Daft Punk Discovery (Virgin/EMI)
Orb Cydonia (Island/Universal) After a couple of wanky releases and a best-of, the Orb were not looking good. When the bio attached to their new album announced "more vocal tracks than usual," we feared the worse. Instead, Cydonia finds the boys back in fine, if maybe not groundbreaking, form. Like previous works, there are plenty of random, funny samples tossed about with reckless abandon. Combined with these is everything from their trademark ambiance to messy breaks and even drum & bass, making for the kind of wild, weird ride you've come to expect. Welcome back. 8/10 (Chris Hatherill)
Placebo Black Market Music (Virgin/EMI)
The Waterboys A Rock in the Weary Land (BMG)
Tipsy Uh-Oh! (Asphodel/Outside)
Mad Max Squeeky Wheel (Hybrid Structure) Think back to the glorious days of June 2000, and one event will hopefully stand out in your mind: Post Audio Esthétique at Galerie Clark. I say "hopefully" because if you missed this series of audio and art nights you missed one of the best things to happen in Montreal last year. With performances by Mad Max and other locals, plus a surprise appearance by Swayzak, the nights combined brilliant design, brilliant music and a brilliant crowd. Squeeky Wheel is a live recording of Mr. Max's set which lets you either a) Kick back and reminisce; or b) break down and cry because it is so good and you weren't there. 9/10 (Chris Hatherill) Kruder & Dorfmeister The G-Stone Book (G-Stone/Fusion III) Actually, the accompanying CD compiling rare but not exclusive tracks from K&D, Tosca, Peace Orchestra etc. is almost an afterthought. What this is is the Viennese upscale-downtempo duo's portable, mass-produced shrine to themselves, interspersing some diary stuff and a couple of heady essays with stacks of scrapbook snaps. See a bleary and unshaven K&D at the airport! See their friends and hangers-on! See funny American road signs, dope flyers and blurry party pix! See great tits the two have met on their travels! And see all the cool G-Stone merch that's probably in their parents' basements right now, until Papa Kruder throws an Austrian shitfit and gets after them with a hardwood walking stick. Achtung! Kopfschmerz! That I'd pay to see snaps of. 6.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) Carl Craig onsumotahasheeat (Shadow/Koch)
Matmos A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure (Matador/FAB) Pulling on the scrubs and latex gloves, San Francisco duo Matmos redefine the phrase, "Let me hear your body rock." Six tracks of sparse, dry, almost insectoid electronic music here, albeit with trace readings of humour and pathos. The base material is hospital-zone field recordings the pair collected themselves, sweet sounds of liposuction, laser beams and bonesaws. One track even finds them playing the bars of a lab rat's cage like a xylophone. Resisting the impulse to indict a rather parasitic medical industry, or the high-tech hypochondria of its hosts, the pair let the surgery sounds speak (and whine, buzz, squish and crunch) for themselves. Coming soon, your aunt Gladys' gall stones--remixed! 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) King Britt/Sylk 130 Re-members Only (Six Degrees/Outside)
K-Ci & JoJo X (MCA/Universal)
Lee Scratch Perry Born in the Sky (Motion Records/Nice) Those of you who are followers of the Upsetter at the controls should be thoroughly impressed with the latest unearthing of Lee Perry's master tapes. Compiled by Perry's biographer David Katz, the collection of 23 cuts includes precious moments from the Upsetters, the Ethiopians, Prince Jazzbo and the Silvertones as well as Perry's own work. Born in the Sky spans from '68 to '75 with all of nine previously unreleased tracks and superior liner notes. Unlike a great deal of the reissues dedicated to older songs and unreleased material by the "dub oracle," the quality of this record is excellent. A great portrait of a studio visionary. 8/10 (Scott C) Various David X. Young's Jazz Loft (Jazz Magnet/Fusion III) Between '54 and '65, painter/photographer Young held sessions in his NYC loft. Thankfully he was in the habit of taping them, and this two-CD set contains a sampling of what went on. Captured at their relaxed best are people like Pepper Adams, Zoot Sims, Bob Brookmeyer and Jimmy Raney. The set contains 11 tracks (of reasonable sound quality) plus a beauty of a booklet with reproductions of Young's paintings, photos from the sessions and some reminiscences of the time from Brookmeyer, Teddy Charles and Bill Crow. There's more to come, which is great news as Monk, Miles, Bill Evans and Gerry Mulligan were among Young's musical visitors! 9/10 (Len Dobbin) |
