Hey, I know these peoples! So much for an unbiased review. Crown City is a live band complete with keys, bass, drums, homeboy on the MPC stabbin’ up samples and shit, and then there’s emcee/b-boy Raashan Ahmad speaking his mind on top of it all. This kind and talented troop were previously known as Mission. “Another Day” assumes the attitude that today is just another day to continue fighting the good fight. “Fortitude” sees Raashan and Gift of Gab (Blackalicious) successfully trading bars and double-timing it á la “New Rap Language” in order to keep up with the piano-driven rhumba/bossa-type rhythm. CCR are on some feel-good shit, but they also want to remind you that the world needs mending. “The Dogs” is a not-so-far-fetched vision of apocalypse that dissolves into a Sun Ra-tionalized cacophony of sax, drums and college students chanting, “People of the world, rise up…”
Super 3 When You’re Standing On the Top
I could listen to shit like this all day…and thanks to all these late ’70s/early ’80s rapp reissues hitting the racks, I can afford to. “When You’re Standing On The Top” is a Delmar Donnel-produced reworking of the Maze/Frankie Beverly classic “Before I Let Go.” The Super 3 pop shit about the pros and cons of being “on the top” fame-wise, and they even sing a little. Shit has a little bongo break in there, too.
D.A. D»já Vu
D.A. aka Dagha (Dagger) is a cool brother from the Boston area who can also be heard on releases by the five-man crew Electric. D.A. made these three joints, two of which feature rapp wizard Insight on the boards, including the flavorful “School House Rock,” which sees Dagha and Insight gettin’ biz on the back ‘n’ forth. D. wasn’t tryin’ to take these jams to a bullshit label and do the typical song-and-dance, so he pressed somethin’ like 800 copies on his own, like any blue-collar rapp scholar would. D.A. incorporates some subtle Five Percenter flavor, but basically just calls it like he sees it. A repressing with a picture cover is on the way. If you’re stupid, you’ll sleep like a baby on this shit.
DJ Charmzy Rollercoaster
This tune is going to be one of the biggest sub-low tunes of 2004. Rolling bassline with rolling strings equals massive energy that the dancefloor cannot refuse, always getting a pull-up in Ministry of Sound. Charmzy’s the leading sub low producer for me at the moment.
Explosive feat. Lyrics Born and RJD2
Staring At The Sun
Fearless Sound Stylists
Dani Siciliano leads the pack of forward-moving artists featured in XLR8R‘s March issue. Meanwhile, Tortoise, Psychonauts, the Mexican electronic scene, Basic Channel, and the legendary Touch imprint look beyond average standards. We have an exclusive style photo essay entitled “Hot Dog Club Rampage.” Also featured: Hanna, Twine, Diplo, J Da Flex, Gold Standard Labs, visual artist Luca Lonescu, The Herbaliser, political cartoonist Keith Knight, and more.
Aelters Ardchilds’ Com.Undo
PowerBook jester Aelters apparently left DAT Politics because the loopy French laptop quartet weren’t wacky enough. This should give you an inkling of the fractured digital dementia splattered all over Ardchilds’ Com.Undo‘s 16 tracks, which find Aelters blowing mocking raspberries at “serious” techno and IDM tropes. While Ardchilds’ may strike some as trifling and absurd, the disc contains flashes of irreverent brilliance. Spluttering, rough-hewn abstract techno tracks like “Starapeakotop” and “Porkfesonli” take bytes out of Cylob’s hard drive while “Hombrero”‘s industrial clank and pile-driver funk rhythms bump rambunctiously like late-’90s Si Begg. If nothing else, Aelters’s spazztronics forever torch the misconception that electronic music is a strictly humorless endeavor.
Fym Say No to Primate Research Labs
Fym makes music that sounds as odd as his given name-Manutchehr Ghassemlou. We’re talking a quirky blend of warped microhouse and exotic clicks ‘n’ cuts atmospheres, all of which carry a pranksterish undertow. It’s as if Fym’s angling to make you play the fool on the dancefloor-many cuts on Say No… seem designed to make you feel as if you have three left feet. While most of the 17 tracks on this debut album could slot into DJ sets alongside Sutekh, Si Begg or Pantytec, Say No… also embraces the irreverent spirit of Rephlex Records’ Braindance series. Fym’s playful dance music is (im)pure joy.
Badawi Clones & False Prophets
Master percussionist Raz Mesinai continues to stake out iconoclastic territory on his fifth Badawi album. Since 1996, he’s moved with furious inventiveness from illbient dub to ominous Middle Eastern exotica to drum-circle jams to horror-film scores. (Call him the Israeli-American Muslimgauze at your own risk.) Clones & False Prophets is Badawi’s post-rock move. Raz and New York ringers like guitarist Marc Ribot and drummer Ben Perowsky churn out cinematic, ceremonial pieces like a less aggro Savage Republic while retaining elements from past Badawi efforts. The Middle East’s violence, tension and melancholy still haunt Mesinai, but he’s found a new way to transmute them into art.
