloor rock
It makes sense that Hot Chip's newest electro-pop album is called Made in the Dark. For starters, Hot Chip appeals to the nocturnal creature — a hipster junkie who fiends for dim-lit afterhour parties. And, as reported on Billboard.com, the Brits took a more improvised route to their widely acclaimed sound, resulting in a more experimental, rock sound.
Don't worry; this isn't experimental rock. You will, however, notice a bigger, grittier rock sound and live-band appeal on Made in the Dark by way of distorted guitars and soft piano. That doesn't mean they have slowed down. You still get the infectious dance beats and uniquely soulful Hot Chip sound. This time the juxtaposition between high-energy songs such as “Shake a Fist,” featuring a Todd Rundgren sample, and mellower introspective tracks like “We're Looking for a Lot of Love,” is more pronounced. One minute you're grinding a stripper's pole and the next you're journaling about being homesick.
Perhaps that's what makes Hot Chip so special; they create intelligent dance music that has enough substance to feel like rock. — Jason Jurgens
KEROWACK
The First EP (Thunder Finger)
Kerowack us harder, dude
Crunchy dancefloor beats are trimmed in more-than-adequate fuzz on Kerowack's The First EP, but the producer duo also traverses slow-cooking electro grooves and house on its breakout six songer. Basement Jaxx-er Milly Blue offers the pseudo-MC/nonsensical disjointed vocal bit to “Fuck Guitars,” but it works, thanks to the bare thwacks and rubbery keyboard bass behind her. Standout opener “Dirtgrabber” is fairly deceiving in its grit and prominent pitch-tweaked blurts, as Kerowack doesn't grip again as hard as they do at the onset. That's why it's their First, though. — Dominic Umile
TOM MIDDLETON
Lifetracks (Six Degrees)
Elegant electronic
Middleton himself says “there's been no need to shout about Lifetracks” — and he couldn't be more right; this album quietly holds its own with pure strength and grace. Vocal-free and devoted to “pure emotion in sound” (another Middletonism), it's hard to define, with one foot in synth-pop, another in downtempo/ambient and several more dipping their toes into other electro genres. All in all, though, the expressive, delicately produced tracks will draw you in, with highlights including the minor-toned opener “Prana,” with its digitized guitars; “St. Ives Bay”; and the piano-laced standout “Moonbathing.” — Kristi Kates
OFFWHYTE
Mainstay (Galapagos4)
Palatable smarts
Offwhyte is not the type of MC to crank out mixtapes on a whim — this L.A.-via-Chicago lyricist crafts his albums carefully, which partially explains why it has been five years since he dropped his last long-player. With Mainstay, Offwhyte returns triumphant, spitting sharp, observant verses atop everything from thumping G-Funk (“GWARN!”) to chill, lo-fi backdrops (“Metropolitan People”). This MC's delivery doesn't vary as much as it could here, but in contrast to his dreary Bow to the Sceptor EP, he has discovered how to deliver serious subject matter without coming across sounding so solemn. — Max Herman
PIG & DAN
Imagine (Cocoon)
By no means piggish
Although they're hardly new to DJing or to releasing their own work, Imagine is the debut full-length from Spain's Igor “Pig” Tchkotoua and Dan Duncan. Frenetically panned tech-house sonics meet blanketing trance synth sounds on Imagine, with minimal nudging against larger webs of delay and echo. Split bleeps and countermelodies peer eventually out of “Globetrotter” — a track peak mirroring those on Matzak's stylish Life Beginnings — and are suddenly hushed before emptying out onto the motor bass riffs of “Moth.” Unlikely pairings like that are used to perfection on Imagine's decorative spread. — Dominic Umile
WYCLEF JEAN
Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs of an Immigrant (Columbia)
Building sonic bridges
As much as some folks dismiss Wyclef for scoring supermainstream, chart-topping hits like “Hips Don't Lie,” this MC/producer/guitarist has long strived to take hip-hop beyond formulaic methods. With Carnival Vol. II, Clef continues his quest of collaborating with artists from as many genres and cultures as possible, creating an ambitious and global medley of grooves.
