Sepultura Nation (Roadrunner/Universal)
Manic Street Preachers Know Your Enemy (Virgin/EMI)
Various Sounds Eclectic (Palm/Outside)
Black Halos The Violent Years (SubPop/Warner)
Skrape New Killer America (RCA/BMG)
The Beatnuts Take it or Squeeze it (Loud/BMG) The able team of Psycho Les and JuJu have made an almost easy time of walking that tightrope between underground respect and mass appeal. Somehow they manage to lick off the catchiest joints without sacrificing the all-important bottom end. This shit is still culo-grimy when you get right down to it, but the Nuts work it so that the ladies, thugs, beat-heads and all you fools who post in the corner can get down properly. Look out! Fashion makes a long overdue return to his roots on "It's the Nuts," along with other guests Fat Joe and Tony Touch spicing up the record. Check the bomb track "Mayonnaise" for the true Nuts touch. 8/10 (Scott C) Butta Babees The Entrée (Bandit/Universal)
Talvin Singh Ha (Island/Universal)
Sofa Surfers Constructions (Klein/Fusion III) Subtitled "Sofa Surfers Remixed and Dubbed," this tidy little package sees these Viennese "multimedial" guys rerubbed by the likes of Howie B and Mad Professor. You might also remember them from such compilations as The K&D Sessions, where their track "Sofa Rockers" (included here) was remixed by the mighty Richard Dorfmeister. Constructions sees 13 more precisely engineered, dubby, downtempo remixes just like it, perfect for any horizontal activity except sex. It's too fally-asleepy for that. 8.5/10 (Chris Hatherill) Various Environments (Om/Fusion III) From out in the foggy Pacific Mid- to Northwest comes Environments, the latest compilation from SF-based Om Records. This collection of abstracted quasi-electronica, put together by label frontman Chris Smith and friends, features the latest set of "to be" stars whose musical description would fit under the category "broken beats meets moody jazz." Telefuzz (aka Vancouver's Don Verbrilli), SF's Radar and Afro-Mystic, Voom Voom (Peter Kruder) and Ming & FS all contribute pensive, orchestral variations on the themes formerly known as drum & bass, two-step and trip hop. Way out West. 8/10 (Krista) Aphrodite The Takeover Bid (DMC/Song) Every subgenre of contemporary electronic dance music has superstar DJs and tracks that are ripe for the fruit basket of mass consumption. Jungle and drum & bass are no exceptions. On Aphrodite's Takeover Bid compilation, 13 tracks and 3,600 seconds is all it takes to remind the music world that he doesn't represent just another mucho-hyped category. Track two snatches classic electrofunk from the '80s via Newcleus' "Jam On Revenge (Wikki Wikki Song)." On cut seven, Quincy Jones makes a slick cameo through a sample from his '73 chestnut LP You Got It Bad Girl. Dope, portly basslines, snazzy vocal effects and a little R&B jiggyness are also stitched together to exhilarating effect. 8/10 (Peter Lightburn) Roachford The Roachford Files (Sony) Long before Papa Roach infested the landscape with their brand of rock-rap, a British bug had infected North America with his brand of rock-soul. Almost 10 years later, this greatest-hits package shows why Andrew Roachford and his band were a relevant part of the early-'90s British soul invasion that included Terence Trent D'Arby, Sade and Soul II Soul. Sure, tracks like the rock-ish "Cuddly Toy" and the Prince-like "Lay Your Love On Me" sound dated now. But hey, it's hard to keep a good Roach down. 6.5/10 (Gerard Dee) David Murray Like a Kiss That Never Ends (Justin Time/Fusion III) Murray's last release for this label, a tribute to Coltrane played by an octet, was on many critics' top-10 lists. This time we have David featured with a superb quartet of John Hicks, Ray Drummond and Andrew Cyrille, a group that played Claudio's in Old Montreal in 1991 and a couple of years later recorded another tribute album, Saxmen. Murray's on tenor on five of his own compositions and one by the "Bulldog," Drummond, but switches to bass clarinet for Monk's "Let's Cool One." Another feather in Murray's cap! 10/10 (Len Dobbin) |
If I didn't know better, I'd say that local character Monstre had stuck a contact mic to the brainpan of a five-year-old tyke cracked out on Trix. While not unpleasant, tuneful even, this recording is probably unsuitable for people with delicate nerves. The main but not sole ingredient is Monstre's mouth noise, some distant, twisted cousin of hip-hop beatboxing, looped and layered and spliced and diced. Oh, there's some luminous, spider-silk lullabies and a gamelan-based bamboo-galoo ("Babygong"), but the racket rarely relents for long. Bursts of scary overnoise are wisely short and effective, culminations of the dense kinderphonic barrage. Fun, freaky and explosively creative, Sucre 3 is avawn-gar-duh expira-mental-isticalism with a whoopie cushion in its Winnie-the-Pooh backpack. 9/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) Monstre performs with Goagajah at Jailhouse tonight, Thurs., March 29, 9pm, $6
