Carpark is releasing some of the loveliest little sounds around these days, all fuchsia beats and electric lavender shadings. This sampler slots thirteen tracks and four videos together as neatly as new, perfect crayons in a box. Greg Davis’s “Brocade” is an aptly titled tangle of glowing guitar threads, and the simple guitar and piano of Ogurusu Norihide’s “5:00” roll gently, underscored by a soft clicking that resembles tiny kisses. Casino Versus Japan and Kid606 offer up waves of slow-mo reverbed sweetness, and Takagi Masakatsu’s gem is all golden glint. Peep also Hrvatski’s glorious, shimmering timeshift. What a treat: quietly exuberant songs that pulse with love.
Appliance Are You Earthed?
As rock and dance music continue to edge closer and closer together-at least in terms of production techniques-expect to hear more records like Are You Earthed? Fusing meandering post-rock compositions, tweaked electronics, and breathy processed vocals, Appliance are treading an increasingly trafficked musical path. Luckily, James Brooks, David Ireland and Michael Parker manage to evade many of the more self-indulgent trappings all this new-fangled technology facilitates. Instead they put the studio to good use, loosing psychedelic melodies to float off into an echoing space of pulsing beats and synth noise. Dancefloor fodder this isn’t, but it’s still compelling listening.
Various Artists Uprising
From the looks of things, drum & bass is enjoying something of a resurgence. Crews like New York’s Mathematics have injected what looked to be a stagnant genre with healthy doses of house-inflected melody and sexiness. However, the sound remains a hotbed of formulaic production and clichéd composition. Dope Ammo Records’ latest compilation is a prime example. It features track after track that removes any shred of innovation from jungle’s poppier permutations by grafting them onto simplistic drum loops and irritating filter squelches. To be fair, avid fans of the funked-up and discofied sounds of Shy FX or Defunked label releases will like this comp-it has those same influences, albiet with the harder beat textures of producers like Hazzard to give it edge. But overall, despite the running beats and b-lines aplenty, Uprising offers little in the way of innovation.
Ralph Dog Afflictions
Despite the highly questionable album art, which features emcee Ralph Dog behind bars as well as a bunch of Polaroids of a really busted dominatrix, I approached Afflictions with an open mind. After all, San Francisco’s Bomb Hip-Hop has released some classic records, such as the hugely influential Return Of The DJ series. Unfortunately, their latest fails to measure up to the imprint’s reputation. Featuring what can only be described as mediocre production by Cherok and rhymes from the self-confessed “antichrist of hip-hop,” Ralph’s sadist schtick gets old quickly. With all the depravity and none of the charm of fellow honky psychopath Cage, Ralph Dog’s hackneyed rhymes and rap-rock attitude are afflictions unto themselves.
Soulo Man, the Manipulator
With “post-rock” creeping up on the decade mark, it’s time for some other journalist to define what’s next. Or one could keep listening to the likes of Soulo for non-textual clues. Electronic beats help shape a good portion of the album, but its sonic breadth is what truly impresses. “Emotions, Can You Trust Them?” ensconses a Lynchian fetish for ’50s rock in guitar-and-harmonica-driven dream-pop. And “Your Erroneous Zones” has some Rockford Files fun with the aforementioned genre definition, putting a big ol’ belt buckle on its constraints. Man, The Manipulator sees Soulo’s multi-instrumental palette spread across a larger canvas. Their sound keeps getting bigger, and better.
Corporation of London Funky Shit
The title says it all: this one is blowin’ up on the underground at the moment. Again, breakbeat flavor with snippets of funky shit runnin’ through the tune, simple beats and a very heavy bassline makes this a poisonous tune.
Breakin Barriers Play Some Jazz
A new flavor of garage from the camp called Basement-breakbeat flavor for the beats, with a very hooky jazzy sax all the way through the tune. Consider this one bumpin’ and for the connoisseurs.
Nasty Crew Boys Meet Girls
Freshest tune at the moment. Main boy MC Kano brings you the hottest lyrics on this grimy hip-hop-meets-garage tune. Simple beats, but very effective. This guy is gonna be big for 2003. A must for the record box.
Beat Assassins Dilute
If you like your breakbeat garage like I do, then you’ll love this one. Crisp 2-step beats with heavy b-line from start to finish. It’s just noise all the way through. Mad and grimy and very catchy-love it.
E Malkay Deep
A delirious, eye-drenching, head-nodder of a four track. Loosely obeying the principles of “UK garage,” this is as pure a distillation of inventiveness and hedonistic butt-shaking as you’re likely to hear in a nightclub these days. Hearing these tunes makes me feel as if everything’s going to be OK.
