Definitive Jux
For some reason RJD2 is offended by comparisons to DJ Shadow. Iunderstand that DJs who make instrumental hip-hop don't want to beaccused of biting another DJ's style, but if two people have similarmusical interests and both create sample-based music, there is a goodchance that the result will sound similar. RJD2 favors organic drumbreaks and densely layered instrumental tracks, and does a good job ofvarying the flavor of his samples from song to song. If you have heardother Def Jux releases and can't quite get into the abrasive,synthesized, distortion-laden beats then this could be the one for you.
The typical track on this album combines snippets of scratchy 70s soulvocals and instrumental samples like upright basslines to create asatisfyingly melodic whole. The album is somewhat of an antidote to theprogrammed, mechanical beats that have been dominating recent hip-hopDJ work. In other words, it's very un-Neptunes. Three of his trackshave MCs rhyming over them and each does a good job complimenting theDJ skills without overwhelming the complex instrumentals underneath.They also big up the DJs approach with lines like "RJ's thearchaeologist, diggin 'em up" . One of my favorite songs on the albumis "Ghostwriter," a perfect blending of layers of loops and vocals intoa head-nodding instrumental classic that never gets too repetitive. Ithink it was a great decision by Def Jux to pick up an artist likeRJD2, a talented DJ and master of the sampler who can produce musicthat offsets the label's darker tendencies...I guess he's not thatShadowy after all.
For some reason RJD2 is offended by comparisons to DJ Shadow. Iunderstand that DJs who make instrumental hip-hop don't want to beaccused of biting another DJ's style, but if two people have similarmusical interests and both create sample-based music, there is a goodchance that the result will sound similar. RJD2 favors organic drumbreaks and densely layered instrumental tracks, and does a good job ofvarying the flavor of his samples from song to song. If you have heardother Def Jux releases and can't quite get into the abrasive,synthesized, distortion-laden beats then this could be the one for you.The typical track on this album combines snippets of scratchy 70s soulvocals and instrumental samples like upright basslines to create asatisfyingly melodic whole. The album is somewhat of an antidote to theprogrammed, mechanical beats that have been dominating recent hip-hopDJ work. In other words, it's very un-Neptunes. Three of his trackshave MCs rhyming over them and each does a good job complimenting theDJ skills without overwhelming the complex instrumentals underneath.They also big up the DJs approach with lines like "RJ's thearchaeologist, diggin 'em up" . One of my favorite songs on the albumis "Ghostwriter," a perfect blending of layers of loops and vocals intoa head-nodding instrumental classic that never gets too repetitive. Ithink it was a great decision by Def Jux to pick up an artist likeRJD2, a talented DJ and master of the sampler who can produce musicthat offsets the label's darker tendencies...I guess he's not thatShadowy after all.
samples:
P:ano started in 1999 in Vancouver as a collaboration between NickKrgovich and Larissa Loyva. Nick had been working on some songs whenthey started getting together to sing and play music, and they decidedto work on those songs by fleshing them out with more instruments.Later they added drummer Justin Kellam and Chris Harris, and the solidline-up was complete. "When It's Dark and It's Summer" is their debutrelease, recorded at Hive Studios and co-released on their new labelHive-Fi with Zum Media. As far as first works go, it's an incrediblyaccomplished batch of songs, with fully realized textures and melodies,that work towards a seemingly transcendent goal. This music is not justmeant to live in your ears for the short time you listen to it, it'sintended to invade the spaces behind. And it accomplishes that well,for the most part. P:ano's influences are clear, though anotherboy-girl dual vocal indie pop band to add to the mix could spell adisastrous future. However, the group also has enough originality uptheir sleeves to last. It's described as chamber pop, and that's prettyaccurate. The songs have classic pop structures, with hummable melodiesand understandable lyrics. They translate that simple structure withsparse arrangements that highlight the vocal power of the group.Krgovich and Loyva's voices blend well together with almost sickeninglysweet result, and the added flavors - strings, trumpet, clarinet - givethe songs that extra oomph. By the time you reach the penultimate track'Billions and Billions' (Carl Sagan reference, anyone?), whichstretches over seven-and-a-half minutes with an extended workout,you're hooked. A nice debut with real potential for the future.
