Thursday, November 19, 2009
Edan - Echo Party
As a producer, emcee and turntablist, Boston's Edan sits in the detailed-obsessive corners of hip-hop's grand world. The quirky nerd who knows rap's history better than most spotlighted superstars, Edan Portnoy has built his reputation around crafting beats that pay ode to the boom-bap sound of vintage hip-hop and an oddball eccentric persona that resembles the lampooning nature of early De La Soul. On Echo Party, the request was simply. Take the back catalog of dissolved 80's disco and rap label's like Magic and P&P and create something new. Rather than fashion a generic mix, Edan turns every track inside out, utilizing turntables, tape echo, guitar, moog and kazoos to manipulate every sound into a serious thirty-minute playlist of continuous old-school bliss. Whether playing tracks backwards or filtering them through panning delays, Echo Party is a b-boy's daydreamed soundtrack come alive. And keeping his neurotic front alive, Edan line-lists every knob turning and segue-way in the liner notes, down to the second. For listeners and beat-heads alike.
Fire In My Bones: Raw + Rare + Other-Worldly African-American Gospel (1944-2007)
Parting the water between the beautiful harmonies of black gospel music, where astounding quartet and solo vocalist plead their message of the "good news", Mike McGonigal curates a spectacular collection showcasing the other side of gospel: the rough, fiery and rousing sermons and "sanctified blues" that howled from the pews to the pulpits. Stretching across three discs and organized thematically (“The Wicked Shall Cease From Troubling,” “God’s Mighty Hand,” “All God Power Store”), Fire In My Bones is a tremendous testament to black gospel much as Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music was a bible to '50s folk scene. The arc of 63 years moves beyond easy categorizing: from the living room a cappella of Laura Rivers' "That's Alright", the tribal raucous of a fife and drum band pounding out "Why Sorow Done Passed Me Around, or the guitar evangelist tradition which captures Rev. Charles White accompanying James Butler on water bucket and tin funnel, here is a unique focus on an authentically American tradition that deserves wider appeal.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Little Walter - The Complete Chess Masters (1950-1967)
Expanding the vocabulary and sonic innovation of the toy-like harmonica, Little Walter stands next to Jimi Hendrix in changing the prevailing attitudes of what their chosen instrument could attain. Running his mouth harp through cheap microphones and over-stressed amplifiers, Little Walter blew and improvised like a jazz player; his phrasing swooped around the beat and anticipated the guitar melody with incisive, electrified shrieks and elongated wails. Eventually he landed not only the role as Muddy Waters' sideman, but also became the house harpist for Chess Records recordings and launched himself into his fronting his own band. Though the five-disc Complete Chess Masters lists itself as a near two decade collection, the heart of Little Walters repertoire is captured during his early to mid-'50s, where his kinetic harp racked up a string of R&B hits, often backed by his own lissome vocals. Packaged in a six-paneled foldout, this is a beautiful tribute to one of the underackngowledged heroes of Chess Records.
Mulatu Astatke - From New York City to Addis Ababa: The Best of Mulatu Astatke
Every few years, interest flourishes for an artists who international-recognition only dented American consciousness. It was the re-issued catalogs of Fela Kuti and Serge Gainsbourg which ignited curiosity and culminated in new appreciation. Now, we see Ethiopian bandleader, arranger, keyboard and vibraphonist Mulatu Astatke obtaining the career retrospective he deserves. From New York To Addis Ababa showcases Astatke development as he melded Ethiopian traditional melodies to Western jazz orchestration, and the unique sound he pioneered. Really, where else do you hear such an astonishing and unique range of sound from one individual? The steel drum on "Asiyo Belema" recalls the latin-jazz of Tito Puente, while the sentimental saxophone on ballad "Tezeta" would bring a tear to Ben Webster's eye. "Ebo Lala" returns you to Addis Ababa with scintillating poly-rhythms and African vocals. Consider "Yegelle Tezeta" his hit: punctuated with a steamy sax runs, an exotica-grooved organ and tight, crisp drum beat, its the amalgamation of all his influences tuned perfectly.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Breakestra - Dusk Till Dawn
After a four-year recess, Los Angeles' Breakestra returns with the authentic party-funk that cultivated their fabled Rootdown club nights into a center-point for rare-groove and soul connoisseurs worldwide. Using the influence of the Meters and the J.B.'s as their launching point, Dusk Till Dawn continues to push them beyond their origins as a cover band of funk's greatest sampled breaks and riffs. In fact, with the addition of new female vocalist Afrodyete, tracks like "Come On Over" revisits the terrain of funky divas like Marva Whitney and Lyn Collins. But Breakestra is still the one-man show of Miles "Music Man" Tackett, as he provides not only the vision but bass, drum, guitar, keyboard and vocals for the majority of the album, gaining assistance from a strong personnel of studio musicians when needed. He controls everything but the horns of New Orleans funk instrumental "Back At The Boathouse" and gives Mixmaster Wolf husky voice open space to preach over his acid-funk display on "Show You The Way." Not visionary in anyway, but authentically perfect for getting up on your good foot.
The Heliocentrics - Fallen Angels: The Singles Collection
Built around the tireless energy of drummer Malcolm Catto, The Heliocentrics dabble on the outer orbits of soul-jazz with a gravitational pull that fuses the noisy, extraterrestrial vision of Sun Ra and the boom-bap funk of producers like DJ Shadow. On Fallen Angels, The Heliocentrics collect onto CD some of their previously LP-only releases, thus filling out a discography of one of jazz's newest inventors of deranged, wobbly eccentricities. Supplied with a sitar, saz, Turkish vocalist and intricate polyrhythms, "Distant Star" opens the album with a decidedly Middle-Eastern bent, only to get updated a track later with the sharp lyrics by Percee P and MF Doom stream of conscious flow. 'The Gorn" pushes a dissonances at every turn and break, but stays with the lines of its raw, funky flute soul, while "Vibrations Of The Fallen Angels" seems to stuff numerous genres into a whirling blender (psych, sitar-funk, avant-garde and piano jazz), yet inexplicable remains a listenable head trip. Not for the unadventurous, but if you can imagine the noir of Portishead shaken up slightly with free-form jazz, then consider this your new elixir.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)