This seems like a bit of a strange career move, but swapping the catwalks for the studio turns out to have been a good move for Dash. After contributing to the much-applauded City Slickers series and releasing a slew of 12″s, his name should be familiar to those with an interest in both house and fashion. “Motorcycle Emptiness” is vaguely reminiscent of Germany’s electronic pioneers, with its slipping beats, wonder synth, pleasing keys and thunderous bass. Model Turned Programmer represents a melting pot of styles that combine at a laid-back, yet distinctly housey tempo.
Various Artists [Re:Jazz]
Some labels reach 100 and uninspiringly raid their back catalog for classic cuts, while other imprints get their artists to supply “exclusive” tracks that don’t always do justice to the achievement. Germany’s INFRACom! have employed the Matthias Vogt trio and friends to re-arrange 13 of the label’s moments in an acoustic jazz style. Aromabar’s “Cupid and Orlando” is sent on a fast-paced swinging drum mission, with an astonishingly skilful sax and romantic narrating vocals. “People Come Running,” originally by Taxi, waits and relaxes, courtesy of some theatrical keys, melancholic vocals and a mellow flugelhorn. DJ Matt’s “The Way I Swing” is stripped down to an elegant piano, cushiony percussion and an encouraging bass. Why “re:jazz”? Jazz happens to be the essence of INFRACom!’s musical inspiration, and this idea of “re-jazzing” makes perfect sense.
Various Artists Pharoah Lounge
Massive Attack’s latest is awash with it. Yahoo has a list-serve devoted to a hip-hop faction of it. The Bush administration is employing mass detentions and forced registration to rid our county of it. I’m speaking, of course, of Muslim and/or Middle-Eastern culture. At a time in our history when an entire millennia-old history is under suspicion, Pharaoh Lounge is a refreshing reminder of electronica’s encompassing nature. This compilation of music from India, Africa, the Middle East and Europe lends itself well as a bridge-perfect as an introduction to a range of styles and lyrical modes of expression that we would do well to not silence forever. Or even temporarily.
ZirIguiboom The Now Sound of Brazil
Ziriguiboom, archiver of all things Brazilian, ups the tropicalia ante with this collection of sexy-cool samba soul and bossa groove. A dedication to original and far-reaching Brazilian music underlies the entire selection. Who else could present in such wonderful form one-time heir to the bossa throne Carlos Lyra, one of the first musicians to use his music to defy the Brazilian dictatorship. The real star is the diversity of styles. Bossa nova, and even tropicalia are no longer the only games in town-the time is ripe for a resurgence of other grassroots genres like pagode or choro-both styles just waiting for a remix. Ziriguiboom offers a tease-let’s hope more is on the way.
3 Play Girl In the Taxi
The producers behind Daniel Beddingfield’s Top 40 hit “Gotta Get Through This” come correct with this blinging ragga-tinged rub. The A-side’s rough and driving 4/4 mix offers crisply picked strings, manic slicing hi-hats and plenty of bass. On the flip: the original breaky mix with its poppy, R&B-accented beats and vocals, along with a 4/4 mix that gives the sound of early Masters At Work and Kerri Chandler the UK garage touch. Definitely one for the ladeez.
SusAnne Brokesch So Easy Hard to Practice
This New York-based Austrian native’s second album on German imprint Disko B is an ambitious tapestry of classical music influences fused with ambient, techno and house touches. So Easy… is temperamental, swooping and dipping from one sonic mood to another. The opening track contrasts Brokesch’s own voice uttering sounds and words with a grand backdrop of sampled and processed music by Franz Schubert. After this dramatic opening, things become even more bi-polar. “Bel Air Mix 1” sees lush keyboard textures pushing against sci-fi type synths, sweeping electronic strings and a pulse of bass. So Easy… unfolds again with the strangely joyous tones of “Mobile Data Shred On Nightshift,” which incorporates a touch of Satie’s “Trois Gymnopedies” in the understated strings that emerge and disappear throughout the track, buried in and released from sharp synth tones and the virtual plucking of large echoing strings. In “Consequence,” Brokesch unleashes a distorted house groove that sounds as if it’s about to drift away on radio interference. “Dancing,” a marathon psychedelic deep house track, finishes out a compelling album that offers a tiny universe of sound unraveling slowly with each listen, pulling you into a realm of feminine beauty that’s slung, perhaps paradoxically, on a muscular and metallic framework of dense, undulating textures that dare you to describe them.
Sole Selling Live Water
I’m so torn. Torn between great production and monotonous lyrics whether above or below ground. Torn by scathing, crunkin’ funk held down by lyrical gangsta-pop. And torn here by looming, compelling rhythms held down by obtuse emo-spittle showers. Sole, the unofficial Anticon leader, tears me up with lyrical exercises in self-reflexive futility-though sometimes delightfully eccentric, his strained whine becomes wearing. Meanwhile the beats, in-house Anticon stuff, carve out some of the nicest hip-hop spaciousness since RZA’s chamber of doom, some tunes breakin’ down into fluttery bongo bass-backed bliss, all the more necessary as Sole’s shoulders buckle from the weight of the world.
Mad Doctor X Chillonometry
Hey, don’t hate on the name! The Chillonometric Doc (wha?) weaves a thoroughly delightful excursion of downtempo beats and melodies, by no means an easy feat this far into the well-developed genre of stoney hip-hop. Grounded by a few lightweight vocal tunes featuring TC Izlam, Tenor Fly and a lovely sultress named Jo Morgan, the album is both extremely musical (vibes, guitars, flutes and moogs) and rhythmic-langorous, sticky syncopation without cliché and flecked with just enough vinyl scratches to schmooze the lounge. Feel-good without too much sugar-coating, Mad Doctor X really just needs to find a new name.
Various Artists National Vinyl Association
Even though it’s the heavyhitters-Mos Def, Blackmoon, Jurassic 5-that are gonna sell this badboy compilation, it’s the deeper underground that smashes up the place. On “Classical Hit,” Phil da Agony and Planet Asia, both in top form, deliver heavy verbal bombast over a thoroughly catchy beat, as the female hookstress croons, “getting passionate with some ol’ classical shit.” Ras Kass, another Cali vet, blazes a straight-up lyrical slugfest along a gritty, gothic piano loop on “Verbal Murder”-minimal underground militancy like the good ol’ days. And when grimy Jon Notty looks to lovely Joni Mitchell for help on “The Girl in the Picture,” the whole family’s satisfied!
Visionary vs. Division One Global Clash
Ragga-tinged jungle the way you like it-dark and driving vocalistic bass and drum pressure. From chopped-Amen loops to torrential snare downpours, from sinewy electricity to creepy atmospherics, from warm, familiar ragga samples to chatty nu kids Kid Rasta and MC Friendly, all these pulse with large, lurking bass, keeping the jungle fire lit. MC P hosts and narrates as Visionary and Division One go two for two-that is, until a strange drum & bossa tune ends things. It sounds like London but it’s actually Detroit-raise a fist for the D, this is proper tuffness!
