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(03/21/02 5:00am)
Def Jux is the label responsible for two of last year's hottest releases, Labor Days and The Cold Vein. Now after kicking the door down, they're about to bum rush the party and bogart the mic until there's not a head left who can deny their dominance. Enter Definitve Jux Presents II, a sampler showcasing the talents of all their artists to prime the masses for the sonic insanity they intend to drop in the near future.
(02/28/02 5:00am)
ack in 2000, Five Deez dropped an album by the name of Secret Agent Number 005 and introduced themselves to the hip hop community in convincing fashion before disappearing in darkness for over a year. Now the team of Fat Jon, Pase, Kyle David and Sonic have re-emerged, and this time underground heads have grabbed hold and pulled them into the dim-but-flattering spotlight of chat rooms and message boards across the internet. And that's just where these smooth sons of A Tribe Called Quest and Digable Planets want to be.
(01/31/02 5:00am)
If I was Prince, I wouldn't have to worry so much about finding a job when I graduate. But alas, I don't look good in heels, nor am I a musical genius. The performers on the Rex Records compilation If I Was Prince may not be Prince either, but they do a good job of revamping his songs with an electro slant. Unlike many cover albums that take tunes you love and butcher them in the name of bad punk, the songs here stand alone as quality tracks in their own right. Encompassing a mix of Prince's songbook from favorites like "Under the Cherry Moon" to more obscure numbers such as "Alphabet Street," If I was Prince proves pleasurable from start to finish. Bronze Age Fox's trip-hop version of "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" is the band's first release ever, setting them up as a name to watch in the future. Broadway with Jeb Loy Nichols (check your Good Will Hunting Soundtrack) take the lesser known cut "The Ballad of Dorthy Parker" and make a soulful rendition Prince might want to rerecord himself. If I Was Prince may be grammatically incorrect, but the tunes are pitch perfect.
(01/18/02 9:00am)
Maybe the big guys like Spin and Rolling Stone didn't entirely ignore the White Stripes' White Blood Cells, but Recess sure as hell did. It's not that we weren't rocking out to this Detroit duo's scratchy low-fi sound all year--we just forgot to write about it. And shame on us, because their third release on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label was easily one of the best independent rock albums of the year.
The band, consisting of Jack and Meg White, has a stripped-down guitar and drums sound with a touch of piano that is so basic, yet at times so heavy it makes you wonder how two people could make so much sound. The production sounds as if they held the recording sessions in a tin can, resulting in a gloriously raw mix reminiscent of the Pixies' earlier work like Surfer Rosa. Simple, not-quite rhymes like "Well I never said that I wouldn't throw my jacket in the mud for you/ But my father gave it to me so maybe I should carry you" get better with each listening and almost make you wish more bands would rhyme "you" with "you."
Perhaps Jack and Meg's publicity scandal of claiming to be brother and sister (they're really ex-husband and wife) had something to do with it, but 2001 finally brought the White Stripes a piece of the attention they've deserved for quite some time now.
--Kelly McVicker
(11/16/01 5:00am)
Techno Animal sounds like two dogs trapped in a car with the windows rolled up and a sampler as their only toy. They're staring death in the face and pissed off.
(11/02/01 5:00am)
hen you think of lesbian feminist electro-punk politics, kick-ass dance grooves aren't the logical next step in your train of thought. So when you throw on Le Tigre's new LP, Feminist Sweepstakes, and you find your ass shakin'--and it definitely will--you might get so caught up in breakin' it down that the politicized messages in the music could fly right by. And that's what Le Tigre wants, almost.
(09/28/01 4:00am)
his is labor" are the first words out of Aesop Rock's mouth on his second full-length offering, Labor Days. Talk about putting in work: This guy doesn't even know what a day off is. For 70 solid minutes, he never lets up--not with the rhymes, not with the beats and not with the dazzlingly conceptual insights he drops like pennies. With last year's Float, this MC's MC hit the scene with a relentless intensity and utter brilliance that has elevated him to the top of more than a few short lists for world's greatest mic ripper. Many of you are probably asking yourselves: If this guy is such a dedicated bad ass, how come he hasn't made his way into any top-10 countdown I've heard?
(09/07/01 4:00am)
There can only be one reason why no one is screaming about how many Grammys the group Restiform Bodies will be raking in next year--no one really knows what genre to place them in. Granted, this album sits tucked away in the hip-hop section of the record store, since it was released on the subterranean--a.k.a. way, way underground--hip hop label 6Months Distribution, but that's probably only because the guy at the record store didn't have any extra dividers to make a new section labeled "Other."
