Nearly a decade after being discovered by Aphex’s Rephlex label, Gianluigi Di Costanzo is up to his old tricks under the Bochum Welt name. Elan is a listening album for Welt fans, showing Di Costanzo’s long-lasting love of both lush and angular textures, like the powerful hum of noisy feedback over muted notes in “Joystick Coupler,” punctuated with the Kraftwerk-like electro that marked his early compositions (“D.V.E.”). Those who remember the Welt’s sweeping melodic strokes will not be disappointed: it’s this former trancemaster’s atmospheric touch that carries ballads like “Blue Part 3” somewhere off into the rosy-hued sunset.
Jin Emcee’s Propaganda
It was a MC-inderella story and debut that most upstart spitters can only wet dream about: signed to Ruff Ryders/Virgin, working with Wyclef and Kanye–all clear validation for every Asian-American working within hip-hop’s color lines. But the fairy tale turned sour: Jin’s release was postponed for two years resulting in disappointing sales (by major label standards). Unsurprisingly, Jin’s sophomore album-which comes only four months after he recorded an angry joint that renounced the biz entirely-is a purist’s re-dedication to his MCing roots. Propaganda‘s stripped, old-school beats might be less expansive, but they’re a solid platform for the same nimble, cutting humor and flip-the-script flow that first made Jin a star-and he‘s still a star, albeit a more weathered one (check “G.O.L.D.E.N.”‘s ultra-sarcastic hook). As Jin observes on “Mr. Popular,” commercial success is a fleeting enterprise–“Just a dream chased/like a shot of Henny”-but the MC art form stands on its own.
Various Artists Joey Negro-In The Beginning
House music lover, know your history! If you already do, the name Joey Negro (or Dave Lee, Raven Maize and half a dozen other monikers) will ring bells as one of the most influential producers of disco house. Here, he gathers together his hit remixes and productions (many of which were pop chart toppers) from 1988-1992 into a double disc collection of unbelievably smooth and deep tracks. Many, like Umosia’s blissful “Unity” or his own “Do It, Believe It,” are guaranteed to induce Ecstasy flashbacks in some of us old-timers, but anyone can appreciate the glossy, if somewhat predictable production that typifies Negro’s classic sound.
Various Artists Ewan Pearson Sc.Fi.Hi.Fi. Vol. 1
Leave it to Ewan Pearson to program a mix featuring a track that proclaims “I don’t want to have sex with you” and make it drop sexy. While this number by Soldout is a heavy, fuzzed-out highlight of this Ableton-enabled mix, it’s hard to find anything that doesn’t live up to its deliciously high standard of raw electro house. From Riton’s disco drums re-rub of Brazilian Girls to Pearson’s own chugging and grinding version for Feist, the Scottish producer takes the path less played, sequencing an unpredictable and devastating set that not only features killer tracks but damn fine DJing–even if he did use a computer.
Various Artists Famous When Dead IV
Wanna check your pulse? Put this on and see if you don’t want to head out immediately to the sleaziest disco and get your groove on. Playhouse has been operating on a different level than the rest of the labels for some time and number four in this series of compilations ups the ante even further. Leading the charge is Isolée with his sinuously acidic mix of Recloose’s “Cardiology” and his own “Schrapnell,” which somehow blends country western, rock and dance into an achingly beautiful mix. The key is risk-taking-from expected adventurers like Fabrice Lig and John Tejada to lesser-known names like My My (whose stuttering, burping “Klatta” is a highlight) these producers aren’t content to rest within any genre boundaries. Best of all, they keep it fun and deadly glamorous.
Kelley Polar Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens
You know if Morgan Geist (Metro Area) is at the boards it’s gotta sound clean and make you want to move. But this tight, 43-minute album heads in a new direction, guided by the vocal talents of Kelley Polar. Geist’s tense synth strings, full basslines and washed-out pads are an excellent match for Polar’s breathy but understated singing on “Here In The Night” and “Black Hole,” but the pair seems to lose the plot somewhat on slower numbers like “Matter Into Energy,” which aims for gravitas but ends up sinking under its own meandering weight.
Various Artists The Ruts: Babylon’s Burning-Dub Drenched Soundscapes
Comtemporaries of The Clash and The Slits, The Ruts made reggae-inspired punk that kept the British scene vibrant during the years between the Sex Pistols and the onset of New Wave. While the group’s contributions to the post-punk blueprint, including their seminal single “Babylon’s Burning,” are arguably overlooked, Dub Drenched Soundscapes assumes the track is worthy of-not two or three-but 16 different remixes and re-interpretations. Even if every track added new life to deceased vocalist Malcolm Owen’s anthemic shouts it would still be an exhausting concept, but, as it is, only a handful-namely those of punk reggae architect and filmmaker Don Letts and Birmingham, UK production team Groove Corporation-accomplish this aim.
The Watts Prophets Things Gonna Get Greater: The Watts Prophets 1969-71
Formed in the wake of the infamous 1965 Watts riots, the Watts Prophets were a sort of West Coast equivalent of New York’s Last Poets, dropping pro-black street corner poetry atop minimal free jazz and tribal percussion with an urgency and resonance that would later influence the tones of such hip-hoppers as Eazy-E, DJ Quik, Brand Nubian and Ghostface. While 1971’s Rappin’ Black in a Black World and 1969’s The Black Voices: On the Street in Watts (included on Things Gonna Get Greater in anachronistic order) are perhaps too exhausting to take together in one sitting, the high-pitched sermonizing of Prophet Amde Hamilton would be arresting in any milieu-and, as elucidated in liner notes by Can’t Stop Won’t Stop author Jeff Chang, many of the group’s observations on race and America remain startlingly relevant today.
Nouvelle Vague Nouvelle Vague
Who knew bossanova covers of post-punk and New Wave songs sung by teenaged French pop singers would make so much sense? French pop veterans Marc Colins and Oliver Libaus’ acoustic arrangements are at times a snooze, but the lyrics to classics like Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and even The Clash’s “Guns of Brixton” attain a new level of clarity and poignancy in their new milieu, sung by vocalists younger than the songs themselves who, in some cases, had never even heard the originals before. Adding to the novel feel are some curious selections (particularly Dead Kennedys’ “Too Drunk to Fuck” and Josef K’s “Sorry for Laughing”) but overall the feel is so smooth it almost makes for easy listening, if you know what I mean.
LMS London 2 Paris
A schizophrenic mixture of Jah-fueled roots rockers, reggae lite, contemporary dancehall, straight hip-hop and guitar-laced fusion, the fourth album by Morgan Heritage refugees Laza, Miriam and Shy-Poo-three of the 29 children fathered by reggae “sire” Denroy Morgan–bounces from style to style without ever finding its groove. While such cocktails are almost standard issue with reggae artist albums these days, London 2 Paris is particularly void of consistency and suffers from an overuse of the vocoder that would have even Roger Troutman turning in his grave. A rare strikeout for VP, which has been producing increasingly consistent material as of late.
