Alias, the wicked combination of DJ Flight‘s breezy style accented with Breakage‘s drum choppage, tosses out another pair of dreamy rollers for Critical that doesn‘t disappoint. “Can I” shapes bass bubbles around sliced Apache rhythms and weightless waves of vocals, while “Van Cleef” springs forward with snappy breaks, horn stabs, and muddled samples that creep.
Various Artists Simple One (Mixed By Will Saul)
Will Saul is the kind of DJ we like ‘round these parts: eclectic, versatile, and not afraid to run in different directions; this makes the first compilation from his Simple label so compelling. Mixed by Saul using Ableton Live, One is a seamless journey through ambient house, dubby techno, and moody breakbeat, starting off gentile and relaxed with Sideshow‘s luxurious “Waiting in the Darkness” and taking the long way ‘round to a cracking conclusion. Never afraid to break things down after a raucous build-up, Saul peppers the mix with a dense psychedelia that must have something to do with his Glastonbury upbringing. One is the kind of mix we need to see more often: unpredictable, engaging, and complex. This time the name doesn‘t say it all.
Lekan Babalola Asokere (Icon Of The Crossroads)
Upstart imprint 51 Lex drops the second 12″ from Mr. Babalola, rocking mightily on an Afrocentric tip with mad percussion and an upbeat vocal chorus readymade for Carnivale. I. G. Culture steps in on remix duties for his usual off-kilter broken ting, utilizing choice bits of the original‘s melody and vocal to build a heads-down groover in inimitable style. The B-side‘s 4/4 mix is perfect for your Trents and Claussells.
Various Artists Mutant Disco 3
The recently revived Ze Records delivers this document of the origins of garage music. Was (Not Was) remixes Bush Sr.‘s back-pedaling sound bytes against a prototypical vibraphone groove while Coati Mundi offers exuberant Latin disco. The compilation is in part a love letter to The Paradise Garage, the legendary early ‘80s New York dance club, and its resident DJ Larry Levan, who birthed the genre out of his eclectic taste in dance music. One is tempted to find an allegory of Levan‘s illustrious but brief and troubled life in his remix of “There‘s Something Wrong in Paradise.”
Atomic Hooligan You Are Here
Breakbeat buddies Matt Welch and Terry Ryan survive remix realms to assemble Atomic Hooligan‘s fuller-debut You Are Here. Break purists be warned-this wrecka rocks out of bounds. Ten of the 14 tracks sport vocal collabs: Justine Berry (M.A.S.S.) goes Grace Slick on the opener, beatbox wünderkind Xander bops on “Spitball,” and rock-singer Carpet Face, R&B-meets-South Asian-styled Pav, and Persian vocalist Maz all add pipes from electro to downtempo. Atomic Hooligan‘s pals pull it off-YAH isn‘t a hodgepodge dotted with filler, but a complete album.
Various Artists Verve Remixed 3
Less uneven than the previous two volumes in the series, VR3 hits several high notes, as Bent tackles Billie Holliday, Lyrics Born re-rubs the late Jimmy Smith, RJD2 manhandles Astrid Gilberto, and Max Sedgely updates Sarah Vaughan. Lots of breaks and beats galore, not to mention already-classic vocal performances. Yet for all the recontextualizing, hi-tech futurism, and contemporary cool posturing at work, VR3 ultimately succeeds on the strengths of the original songs. No amount of bells and whistles can out-swing Anita O‘Day‘s relentlessly cheery “Sing, Sing, Sing”-and few modern-day divas can match her phrasing. Luckily, the RSL remix doesn‘t downplay the song‘s retro qualities, but goes with the flow quite nicely.
Various Artists Kings of Funk
Funk is a four-letter word, but it‘s also an attitude, as this crate-diggers‘ wet dream of a compilation-assembled by RZA and Keb Darge-proves. You‘ll find Jamaican soul, hard-edged boogaloo, gritty R&B, and jazzy fusion among the funky flavors found here, but none of the ultra-commercial, ultra-clichéd crossover disco anthems that have been paying VH-1‘s bills for years. The track selection is all killer, no filler, a true “Melting Pot” (to name-check one Booker T & the MGs tune) of emotion-stirring jams and stellar joints from Sly Stone, Anne Peebles, MFSB, Ken Boothe and Quantic, topped off by Lyn Collin‘s Richter-registering live version of “Do Your Thing.” Now that‘s what I call music! ”
The Mighty Zulu Nation Abantu
No, this isn‘t a new album by Afrika Bambaataa‘s extended family; it‘s the debut album from a traditional, yet progressive-minded, vocal choir from Durban, South Africa who happen to call themselves the Mighty Zulu Nation. Aligning themselves with Nation Records and producer Aki Nawaz, MZN has created one of the world beat albums of the year, if not the decade. Blending spirited vocal harmonies (à la Ladysmith Black Mambazo) with tablas, dhols, and dholaks, Abantu reunifies the lost continent of Pangaea with often-joyous rhythms. The combination of Asian and African sensibilities delivers a culturally rich musical feast, one that seems even more impressive for the lack of overt Westernization. Nawaz programs beats on four tracks, but that‘s an almost superfluous conceit on a record that has plenty of rippling bass without electronic meddling.
L. Pierre Touchpool
As one half of Arab Strap, Aidan Moffat has spent nearly an entire decade exploring a seemingly inexorable downcast that starkly contrasts the buoyancy of his second full-length as L. Pierre. Although still an entirely instrumental affair, Touchpool features a collection of live players who greatly transform the minimal spine of drum and orchestral loops into massively overwhelming classical ambient recordings. Theatrical yet never ostentatious, the record becomes more substantive with each successive listen, as the slowly swelling strings and fixed breaks reach points of near-unnerving hypnotism. With Touchpool, Moffat hasn‘t just succeeded in composing cinematic music. He‘s actually captured picture-less cinema.
Bluprint Sleeping Giant
Something funny happened on the way to the studio. Bluprint-an English trio committed to the motto “record as you mean to play live,” and nurtured by a pedigree of acid jazz and future funk-managed to produce a record barely indicative of a sound that most surely translates well in the live setting. Although at times propulsive and certainly dancefloor ready, Sleeping Giant teases listeners with a high gloss, heavily sandpapered smoothness that hints at the velvet soul of Om Records‘ Kaskade or a number of acts from the formidable Compost roster. All three members, like their contemporaries, have a deft touch with their instruments and an acuity for meshing organic elements with electronic embellishment. And as praiseworthy as such comparisons may be, with just a little less refinement of their soulfully raw edge, Bluprint would be peerless.
