MUSIC REVIEWS

by MIRROR MUSIC

August 25, 2011

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

DANNY BROWN
XXX
(Fool’s Gold)
The first verse on this Detroit rapper’s free album, available via A-Trak’s house of wholly indulgent ghetto goodness, Fool’s Gold, hits like Son Doobie on a blunt and a fat booty, and if you can get with that, stick around and you’ll probably agree that Danny Brown’s high self-confidence and lowbrow, reflective self-deprecation bring substance back to the fine art of braggart rap. Eclectic production styles from a wide array of collaborators keep things intensely listenable from beginning to end. Honestly, the title says it all. 9/10 Trial Track: “Die Like a Rockstar” (Darcy MacDonald)

MILK MAID
Yucca
(FatCat)
When he’s not the bassist for U.K. band Nine Black Alps, Martin Cohen (aka Milk Maid) moulds lo-fi indie rock into a variety of shapes, from naïve pop triangles and squares to finger-picked folk circles and octagons to curvy garage rock silhouettes to blistering shoegaze abstractions. These elements often stand alone, giving the record a variety-pack quality, but Cohen’s at his best when they jam together on songs like “Oh!,” “Not Me” and “Sad Song.” 7.5/10 Trial Track: “Not Me” (Lorraine Carpenter)

HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR
Blue Songs
(Moshi Moshi)
Fastidious disco duck Andy Butler may have gotten his house in order (his delicious pun, not mine), but his second set celebrating the Greek life has a hygienic blandness his eponymous debut flirted with but studiously avoided. This is mostly a result of replacing his interesting stable of vocalists with anonymous mercenaries. Half-mortal Hercules was a warrior, too, and his muscle is sorely missing, even if Butler’s TLC remains. 6/10 Trial Track: “My House” (Erik Leijon)

CSS
La Liberación
(V2/Cooperative Music/Downtown Records)
There’s something irritating about every song of the Brazilian new ravers’ third full-length. I’d say it’s their belief that they’re doing something cool and witty. Lead singer Lovefoxxx admits to revisiting her teenage years for tracks like the cheap Gaga-esque “City Grrrl.” Most songs revolve around smoking pot, saying, “I know who I am,” and having afternoon drinks. The Blondie tribute song “Red Alert” is a terrible attempt at rapping and “Fuck Everything” is a bad wannabe-Peaches song with lyrics like “I have a Ph.D in A.D.D.” Vapid music trying to be cheeky. 3/10 Trial Track: “City Grrrl” (Shawn Thompson)

THIEVERY CORPORATION
Culture of Fear
(ESL/Eighteenth Street Lounge)
With apologies to Richard Cheese, no one lounges against the machine quite like the DC duo, still marrying incendiary lyrics (thanks to guest vocalists) and chilled out beats six albums in. Their revolution is one that won’t even require leaving your easy chair—the spaced out atmosphere more engrossing than energizing, their worldwide palette of sounds more palatial than street level. Then again, revolutionaries often do meet at coffee shops. 6.5/10 Trial Track: “Stargazer” (Erik Leijon)

F&M
Wish You Were Here
(Shameless)
Their boxing gloves may be made of velvet (thick, crushed velvet at that), but this trio will punch you, in their friendly, Canadian way: softly, politely, leaving no bruises. Internal damage? Maybe. Edmonton’s Rebecca and Ryan Anderson and Bryan Reichert lay down dual vocals, piano, acoustic guitar and accordion in ways that are occasionally over-earnest and folksy, but often effective in their graceful mood swings. 7/10 Trial Track: “Goodnight” (Lorraine Carpenter) With Galen Hartley at Burritoville, Tues., Aug. 30, 8:30 p.m., $8

ALL PIGS MUST DIE
God Is War
(Southern Lord)
Damn, the good lord down below is really hitting it out of the park this year with some serious sludge slingin’ crust punk. With Converge’s Ben Koller and The Hope Conspiracy’s Kevin Baker in the fold, this is a no brainer with an expected lethal attack that can give Nails, Black Breath and even stalwarts like Tragedy and Cursed a run for their money. D-beat, blackened metal and furious hardcore perfectly collide with glorious, seething and white-hot results. 9/10 Trial Track: “God is War” (Johnson Cummins)

