Hip-hop duo Acid Reign is no secret in their hometown of L.A. Their new album, Time & Change, will likely be the release that gets the rest of the country talking, too. Heavily influenced by their mentors at the Project Blowed open-mic workshop, MCs Gajah and Beond typically keep their flows quick without being bound by one-dimensional subject matter. For these two, pondering the fragility of life (“Comfort Zone”) and trying to get the crowd moving (“Party Tonight”) are all part of the program. And when they team up with veteran Project Blowed folks like Ellay Khule (on the wild-style cut “Acid Hip-Hop”), they prove that they can hang with the best of ’em. With top Angeleno producers Daddy Kev, Fat Jack, Omid, and others laying down the crisp drum patterns and funky loops, the scorching beats are an equal part of this album’s appeal.
Panacea Ink Is My Drink
Only half a year after dropping the rock-solid EP Thinking Back Looking Forward, Washington, DC duo Panacea is back with a full-length good enough to place them among the best hip-hop newcomers this year. This compact, 12-track effort from producer K-Murdock and MC Raw Poetic is free of filler and heavy on thoughtfully penned raps and lush, sample-driven beats. It really doesn’t matter if they’re laying down smoothed-out songs about lost love or bubbly, jazz-fueled, true-school joints-Panacea is crafting the kind of music that will make most listeners happy about hip-hop in 2006.
Planet Asia The Medicine
Given Planet Asia’s and Evidence’s past chemistry (“Place of Birth”), their new collaborative effort The Medicine looked to be a sure shot. Though it didn’t turn out to be a magnum opus for either artist, it’s not a bad effort either. While Evidence’s grimy, slow, rolling beats are a little too close to The Alchemist’s gangsta backdrops, they do suit Asia, the self-dubbed “hardest independent artist,” nicely. What‘s most impressive about this album is that Asia actually does seem to be closing in on fulfilling his goal of making underground music that can bump in the club.
Various Soldiers of Fortune
Out of all the talent in the Justus League, it’s their inaugural act, Little Brother, who has by far received the most props and opportunities to be heard. But with Soldiers of Fortune, the League’s in-house record label (Hall of Justus) fittingly provides a platform for lesser-known members like Skyzoo and Jozee Mo. On the standout track “Secret,” the unsigned bravado specialist Joe Scudda addresses how it feels to be so slept on; atop a blaxploitation soundtrack groove, he raps, “I swear to God/If my swagger was money/I’d be worth like three or four mil.” Sure, Phonte, Big Pooh, and 9th Wonder of Little Brother are responsible for some of the better back-to-basics hip-hop on this compilation, but under-the-radar MCs like Scudda prove to be just as vital to the future of the League.
Owusu & Hannibal Living With Owusu & Hannibal
It‘s astounding that this Copenhagen duo managed to birth one of the most sublime excursions into Euro-chic synth-soul after meeting less than a year ago. Tossing interstellar beats into a basket with fruits plucked from the gardens of Maxwell, Jamiroquai, 4 Hero, and Jazzanova, Living is a virtual cornucopia of soundscapes that flaunts complex, interwoven vocal harmonics (“Blue Jay”), early-‘80s Prince fodder (“Upstairs Downstairs”), and blissful new wave chord progressions (“Le Fox”). Owusu & Hannibal’s electronic orgy of mellow moods grooves with a synergy that implies years of chomping at the bit.
Honeycut The Day I Turned To Glass
A hodge-podge rock/funk trio cuts an album for an indie label headed by a member of a lauded underground hip-hop group. Yes, Honeycut is an aural dysfunction at the junction that, oddly enough, works. Alt-rocker Tony Sevener (Summercamp), French electro maestro RV Salters (General Elektriks), and Bay Area vocalist Bart Davenport (The Loved Ones) all jump in the sack with their musical influences in tow to create a 43-minute record of wanderlust, littered with falsetto, vintage synths, distortion, breaks, brass, and strings. Scritti Politti trapped in a minimum-security psycho ward couldn’t have dreamt this one up.
Dan the Automator Presents 2K7
As sure as Allen Iverson’s got bunnies, basketball has been ingrained in hip-hop culture since it started out in the park. So it’s only fitting that the makers of the tightest hoops videogame series would team up with a roster of heavy spitters like Ghostface, Lupe Fiasco, Mos Def, E-40, and innovative hip-hop producer Dan the Automator (Gorillaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School) for a proper soundtrack to their latest installation for Xbox and Playstation. Though the concept sounds better on paper, Slim Thug’s “I Love This Game” boasts a swagger that would amp any NBA team into a pre-game frenzy.
Various A Life Less Lived: The Gothic Box
It‘s 1984, and George Orwell’s corpse rolls with laughter as Ronald Reagan declares, “I am pleased to tell you… the bombing begins in five minutes.” Margaret Thatcher has enjoyed a second election win, due in part to her propensity to demonize: Russia, the working class, and society itself. The resounding, blackout reverb of Bauhaus’ “She’s in Parties” rings throughout the United Kingdom, pausing mid-dub with Peter Murphy’s deadpan ironic declaration: “Happy days are here again…” It’s not hard to see from whence came that most maligned-yet-immortal of underground musical movements: goth. A pervasive sense of fear and anomie across America, Europe, and especially Britain had the early 1980s brimming with a darkened musical creativity (mirroring medieval artists‘ preoccupation with death and darkness during the time of the plague). In the earlyoduction, everything-this 12″ is strong.
Spanky Wilson & The Quantic Soul Orchestra I’m Thankful
Quantic Soul Orchestra’s annexation of senior jazz-soul singer Spanky Wilson for “Don‘t Joke with a Hungry Man” was pure new-funk genius. QSO’s crisp snares and tight, mellow horn harmonies work perfectly behind Wilson. That the two should combine for a brilliant album is obvious, but I’m Thankful falls short of the mark. Besides two takes each on “Don’t Joke,” many of its 10 tracks are either half-hearted in their writing or tread too-familiar territory. “Im Thankful” and a few others push Wilson towards her potential, but too often, the songs barely have enough meat on their bones for Spanky to eat.
Various Rio Baile Funk: More Favela Booty Beats
Baile funk’s gritty ghetto beats and repetitive fútbol chants are almost futuristic in their stripped primitivism, and perfect fodder for a worldwide club audience begging for something less subtle, less commercialized, more punch-to-the-face direct in its delivery. Tracks like Voltair‘s grimy “Cleck Cleck Boom” and the glitchy Bonde do Role mix of Edu K’s “Hot Mama” show baile to be expanding its horizons under the world‘s spotlight, while retaining that down-low directness, making More Favela Booty Beats not just “more” but “must-have” for the favela funk enthusiast.
