LA’s freshest schoolteacher drops science on “Spell My Name.” The driving beat (by Evidence of Dilated Peoples) lends itself to the spelling-bee chorus and D-E-F-A-R-I doesn’t disappoint. For disappointment, check the flip’s “Slumpy,” a fonky-ass Fred Wrek track with a weak-ass hook: “Bitch’ don’t give a fuck, bitch.” You won’t either.
Talib Kweli Get By
Think conscious rap is dead? Let Kweli take you to church on this one. Over producer Kanye West’s beautiful-yet-bumpin’ piano loop and a sample of Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman,” Kweli spits human, heartfelt verses about modern-day pitfalls and struggles. He pulls it off not by preaching, but by praying with you. Can I get an “amen”?
Gotan Project La Revancha Del Tango
The last tango in Ibiza? While the US has been sleeping, the rest of the world has been gobbling this exceptional futuristic tango up. The France-based Gotan Project mixes chilled-out beats with an ensemble of jazz musicians, featuring the accordion-like sounds of the bandoneon. The US release features a bonus CD of stellar remixes by Peter Kruder, Tom Middleton, Kushite and Pepe Braddock. An excellent choice to summon up that mysterious earthy European vibe at your next dinner party. Don’t sleep on it, sleep with it.
Adrian Sherwood Never Trust a Hippy
Using subtle filters, complicated audio transformations and stereo manipulations, London dub hooligan Adrian Sherwood brings the music into the 21st century. Sherwood’s been around for a long time, using his On-U-Sound label and collaborations with others on a variety of projects, among them Tackhead, Dub Syndicate, Bim Sherman and Samia Farah. On what is remarkably his first solo album after two decades of collaborative productions, he keeps the quality level high while paying even more attention to the minutia. Though it has to be categorized as a dub album, the rhythms are driving and dancehall-inflected, rarely falling into dub’s laid-back, blissed-out groove. Guests like Sly & Robbie validate the reggae grooves, while Pakistan’s Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali brings a Middle-Eastern flavor that adds to the already worldly selections. While remaining respectful to dub’s roots, Sherwood generates innovative ideas in each song-like it or not, you have to respect his experimentation. Never is an album that blossoms with each listening.
Various Artists Roots of Dub Funk 3
The third release from the UK’s Dub Funk Association comes across in sort of a dark, Bill Laswell vein, wrapping your brain in hissing echoes while thick basslines punch you in the gut. A range of producers works on the tracks here, including the Version City Rockers, Jah Warrior, Alpha & Omega, and the Dub Funk Association themselves. Nearly every track showcases sparsely grooving drums in the style of King Tubby or Mad Professor, with delays, sliding faders and flighty horns. Don’t be misled by the title; this is some very good straight-ahead dub reggae, but it’s not really funky. Should please all you 420-friendly fans out there.
Various Artists King Jammy’s The Rhythm King: 18 Dancehall Classics
King Jammy emerged from King Tubby’s tutelage to become the most popular (and prolific) producer of the ’80s in Jamaica, largely due to his innovative Casio-fueled style. This compilation brings together eighteen of his hottest hiccupping digital rhythms covered in honey-voiced singing. The grooves on this compilation are more laidback than modern ragga, with performances by Johnny Osbourne, Sugar Minott, Eek-A-Mouse and Horace Andy among others. Though most of the music is strictly based on digi-riddims, Jammy is tops at making electronic beats sound soulful. Modern electronic producers could learn a thing or two from these creations.
Dennis Brown The Promised Land 1977-1979
Like nearly all Dennis Brown albums, The Promised Land has a mix of great tunes and filler tracks: in general this is an above-average to very good collection. For roots reggae fans, the backing tracks are uniformly stellar Studio One creations, featuring the best of the best: Sly, Robbie, Horsemouth, Chinna, Sticky, Flabba and more. This collection combines Joseph’s Coat of Many Colours and various singles from Brown’s own DEB label in the late ’70s. As usual, Blood & Fire’s reissue packaging is excellent, loaded with great liner notes, an interview with Brown and more. The Crown Prince of Reggae is gone but never forgotten.
Tommy Guerrero Soul Food Taqueria
More hammock-on-la-playa than downtown-on-the-bus, Soul Food Taqueria is a nice case of dubby, electric guitar-driven downtempo. Ex-pro skater Tommy Guerrero has his foot on the effects pedal and his fingers on sultry Latin inflections, arriving at dusty lo-fi soul that is seductively languid. The largely instrumental album features occasional guest vocals from Gresham Taylor and Lyrics Born. A bluesy intro and three atmospheric interludes render the ambience palpable. Nicely programmed, the songs on Taqueria have their own eclectic personalities, like the sandy characters you might meet ambling up from the beach to order tacos under a heavy, humid twilight.
Adult. Anxiety Always
When you get the paranoid sense that these 21st-century schemes have us all stuck in a future gone stark-flippin’ wrong, it’s nice to severely nod your head to some Adult. and pretend to laugh at yourself while blowing off legitimate steam at the same time. Following up their debut full-length, Resuscitation, husband and wife Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller continue to pump you up with fatty lines of analog synth, drum-machine ricochets and stern irony, this time in a more ominously clockworked frenzy. Like cogs in the system secretly in control of the whole mechanism, Adult. marches on with veiled glee.
Toxic Girls! Nightmare for (13) Unlucky Boystars
Is this just some self-indulgent riot grrl manifesto full of shallow, man-eating lyrics over shallower electropunk beats? Fuck no, sister, it’s a kick-ass sampler of international musical curiosities: some of them fall into the shrinking gap between rock and dance, others are of the ambient/abstract/glitch ilk, and still others are novel, genre-less gems that Parisian label Tsunami Addiction has compiled from around the world for your exploratory pleasure. There are catchy retropunk stylings by Cewecee, NYC trio The Red Lights, and queer Berliners Rhythm King and Her Friends, whose piece of the pie is a truly nu amalgamation of funky breaks, aggressive vocals and slide guitar. Throughout the 15 unnamed tracks, elements of no-wave, surf rock, kraut rock, lo-fi drone pop, neo-classical avant garde and all sorts of post-whatever experimentation collide. The Konki Duet’s contribution for instance-two cute French and Japanese girls singing breathily over a minimal bell ritornello-is one of those novelties you just won’t forget. After listening, no one will feel unlucky.
