Like the title says, this Lootpack rapper’s ¸ber-personal, linear style is truly on some kaffeeklatsch ish. Luckily, Declaime is a slack-voiced, likeable man who won’t preach or whineñ and when he cracks open the memoirs to the “pain” chapter, he gets his best tracks, whether lamenting his daughter’s estrangement on the gut wrenching “Dearest Desire” or advising baby-daddies on “Neverending Remix” (“How we gonna grow soldiers/if we ain’t there to grow the soldiers?”). Madlib’s beats crank up like a janky escalator while OhNo keeps the kvetching vibe alive on laidback West Coast styles. And riffing the “Chim Chim Chiree” melody (“Knowledge Born”) is just gangsta.
Various Artists Ellen Allien: My Parade
Ellen Allien’s notoriously long DJ sets are as sublime as her music; even whilst blending styles from trance to techno, she favors expressive melodies and subtle beat-architecture. Here, the minimal techno/label goddess mixes current European house and techno (Step Time Orchestra, CJ Bolland) with Bpitch heavyweights, threaded by artfulness more than style. The mesmerizing, violin-sampled crackles of Modeselektor’s “Rave Anthem” segue into Apparat’s glassy, vocoded “Numb,” with dropped bass and synth burrs, just before one of her own best tracks, the deep-low, chilly “Dresden.” Quirk and nuance are her specialties, which is why Berlin’s crawling with Ellen groupies and imitators.
Wale Oyejide One Day Everything Changed
The distance between Atlanta and Lagos never seemed particularly close—until Nigerian-born, Dirty South-based artist Wale Oyejide arrived on the scene. Oyejide calls his innovative mix of Afrobeat, hip-hop, and post-neo-soul “broken jazz,” yet if anything, his revolutionary Afro-futurist stance suggests it’s time to build, not destroy. “There’s a War Going On,” as Oyejide’s lava-hot duet with Jay Dee proclaims, and he wants you to “Riot & Revolt”—not party & bullshit. Elsewhere, the hip-hop ancestors are praised in a duet with MF Doom, and listeners are urged to “Keep Pushing” and stop “Wasting Time.” Not only is this one of the most engaging and creative hip-hop albums you’ll hear this year, it’s easily one of the best.
Ocote Soul Sounds And Adrian Quesada El Nino Y El Sol
If you didn’t know better, you could easily mistake El Nino y El Sol for some obscure Latin chestnut from the early ’70s-from the Carlos Castaneda-esque album art to the mellow magic contained within, it’s got that ol-skool “Acapulco Gold” vibe written all over it. But don’t try pricing it up on eBay just yet. Crate-digiristas, take heed: El Nino is actually a side project from multitalented, multi-instrumentalist duo Martin Perna (Antibalas) and Adrian Quesada (Grupo Fantasma), which aims to do for Latin music what Poets of Rhythm did for jazz/funk fusion. Trade in your E for peyote and chill out to some of the nicest flute, vibes and MPC 2000 combinations in many a moon.
Azymuth Brazilian Soul
Azymuth celebrate their 30th anniversary with plenty of laid-back South American grooves, as the album’s title implies. It’s silkier and sexier than most things that fall under the “smooth jazz” banner, but then again, there’s a fine line between globally-oriented dance music, Latin jazz-funk fusion and leisure suit lounge material. Most often, these paths cross under the heading of downtempo, but on Brazilian Soul, Azymuth proves as adept at raising the pulse with fever-inducing dancefloor workouts as they are at mellowing out the mood to tropical chill status. Guest appearances by Fabiola, Ze Carlos, Emilio Santiago and a hint of vocodeized vocals add contemporary appeal–not that this classic Brazilian trio needed it.
Pete Miser Camouflage is Relative
Mr. Miser follows up the acclaimed sleeper Radio Free Brooklyn with another dose of blunted b-boy philosophy, astute personal observations and real-life urban storytelling (i.e. getting mean-mugged by prissy-ass suburban chicks in SUVs while skating with his homies). A true self-made man, Miser’s original production keeps the funk factor high, and his ill artwork can be peeped inside the CD booklet. Special guests include ex-Gil Scott-Heron collaborator Brian Jackson and angelic-voiced BK hottie Maya Azucena, but it’s Miser’s show all the way: he’s nicer on the mic than all three Beastie Boys put together-flowing effortlessly between self-depreciating humor and cocky bragadoccio, but never coming off like a cheesy cornball.
Various Artists King Jammy In Roots
“Dub plate inna session!”, Johnny Osborne proclaims on the opening track, riding the ubiquitous Armagideon Time riddim into irie-ites territory. From there, Jammy’s roots only get deeper, as Hugh Mundell, Michael Rose, Junior Reid, Barry Brown, Noel Phillips, Lacksley Castell, and the Fantalls all step up to the echo chamber and deliver some sweet singer’s styles-roots with quality, seen? Of course, several dub versions are included, along with extended showcase tracks, which confirm what you should already know: Jammy’s the heartical dubmaster, second only to his spar King Tubby in the Jamaican studio engineer pantheon. Crucial!
Zap Mama Ancestry In Progress
Zap Mama is one sexy motherfucker, and a talented one at that. Her vocal arrangements have defined the cutting edge of urban-tinged world music for a while, and on her latest release, she globally outsources hip-hop, which actually comes out sounding like some post-Afrofuturist shit; call it neo-neo-soul with a Diasporan twist. Special guests Common, Talib Kweli, Erkyah Badu, Scratch and the ubiquitous ?uestlove don’t distract from the proceedings; Marie Daulne (Zap Mama’s main mama) has enough star power-not to mention serious chops and pipes-not to be outshined or out-freaked by anyone. Instead, she coaxes stellar creative collaborations out of each of her guests, resulting in an album that references the past just often enough to map out the future, while sounding very much in the present moment.
Haiku D’Etat Haiku D’Etat
LA underground poet laureates Aceyalone, Mikah 9 and Abtsract Rude rise to the surface like ancient prophecies from another time, on yet another mission to raise hip-hop’s lyrical level-and its consciousness. “On the m-m-microphona, no more my sharona,” Mikah 9 spits on “Mike Aaron & Eddie,” the opening track, which introduces the three personalities and sets the album’s tone with its polyphonic vocal tones. The hepcat slang-fest “Kats” segues naturally into “Dogs,” which spotlights the g-funked-up side of Haiku (thought you knew, fool). All that jazz poetry is indeed all that-we’re talking slapped-silly acoustic basslines wrapped around murderous vocalese riffs, tight concepts, and an overall artistic vision that makes this the most focused Fellowship/Project Blowed-affiliated release sinceInner City Griots. Don’t sleep, peep game.
Special Forces Rinsa
A.k.a. Photek Dubz, this new label has been set up for the release of special dubplate-only selections that have never seen the public market. This first release features the heavy rolling “Rinsa,” a simple but deadly reece juggernaut. “Babylon VIP” is a dubbed out monster that has been exclusive to Photek himself for over a year and a half. Buy on sight-this label is limited to 1500 copies per press!
