Good god, this is sweeping, emotional music. For letting doves free, for floating on your back naked in the warm ocean water while the big dipper watches over you, for riding a buffalo over the smooth Idaho plains in slow motion. Now, in high school-ese: Japan’s Mono are the sensitive artistic types that only rarely opened their mouths in class and when they did mysterious perfection emerged; meanwhile, Godspeed You Black Emperor! were the nasty overweight black-clad kids smoking cigarettes out by the railroad tracks and calling everyone pussies. Mono has opened their mouths again.
Bell Seven Types Of Six
Slog through the first track on this album to get to the dark, spare core of electro-funk at the heart of Bell’s second album. Produced to hell, then produced a bit more, the combination of fat bass, driving techno beats, twisted occasional vocals and breaks is the soundtrack to a robot orgy, complete with heavy breathing (as on “Mode 3,” which features the synthesizer-heavy sound that marks most of the album). Other standouts include the ’80s arcade-esque “Daylight Burn” and “Black Helicopters,” with its Ewok-on-acid vocals.
Afrodizz Kif Kif
It’s a sign of this Canadian Afrobeat-funk band’s talent that even songs clocking in at over 10 minutes don’t drag. But then, with warm vocals, outstanding jazz percussion, tight brass and subtle bass and guitar, it’s easier to want more than less from this debut. Inspired by Nigerian godfather Fela Kuti, the Montreal-based group combines consciousness with musicality, as on “Faces,” when Vance Payne sings about the importance of, well, doing right shortly before a standout guitar solo. Even the song called “Propaganda” doesn’t sacrifice musicianship for polemic-something plenty of conscious artists haven’t been able to duplicate.
Slam Year Zero
Known for their deft pacing between Detroit techno, Chicago house and electro-funk, the new album from Glasgow’s veteran composers Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle offers a satisfying punch of the duo’s trademark dark, emotional grooves and sweeping “weeeee-er” synths. While the preachy, why-can’t-we-just-get-along lyrics on “This World” feel overwrought, “Blow Your Mind” displays Slam at their best-working stark funk elements into simple but powerfully churning grooves. The interplay between spine-quiveringly soulful vocals and rough electronic beats on “Bright Lights Fading” shows why, even after a decade, Slam remains one of the gutsiest dancefloor acts around.
Subtle A New White
You might know Adam “Doseone” Drucker and Jeffrey “Jel” Logan from Themselves, or their many other hip-hop experimental projects on the Anticon label. Teaming up with four other musicians under their new Subtle moniker, Drucker and Logan infuse their project with an almost psychedelic sensibility-it’s less hip-hop than mood music. As on their other albums, Drucker and Logan excel at shaping hidden moments of sheer loveliness amidst unpredictable beat structures. Check “F.K.O.” for a peek into the jittery yet optimistic mind of Doseone-and one of the warmest examples of electronic music with a hip-hop heart.
Dublex Inc. Eight Ears
Four DJs might make for a few ideas too many, but the members of Stuttgart quartet Dublex Inc. are apparently all on the same page. Taking inspiration from dub and South American rhythms, Eight Ears aims squarely for the dancefloor, even on laidback numbers like “Sound of the Ebu” and “Queek,” which makes wonderful use of a simple, scratchy sample. With flawless production and a healthy dose of funk, it appears that Dublex Inc. has just the right number of cooks in the kitchen.
Various Artists Rasco Presents The Minority Report
Enjoyable throughout, if not ambitious, Rasco’s The Minority Report features artists whose crisp beats and funky turns-of-phrase ensure their status in the top one percent of underground rappers. It’s a compilation with a tangible sense of rootedness, especially on “Just Like That,” in which Mikal regales Bay Area heads with shout-outs to regional stars Mystic Journeymen, Kevvy Kev and Hobo Junction. Otherwise, the best tracks are “Hustla” by Prophet, who will seduce you with his looped piano, “Respect My Team” by Planet Asia, who will seduce you with his triumphant delivery, and “It’s a Wrap” by Jean Grae, who will just seduce you, period.
Various Artists The Human Element
A compilation of wall-to-wall beatbox joints? Risky business, right? The idea that someone could make a record with just a larynx and a mic-substituting gulps and glottal stops for synths, snares and record scratches-boggles the mind. Amazingly, The Human Element works; in fact, it dazzles. Click Tha Supah Latin’s reprise of his old joint “Contact” is the album’s highlight, but the most innovative track is Kris Jung’s “Liquid Butterfly,” which incorporates hard rock guitar riffs. Despite a few moments when attempts to mouth old samples sound like superficial experimentation, these “vocal percussionists” mostly use their tongues in creative ways.
Various Artists DJ Cer: Throwback Attack
Although the crusty beats and slaps on DJ Cer’s Throwback Attack might gall some listeners, the stars of this compilation-pioneers like Jungle Brothers and T La Rock-sound more infectious than most hot rappers du jour. Moreover, you don’t need an encyclopedia to understand Dimples D (“Sucker DJ”) or Cash Money and Marvelous (“Ugly People Be Quiet”), who built their rhymes around punchlines, rather than concepts. If you favor authenticity over ideology, and scrappy boom-bap over sophistication, you’re in for a treat: Throwback Attack is a grimier, more nuanced flashback mix than you’d find on your FM dial.
J-Zone A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ But Work
Like Ill Bill, J-Zone is a guilty pleasure-the fact that he takes delight in rapping about the most morally reprehensible behavior possible is part of his charm. While J-Zone’s persistent references to his third leg might grate on your nerves, his confrontational sense of humor results in some pretty great punchlines, creative disses (“A Friendly Game of Basketball”) and gut-busting shout-outs to his “ugly niggas worldwide” (“Kill Pretty”). As for funky beats, A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ But Work improves on last year’s $ick of Bein’ Rich, especially on the bouncy opening track, “$poiled Rotten,” and the chorus of “Disco Ho.”
