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Sugar Ray 14:59 (Atlantic/Warner) Detective: "What do we got here?" Beat Cop: "Second big album... didn't make it." D: "Time of death?" BC: "14:59." D: "Damn, what a waste." BC: "Whudduya mean?" D: "Shoulda used their DJ a lot more... if only they sampled their own playing, transferred it to vinyl, and had the DJ scratch it, they might have had a..." BC: "Easy, you're no producer, nothing you coulda done." D: "Yeah, but..." BC: "Get that camera outta here!" D: "...sez here KRS-1 showed up on 'Live & Direct.'" BC: "Yeah, their high point, his lowest... excuse me... nothing to see here, folks, move along..." 5/10 (Lateef "Dragnet" Martin) Poppy Seed & the Love Explosion Orchestra Days Dream of You (independent) Psychedelia has been making "a comeback" ever since the first Echo & the Bunnymen single, so it's probably more useful to think of it in terms of a recurring acid flashback. Toronto's Steve Bromstein knows this, so he's got a twist in his tab. His group Poppy Seed & the Love Explosion Orchestra is actually an orchestra--or at least makes healthy use of horns--bridging Barrett and Bacharach while he sings like Julian Cope. A mellifluous, mellow trip, man. 7.5/10 (Chris Yurkiw) At Jailhouse Rock tonight, Thurs, Jan 21, with the Datsuns, 9pm, $4 Various Terra Musica: Global Explorer II (Zip Dog/Fusion III) Granted, this sort of National Geographic-for-the-dancefloor is nothing new. Cut and paste a tabla beat here and a sitar loop there, and you've got your mondo-techno mix ready to ship. Terra Musica fares better than some similar comps, though, due in part to the variety of approaches its two discs offer. The obvious choices are on hand: Transglobal Underground, Asian Dub Foundation (with an old track) and Loop Guru, whose "Single Orphan First Year Camel" is one of the livelier cuts here. There are some neat surprises, too, like Foreign Devils' "Beware of Fire" and Emperor Sly's rockin' "Thunderdrum." Short on focus, and in many cases originality, this one's nonetheless a tolerable listen. 7/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) Keith Murray It's a Beautiful Thing (Jive/BMG)
Third album's the charm? No, sir. Murray has been accused of rhyming some true silliness and flat-out nonsense in the past, but the raspy-voiced L.O.D. member has somehow managed to squeeze out another. As far as rhyming goes, this is more of the same, while Eric Sermon only half-succeeds in making the production bearable. Plain old stupid skits and incredibly middle-of-the-road jams do not a beautiful thing make. 6/10 (Scott C)
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