Atmosphere
When Life Hands You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
Rhymesayers
Release Date: Out Now

Sean “Slug” Daley and Anthony “Ant” Davis return with their sixth full-length, and their method of making songs here is something of a deviation from previous albums. Lyrically, Daley–whose “heart-on-the-sleeve” approach to writing is well documented–looks beyond his own experiences and explores the lives of bums, washed-up waitresses, teenage mothers, and no good fathers as they experience poverty, abandonment, self-medication, revelation and the like. It’s a colorful cast of characters, complemented by Davis’ sharp beats, a live band, and a ton of analog synths.

Syclops
I’ve Got My Eye On You
DFA
Release Date: June 17

Speaking of gold, it seems that everything Maurice Fulton gets his hands on turns to that particular metal. The Sheffield, U.K.-based producer lent his production expertise to this, the debut album from Finnish trio Syclops, and it’s a whirlwind of carefully crafted tracks that blend computer-generated sounds with chugging guitars and smashing hi-hats. There’s a nice amount of variety on here, which keeps the album captivating throughout as it transitions from spastic techno to ethereal house to leftfield hip-hop and more.

Various
New Orleans Funk Volume Two
Soul Jazz
Release Date: Out Now

Soul Jazz’s latest musical exploration takes the label to New Orleans in the late ’60s and early ’70s, to a scene which had enough classic artists and seminal hits to put it on par or above any U.S. scene at the time, Motown, Detroit, and Memphis included. To explain why, exactly, the New Orleans funk scene never reached the superstardom success of those other locations would take too long to explain. Suffice to say that this compilation, featuring 25 jazz, funk, and soul recordings you’ve probably never even heard and not a moment of filler, only makes that question harder to answer. Wyatt Williams

The Presets
Apocalypso
Modular
Release Date: May 13

The standout track on 2006’s Beams was an dreamy, pop-driven number that sounds absolutely nothing like Apocalypso‘s lead single, “My People,” a fact that’s indicative of the entire album. It seems that Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes have spent the last two years doubling the number of synth layers in their tracks, speeding up the pace of the beats, and adding things like acapella choirs and piercing keyboard melodies. All of this makes for an aggressive dance-rock album that, though it mimics the worst of the ’80s a little too frequently, is nonetheless a fine piece of party music.

Apparat
Things to be Frickled: Parts and Remixes
Shitkatapult
Release Date: Out Now

Sascha Ring has gotten his hands on a grip of dance music’s latest floor fillers and given them each a face-lift–with impressive results. Disc one has Ring remixing everyone from Boys Noize to Nathan Fake, giving each track a hypnotic, 3 a.m. feeling while maintaining shades of the original numbers. The standout track here is a collaboration with BPitch Control boss Ellen Allien, for Paul Kalkbrenner’s “Queer Fellow,” which sounds like something from the sci-fi flick I just wanted last night. For disc two, Ring handed the mixing board and a bunch of his own tracks over to friends and colleagues for their interpretations. Now if only I could figure out the definition of the word “frickle.”

Various
Soul Messages From Dimona
The Numero Group
Release Date: Out Now

A compilation of four Black Hebrew soul groups recording and living in Dimona, Israel between 1975-1981, Soul Messages From Dimona contains the contributing artists’ stories–ones that run just as deep as the basslines. Over half the tracks come from The Soul Messengers, who moved from the South side of Chicago, lived and toured as one of the first Liberian funk bands, and eventually arrived in Dimona, the declared “center of the spiritual universe.” The tracks are hot, featuring some sweet soul tunes to accompany the heavy stories. Wyatt Williams

Atlas Sound
Things I’ll Miss EP
Download

If you’re a Bradford Cox fan, you likely check in with his Deerhunter blog regularly and know that dude is constantly throwing free music up there for anyone who happens to stumble upon the site. His latest output contains three instrumentals and a couple tracks with Cox’s usual bizarre-yet-poignant lyrics sung over ambient electronics. It’s a more soothing affair than previous material that has appeared on the blog–you could almost call it pretty, with its sweeping strings, keyboards, chimes, and tambourines. Throw this one on in the early a.m.

Various
Buzzin’ Fly – 5 Golden years in the Wilderness
Buzzin’ Fly
Release Date: June 23

This one’s for both new fans of Ben Watt’s Buzzin’ Fly imprint and those who have kept up with the label’s releases since its inception five years ago. Disc one features some of the best dancefloor fillers Buzzin’ Fly has released and includes Ben Watt’s “Lone Cat,” which only saw the light of day because it was bootlegged back in 2003. For disc two, Watt selected heavier numbers by the likes of John Tejada and Jimpster, to showcase a darker side of the label’s output. Finally, to ensure we’re all looking forwards as well as backwards, disc three features some brand new material.

