Madlib – Beat Konducta Vol. 3-4: In India
Stones Throw Records (8/28/07)
Hip-hop
Hi, I’m Jeff, and the vinyl edition of this, the latest in Madlib’s instrumental Beat Konducta series, has been out since July, but the CD, which is a 34-track set culled from both of the LPs in the set, in set to hit shelves next week. As always, Madlib does a fantastic job of crafting beats, this time ditching the blaxploitation-era film samples and old-school funk samples (well, not completely) for Bollywood film samples and India folk music. I am going to coin the music found on this album as Hindi-hop, though there might be some Malayalam, Punjabi and/or Tamil thrown in there for all I know. It still works, though. “Indian Hump”, “Duel” and “Movie Finale” perfectly mesh Eastern elements (including symphonic elements reminiscent of Chitrahar) with more conventional hip-hop influences, and would be perfect for that Wu-Tang comeback album. “Freeze” captures a simple tabla beat and combines it with some electro elements and chanting. It might not be the strongest track on the album, but it’s still thirty times better than most of the beats heard on current urban radio. The same goes for “Early Party” (except that it is one of the strongest tracks), a deep, throbbing beat chock full of basstacular bass that flirts perfectly with traditional Indian instruments. It would absolutely kill… slaughter, I say (on both the radio and in the club), if it were paired with the right emcee and released commercially. While most of the beats are very good, a few weaker ones, like “Get It Right” and “Organ Stroll” tend to blend into the background. They’d probably benefit from an emcee, but without one they are rather dispensible. As a result, the flow of the album is up-and-down, but still, big ups to Madlib for once again coming out of left field with something completely different that also happens to rule.
Hi, I’m Drunk Jeff, and you’re getting me after a grnad total of four Jamesons and Coke, four Miller High Lifes and three shots of BHushmills. I also made fun of all of the duchebags in the bar that were taking Jägerbombs and shtos of SOco and lime inbetween their rounds of GOlden tee. FUCK Golden Tee. Right now I jad a couple of cheesburgers from Maxwell Street Polish and I’m reeady to go to sleep, but in the interest of journalistic interrity, I will soldier onm and re-review these albums that I already listneed to last weekend. I can barely hold my head up and the screen is slighly spinning, so thsi should be fun.
Christian Scott – Anthem
Concord Jazz (8/28/07)
Jazz
Fresh off of his lauded 2006 debut, Rewind That, youngster Christian Scott returns with his jazz ensemble, integrating a variety of influences, including soul, rock and hip-hop to create what may very well be the future of jazz music. Hey, as long as there’s no Kenny G., I don’t think I’ll have any complaints with the future of jazz music. The nephew of alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, Scott (who has also worked with an unlikely lineup of X-Clan, Randy Jackson and The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince But Currently Known Once Again As Just Prince) beautifully melds old-school jazz trumpet sensibilities with a mixture of odd meters, emotional grooves and what jazz enthusiasts are calling a downright “breaking [of] old-school jazz codes” for a brave composition. “Litany Against Fear” takes classical trumpet elements and combines them with DRUMS OF DEATH Y’ALL and electric guitar for a great combo, while “Void” is a silky smooth jam that would be more than adequate to play while trying to get that special lady drunk enough on pinot grigio to hop into the sack with you. The fearless “Anthem (Antediluvian Adaptation)” focuses on a spectacular piano solo, while the converse “Anthem (Postdiluvial Adaptation)”, featuring Brother J of X-Clan has a jazzy, poetic beatnik feel to it (see, also, DJ Spooky’s “Asphalt (Tome II)”, featuring Carl Hancock Rux, from 2002’s Optometry). “Re:” (dig the title) makes inventive use of the “Funky Drummer” break, while we get some more DRUMS OF DEATH Y’ALL on “Dialect”. Being a New Orleans native, Scott makes a tribute to the Hurricane Katrina disaster on the appropriately downtempo-yet-hopeful “Katrina’s Eyes”. Anthem reminds me of a more complex version of DJ Krush and Toshinori Kondo’s Ki-Oku, and for what that’s worth, I can definitely dig it.
When I was out earlier, i was thinking that it would interesing to heard this album ahgain after getting sloshed. The bar we went to had one of thtose jukeboxes where you ccan download songs, and since every idiot in the place was playing shit like Nickelbakc and OAR, I just had to put in a fin just so that i Wouldn’t have to listen to shitty music for at least an hour or so. I plaed “More ZThan This” by Roxy Music and some chach was all aboutmaking fun of it and I shouted “THis is 50 yimes better tha Nickelback!” God, do I hate Nickelbackk. Fuck them, and f*ck CHad Kroeger, wolooks like a his mom had sex with a poodle, But YEAH, this is still good music, nad is actually really good for winfing down after a long night of spending to omuch money on Irish whiskey and cheap beer. IF I were hosting an afetrparty at my house I could definitely play this album.