ELITIST
Fear in a Handful of Dust
(Season of Mist)
Striking out from the fertile grounds of Portland, Elitist is sure to prick up the ears of any fan of extreme, twisted and torturous metal. This violent punishment is either served up slow and low or fast and viscous with a nice drizzling of serious malcontent and misanthropy. Mixing up doom tempo sludge with black metal chords, the album shines with Joshua Greene’s banshee-like caterwaul that offseting the pounding perfectly. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Cult Malevolence” (Johnson Cummins)

ANIMAL NATION PRESENTS
Every Day in the Life
(Urbnet)
This is a fucking weird album. Somewhere between Eyedea & Abilities and G. Love and Special Sauce, this B.C. duo decided that the daily operations of Homo sapiens in their natural habitat is a strong enough concept for a record that follows these particular specimens from waking dream to bacon and eggs, through work, more work, play, every manner of human contact, the importance of flossing, and back to rest and reverie. They are correct. Musically and thematically, hip hop conventions take a back seat to hallucinatory headphone cinema. 7.5/10 Trial Track: “Somebody That I Used to Know (Writing Home)” (Darcy MacDonald)

VARIOUS
David Rodigan’s Dubwize Shower
(BBE)
If you’re not familiar with the legendary David “RamJam” Rodigan, this compilation is a good place to start. The famed English selector has done what he does best and selected some of the best and most interesting dub tracks from the King Tubby era of the 1970s—some incredible Tubby dubs feature prominently on this collection—through to today’s artists like Alborosie. Wheel and come again. 9/10 Trial Track: Sly & Robbie, “Joy Ride (Taxi Dub)” (Erin MacLeod)

MARIE-CHRISTINE
Walk in Beauty
(Warner)
Montreal native Marie-Christine’s debut is an ample showcase for the singer’s pliable vocals, oscillating between classic covers like Prince’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” and radio-friendly pop originals like lead single “Totally Random.” Stevie Wonder produces and guests on the driving “Keep on Running,” while Luck Mervil helps Marie-Christine acknowledge her Haitian roots on the aptly titled “Port Au Prince.” 7.5/10 Trial Track: “Get Out” (Gerard Dee)

VERYAN WESTON, LEO SVIRSKY & THE VOCIFEROUS CHOIR
Different Tessellations
(Emanem)
This British composer proposes a mosaic of 52 pentatonic scales, some familiar, others more exotic, associated with Indian and Indonesian traditions, for example. Performers are instructed to improvise on this sparse material, resulting in these two wildly dissimilar interpretations. Pianist Svirsky’s version conjures Ravel/Debussy impressionism, unlike Weston’s choppier, dissonant 2003 luthéal piano recording. In contrast, the 10-member Vociferous Choir layers loops of R&B-flavoured vocal riffs and throat singing—earthy and otherworldly. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Tessellations I” (Lawrence Joseph)

MINI REVIEWS

CLAMS CASINO Instrumental Mixtape (independent) A collection of the buzzed-about producer’s most warped beats. Lil B’s secret weapon is pretty loopy in his own right. 8 (EL)

MOUNT KIMBIE Carbonated EP (Hot Flush) While we wait for the next record, here are some lovely, sprightly tunes that shed some well-needed light on dubstep. 8 (EM)

EXTRA HAPPY GHOST!!! Modern Houses (Saved by Radio) Calgary charmers evoke the 60s and 90s simultaneously. Imagine Doug Yule-fronted VU as covered by lo-fi indie rockers. 7.5 (LC) With Caroline Keating at Casa del Popolo, Wed., Aug. 31, 9 p.m., $6

A PALE HORSE NAMED DEATH And Hell Will Follow Me (SPV) This was forty-five minutes of my life that I will never get back. Damn you, A Pale Horse Named Death! 5 (JC)

GUCCI MANE & WAKA FLOCKA FLAME Ferrari Boyz (Warner) The best rhyme on this piece of shit is in the artists’ credit. 1 (DM)

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