As the first in BBE's Beat Generation series focused on some of the world's best producers, Welcome 2 Detroit shines a light on Ummah member and sometime Soulquarian Jay Dee and a host of Motown MCs. Known for his vibey, soulful layers and lazy but devastating drums, "J Dilla" even rhymes confident on a record that touches on several of his musical preoccupations. "Think Twice," "Rico Suave Bossa Nova" and "African Rhythms" all work on instrumental grooves, with even the Kraftwerk-inspired "B.B.E. (Big Booty Express)" getting the nod. Other tracks, like "Come Get It" featuring Elzhi or "Pause" featuring Frank 'n' Dank, leave no questions as to why Jay Dee stands alone, spawning imitators by the minute. 10/10 (Scott C)
I know I'm going to gag at the sound of this stuff in about two weeks, but right now I just can't stop listening to the latest from this tricky French dance-pop duo. This is the very essence of robot disco--pressurized, mechanical glitterball party traxx, all vocoderisms and Moroderisms, graced with some bonus digitized sportsguitar licks. Some tunes grate almost immediately, but others, like "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," "Superheroes" and the jacked-up "Crescendolls," are terrifying in their retarded catchiness. The bullshit yarn about being turned into androids by a studio accident, compounded by their gazillion-dollar jukebot helmets, only adds to what's gotta be the most high-profile practical joke of the season. 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
With the (questionable) addition of rapper Justin Warfield on one track, a few more upbeat numbers and a newfound interest in pinko politics, the third album by this U.K.-based trio is very much like their last. All the Placebo trademarks are here: Brian Molko's tortured whine, sleazy references to sex 'n' drugs, shades of new wave (Cure, Joy Division), all-purpose guitars with well-integrated strings 'n' keys, and that vague air of pretension. Pretty decent then, besides a couple of tracks that wallow a bit too deeply. Highlights include the adrenal "Special K" and "Slave to the Wage," an ode to the workers. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
Athems, epics, choirs, too many keyboards for anyone to count and the constant nasal snarl of singer Mike Scott don't add up to a winner for this long-running U.K. act. A couple of semi-admirable forays into straight, dirty rock are dwarfed by absurdly emotional crap lyrics, the kind you really want to forget (and probably will). The album's armpit is the sadly named closer, "Crown," a gargantuan guitar rawk-out with piano and sax solos and an insane chorus of keys. The result recalls the pap you'd hear at a hockey game. Ten years ago. In, let's say, Calgary. 3/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
After a five-year wait, Frisco's Tipsy drop a sophomore joint. Those in the know will be just sweaty with glee over this, because nobody reconciled trip-hop, exotica and dry humour like these guys did on their debut, Trip-tease. I'm happy to say that Uh-Oh! only raises the bar. While the tiki jazz of old-timers like Martin Denny still figures front and centre, with touches of Schifrin and Mancini here and there, Tipsy dig into a much deeper bag of mindbending gimmickry this time. Part suburban-savage tiki party, part psychotropic sci-fi scenario, part kartoon kreep-out, Uh-Oh! is a magnificently ridiculous romp, a silly, sexy, lurid loot-bag of strange and amazing sounds. 9.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Is everyone sure that this "Carl Craig" is actually one guy? Have we checked dental records and stuff? Because between running Detroit's excellent Planet E label, producing, remixing, touring and organizing the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, it seems impossible that he would have time to complete another mix, his first since his acclaimed DJ Kicks effort. Onsumotahasheeat sees this incredible "individual" mixing his way through Shadow Records' back catalogue, and would be a good purchase if Shadow's graphic design team hadn't made it look like a Grade 9 project. Are they the same people who lay out Exclaim?! 7.5/10 (Chris Hatherill)
Right off the bat I should say that just because this record has all kinds of '80s throwbacks on it doesn't immediately qualify it as a throwback album. It's far from that. Martin Fry from ABC? Alison Moyet from Yaz? These are people you find in the dollar bin at any used record store, but Britt has concocted a superior homage to the voices that made the '80s for him. He's added that sexy, soulful twist that he's world-renowned for too, making these forgotten voice easy, if not enjoyable to swallow. Other guests include Pos and Trugoy from De La Soul, Vikter Duplaix and Kathy Sledge, making this one of the sweetest joints I've heard in months. 8.5/10 (Scott C)
In their post-Jodeci career, brothers K-Ci & JoJo have become the premier bedtime storytellers of the R&B circuit. On their third release, the Haileys continue to hone their songwriting skills by venturing outside the box. "Suicide" takes on the disturbing reality of depression in the midst of heartbreak. On the flipside, "If it's Going to Work" is all about fighting to keep love alive. The beautiful "All the Things I Should Have Known," is all about the "could've" after the breakup. 8/10 (Gerard Dee)