DJ Food Kaleidoscope (Ninja Tune/Outside)
Marianne Faithfull Vagabond Ways (Instinct/Koch)
Seven Storey Mountain Based on a True Story (Deep Elm) The Deep Elm label may have been long associated with the bubbling emo-core scene, but they really branch out with Seven Storey Mountain. All of the emo earmarks are there, with climbing dynamics, discordance and impassioned vocals, but SSM actually know how to write a great song with a strong pop sensibility. Singer Lance Lammers is the real star, thanks to his ability to croon sweet nothings and then escalate to full-blown projection without succumbing to testosterone theatrics. "Politician" is an instant pop punk classic that would wipe the floor with anything Blink 182 could come up with. Early Superchunk and Knapsack fans take note. 8.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)
Fishbone and the Familyhood Nextperience The Psychotic Friends Nuttwerx (Hollywood/Universal)
Various ArtistsWWF Aggression (Priority/Virgin/EMI) All right, so who's pimping who here? If I'm not mistaken, the dudes down at the WWF released a record of themes that were all rocked out and on the heavy side not even four months ago. Maybe it was the hip hop superstars on this album who came forward and confessed that they'd love to participate in a wrestling project. Method Man's rendition of the Rock's "Know Your Role" could only have come out of a great love for the big guy, while songs by O.D.B, Kool Keith, Redman, Ice-T and the Eastsidaz save this disc from coaster heaven. Gone are the days when I used to turn up the TV and the British Bulldogs would make their way to the ring to "God Save the Queen." Wrestling is here forever. 7.5/10 (Scott C)
Ice Cube War and Peace Vol.2-the Peace disc (Priority/Virgin/EMI) I think it was about three weeks ago that I read on the net that Cube had called a press conference at release time for this record. Apparently he wanted to publicly denounce the first volume of the War and Peace twosome because he had been too busy making movies to fully concentrate on making a quality album. Volume two, according to him, contains some of his best work and deserves a fair shake after the dismal first disc. Personally, I can't really see the great difference between the two. This isn't a bad record, but songs like "Nigga of the Century" and "Supreme Hustle" no longer bang the way Cube used to. Nice to see all this NWA love though; Cube and Dre make beautiful music together. 7/10 (Scott C)
Black Rob Life Story (Bad Boy/BMG) When I see a rapper can't rap it's like WHOA!/Hits that are wiggitty wiggity wack it's like WHOA!/Bad boy in a slump right now it's like WHOA!/Rhymin' like I'm four years old it's like WHOA!/Make a jam that sticks in their heads like WHOA!/Poo poo poo poo ca ca ca like WHOA!/I dare you to sing this song like WHOA!/ Reviewing this record wasn't hard like WHOA! 5/10 (Black Scott)
MDFMK self-titled (Republic/Universal)
Hednoize Searching for the End (Wax Trax!/Universal)
Basement Jaxx Jaxx Unreleased: Additives and Remedies (XL) If you're a vinyl-slinging junkie like myself then you've probably managed to procure a few of these singles already, as they have come through Inbeat and few other record stores in that elusive "white label" format. Otherwise, you might have heard a few of these mixes on the radio or in various clubs around town. Whatever the case may be, Jaxx Unreleased is just that: all of Basement Jaxx' biggest tunes retouched by the Jaxx themselves so that they sound just a little more tweaked and flanged, if that's possible. "Red Alert" is right! 8/10 (Krista)
Various The Blue Night Network (Public Transit) "A fist to the face is answered by a swift kick to the drum. A wound opens and blood flows in like music," read the liner notes from the latest compilation CD by Toronto's Public Transit Recordings, a collection of thoughtful yet melancholic drum & bass, techno and electronica all done by Toronto artists. However, dedicated to maintaining the purity of "the underground" and of electronic music, PTR label founder Kevin Moon prefers not to pigeonhole the music on this compilation, stating that his label tries "to draw connections between music rather than separations." He also urges everyone to take the bus. 7.5/10 (Krista)
Stereo MCsDJ Kicks (!K7/Fusion III)
Various Romeo Must Die Soundtrack (Virgin) The music that backs the new action flick starring R&B princess Aaliyah kicks ass. The four stellar Aaliyah tracks here, including simultaneous lead singles "Try Again" and "I Don't Wanna," bring her back to urban music's forefront with a vengeance. Heavy staccato beats punish thumping tracks by Joe, Destiny's Child, Ginuwine, Mack 10, Chante Moore, Non-A-Miss and Playa. And Stanley Clark & Politix come most correct on closing track "Swung On." Maybe Romeo must die, but the music's alive and kickin'. 9/10 (Gerard Dee)
