Known more for brushwork than for beat matching, HVW8 Art Installation is a trio of artists that have created a diverse oeuvre of work for museums, clients like Puma, and live music events. On their new compilation, Music is My Art, the group proves it‘s also had its collective ear to the ground, gathering a cross-section of cutting-edge hip-hop, soul, and broken beat tracks. Ubiquity artists are well represented, but that doesn‘t diminish the disc‘s quality or range. The strutting, soulful track “The Hop” and “Long Ago,” a Roots-flavored rap, cap off a compilation as rewarding as a gallery opening: no masterpieces, but plenty to be excited about.
Various Artists Nortec Collective: Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3
Imagine you‘re driving through a windswept California desert, listening to the radio in your beat-up pickup truck; suddenly, all the stations blur together into one massive mess of melodies and samples. That‘s the sound of the Nortec Collective, a crew of musicians that skillfully blends modern electronic music with traditional Mexican music. On their second full-length (they skipped volume two), they avoid performing a shotgun wedding between genres. Thumping tubas, echoing brass and buoyant Latin percussion feel like organic parts of their laid-back grooves, not grafted-on afterthoughts. If you like Latin beats, you‘ll find this album spot on (think El Mariachi with a sampler).
Feathers Absolute Noon
Tortoise fans should take note of this Miami-based group, which accurately captures the sound and pastoral vibes of the post-rock legends circa TNT. Perhaps having band member John McEntire involved in the project-he‘s credited for “Programming & Tone Shaping”-was a slight influence. It‘s not that Absolute Noon, the first in a series of three EPs, doesn‘t have tight, original arrangements or its share of pretty moments, it just doesn‘t add much new to the formula. Unless Feathers adds some new tricks to future EPs, this band isn‘t going to take flight.
Kool Keith Lost Masters Volume 2
Former Ultramagnetic alum Kool Keith should have called this album The Emancipation of Kool Keith because this the Keith cats love: the pimp, the international zone coaster, the best MC in the whole wide world! Lost Masters 2 has all them funky ass records like “Feel About You,” “Star Struck” and “Can‘t F**k With This,” an array of darts formatted for fans. If you don‘t know Corporal Keith already-the only G that would pose on an album cover with a mask and Speedos-I‘m not the one to break his style down. His music is mostly filth and trash talking. If you hate the rap industry and need some tough love therapy, listen to this right after you find out what the number one song is this week on Billboard.
Turbulence I Believe
This notorious natty MC/singer with a lyrical lisp not only delivers fire but also cools the tension as well, with a dose of cultural love songs added to this 12-tracker. Production-wise, only two joints use revived vintage Studio One rocksteady riddims-Skylarking on the song “Mama Don‘t Cry” and Queen of the Minstrel on the tune “Sweet And Pretty”; the rest of the production (by former Xterminator crewmen and Roots Radics bandmates Steven Stanley and Paul Danny) is luxurious. What Turbulence lacks is any difference from his other rasta brethren‘s subject matter, but he still penetrates his points with relentless repetition. Turbulence is a rising talent. Believe that.
Various Artists Reggae Gold 2005
A decade ago, the first reggae comp I bought for my wife was VP‘s Reggae Gold 94. Everything on it was all kill and no fill. Back then, even the weaker tunes on the comp were passable because dancehall itself was richer. Fast-forward to 2005 and dancehall is all about the weddy weddy, reggaeton, Fat Man Scoop and Lil Jon; the vibe is different, and so is Reggae Gold. For every hot foundation tune (Beres Hammond‘s “Love Mood” or Kiprich‘s murderous “Telephone Ting”) you have nuff gloss and floss from Nina Sky, Beenie Man, and Sean Paul. Although top-tier DJ Assassin makes good with two hot shots (“As A Man” and “Step Pon Dem”), roots stars like I Wayne, Gentleman, and Jah Cure deserve a couple more joints on there. And I don‘t even wanna talk about the bonus disc of all the songs made into a mixtape. Is this 2005 or ‘95?
Clue to Kalo One Way, It‘s Every Way
Sometimes when your heart is bruised you have to circle the wagons, so to speak. So an elliptical album (bookended by “The Younger the Old” and “The Older the Young”) isn‘t a stretch for mortality-minded Australian Mark Mitchell on his second full-length of idyll symmetrics. Under the name Clue to Kalo, Mitchell presents the soft-focus, sun-dappled folksy jangle of melodic, melancholic laptop loops atop which linger the kind of hushed first-person versus personal tug-of-war familiar to fans of Elliott Smith and Death Cab for Cutie. If earth is just the rug underneath which our dead shed skin and unsure first steps are swept, One Way, It‘s Every Way is the dewy nostalgia that keeps the fabric evergreen.
A Certain Ratio Live America 1985
Mancunian post-punk/funk group A Certain Ratio stylistically veered from “Love Will Tear Us Apart” to “Love Rollercoaster” in seven years. Named after a Brian Eno song and contemporaries of (yet overshadowed by) Joy Division, this Factory Records group was recorded live to cassette during a 1985 American tour supporting New Order. By this point ACR‘s performance was only 25 percent menace with 25 percent murk and 50 percent motorik funk akin to Liquid Liquid/ESG; the sax-laden Live America 1985 foreshadows-though thankfully escapes-their descent into lite Latin jazz. Live showcases gloom to gleam, low-pitched slither to marshaled percussion, and represents a certain ratio of each of the band‘s phases. And they even cover New York/Northern Soul disco-funk classic “Shack Up” by Banbarra-now that‘s range.
Broadcast Tender Buttons
Like shortwave radio monologues listened to intently in a vintage Godard film, Broadcast‘s Tender Buttons is both washed out yet central and commanding. Inspired by the minimalist drone of French library music, as diffused through haunted capacitors, this British group-now pared to the duo of Trish Keenan and James Cargill-casts autumnal, emotionally self-contained vignettes on their third full-length (not counting 1997‘s singles collection). The Teutonic frostiness of The Velvet Underground and Nico hovers above ring-modulated modem handshaking trills, but this music is filtered a touch more through early ‘80s 8-bit workstations than ‘60s psyche-rock oscillators. With sparse clusters of drum machine and processed synths replacing live percussion, the sequences are scratchy and linear, sullen and frayed, while the breathy vocals are heavy-lidded folk. Buttons is a Criterion collection celebrating something not overtly active, but slowly unfurling until fully activating.
Beautiful Skin Everything, All This and More
Stemming from Nick Forte (Computer Cougar, Rorschach), Beautiful Skin is no hardcore or punk outfit. Filled with a reverence for Kraftwerk and the ambiance of Eno, Everything, All This and More streams evocative waves of darkened-synth fervor and guitar-laden psychedelia accompanied by the looping asunder of vintage drum machines. Although compiled from tracks recorded between 1998 and 2001, Beautiful Skin invokes a moody, refreshing mystique that is as gripping now as it was seven years ago. Everything, All This and More is earnestly crafted and will challenge any disciple of decadent noise or modern New Wave.