Junior Senior – Hey Hey My My Yo Yo
Rykodisc/Crunchy Frog (8/14/07)
Pop / Dance
Ah yes… Junior Senior: the Danish duo who brought us the delightful club track “Move Your Feet”, which was equal parts Daft Punk and Jacko, back in 2003. In keeping with the wacky tone of 2003’s D-D-Don’t Stop the Beat, Hey Hey My My Yo Yo boasts vanguard single “Can I Get Get Get”, showing that they like repetition (though not beating us over the head with it like Fatboy Slim does). Yes, it’s a highly dance-able track, but doesn’t have the same cross-marketability as “Move Your Body”, instead catering more exclusively to the indie/hipster group, with a more ironic feel in its retro ’80s hook. And yes, that ’80s thing is prevalent (thanks to their meat-and-potatoes of synth and drum machine) on the majority of the album (like the catchy “Take My Time”, featuring Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson of The B-52’s), but just remember that these guys were biting ’80s pop before a lot of others were, if that’s worth anything. “Hello” opens up the album with a more stripped-down version of the clap from Rose Royce’s “Car Wash”, with the cheesily whimsical (heavily-accented) voices of Jesper “Junior” Mortensen and Jeppe “Senior” Laursen welcoming the listener to their new album. “Itch U Can’t Scratch” is… well, remember how Madonna and the Beastie Boys toured together in the mid-’80s? Imagine if the Beasties snagged Reggie Lewis to produce a track for them (and, in all honesty, it’s pretty damn good). And the camp just continues with the ’60s pop-infused “No No No’s” and “We R the Handclaps” (featuring Le Tigre), which takes elements of disco and the Jackson 5 to create what could have been the anthem for some group called The Handclaps back in the early ’70s. They would have feuded with The Banana Splits. All irony and camp aside (or wait… no, we need it), this album really is incredibly fun, almost in the same vein as Beck’s Midnite Vultures. Plus, it comes with the special LIMITED EDITION EP, Say Hello, Wave Goodbye, with more of the good stuff, including “Headphone Song”, which really could have been released in 1984 and been huge.
HAHAHA oh man was this a good ne. I actually reviewded their first album when I first started writng for That OIther Web Site that Widro used to Run, nad htis was probably even beteter. I;m goign to pee, hold on. I will be belching up grilled onions all morning, but at least I didn’t have White Castle, because being hungover with diarrhea is worse than listening to Nickelback,. I was actualyl going to go bac and fix all of my spelling errors after a woke up in the morning, but I think that this is funnier, bnecause even when i”m annihulated I can still type spellr than most people when they’re sober. I kick ass at life. In a related blurbs, I do agreet hat Kim Kardashian had buttocks implants, but I’d still totally hit it. I would wrap it up like i was sneding it to Abu DHabi, but iwould still totally destroy that shit. FOr httose of you who believeher when she says her ass is real, allow me to show you a picture from before and after (with a NOT WORK SAFE! bare ass shot from her pr0n with Ray J). Bullshit. OK, KIm, we get it, you like black guys, but hwen is enough ENOUGH?
The Nanny Diaires: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Artists’ Addiction Records (8/21/07)
Soundtrack (Rock / Pop / R&B, etc.)
Often times I’m not really sure how to approach soundtracks—with the exception of scores and broadway musics, they’re really nothing more than glorified compilations. Yes, this is a chick flick based on a chick novel, and not even Scarlett Johannsson’s boobs will make me want to see it, but in the interest of journalistic integrity, I’ve got a job to do here. First, we’ll break down the classic songs included in the set, like Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up (Part I)”, War’s “Why Can’t We Be Friends”, Lisa Stansfield’s “All Around the World” and Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Crystal Blue Persuasion”. Combine those with tracks by The Main Ingredient and Odyssey, and you’ve got a decent compilation. Fatal Mambo’s 1996 cover of Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime” is fantastic and probably one of the strongest tracks. Then re the newer stuff, as tracks by The Hold Steady, Urban Delights (who sound like they’re biting the aforementioned Fatboy Slim… not something to be proud of, there), Joshua Radin and Tarika are all forgettable. Not even Lily Allen, Jill Scott and Simply Red can save the day, as this compilation is nothing to write home about. Wait a sec… that should be… this compilation is nothing about which to write home, because I kick ass at English. The only thing that could probably make this album a huge hit would be a Scarlett Johansson track with a sultry video package. It could then be remixed on a maxi-single by Hex Hector and/or Thunderpussy, much to the bedazzlement of gay men, gay DJs, straight DJs who spin at gay clubs, and straight men who are secretly gay but refer to themselves as “metrosexuals”.
THat was crazy. I just burped up some of my cheeseburger and it sounded liek the first two beats of Daft pYnk’s “Around the WOrld”. Seriouslt, my mouth was closed so it was all muffled just liek in the osong. CRAZINESS I TELLS UYA!! Drunk or not, there’s no way in hell that I”m makin git through this CD. I remembr not being impressde the firs time around , and given tha I’m already starting to burp up my food I don;t htin k it would fare well for me (or my carpet) to sit throught hsi again.. GOod Lord, I am going to feel like shit on a stikc tomorrow.