The best example of Clef's wide-reaching tendencies is heard on the bouncy, bhangra beat-inspired track “Hollywood Meets Bollywood (Immigration).” Here, Clef combines the strings of a full orchestra with an old Egyptian sample and the cautionary raps of Chamillionaire, resulting in a cross-continental sure shot. Conversely, getting aid from hip-hop's most sought-after guest stars Akon and Lil' Wayne on the single “Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)” was hardly risky. Yet the reggae-pop vibe and underlying message on this song are effortlessly engrossing. Of course, Clef can't score hits on every try, as the political, rock-tinged “Riot” with Serj Tankian and his dedication to the late Tejano singer, “Selena,” just sound awkward. To Wyclef's credit, though, not once do his attempts come off as insincere. — Max Herman
CONNIE PRICE AND THE KEYSTONES
Tell Me Something (Ubiquity)
Dust off the Farfisa
Dan Ubick and Todd M. Simon are the sole operators behind Connie Price and the Keystones, but everything points to the contrary. The classy funk/soul hodgepodge on Tell Me Something paints a stage full of suited brass and keys players, with guest MCs (Big Daddy Kane and Percee P among them) bridging a long history of hip-hop and soul 45s. Ohmega Watts out-brags any Roc-A-Fella alumni over woodwinds and infectious guitar riffs on “Master at Work,” and Percee draws lines between Bush's war crimes and Native American genocide on “Thundersounds.” Imagine that. — Dominic Umile
SUBSTANTIAL
Sacrifice (QN5)
The seesaw effect
Maryland rhymer Substantial's monotone flow isn't likely to immediately pull listeners in, but his new album Sacrifice reveals an artist who often has much to say and a pretty good taste in beats to boot. To be sure, the melodic boom-bap and uplifting raps of “Wake Up Call” and the swagger and Madlib-esque soul of “That Damn Good” inspire repeat listens. These standouts, produced by Algorythm, no doubt show what this mild-mannered MC is capable of. Although elsewhere, tracks like the aimless “Spaticus” never really take off, making Sacrifice only partially exciting. — Max Herman
TEARGAS & PLATEGLASS
Black Triage (Waxploitation)
Situation critical
Three years after vanishing from sight and earshot — save a set of five unannounced Eastern European shows in 2004 — the intriguingly abstruse T&P have returned with a collection of weighty compositions that rest darkly beneath the murk and mire. Although the careful instrumentations, especially on such tracks as “Plague Burial,” are at times bleakly tuneful, the overall feel is one of pause and heaviness; these are essentially soundscapes — some with narrative — that encapsulate the aftermath of destruction. It's not a cheerful album by a long shot; but it is an affecting and thoughtful one. — Kristi Kates
JIMMY VAN M
Balance 10.1 (EQ)
Pleasantly unbalanced
Stephan Bodzin's “Kerosene” B-side sparkles for seven minutes in a mass of glassy plinks and surges called “Cucuma,” and it positively beams from Jimmy Van M's Balance 10.1. Florida native Jimmy Van M follows up his much-lauded Balance 10 mix with a collection that spills over with driving but bleary techno, particularly in the Field's remix of James Figurine's “55566688833,” and a couple stuttering, disorienting entries from Russia's Moonbeam. Planet Funk's dance rock (“Static”) comes off generic and disruptive, but Jimmy's picks are otherwise blatantly atmospheric and boozefest friendly. — Dominic Umile
T.H. WHITE
The Private Spotlight (Sky Council)
Got potential?
No one can argue that T.H. White (producer, songwriter, arranger, programmer, musician) isn't multitalented. Unfortunately, however, this set arrives with a bit of a dull thud, lacking the real oomph that is expected from someone this skilled. Opening with the jazzy, shifty “Private People,” the first impression is that of a sad singles' disco; that impression doesn't change much as the album moves on to “The Lost Bridges,” with its '80s Pat Benatar-style synth. “Can I?” and “Separations” pep things up with White's unprocessed, chill guitar work, but overall, it seems that he could do so much better. — Kristi Kates
XIU XIU
Women as Lovers (Kill Rock Stars)
Weirder and better as time goes by
One mustn't casually listen to Women as Lovers. You must first be prepared. You must clear your thoughts because the imaginative experimental sounds and lyrics from this band are too much to digest on a full stomach. Jamie Stewart, the brainchild behind the Oakland band — widely known to be much smarter than you are — once again proves that chaos and discomfort are a breeding ground for beautiful and truthful folk music, like that on “F.T.W.” A lot of experimental artists make noise just to make noise, but Xiu Xiu makes music with noise that is simply amazing and cutting edge. — Jason Jurgens
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