Brassy Got It Made (Wiiija/Beggar's Banquet) Deicide Insineratehymn (Roadrunner/Song) Probably the most widely-known black metal band for the past 10 years, Glen Benton and company's influence is the most easily heard in the death genre. Instead of just relying on speed this time around, the mid-tempo pace of Insineratehymn lets Benton's guttural spew cling to notes while guitars lay down an infectious slow grind. The satanic lyrics get a bit cartoonish in these odes to the horned one, but "Forever Hate You" and "Suffer Again" still manage to overflow with venomous hatred, while the twin guitar attack remains at the top of death. 7.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)
The Datsons See! (Tyrant/Sonic Unyon)
There's no question that local trio the Datsons have finally nailed the mod sensibility, lock, stock and parka. But fusing Motown sweetness with Anglo R&B sweatiness, aping archetypal riffs on flash vintage instruments, simply won't suffice. The tunes must stand on their own, and the boys know it. From the Jam pastiche of opener "Mr. Face" and the Who-liganism of "I Am the Eye" to Stones soul picnic of "No Tears" and the genuinely moving "Love and Compassion," by way of some spy-chic intrigue and underhanded class warfare, See! is entirely dud-free. Perhaps the album would be better titled Listen!, because it demands that you do. 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Arab Strap Elephant Shoe (Go Beat/Jetset)
Pitchshifter Deviant (MCA/Universal) Everybody's freakin' out over Napster, the program that gives users access to a communal pool of music via the music collections on their hard drive. Bitch-ass music label slavemasters are runnin' scared and aging has-beens Metallica are bellyaching about lost moolah. Then you've got folks like Pitchshifter, who keep their listeners interested on both the sonic and visual front. You want people to buy your stuff instead of just pillaging it off the Net? Keep 'em interested with the packaging. Deviant is not only a rather pissed off hard rock punch in the gut, it also features a short comic starring the Pitchshifter lineup and Rat Bastard, as well as a buncha enhanced CD knick-knacks to keep you computer geeks awake. 8/10 (Lateef Martin)
Erick Onasis Def Squad Presents... (Def Squad/Dreamworks) Even though EPMD broke up, got back together and then broke up again, Erick Sermon has always managed to keep busy. Whether it was working with Keith Murray, Redman or Meth, he's always seemed to have something going on. On this, his third solo album, it's pretty much a given that Sermon (aka Onasis) is putting out these solo joints for nobody else but himself, as there's nothing here even worth yawning about. All the aforementioned MCs make their usual cameos but it's really just a very simple E Double at play. 6.5/10 (Scott C) C)
The Nextmen Amongst the Madness (75 Ark/Scenario) The Nextmen have the distinguished honour of being one of the few hip hop crews from England who have been able to attract a lot of attention from not only the North American hip hop underground, but from other corners of the world as well. The Brits have always had a problem getting support for homegrown hip hop in England, let alone abroad, so this album is important. Essentially a production team, the Nextmen lend their keen ear to MCs like Grap Luva, Unspoken Heard, Intellect and Soulson for a strong debut that should keep them around for a while. 8/10 (Scott C)
Einsturzende Neubaten Silence Is Sexy (Mute/Fusion III) For the past 20 years Blixa Bargeld and the gang have been shaking the foundations (the translation of their name means collapsing old buildings), but this time they've thrown out the industrial abandonment of the early years in favour of melody and somewhat traditional song structure. Perhaps this is spilled over from Bargeld's time served as a bad seed, sideman to Nick Cave. Noise still rears an ugly head but, instead of relentlessly bashing away, it is under a leash and controlled. Einsturzende Neubaten have finally released a record that you don't have to be an interior decorator to enjoy. 8.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)
Fred Everything Everything Under the Sun (Turbo/Koch) I can distinctly remember the days in Quebec's vieille ville when Fred and the rest of us were all barely able to mix two records together, let alone plunk out a track. However, those days are long gone, and if Fred's stellar debut album is even the slightest indication, he certainly learned how to use all the gear he's been hoarding. Everything Under the Sun is a perfect lazy summer afternoon or sleepy winter's morn when the sun is streaming through the windows ever so slightly adding just a hint of extra-rich colour to everything in the room. 8.5/10 (Krista)
Senor Coconut y su Conjunto El Baile Aleman (Emperor Norton/Outside)
Sidestepper More Grip (Palm/Outside)
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Do you remember when Plant turns to the crowd in The Song Remains the Same and ponders aloud, "Does anybody remember laughter?" What a dick! Although I'm a huge Led Zeppelin fan, Plant's squeal and lyrical Viking imagery always got on my tits. This two-CD set of mainly Zep covers is perfect, if not because it shows that Page can still play with the best of them, then for Crowe Chris Robinson's croon. Robinson breathes new life into classics like "Custard Pie" and "In My Time of Dying," while the rest of the band attack the Zeppelin songbook with fervour. Crowes drummer Steve Gorman does a good Bonzo and bassist Sven Pipien does an adequate John Paul Jones, but the Crowes and Page do a hell of a lot better Zeppelin than Page's and Plant's last incarnation. 9/10 (Johnson Cummins)
Picture, if you will, funky basslines, crudely-sampled beats, sleazy riffs and some serious hip hop attitude and you've got the gist of the full-length debut by this Manchester-based act. After listening to singer Muffin sneer through a few tracks, it's no surprise to learn that she's Jon Spencer's little sister. That New-York-via-U.K. vibe serves Brassy well, although the track of phone messages is probably a bit too Beastie Boys. Sure, "the blues is [still] number one," but Muffin can rap, rock and roll with the best of them, coattails or no. 9/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
Forget fellow Scots Belle and Sebastian, Arab Strap are the kings of sad bastard music. "Singer" Aidan Moffat sounds remarkably like Thom Yorke on a nasty comedown, mumbling tales of dead-end trysts, drunken dreams and abortion while subdued guitars, keyboards and beats produce a well-crafted indie-meets-trip hop affair. Of course, this being an Arab Strap song, indie would meet trip hop, have a drunken shag and lie in bed all the next day, curtains drawn, pondering life's futility. Like hardcore sedatives, this is good stuff but probably not ideal in large doses. 7.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
One thing you can say about producer Jermain Dupri: he sure knows how to throw a party. On the soundtrack to the latest Martin Lawrence flick, Jermain gathers up the hip hop posse and throws down. He gets into it himself on the remix of the Da Brat track "That's What I'm Looking For," and then mixes it up with Nas and Monica on "I've Got To Have It" (which liberally samples from Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer"). No thinking required, this one's just about shaking your ass. 7/10 (Gerard Dee)
From a block away, you'd take this for pretty straight-up, no-nonsense Colombian salsa. Up close, though, the involvement of RealWorld refugee Richard Blair becomes obvious, if not overbearing. This is in fact Blair's baby--the producer with a trail of credits around the world (from Eno to Nusrat to Mexicans Azul Violeta) spent three years in Colombia, culminating in the rounding up of some of the nation's finest horns, percussionists and vocalists. Blair's unintrusively teched-up production of the material, which he co-wrote with singer Ivan Benavides, toughens and tightens the salsaeros without diminishing their natural energy. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)