Seven years in the making, Massive Attack's Heligoland doesn't quite carry the comeback expectations their Bristolian trip-hop compatriots from Portishead faced when releasing Third, but that's probably as good thing, as Heligoland isn't in the same league. Although it's better than their 2003 disappointment, 100th Window, and also sees the return of founding member Daddy G, the album is more of a continuation than a reinvention. Read more »
Calling an album "mature" is often a death knell for creativity and excitement, but in the case of To Realize, it's good thing. Clipd Beaks have never been tied to traditional songwriting—their 2006 Preyers EP and 2007 full-length, Hoarse Lords, were both cacophonous collections of spastic yelps and unruly bursts of noise—but To Realize is downright epic. Read more »
Despite not having dropped a group album in almost a decade, Souls of Mischief still have enough gusto to keep hip-hop heads listening. No, SOM's latest effort, Montezuma's Revenge, is not as consistently surprising as their classic debut, 93 ‘Til Infinity, but just because they don't outdo themselves doesn't mean members Opio, Phesto, Tajai, and A-Plus don't sound noticeably reinvigorated here. Read more »
Hotflush Recordings founder and dubstep-techno crossover artist Scuba (a.k.a. Paul Rose) has been in rock-steady ascent since dropping the 2008 monster jam "Hard Boiled," a track that helped build a bridge of sound from London to Berlin. This DJ mix shows off where he's coming from, where he's going, and who's coming with him. Read more »
On his years off from making beats for Aesop Rock and others, Blockhead has assembled a group of instrumental LPs that stands solidly on its own, despite the generally shoddy reputation of instrumental hip-hop full-lengths over the past decade. The Music Scene adds new knots to Blockhead's sly, ironic take on boom-bap, incorporating shifting structures that spiral into changing tempos, half-remembered snippets of soul horns and gnarly old guitars, and occasional drifts into hazy, shimmering psychedelia. Read more »
Boogie revivalist and long-haired LA electro visionary Damon Riddick (a.k.a. Dam-Funk) wants to make music that lets your hair blow in the wind—a difficult task, but his massive Toeachizown offers just that kind of soothing experience. Full of retro-futurist '80s funk filled with smeared keyboard melodies and dirty beats, it’s perfect for banging out of a souped-up hovercraft and is easy to soak up and get lost inside. Buoyant backgrounds and vapor-trail synths mirror the mantras and platitudes that double as lyrics. Read more »
Although Kap Bambino's reputation as a shit-hot live act is well established, Blacklist, the Bordeaux duo's third album, doesn't quite capture the group's on-stage magic. Read more »
By now, any electronic music aficionado with a pulse has heard of UK funky. Punctuated by shuffling garage beats, tropical-flavored percussion, and R&B flair, the music is the latest in a long line of post-garage urban sounds emanating from the British Isles. One of the scene's figureheads is Marcus Nasty, founding member of legendary grime collective N.A.S.T.Y. Crew, who took notice of this new crop of producers—most of them coming from grime—making this new mutant house strain and quickly began promoting the sound on Rinse FM. Read more »
A few years ago, some San Francisco DJs and music enthusiasts happened upon a stack of unreleased tape reels featuring collaborations between gay disco icon Patrick Cowley and multi-instrumentalist Jorge Socarras. Shockingly, Catholic was not a Hi-NRG disco album along the lines of Cowley's production for Sylvester, but a multi-genre concept work that hardly contains any typical disco elements. Read more »
