Take the stop-start staccato of beat-box hip-hop jams, inject downtempo funk rhythms, and pare it all down with Andreas “Greyboy” Stevens’s trademark minimalism and you’re listening to what a body-rocker would sound like if those fluid moves could be somehow become audible. SoCal’s Greyboy was one of the first Stateside peeps to suss out the heady possibilities of acid jazz, and this album is a culmination of past hip-hop ‘n jazz, live funk, and turntablist endeavors. Check vocal stylings from Sharon Jones (of retro-funketeers Dap Kings), whose breezy hooks on “Got To Be A Love” will send a sudden electric charge right to your sexy spot.
Laurent Garnier 30
From establishing techno and house music in his native France to co-authoring a recent book about his adventures as one of the globe’s most respected DJs, it’s difficult to find something that Laurent Garnier hasn’t done well. With his last artist album, Unreasonable Behaviour, boldly straddling the techno and jazz genres, Mute has re-released Garnier’s album 30, named for his age at the time it was originally produced. Expect the kind of deeply rhythmic, Detroit-influenced melodic techno that Garnier became known for many years ago, once upon a time, when it still felt new to fall under a DJ’s spell.
Ty Upwards
Throw out your “UK rap” or “conscious” qualifiers-Ty comes correct with hip-hop that’s built to last, regardless of where it was made. On his second full-length, Ty manhandles the mic, but also steps behind the board with production partner Drew, turning out bouncy, infectious tracks that recall the genre’s more freeform street party roots. With its Afro-beat-inclusive flavors (including a little help from Fela’s drummer Tony Allen) and songs purpose-built for broken-beat dancefloors (“Wait A Minute” and “Groovement”), Upwards is at once classic and groundbreaking.
Various Artists Wavetec One: The Miles From Mars Mix
This mix by Rob Rives of Floppy Sounds is serious business. Darker, techier and more single-minded than standard Wave fare, the inaugural release on their WaveTec imprint focuses solely on the groove. The relentless drums and metronome basslines get a bit numbing on tracks like Phantom Power’s “Panawave 2” and the D’Malicious’s progressively predictable “Loup-Garou,” but Rives saves the day by injecting just a touch of funk from Matty Heilbronn and Boyd Jarvis. The final cut, Carl Craig’s remix of Rives’s own “Entertainment,” shows the rich possibilities inherent in these sounds-sadly, many of the other songs don’t measure up.
Various Artists Horizons: Marques Wyatt
Horizons is a pleasant surprise: an outstanding mix of soulful house with a range and intensity that grabbed me instantly. Taking off with the gospel fervor of “You Gotta Believe” by Intense & Voices of 6th Ave., Wyatt builds up with classy vocal numbers from Kathy Brown and Barbara Mendes before dropping out into trackier cuts like “Slangin,” featuring E-Man’s outstanding scat. What really makes the mix is Wyatt’s excursion into Brazilian and Latin territory, particularly Osunlade’s sublime “Same Thing?” featuring Maiya James. Definitely not the usual deep-house drudgery.
Mocean Worker Enter the Mowo!
A lazy listen to Mocean Worker’s fourth album might dismiss it as leftover acid-jazz instrumental loops over beats. There’s actually much more going on here. Blues structures, guest appearances from David “Fathead” Newman and Bill Frisell, dueling flutes courtesy of Rashaan Roland Kirk, and live playing by Franck Gauthier of Rhino°eros make it clear that MoWo didn’t just dash this one off. Though there are some decidedly tepid inclusions-the monotonous “Fatback” and the melodramatic “I’ll Take the Woods,” to name a few-Enter the MoWo! is a deftly textured take on a sound sullied by the efforts of distracted amateurs.
2Mex 2Mex
The fantasy of 2Mex is better than the reality of 2Mex. You want to root for this LA-reared, Spanglish-popping MC the same way you once had faith in Kid Frost. But those were younger, more idealistic days, and 2Mex lacks Frost’s alternately menacing and amusing gangsta pretensions. On this self-titled album-which comes a mere five months after his last release, Sweat Lodge Infinite-2Mex leans towards cute, self-deprecating numbers, like the deliciously cheesy “Only as Good As Goodbye,” and “Baby I Ain’t Joking,” in which he raps, “Why would someone so pretty and smart fall in love with an underground MC?” 2Mex’s insecure moments are sometimes charming, but they can’t rescue an album cluttered with throwaways.
Various Artists Embedded Joints
Folks who fell in love with Dizzee Rascal last year will love Embedded Joints-chock full of solid nerd/crackhead production, this new compilation is a veritable tryst between beloved boombap and Prefuse 73-esque stylings. Sonic quality aside, Embedded is worth buying for the cast of MCs alone: Aceyalone (“Check My Willz”) and Breeze Evah (“Communification”) kick down smart battle rhymes, and Atoms Family (“Adversity Struck”) pops in with a few potty-mouthed zingers-in Cockney accents, no less.
Various Artists DJ Drez: The Capture Of Sound
If you liked Madlib’s Shades of Blue and recent releases from Variable Unit, you’ll probably be feeling DJ Drez’s latest: while The Capture of Sound is no Bitches Brew, it beats the hell out of your average lounge-music-with-a-4/4-beat. Apart from Drez’s smoky instrumentals, the album’s strength is that it highlights West Coast underground standard-bearers. Aceyalone pounds it on “Last Show,” Medusa’s “Funk Infected” will convert the uninitiated and Dr. Oop’s flows are damn sexy on “The Prescription.”
Encore Layover
Listening to Encore’s Layover is like going on a date with someone who’s young, hung and full of you-know-what, but won’t go past second base. Encore is yet another rising MC who is “conscious” in the safe sense of the word (this guy ain’t Immortal Technique), capable of producing competent, enjoyable flows. On Layover, though, the beats outpace the rhymes, given the kick-ass studio effects of Jake One, Vitamin D and Architect. Tracks like “Traditional Slick Talk” and “Zigga Zigga” are headnodic but not classic, and place Encore as an MC to watch out for a few years from now. This debut is solid, but vanilla-and you find yourself hoping he’ll push it farther next time.
