The boys from Amsterdam sure know what they’re doing, as evidenced by this top release from the live band Flowriders. While the original is plenty strong in a Nu Spirit Helsinki vein, Gerd turns it up a notch with a thick-bottomed space jazz excursion. But for the serious dancefloor business, Alex “Bugz In The Attic” Phountzi strips it down to the bare, broken essentials with superb results.
KV:5 Natural Science
Mimicking the fat basslines that lope around its bottom ends, Natural Science by West London soul artists KV:5 is an album that rarely keeps still, working its way from the dubby “Landslide Victory Vendetta” to the minor-key folk flavors of “Treacle.” But each song gets the same tender attention to nuance, from the multi-tracked whistle on the happy-go-lucky “Flying Right” to the soaring strings on the stellar “Shelter Melter,” which recalls 4Hero at their best. The track programming may keep you off-balance, but even after many listens KV:5’s brand of scientific soul keeps serving up new rewards.
J Live Always Will Be
I want to cream over J Live’s new EP the way I creamed over last year’s All of the Above, but I think this rhymesmith is capable of more than this new album’s plodding beats and blas» horns. Vocally, J Live occasionally forays into Five Percenter lyrics, but lacks the flair of Wu-Tang Clan or Brand Nubian. Mostly, it sounds as though he’s been preoccupied by financial woes, which come to the fore on “Deal Widit” and “Car Trouble.” That’s real, but too familiar-I’d rather hear Hollow Tip rap about thug life.
Variable Unit Cold Flow
Like Handbook for the Apocalypse, Cold Flow is a bastard child of some weird Keith Jarrett/electronica tryst. You can’t dance to it (although you could probably striptease to it if you were in the zone). I recommend smoking a spliff and watching old PBS videos of sea turtles while you groove on jazzy numbers like “Floating Buterfly in the River Nile” and “Unity Gain.” Despite its cool synergy of DJ scratches and stand-up bass, this album would give your average hip-hop head a case of smooth jazz-itis. I started itching for an MC or spoken word poet around the sixth track.
Various Artists Cali Untouchables Pt. 2
The Cali Untouchables’ blend of West Coast rumpshakers is about as thugged-out as mainstream rap can get: almost every track is about messing up somebody’s face. Unfortunately, it’s also too linear: I listen to Cali Untouchables Pt. 2 when I’m in the mood to have Clear Channel’s gangsta hits du jour rammed down my throat. Pudgee P.’s “Smile 2003” remix would be a hot joint, except the beat drags along at a glacial pace, and rappers Jay-Z, 2Pac, M.O.P., and 50 Cent are always clip-clopping ahead. Still, this compilation’s got some keepers, including Kurupt’s “Dip Dishes” and Benzino’s exclusive 50 Cent diss, “Falling Down.”
Bus Keep Life Right
Following 2001’s brilliant “Westen” 12″, Daniel Meteo and Tom Thiel, like much of the ~scape roster, have opted to add a dash of hip-hop to their buoyant tech-dub. MC Soom T toasts both sides like a junior Ms. Dynamite over laidback propulsion. But it’s the instrumental of the title track that satisfies most.
Beans Now Soon Someday EP
In which our favorite Afro-futurist MC and avatar of new-school roots style gives us five new explorations in cultural commentary and minimalist electro-hop. You also get a few remixes courtesy El-P and Prefuse 73, the best of which is the razor sharp, not-so optimistic breakdown “Composition in Void”-though picking one ain’t easy.
Parsley Sound Parsley Sounds
Frozen snares roll across rooftops, swelling strings sway winter trees, and windy words flood cobblestone streets. This is Parsley Sound. Like fellow soft crooners Clientele, Parsley Sound sound like they sipped tea spiked with Elliot Smith’s tears. They send breathy Brit vocals swimming in oceans of melancholy melodies pulsing with electronic tides. Their foggy tone is continents from contrived. It’s a workingman’s expression of romantic grandeur shining in lo-fi. The Parsley Sound will surely soar as plugged-in psychedelic folk continues its rise skyward. Garnish never made us shed so many sparkling tears before.
Colleen Everyone Alive Wants Answers
Just barely open your eyes and look through the lashes. The world becomes a beautiful, blurry place. Points of light take on newly transformed life as kaleidoscopic pinwheels. Colleen lives within this wistful space. Her faint sounds float just on the horizon of consciousness. Melodies hover softly and shift with subtle grace into wholly transformed figures. Everyone Alive Wants Answers is an album that seems to barely exist, yet shines with sophisticated, natural beauty. It is a garden in bloom with wispy guitar strings and shadowy undercurrents. Colleen’s fragile glances of dewy dreams will wrap you in their mesmerizing tendrils.
Various Artists Newsoundtheory Vol. 2
Newsoundtheory Vol. 2 isn’t electronica, it isn’t downtempo: it’s “nu-lounge,” which doesn’t so much refer to the bpms as the general vibe of tracks by Goldlust, Lumiere and Chris Brann. That said, these 17 tracks sound mainly like languid, smoothed-out disco house-the soundtrack to one of those high-end bars where cocktails have names like the Mokatini and long-haired girls in expensive shoes flit about the room. There’s a fine line between this so-called nu-lounge and easy listening-they both use a lot of the same aural relaxation techniques-but sometimes there’s nothing wrong with music even a mother could love.