With titles like "Revolt," "Border Wars" and "Reject," Sepultura are on a subversive tip on their second album with new throat-ripper Derrick Green. Along with the same cover art KMFDM (or rather MDFMK) is notorious for, Sepultura drives their fast, heavy political groove into your brain like a sonic spike of righteous indignation fresh from the battlefield. Urging the teeming masses to continue to refuse and resist, Sepultura enlists help from Dr. Israel on "Tribe To a Nation," the ever-subversive Jello Biafra on "Politricks" and quotes by Einstien, Ghandi and the Dalai Lama. Ending off a hard-edged album of anti-zombie wake-up music is "Valtio," a haunting piece by cello quartet Apocalyptica. 8/10 (Lateef Martin)
After the vaguely MOR wanderings of the last album, this Welsh trio has come through on their threat to exhume their punk roots. Album 6 exhibits some fine punk, Britpop and straight rock tunes (there's even a stab at disco, and I do mean stab) but the Manics' trademark political diatribe is overwhelming at times. Condemning Ocean Spray (yeah, the juice) and slamming the Beastie Boys for "kissing the Dalai Lama's ass"--while they themselves are sucking Castro's cock--are just two examples of ideas that don't really gel. Ten years on and they're still living up to their name. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
An appropriately mixed bag of recent in-studio recordings for Morning Becomes Eclectic, Nic Harcourt's daily indulgence on Santa Monica's KCRW (filtered weekly for a public-radio broadcast across the States as Sounds Eclectic). You like the neo-classical stuff? Yo-Yo Ma opens, Ryuichi Sakamoto closes. You like the global chillage? You've got Bebel Gilberto and Supreme Beings of Leisure. C&W? Beck and ol' Willie Nelson. Upscale adult pop? David Gray, Badly Drawn Boy and Neil Finn. Glam-rock moderne? Travis and Dandy Warhols. Brutal, hate-fuelled speed metal? Sorry, all you get is the gorgeous pop-souflée of our own Stars. Good work, Nic, this is what music radio should be about. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Anthemic, trashy, sing-along punk in the American mould is what this Vancouver quintet has to offer, and they do a pretty good job of it. With the added attraction of sporadic, glam-inspired melodic guitar (and matching eyeliner), this is a pretty solid collection even though you'll feel like you've heard most of these tunes before (their cover of Joy Division's "Warsaw" notwithstanding). In his unique, whiny growl, singer Billy Hopeless indulges in pessimistic (fatalistic?) songs about violence, selling out, rock 'n' roll nostalgia and boozing the blues away. And you can dance to it. Kind of. 7/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
If you make it past the cover without puking you'll be able to take what this pissed-off group of gentlemen have to offer. These Orlando boys are a random pocket of fresh air in the stench of today's hardcore sound, which has been cloned beyond monotonous comprehension, lacking melody and groove--New Killer America has both and more. Nice time changes, dynamic vocals and a variety of attacks makes these victims stand out amongst the rabble. Plus, this enhanced CD not only has nice artwork, it comes with a video and stickers! Napster that! 8/10 (Lateef Martin) With Disturbed, etc. at Metropolis on Mon., April 2, 8pm, $29.50
Here's a hometown crew that we all need to hear more from in the coming months. Butta Babees are Manchilde, Ziplocks and DJ Raid on produx, and those of you who know can say it with me. "Damn! Where's the album, dunny?" This four-song EP is payback for being voted CMW/Universal's Best Unsigned Band and while it's dope, I can't pretend that I didn't want to hear some next shit other than the previously released "Baby Mother" and the hit from longtime, "Green Sneakers," but that's just me. It's all worth it, but I want to hear more, a whole lot more. Understand, guys? Where my demo at? This is exactly what Montreal needs. 7.5/10 (Scott C)
Arguably the leading light of the Asian breakbeat thing, Singh's still melding drum & bass, dub and ambient with bhangra, Bollywood and Indian classical music. Despite the lengthiness and involvement of Ha's tracks, recorded between London, Mumbai and Madras, this disc lacks the sweeping ambition of Singh's debut OK. It's like he doesn't have as much to prove. Or does he? There's a restless tone to Ha; even superficially chill tunes like "Sway of the Verses" and closer "Silver Flowers" sound as though he might be hiding in your sound system, fussing with last-minute minutiae. Nothing here really pushes the envelope of the genre, but exquisite detailing runs throughout, keeping it fresh and engaging. Watch out for Ajay Naidu's moments of spoken-word overdrive, the coolest surprise on the album. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)