Super Chikan What You See (Fat Possum/Epitaph)
Sarah Cracknell Lipside (Instinct)
Smith & Mighty Big World Small World (Studio K7/Fusion III)
VariousPhat Global #1 (Palm Pictures/Outside)
The globetrotting rhythms that make up the roster at Palm Pictures have combined here to form a musical buffet of sorts. From Colombia to Senegal and Jamaica to Marseilles, this comp infuses the delicacies of the world with the intricacies of modern music production and the art of the remix. Whether you're sampling the Thievery Corporation-produced Baaba Maal track, the De Lata-remixed Sly & Robbie entry or the deep dub hop beats of IAM producer Imhotep, you'll be surprised how small the world really is--musically speaking. 7.5/10 (Scott C)
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Mississippi Delta resident Super Chikan may have some of the sounds indigenous to his region down, but when he mixes it in with New Orleans R&B, funk, rock 'n' roll and country, things really start getting interesting. In the end it is undeniably blues played with heart and soul, but Chikan keeps the bottle of bourbon half full and songs like "What You See" seem like they're taken straight from a Mississippi kitchen party. Pawnshop guitars are just out of reach for notes as vocals scream and screech with glorious abandonment. Albert King, Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker (especially on "Fighting Cock") are all musically namedchecked but it's Super Chikan's sense of humour and good time vibe that may make him a blues legend of his own. 8.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)
The delicate, darling voice of English pop wizards St. Etienne, Cracknell elects to take a solo run, with acceptable if less than excellent results. True, nothing here has the unshakably confident catchiness that Cracknell and co. tossed around so effortlessly on St. Etienne's last full length, Good Humour. At the same time, the woman always knew how a little bit of melancholy can actually work to put the listener in a better mood, odd as that sounds. Like I said, nothing really sticks to the wall here, but fans of St. E will need this nonetheless. 7/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
In the wake of Smith & Mighty's DJ-Kicks mixed album on the Studio K7 label (and it's hard to screw up that great gig--just ask Andrea Parker or Nicolette), the Berlin imprint tries to position this album as the overdue breakthrough by a great, lost piece of the Bristol trip hop puzzle. True, Rob Smith and Ray Mighty do recall here a bit of the first Bristol breakthrough, Massive Attack's Blue Lines, with dub-informed soul and a bevy of diva vocalists and dog-eared rappers. But S&M's version is a lot less idiosyncratic and almost a decade after the fact. Too little, too late--and too Soul II Soul. 7/10 (Chris Yurkiw)