The Black Ghosts
The Black Ghosts
IAMSOUND
Release Date: July 8

Though hard to pin into any one genre, “melodramatic” is one label you could easily slap onto this release–and that’s not a bad thing. Simon Lord and Theo Keating have crafted an album that, while scatter-shot musically, retains an intensely dark flavor that isn’t so surprising when one learns that Keating’s godfather directed horror films and Lord’s grandmother was a psychic. Synthesizers on the danceable “Any Way You Choose to Give” chugs and rumbles along like a ride at a haunted house, while the more rock-oriented “Repetition Kills You” is like a dark, twisted version of an indie rock ballad. Spooky.

Stars Like Fleas
The Ken Burns Effect
Home Tapes
Release Date: June 3

The latest full-length from this Brooklyn-based outfit is an avant-jazz-meets-organic songwriting affair that’s both accessible as your average indie rock band and puzzling as the most abstract soundscapes. Static droning gives way to gently plucked acoustic guitars, while spastic vocals are accompanied by gentle chimes and ambient synth lines. In the hands of some artists, a combination like this would spell disaster. Here, a perfect balance has been struck between conceptual electronics and emotionally weighted songwriting.

Pictured above: Slug of Atmosphere.

Last Week’s Top Ten

Richie Hawtin must have recently watched The Matrix, because he and his Minus crew have broken their self-imposed 10 weeks of silence by unveiling The Cube.

Said to be “a highly advanced communications device that responds positively to the presence of humans,” The Cube is, according to a press release, Minus’ latest exploration in how DJs interact with their audiences. The strange, shiny device will be present for the CONTAKT event series, set to take place over the next several months in cities around the world.

Show attendees will sign up for a CONTAKT membership card, which contains a microchip devised from the same technology as The Cube. With this card, members will be identified and acknowledged upon arrival at the shows, and will be able to interact with the machine via iPones and WiFi-enabled devices, download unreleased Minus tracks, upload demos, or just kneel in front of the thing and look awed like that dude pictured above. Those who choose to participate will have the chance to win a Native Instruments Traktor Scratch System.

It remains to be seen as to whether or not this nebulous, vaguely described piece of technology will spell hours of fun or sci-fi disaster, but at the very least, fans will get to catch some great music by Hawtin, Magda, Troy Pierce, Marc Houle, Hearththrob, Gaiser, Loco Dice, JPLS, and others. Don’t forget to wish them a happy anniversary.

Dates
05/24 Detroit, MI: St. Andrew’s Hall
06/20 Barcelona, Spain: Sonar Festival
07/22 Gent, Belgium: Vooruit
08/29 Montreal, QC: Venue TBA
10/11 Berlin, Germany: Coumbia Halle
10/18 London, UK: S.E.One
12/06 Tokyo, Japan, CLub Phazon
12/13 Buenos Aires, Argentina: Venue TBA

They’ve pushed releases from indie hip-hop artists for the last decade, created what Rolling Stone deemed “the number three most recognizable band logo in history,” and started a streetwear line. Now, the Hiero Imperium crew is set to embark its Freshly Dipped Tour, a lengthy slew of North American dates celebrating 10 years of business for the label.

Slated for tour are Bay Area MC Prince Ali, Rhymesayers Entertainment founder Musab, conscious hip-hop duo Blue Scholars, Oakland’s Knobody, and, of course, the Hieroglyphics crew itself. The team will kick things off with an appearance at the third annual Paid Dues Hip-Hop Festival before hitting major U.S. and Canadian cities. They’ll even show off the aforementioned clothing line.

Freshly Dipped Tour Dates
06/14 Berkeley, CA: Paid Dues Hip-Hop Festival
07/11 Pomona, CA: Glasshouse
07/12 Los Angeles, CA: El Rey
07/13 San Diego, CA: Belly Up
07/15 Tempe, AZ: Clubhouse
07/16 Flagstaff, AZ: Orpheum
07/17 Albuquerque, NM: Sunshine
07/18 Dallas, TX: Granada
07/19 Austin, TX: Emo’s
07/20 New Orleans, LA: Parrish
07/22 Orlando, FL: Social-Late Show
07/23 Atlanta, GA: Masq
07/24 Carrboro, NC: Cat’s Cradle
07/25 Charleston, SC: The Music Farm
07/26 Wilmington, NC: Soapbox
07/27 Virginia Beach, VA: Steppin Out
07/29 Baltimore, MD: Bedrock
07/30 West Chester, PA: The Note
07/31 New York City, NY: Highline
08/01 Providence, RI: Jerky’s Live
08/02 Boston, MA: Middle East
08/03 Burlington, VT Higher Ground
08/05 Ottawa, ON: Babylon
08/06 Toronto, ON: Mod Club
08/07 London, ON: The Salt Lounge
08/08 Ann Arbor, MI: Blind Pig
08/09 Columbus, OH: Skullys
08/10 Chicago, IL: Abbey Pub
08/12 Madison, WI: High Noon
08/13 Minneapolis, MN: First Ave
08/14 Omaha, NE: Waiting Room
08/15 Boulder, CO: Fox
08/16 Salt Lake City, UT: Urban Lounge

The UB40 singer drama continues. After announcing recently that U.K. singer Maxi Priest would assume lead singer duties after the departure of former lead Ali Campbell, now comes word that Ali’s brother Duncan will share the role. Duncan sings seven songs on a new UB40 album, which also features Ali’s final performances with the band. U.K.-based papers have also reported Ali and brother Robin (also in UB40) are no longer speaking and this may have hastened the former brother’s replacement.