Various Ohm: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music (Ellipsis Arts)
Mike Allen Change Is (Maximum Jazz) This time out the tenorman Allen, one of the most brilliant musicians to come out of McGill, leads a trio with a pair of B.C.-based heavies (Darren Radke on bass and Dave Robbins on drums). The 10-track program is a varied one, ranging from memorable originals through standards, a Johnny Hodges blues and the theme from Streetcar Named Desire. Allen just gets better and better! 9.5/10 (Len Dobbin) At Chapelle Historique du Bon Pasteur April 7 and Upstairs April 8
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PC and Strictly Kev intended their shared tag DJ Food not as a name but as a suggestion, but DJs on a strict diet of beats and nothing but will find their newest one rather bewildering. Sure, there are some snappy numbers, like the amazing "Nocturne" and "The Riff," but even with those: look out. In spite of its smoky luxuriance and organic contours, the album's architecture is a snakes-and-ladders affair of telescoping hallways, spiral staircases and dim-lit chambers of unclear dimensions. That, coupled with a predilection for spoken words--as opposed to "spoken word"--makes Kaleidoscope an exercise in mood manipulation and psychocoustics. Headphones are half the story here; you'll need electrodes and a brainwave calibrator for the full listening experience. 9/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Billed as her "first rock album in five years," Vagabond Ways is about as rock as you might expect Marianne Faithfull to be--coming off an extended period as interpretress of Kurt Weill, covering Leonard Cohen and Elton John, and collaborating on three songs with that great leveller Daniel Lanois. Stickling aside, the first half of this album is pretty poignant (and trenchant) Faithfull, an unrepentant life retrospective that begins with her titular "Vagabond Ways" established in the '60s, followed by a foreboding segue into the '70s via Roger Waters' "Incarceration of a Flower Child," and triptych-ed off with a sardonic "File It Under Fun From the Past." A "Marathon Kiss" with Lanois, later on, says less about the '90s. 7/10 (Chris Yurkiw)
After a decade of business hassles, internal personal grief and resultant musical mediocrity, Fishbone commit to plastic what last year's Foufs show promised: the fallen fish has landed on its feet. Positively vibrating with hope and happiness, Fishbone's latest is closest in feel to 1988's Truth & Soul, arguably their finest moment. The original ska/funk/rock rearrangers, Angelo and co. have assembled an extended brood (George Clinton, Perry Farrell, Gwen Stefani, Fabulosos Cadillacs and... uh, Donny Osmond) to partake in their noble lunacy. Check out the track "Just Allow" or the Sly Stone cover, you'll see what I mean. 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
If you remember a pretty ubiquitous party tune from '92-'93 called "Connected" then you're right on top of Britain's Stereo MCs: that was the title track from their last album. And so--the hegemony of hip hop and ascent of producer duos later--a comeback is ripe, with no better foot-wetter than a high-profile mixed CD for the DJ-Kicks series. Rob Birch and Nick Hallam's funky, pop-friendly selections, by the likes of Kool G Rap and Ultramagnetic MCs, nods frequently to the time when they cast their own sound, and the three new SMC tunes are virtually indistinguishable in the mix. Japan's Kodo drummers add college-radio eclecticism, Mark Stewart another late-'80s touchstone, and finally some Red Snapper and Herbaliser take us at least up to 1997. 7.5/10 (Chris Yurkiw)
Hey, mulletoids. Still braying about how techno "isn't even music," are you? Oh, wait'll you hear this: more than half-a-century's worth of experimental electronic tuneology, unfettered by notions of populism or even listenability. All bases are covered over three discs and a fat booklet, from Cage and Stockhausen to Reich and Riley to Schulze and Eno, the lot of them poking about for the elusive ghosts in their machines. At times silly, others awe-inspiring, all too often numbingly pretentious, these are the philosophers' stones and gilded goose eggs prototypical to most of the pop music being perpetrated today. And no fucking retarded guitar solos! 7.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)