Despite my love for many individual releases from West London’s broken beat scene, some of the mixes I’ve heard have left me a bit underwhelmed. Not this smash set from the dozen-strong Bugz In The Attic production juggernaut. Getting rolling with two huge feel-good tunes featuring 4hero’s Dego (“Got Me Puzzled” and “Having Your Fun”), the mix seamlessly progresses to the techier side of things, with broken beat’s drum & bass roots clearly showing on “Time to Skyank” by Nu Design (a.k.a. Zed Bias) and in the truly massive breakdown of Ghost Records artist Daluq’s “Oriental Express.” A wide-ranging testament to the power of open minds, Fabriclive 12 shows this collective at the top of their game.
Physics First Flight
Must be something in the snow in Scandinavia. Following in the footsteps of Finland’s Nu Spirit Helsinki and Sweden’s Koop, Physics serves up a heady brew of electronic jazz stylings with more of an emphasis on house. Songs like “The Most Beautiful Boy in Brazil” and “Movin'” rise above mere pedestrian fusion efforts due to their flawless execution. But the Swedish duo really shines when they rocket beyond the galaxy of First Flight‘s relentlessly upbeat feel of most tracks, as on the moody “Tie Me Down,” which must be a true revelation when performed by their seven-piece live outfit.
Psychonaauts Songs For Creatures
Put the headphones on and sprawl in your favorite chair for the full effect of this lanky first full-length from Paul Mogg and Pablo Clements. The pair manages to take a divergent path from the now-familiar crossroads of rock and electronics, only occasionally straying back to the mundane as with the unfortunate Robert Plant-esque moans of “Hot Blood.” Mostly, the Psychonauts push forward with steady momentum, referencing the falling drums and scrabbling guitars of ubiquitous influence The Cure, but claiming their own territory through judicious use of effects (“Fear is Real”), and coolly stylish guest vocals (“World Keeps Turning” featuring Jason Rowe).
Various Wide Hive Remixed
The indie Jazzy Jeffs of Wide Hive have done for turntablism what Hollywood does for young starlets: they’ve given it a Brazilian wax and new boobs. DJ Eli’s Afrobeat remix of Dissent’s “Bleeding Together” makes appropriate theme music for a fashionably dashikied Pam Grier, as she flees the po-po in her gold Corvette. Crown City producer Headnodic renders Calvin Keyes’s “Urban Shaman” into something Oz-like and full of bric-a-brac, in a remix that features the verbal skills of the now-freelance Freestyle Fellow P.E.A.C.E. The album climaxes with 4AM’s remix of “The Movement,” featuring Spearhead’s MC Azeem. Granted, there are some suspiciously quiet-stormy flute sounds crammed in the middle, but otherwise, this compilation is ill.
Biz Markie Weekend Warrior
Mr. T has this brilliant line in his 1984 motivational video, “Be Somebody, Or Be Somebody’s Fool : Sometimes you do something abso-ludicrous.” That’s how I feel about Biz Markie’s Weekend Warrior: Biz was the original hip-to-be-wack hip-hop guy, and any rapper who changes the pronunciation of his name to rhyme with “funkay” (“So Funkay”) has my vote. As hip-hop, Weekend Warrior is a travesty. As kitsch, it’s priceless. “
Mice Parade Obrigado Saudade
Put most modern albums under an x-ray machine and you’ll discover gizmos and tricks beneath the surface. So much of today’s avant-garde music is the result of plug-ins and put-ons. Mice Parade is rare, real music. The project is the one-man affair of Adam Pierce, a fellow stuck in love with sound. A consumate multi-instrumentalist, Pierce records parts live one by one, crafting shining, impressionistic compositions. Obrigado Saudade is the newest in a series of thematically diverse Mice Parade albums-a Tropicalia train ride along shoegaze shores, where bright cycles and waves are guided by spellbinding vocals. Reality sounds sweet.
Various Chicago One Stop: Staff picks Vol. 1
Aestuarium ringleader Jamie Hodge put on his Indiana Jones socks and searched out blazing funk hidden under Midwest soil. The gems he uncovered are presented as a triple 7″ wax pack. Hot damn, what gems they are! Joey Irving sounds like a falsetto-rocking Timmy Thomas. The beeping organ opening on “What’s the Use” stirs ears into hypnotic motion. Wayne Carter is a cat that’s been rocking his Hammond at the Holiday Inn for 35 years-his two fiery blues burners leave tears shuffling down cheeks in dancing shoes. Finally, Sugar Hill is a heavy combo led by a 14-year-old wailing her heart out over soulful grooves. Why these songs never became R&B classics will baffle any open ears. Chicago One Stop is a testament to how much utterly funky, unheard music sits collecting dust across America. Now if only Jamie would turn us on to his record-digging sites.
Tara Delong You Do the Math
Combine the vice of Peaches with the cut ‘n’ paste aesthetic of Chicks on Speed and the rock ‘n’ roll attitude of Joan Jett, and you have Tara Delong. On You Do the Math, Delong freestyles through simplistic, if taboo, lyrics about plastic surgery (“Silicone Joan”), trashy fat girls (“Big Butt Daniela”) and scoring drugs (“Overdose Scare”). This Mexico City-by-way-of-New-York denizen pulls out plenty of surprises-indie ballads, Rob Zombie-meets-glitch beats and dirty raps in Spanish-but, like most indie rap albums, You Do the Math is best swallowed one kitschy track at a time.
Olav BrekkeMathisen & Sideshow J N.a.o.m.b
There’s a bit of schtick to N.A.O.M.B– some stupid samples, a few ridiculous song titles-but it doesn’t detract from the overall package: cute, skipping synth tracks proving that machine-made music can have tons of personality. Like a lounge band from The Jetsons, Olav Mathisen and partner Sideshow J
Jackie Mittoo & The Soul Brothers Last Tain to Skaville
Jackie Mittoo’s dossier is so thick you’ll be shocked that you never heard of him before. Mittoo helped found the Skatalites at age 15, became the musical director at “Clement Coxsone” Dodd’s legendary Studio One label in the mid-’60s, and wrote the music for the Soul Brothers, with whom he appears on this reissue of tracks from 1965 to 1967. Last Train to Skaville documents a key transition between the faster rhythms of ska and the lazier grooves of rocksteady. It’s full of Mittoo’s organ bubbles and kinky syncopation that veers between traditional sounds and ’60s kitsch, as with their cover of the James Bond theme and the Latin shakers on “Sufferers Choice.” It’s not necessarily a record for the novice, but still dramatic evidence of where bands like the Specials, the English Beat and even No Doubt picked up their sound.