Who produced the popular 83 and Rub-a-Dub riddims? That’s the subject of a dispute between No Doubt Records’ Kemar “Flava” McGregor and Greensleeves Publishing (owned by VP Records, U.S.) who have suggested that a 21-year-old musician, Llamar Brown, “co-produced the 83 Rhythm that McGregor in fact created.” An angry McGregor clarified that “Llamar is a musician, he plays keyboard for No Doubt, he is not the co-producer.” McGregor insisted that he didn’t want to sign a deal with VP and had other plans for his label: “We want to be in control of our destiny. If we’re going sign any deal, it must be non-exclusive.” The Rub-a-Dub riddim backs Morgan Heritage’s “Nothing To Smile About” and Richie Spice’s “Di Plane Land.”

Junior Reid has signed a recording deal with Jah Cure’s Danger Zone/Sobe. A new album, The Living Legend, will drop soon and feature the new rap-reggae crossover single, “Don’t Play Me Dirty.” Reid has been recording since the 1970s and was lead singer for Black Uhuru after Michael Rose. Della Danger, the CEO of Danger Zone Music Group, commented, “We have been in the music business together for many years admiring each other’s work. Through the ‘Hot Long Time’ collaboration we were able to strengthen each other, and out of that project came Reid’s signing with The Danger Zone Music Group/SoBe Entertainment.”

A photo and art exhibition titled Booyakaopened on Thursday, May 1 at the National Library of Jamaica. It features a Wall of Fame that honors reggae greats via pictures, history, hit songs, and career background information. Featured are Peter Tosh, Culture, Garnett Silk, Bob Marley Augustus Pablo, and Jacob Miller, as well as less heralded artists like Nitty Gritty, Nicodemus, Barry Brown, Prince Fari, Hugh Mundell, Jack Ruby, Louie Lepki, and more.

The Mighty Bop has landed in JA. That’s right, noted French house and downtempo producer Bob Sinclar, a.k.a. The Mighty Bop from Yellow Productions, has been recording new material in Jamaica. In a recent Gleaner profile, Sinclar explained that he fell in love with the country while shooting a video in 2007. Sinclar returned recently and recorded tracks with Tony Rebel, Queen Ifrica, Christopher Martin, and youngster QQ for an upcoming project to be announced.

Check out Netherlands reggae information portal, Reggae Vibes, to preview tons of new riddims and releases. RV has sound clips for the Blue Tooth, High Grade, PeppaGrain, and Sweetie Come Brush Me riddims on deck now, plus audio podcasts that include a Leroy Smart selection, Studio One showcase with Black & George, Brentford All Stars, Jah Hugh, Larry Marshall, Owen Gray, and a U.K. Reggae selection with Archie Wonder, Don Campbell, Nereus Joseph, Sylvia Tella, and Prince Malachi. Serious!

Enter to win copies of Prince Fatty’s deliciously dubby, jazzy future-reggae album Survival Of The Fattest at Nice Up. The reggae website will give away five vinyl copies and five CD copies, compliments of Rasa Music. Click on the “Win Stuff” graphic.

Richie Spice’s new album, Gideon Boot, drops May 13. Also out now from the VP/Cousins Records camp is the Genesis one-drop riddim album featuring Gyptian, Turbulence, and Lutan Fyah with English artists Bobby Tenna and Anthony Que. In other news, reggae reissue label 17 North Parade has fully launched its new website. Find news and content about vintage releases and reissues by Cocoa Tea, Dennis Brown, Culture, and the Channel One studio.

Redbud will soon release its excellent one-drop Prosper riddim album, featuring Turbulence, Rob Symeonn, Lutan Fyah, Al Poncho, Donovan Steele, and others. This big version features musicians like Noel Alphonso on drums and keys, Val Douglas on bass, Dalton Browne on guitar, Bongo Herman on percussion, and Jerry Johnson on horns. Congrats to this dope Brooklyn-based label.

Upcoming Concerts

Monday, May 26: The 22nd Annual UCLA JazzReggae Festival, with Stephen Marley, Capleton with the Prophecy Band, Mr. Vegas, Alaine, Krossfayah Sound, and more at UCLA Intramural Field, Los Angeles.

Thursday June 19: Capleton, with special guests Culture Knoxx, Jah Thunder, Precious, Guardian, Nekia, plus Vybz Express and Stereo King Sounds at The Trocadero, Philadelphia PA.

Friday-Sunday June 20-22: The 15th Annual Sierra Nevada World Music Festival. Check the complete, three-day line-up online.

Friday-Sunday August 1-3: The 2nd Annual Reggae Rising Music Festival. Check the complete, three-day line-up online.

For more shows, read the Reggae Festival Guide Online, check out an excellent article in Jamaica Observer on global summer concerts and bookmark the LA Reggae Calendar.

Photo of Junior Reid by Shabazz World of Fotos.