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Mike Watt Contemplating the Engine Room (Columbia/Sony)
Tokyo's DJ Krush was among the original MoWax crew who--as you may have already heard--"brought hip hop to the next level." But a few years have now past, and Krush' s elevator remains on the same floor. Milight is a well-executed head nodder--it has got those crooked breaks, keys and congealed bass that made MoWax outstanding in the first place. But the sound has lost its light in the wake of Shadow's Entroducing and the accompanying glut of beat-for-beat's sake records. Japanese MC Rino and talky interludes (like graffiti artist Futura 2000) perk things up, but the overall is still too close to what's become drearily generic. 7/10 (Mireille Silcott)
Remixing the sacred canon of Bob Marley in a rub-a-dub style seems destined for extremity--either the bomb or a bomb. But in a style all too typical of himself, producer Bill Laswell blows up Marley's songs somewhere in the middle. Never allowing his cut-ups to stray far from the original songs, Laswell can't decide if he wants melody or melodica, and there are no Dreams to be found in indecision. 6/10 (Chris Yurkiw) Bodega Bring Yourself Up (Vibra Cobra)
Gone are Bodega from Montreal (to T.O.), and gone are the petrified rockisms of songwriter Andrew Rodriguez's previous outfit, Stellar Dweller. If there's any link between Bodega and Stellar though, it's a vaguely proggy vibe via oddball song structures, time changes and texture, that come off here more on the folk/pop tip than the acid/rock one. Organ, violin, cello and falsetto put Rodriguez in the sphere of Eric Matthews and that's a wonderful new world. 7/10 (Chris Yurkiw)
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A concept album? Mike Watt? After 1995's Ball Hog or Tug Boat it was questionable if Watt was even able to fly the flannel anymore. But Contemplating finds him as vital and important as ever, continuing his constant efforts to distance himself from cookie cutter "alternative."
Watt still can't carry a tune in a bucket, but his champion storytelling make travelling through this punk rock opera a worthwhile trip. Geraldine Fibbers' guitarist Nels Cline complements Watt's amazing bass-work without turning into competition. Is the world ready for Contemplating? Maybe in a few years, so why not get a head start? 8.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)
DJ Krush Milight (MoWax/A&M)
Bob Marley Dreams of Freedom: Ambient Translations of Bob Marley in Dub (Axiom/Island/PolyGram)