There's really a fine line between jazz-influenced electronic beats and sleepy nu-jazz telephone hold music and unfortunately, this album teeters a weee-bit too close to the undesirable.
The Makers have been recording since 1993, and this album furtherexplores their recent glam-rock concept album tendencies. Listening toit sounds a lot like the soundtrack to 'Manhunter' or 'Band of theHand', or like the band is desperately trying to recreate the sound ofthat awful band in the club scenes of 'Lethal Weapon'. "StrangestParade" sounds like it wouldn't be out of place in 1985-1987, theheyday of big hair metal, but a time when just as many glam rock bandswere recording on a smaller scale than those that were successful. Theywere better than their big ticket major label counterparts. Lead singerMike Maker, or Michael Shelley, sounds like a bizarre cross of DannyElfman and Robert Smith, and the band is as full of angst as ever. Thealbum is sprinkled with segues in between the actual songs that tend todistract more than help. Bands trying to sound like the undergroundscenes of previous decades have merit, but only when they add somethingto the sound. The Makers try alright, but then the songs just aren'tall that compelling. Their last album, 'Rock Star God' was as much aconcept record as this one, but it seemed more polished and heartfelt."Parade" split into two parts, with one part seemingly moreintrospective and the other more balls to the wall. The phone ringingthat appears early on "Calling Elvis, John and Jesus" would be anoriginal thought if it hadn't been done 1800 times by other bands, orif the song was stronger; but the phone seems to plays a huge part inPart One of the record, as though a person were calling someone to helpthem or waiting by the phone for someone to call and save them. Thelyrics leave something to be desired, as well, as all good '80s hairbands' did ('Laughter then violence/music then silence'). Part Twoisn't as long as Part One, and it has some interesting textures, butbands like Cobra Verde just do this whole retro sound better,concetrating more on the essence in the songwriting than a seeminglyempty concept. This just doesn't grab me all that much.
It's hard to believe two years have passed since the incredible first 2xCD compilation from Morr Music surfaced (Putting the Morr Back in Morrissey). Two years later, a number of the bands featured have released marvelous albums on the Berlin-based Morr. This year's 2xCD collection of digital lullabies features a few acts who have become usual suspects from the Morr roster of champions as well as a handful of new faces: one disc of cover tunes, the other with all new material. Allegedly the story goes like this: Creation Records is dead and buried, Thomas Morr tried but failed to obtain the rights to reissue Slowdive's back catalogue, but that didn't stop him from successfully curating a fantastic collection of Slowdive cover tunes by a number of popular Morr artists and friends.
One cannot discuss a new Merzbow CD without mentioning how damn manyothers exist. No Merzbow CD can ever truly be "the new one", becausesome label is forever adding to the Merzbow publishing glut, newer onesarriving at a rate which confounds mere chronological hierarchy. It hasbecome so that the band name is like a brand name; one buys some moreMerzbow, rather than any specific album. Or one does not buy, which isincreasingly seeming like a fine idea. After all, it is not apparentthat Merzbow's Masami Akita actually has as many album-length ideas ashe does albums. Rather, he produces his sound until hismedia-determined time restraint runs out. I would be very surprised ifhe listens at all to what he produces these days, after or even duringthe process of recording, so satisfied he must be that he has filledanother 74 minutes with Merzbow. 
