This Swedish six piece fuses spooky, echoing pianos, infinity-reverberating guitar lines, and hushed percussion into an all-instrumental, narrative-soaked treatise, one that evokes expansive post-rock vistas and oceans of sound. While Godspeed You Black Emperor! and the like favor bombastic drama, Sickoakes moves forth with a quiet, consistent confidence. This album is an engulfing, ecstatic experience, best heard while drifting through the fog, slowly, slowly seawards.
Audio Bullys Generation
Audio Bullys‘ sophomore effort doesn‘t borrow a lick from The Streets, as has often been the charge. For starters, the Bullys are far more clubby (“Shot You Down” plays like a house version of Nancy Sinatra via Kill Bill), and their hooks tend toward the mod-sounding side (“Generation” invokes The Kinks and The Jam, never mind its embedded Who reference). By no means riveting, Generation still earns its keep with clever voiceovers interspersed among the beats; while there‘s no standout like “Ego War,” the brash “Made Like That” features the mighty Roots Manuva, who lends credibility to the duo‘s soundsystem-hop. A mixed bag, sure, but at least there‘s more candy than rocks.
Stereo Total Discotheque
Stereo Total‘s Françoise Cactus and Brezel Göring might have the market cornered on quirky, party-starting electro-pop. Fusing a sexy, Miss Kittin-esque chanson vocal style with electroclash‘s irreverently messy synth-rock aesthetic, this breezy duo continues to breathe dynamic energy into electroclash‘s largely overstayed musical format. Discotheque delivers new must-have remixes of the Stereo‘s better-known faves, including the kitschy-cool “Mars Rendezvous” and a high-energy rendition of their mesmerizing cut “Babystrich.” An illustrative example of how dance and rock genres can fuse together seamlessly in vanguard hands.
Ian Allen Nova‘s Lounge
New Jersey producer Ian Allen‘s debut smacks of relaxed sophistication, lending itself just as easily to swank fashionista soireés as it does to your bedroom. Nova‘s Lounge‘s lush, jazz-inflected pieces are thoughtfully produced but, like many new producers, Allen sometimes falls back on monotonous phrasing, making one yearn for his lovely beats to take a more purposeful direction (“Meet Me Halfway”). Allen is most engaging when he ventures into more percussive territory, using simple but catchy syncopated rhythms (“Kabena”) or lean house lines (“Soho Movement”).
The Lost Children Of Babylon The 911 Report: The Ultimate Conspiracy
Nearly five years after 9/11, the Babylon ciphers have something on their minds: breaking our numbness to violence by voicing the human heartbreak that is a consequence of politics. Lyrical ingenuity aside, vibrating pulses of sadness and jolts of deep anger permeate this album, mostly in the form of haunting melodies and passionate anti-Bush attacks. When “Never Die” intones “I‘d rather go to hell before they send me to the war/Never know what you fightin‘ for,” you can appreciate the forum that hip-hop first cracked open for other unpopular views many years ago.
Rek The Heavyweight Timeless
The MC formerly known as Spawn was a founding member of emo-rap unit Atmosphere, but don‘t expect any whiny obsessing over ex-girls when Rek the Heavyweight touches the mic. The Minnesota MC‘s smooth, straightforward lyrical style has little in common with his former sparring partner, Slug, and everything in common with straightforward ‘90s lyricists like O.C. Unfortunately what Rek lacks is his Atmosphere producer Ant‘s forceful beats. On Timeless, his producers come with soulful, Tribe-y beats which sound nice but don‘t do enough to make Rek‘s rhymes pop.
Phantasmatrash Policy Wonks
Phantasmatrash‘s Policy Wonks fails on every level it aims to reach. Touting itself as “One of the most encompassing experimental hip-hop records of recent years,” the 10-tracker contains nameless songs that worsen as the album progresses. Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou‘s production is indeed eclectic, but disappoints at every genre it attempts. Whether touching on IDM, hardcore, or hip-hop, the album‘s production is extremely repetitive, abrasive, and unmoving. Rapper Ashton Boyton‘s delivery is lifeless and his lyrics are full of uninspired clichés. Although surely well intentioned, Phantasmatrash‘s latest release is a contrived mess.
Clipd Beaks Preyers
There are 30 seconds that I repeatedly play on this record, where Nic Barbeln‘s voice becomes disembodied as he hollers along to a suave, electro-funk groove fuming out of a ghetto blaster. It‘s a profoundly psychedelic moment, one that makes you feel grateful just for being alive. Elsewhere on this disc, Oakland‘s Clipd Beaks dwells on dirges that lament life in Bush‘s America. They deliver an impressive take on hymnal post-rock that works the same graveyard shift as Joy Division and Unwound, as clearly heard on “Nuclear Arab” and “No Horizons.” When a sublime sheen of guitar sound engulfs “Messed Up Desert” and the following “Hash Angels,” the band takes things far beyond the regular scope of a Tigerbeat6 record. The often-muddled vocals on Preyers may occasionally distract, but Clipd Beaks‘ debut still shows great promise.
Next Life Electric Violence
Norway‘s Next Life reminds me of a time when videogame music all of a sudden went metal. We heard the group‘s frantic, coin-operated sound a decade ago thanks to spazz-core, one-off Shakuhachi Surprise, and a few of Mr. Bungle‘s ADD-addled moments. Does Next Life add anything new? Yes. Their edits are quicker and they probably use better software as they jump between speed-metal blurts, hardcore-techno jackhammering, and “boss music” (as heard in countless Nintendo games). “Circle and Star” faithfully captures the 8-bit melodrama while “The Way Out” opens with odd modem screeches before the usual violence kicks in. Essentially, Electric Violence is like a game cartridge that needs to be blown into several times before playing.
El Da Sensei The Unusual
The title of El Da Sensei‘s new album is a bit misleading. He‘s one of the last cats you would classify as “unusual.” In fact, El has consistently been one of the best back-to-basics MCs since his days in The Artifacts. The title of the invigorating opening cut, “Crow Pleasa,” is undoubtedly a more fitting description for this New Jeruz native. As he raps on “What‘s My Name?,” his music is “just that boom-bap accompanied with the rhyme.” With his flow as sharp as ever and beatsmiths like Illmind, DJ Revolution, and J Rawls on his side, El‘s barebones approach pays off pretty nicely.
