Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun

Vision Creation Newsun is the aural equivalent of stepping inside a sweat lodge and getting out of your mind. But instead of the required perspiring cleanse, The Boredoms infiltrate your cerebrum with their lengthy, frenzied jams balanced between free form, experimental wig-outs, and hypnotizing pulsing rhythms. Mixed as one long continuous piece, with symbols replacing track names, The Boredoms have refined their previous noise-fest EPs into something more palatable. Built upon the motorik, propulsion of “Kraut-rock” drumming, it’s easy to mesmerize yourself into a daze, especially when it’s fronted by undulating synthesized tones and trance-inducing drone. But it’s this driving beat that keeps your attention in gear, never slipping into a neutral meditation, or a dumbing stupor. There’s still avant-garde grit and an abrasive edge meshed into the compositions, enough to challenge but never isolate the listener. It’s a trip best enjoyed within the confines of a moving vehicle or ear-closing headphones. Just let go.

Bobby Womack - The Best Of

Bobby Womack is bigger than we know. Yes, “Across 110th Street” provided the hue of blaxploitation to several films, but that only scratches the surface. A prot»g» of Sam Cooke, a songwriter for Wilson Pickett and Janis Joplin, and a session guitarist for the likes of Aretha Franklin and Sly Stone, Womack is a triple-threat, especially when factoring in his scorching, raspy baritone. As comfortable with fiery, raw southern soul (“I’m A Midnight Mover”) as with tender, sweet soul ballads (“That’s The Way I Feel About Cha”), Womack’s only real trouble was saying no to soulful renditions of pop classics (“California Dreamin’” and “Fire and Rain” fare surprisingly well, whereas “Fly Me To The Moon” is lackluster ho-hum). But these missteps are rare. Instead, you’ll be entranced by how well he translates his heroes: The hip funkiness he learned from Sly while contributing to his There’s A Riot Going On album permeates the track “Communication,” while the secular sermonizing that builds to rapturous intensity on “The Preacher (Part Two)” is a righteous tribute to Sam Cooke’s life extraordinaire.

Nomo - Ghost Rock

As an instrumental octet, NOMO have been absorbing some wilder influences than the terrific combination of Afro-funk and spiritual jazz that colored their previous album New Tones. Not that there's a dynamic shift in sound, as if abandoning their merging of world music with jazz arrangements. "All The Stars" percolates with Gamelan tones and rhythms, as an over-amplified kalimba saturates the beginning in waves of textual, metallic noise. "Round The Way" is a downtempo Afrobeat shuffle, giving the tenor saxophone plenty of freedom to wail and open up. But its the album opener, "Brainwave" -where an actual brainwave monitor is looped to contagious effect- where you see NOMO expanding its creativity. Taking in the early electronic manipulations of Morton Subotnic, the theoretical notions ambience penned by Brian Eno and the driving propulsion of Can as influences, Ghost Rock blends them naturally into the layout of their existing music blueprint, dazzling you with the structures they construct. A remarkable push forward!

NOMO - All The Stars