"There Should Be an Entry Here" is The Pilot Ships hard to find 1997debut, now re-released on BlueSanct, who released their sophomoreeffort in 2000. Listening to it again now, it hasn't lost its impactfive years on. These songs, created by members of the Stars of the Lidand Monroe Mustang, have lives of their own, as the pallette and feelof each differs from the rest on the record. What grabs you on one songmay not be the driving force of the next track. And where traditionalinstruments drive the proceedings, there are moments of sampled fieldrecordings and ambient noise that fill as much space as the guitars andvocals of other tracks. Birds chirp, a screen door shuts, and thelyrics lament about another blow when the subject is 'already brokendown' ('A Song by Your Campfire'). Listening to it now, everythingseems to be about these people getting to know each other as theycreate, knowing their stops and starts, so they can make musictogether. It's not less coherent than their later release, but it's notas adventurous, which just shows how much this band has grown and cangrow still. The album's epic closer, 'Looked Over (No Fun Reprise)', isas tedious as ever, though, with a bizarre guitar and keyboard openingwith vocal treatments, but dismantling five minutes in. Then a low humor muffled city recording lasts for another thirteen minutes beforepiano and dripping water join with spooky vocals to raise the hairs onyour neck. Still an affecting release, and only serves to whet theappetite for new music from this horribly underrated ensemble.
Oh yeah. Ohhhhhh yeah. I have to admit that I feel really dirty afterlistening to this recording constructed by and for the usage of gaypornography. However, this has got to be one of my favorite albums thisyear. Released on a limited edition CD-R from Piehead, this disc is theseventh Piehead's limited series. It has got to be one of the mostthumpingly deep, pounding, and implicitly explicit recordings Iprobably own in my collection. Songs are interspersed with audiosnippits of various movies, with some parts even lifted from whatappears to be conversations between directors and actors. If the duowho is widely known as the "A-Team of Electronica" has floated yourboat before, the rip roaring guitar riff on tracks like "Fist Power" orthe chunky lyrical bassline of "Son, That's a Battle You're Going toLose" may not stop at only blowing your hair back. With low-cool pieceslike "Son,..." and "The Rose Bud Opens", the duo have easilyout-grooved Boards of Canada with a super-charged virile take on thepopularized style which makes the Scottish Warp superstars look likeeunuchs. Unfortunately by the time you read this review, however, allcopies will most likely be gone. 
Though his name has been placed firmly in the spotlight by a release onMEGO, Kevin Drumm has been plying his prepared guitar trade for someyears now, and has worked with many famous names, such as Jim O'Rourke,Christian Fennesz, Martin Tetreault, and Axel Doerner. My introductionto his music was the split 12" with Pita only last year, on Chicagolabel BOXmedia, and that juicy fragment made me keen to see how hewould respond to the ultimate form of Austrian patronage. The firsttrack opens with a few bleeps that could suggest everyday MEGO laptopmaterial, but soon moves to a constant, distorted analogue rasp: not atall a nod to the host label's stereotypical digital chaos.
At first listen, it's rather deceptive, as you wonder if some of thesesongs truly date back thirty years. The first volume starts off withSoul Fire's third 7", two brief songs of looped gritty hooks by CalypsoKing & the Soul Investigators. It continues with the pimpin' soundsof Speedometer who bring to the collection a fierce horn section,wakka-wakka guitars and killer percussion. It isn't until the songsfrom Lee Fields & the Explorers that we actually finally hear asinger/band leader. While he shouts "Baby, I ain't James Brown" on "I'mthe Man" I must point out he does indeed squeak out an occasional JamesBrown line like "Give it up, turn it loose" and "I got soul." The tempodrops down for the two slow-riding numbers from Third Point and picksup again for a virile ending from The Soul Command, clearly masteredfrom terrible recordings. Volume One ends with a special bonus - "FastFunk Instrumental" by the Supersonics and a collection of breakbeatsprimed for sampling purposes.
Volume two continues with seven more singles (14 tracks) and opens withthe flute and funk marriage by Bama & The Family. Lee Fields (whowas previously quoted as saying how he wasn't James Brown) pays a clearhomage to "Funky Drummer" with "Ain't it Funky Now" while theWhitefield Brothers play tribute to Funkadelic's "Super Stupid" with"In the Raw." The two songs from the Detroit Sex Machines adds a littlemore soul to the voice of the front man (and I swear this has got to bemastered from a slightly off-centered 45). There's no bonus beats onthis volume but the poorly-cut masters are enough to provide a mildamount of home-grown amusement. Unfortunately now, I'm hooked andcompelled to start buying their 7" single releases. Damnit!
