Easily the most lighthearted release of Jan Jelinek’s illustrious career, La Nouvelle Pauvret? finds the German producer breathing life into dub-techno’s emaciated frame. Here, the Berliner lifts his scalpel away from soulful black forms, choosing instead to carve up a chunk of white rock history. Narcotic melodies take precedence throughout, mixed high above Jelinek’s typically click-ridden ambience. Like so many of his cohorts in the digital realm, this German figures it’s high time he picked up a microphone, though his bashful monotone on “A Waste Land” won’t soon cause Neil Diamond to lose any sleep. At times danceable, at times contemplative, La Nouvelle Pauvret? moves laptop music one step closer to the center. MTV, here we come.
Murs The End of the Beginning
Definitive Jux gets almost rootsy on the debut solo joint from Murs of the Living Legends crew. The LA rap veteran keeps it traditional without resorting to old-school clichés: the production here (from El-P, Shock G, Atmosphere’s Ant and others) bubbles with overheated horns, virgin drum breaks and vintage funk so raw you’d swear it was an RJD2 record. The real pleasure, though, is Murs’ lyricism, which combines an unhurried, conversational flow with a confidence so solid he needn’t resort to boasting. A documentarist with no taste for glamour or gore, he represents realism with the restraint of a trained reporter. “Tales like Last Night” (“Last night I almost got shot on my block”) mourn the state of the black urban experience without indulging in sensationalism, over melancholic beats that suggest that as long as the crates are deep and the pencils sharpened, there’s redemption to be found in every groove.
Hint Portkabin Fever
Sussex’s Hint-a.k.a. Jonathan James-gets well pastoral on his debut album, mixing up lazy breaks with porch-appropriate guitars (including some slide action that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Lambchop record) and chirpy, naïve harmonies. A bit like Four Tet, Minotaur Shock, and Bonobo, Hint proves that there’s ample room for acoustic instruments in “electronic music”-even an oboe gets scratched into the mix of the chamber-music-sampling “Why the Top Ten Sucks in 2002.” Had the album made it to shelves by December 31 last year, the answer to the question that song title poses might have been very different indeed.
Colorform Send Forth Your Soul
James Allen’s debut recording-an EP by name but a tidy 38 minutes long-is a surprising first release for DJ Spooky’s Synchronic label. Devoid of the conceptual grandiosity of Spooky’s writings and the murky mestizaje of his recordings, Colorform’s music is a warm and enveloping swirl of house beats, orchestral samples and sci-fi sound design edited into a drifting (but hardly shapeless) stream-of-consciousness flow. The most immediate reference might be Jimpster’s 1999 album Messages from the Hub, in which jazz expressionism pooled with ambient impressionism in an amniotic haze. Deceptively smooth, Colorform’s music slips quietly by on first listens, but returns to you like fragments from a forgotten dream. A promising debut for artist and label alike.
Cursor Minor Explosive Piece of Mind
Judging by the puns-to-syllables ratio of Cursor Miner’s name and album title, you might expect England’s Cursor Miner to take the occasional walk on the wacky side. And that he does on this album of doorbell funk, sparkplug punk and “No one said I couldn’t!” spunk. Yes, the vocals are awfully, even uncomfortably close to Beck’s cheeky early years, especially on the countrified “Salt Solution,” whose devil’s haircut sticks up in a spiky, two-fingered gesture as if to say, “Yeah’ nicked the melody-what are you going to do about it?” Like Beck, Cursor Miner’s got a thing for vintage rock’n’roll, but he updates his garage rawk with UK garage and ‘ardkore shock, with battered breaks and evil basslines hoovering through music history. Brilliant stuff, no matter how bad his sense of humor.
Bobby Hughes Combination Nhu Golden Era
Nhu Golden Era, the second album by Norwegian producer Espen Horne, feels like a warm, smooth lounge record for the modern cocktail-swilling groovemeister. God knows the world doesn’t need yet another “lounge” record (a.k.a. generic coffeehouse jazzy downtempo crap) but luckily, the Bobby Hughes Combination has come up with enough innovation and musical talent to buck the usual blandness. Barely. Emphasizing glistening live instrumentation churned out by several jazz musicians-including flutes, harp, trumpet, organ, percussion and more-under the electronic aegis, Bobby Hughes creates a head-nodding amalgam of jazz, funk, hip-hop and Latin rhythms that sounds both retro and new.
Various Artists Colors Sounds: Nordic
The Colors Sounds project is a new series of compilations being produced by Colors magazine (owned by clothing company Benetton) and the first, Nordic, culls tracks from artists in Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Iceland. Though the comp features a number of different styles, there’s something genuinely friendly and inviting about the album, emphasizing melody and warm, crackly productions (like Royskøpp, Múm, Jimi Tenor) as well as the colder, more menacing music (Xploding Plastix, Pan Sonic). Sweden’s He Said Omala incorporates a slowed vocal sample of Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou” that’s particularly unnerving. Though some of the tracks are a few years old, Nordic is a good introduction to a music scene that’s relatively untapped.
Wildchild Feat. Percee P and Medaphor Knicknack 2002
Rhyme inspector Percee P kicks predictably great rhymes, overshadowing Lootpacker Wildchild and his homie Medaphoar and making up for a less-than-stellar Madlib track (who’da figured that?). Wildchild goes for delf on the flip, rhyming about his parental responsibilities with panache, but Percee’s the main attraction here.
Bugsy and Snake feat. Freeway Scratchin’ & Survivin’
Although Jay-Z’s bearded buddy Freeway should be the main selling point of this single, he gets outshined by the folks who got him in the studio. Freeway seems to have trouble finding the groove on Sean S.’s loopy beat, but Bugsy and Snake are right in the pocket with a vengeance, kickin’ that hard Philly hip-hop. Freeway may be the reason people pick up this single, but Bugsy and Snake are the reason they’ll like it.
Pumpkinhead Beautiful Mind
In case you missed Pumpkinhead’s other releases, the first thing you should know is this dude is a raw MC. Period. He’s aggressive, full of powerful punchlines, and ready for a lyrical throwdown at any time. His Achilles heel, however, is his taste in beats. Not that the production is terrible, but lazy and cluttered tracks like “Pumpin (Pause!!!)” don’t do justice to Pump’s potent flow. With the proper tracks behind him, Pumpkinhead could be like an estranged member of the Beatnuts: funky, rough, rugged, and combative. But even if he’s not an Intoxicated Demon, he’s still a dope rhymer who deserves a spot in your rotation.
