TAG: Music

Mar16

DJ Babu – The Beat Tape, Vol. 2 (Review)

DJ Babu

The Beat Tape, Vol. 2

Released by Dilated Junkie


DJ Babu, of the world famous Beat Junkies and turntablist-mastermind behind the Dilated Peoples’ headnodding work, is at it again in a follow-up to his 2007 instrumental The Beat Tape Vol. 1 record with aptly named: The Beat Tape Vol. 2. With his already impressive discography and genre-defining work on Super Duck Breaks (1996), Super Duper Duck Breaks (2000), and the Duck Season series, DJ Babu is no newcomer to the beatmaking game. A pioneer in his own right, DJ Babu has been a prominent name in hip-hop since his introduction to the culture and has contributed vast amounts of innovation through his music. The Beat Tape Vol. 2, like its predecessor, is an album of short one-to-three-minute instrumental beats that showcase the versatility of DJ Babu’s abilities on the wheels of steel. His work has continually evolved, providing the soundscapes to hip-hop music. On The Beat Tape Vol. 2, DJ Babu comes with a dark and ominous flavor, textured, layered, and intricately composed.  Installments such as “Manferd,” and “What R U Doing,” are two of the tracks that reveal a subterranean coolness rarely found in hip-hop these days.

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Mar15

Twin Tigers “Gray Waves¨ is a Rendezvous In The Park (Review)

Twin Tigers

Gray Waves



When a friend of mine told me about the band Twin Tigers and recommended I check them out, I was reminded of the awkwardness surrounding the average blind date. I´d never heard of the Athens, Georgia band and was nervous that after I listened to them my friend would ask me the usual questions one might after having introduced you to a certain someone they hope you'll pursue. What if my friend loves this band and I'm simply unimpressed? I fretted. Would my friend feel differently toward me? Would I feel awkward around my friend after? I deliberated. I wondered if I should make up an excuse about hair washing, a death in the family, or a sick pet, but despite the uncertainties, I manned up and gave Gray Waves, Twin Tigers' first full length album, a listen, and am pleased to report that my first impression of their music wasn't bad.

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Mar11

Guns! Lazers! Knives! Deftones return with new music video for first single “Rocket Skates” (Video)

What do you get when you combine Grammy-award winning band the Deftones with two of the most talked about visual artists in current press? The ocular treat that is the band’s first music video in three years, “Rocket Skates.”

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Mar09

Jaguar Love Lacks Bite on Sophomore Album Hologram Jams (Review)

Jaguar Love

Hologram Jams



Much has been made of Jaguar Love's pedigree- both singer Johnny Whitney and guitarist/partner in crime Cody Votolato emigrated from notorious hardcore band The Blood Brothers, and their first album featured Jay Clark, drummer from Pretty Girls Make Graves, pounding out the nervous beats that stuttered underneath Johnny's unique style of high-pitched scream-singing. That album, 2008's Take Me to the Sea, was an anxious, paranoid look at a world overrun with materialistic tendencies and referenced everything from Southern rock ballads to 70s era prog rock. ...

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Feb27

Black Man’s Cry: The Inspiration of Fela Kuti (Review)

Various Artists

Black Man's Cry: The Inspiration of Fela Kuti

Released by Now-Again Records


To begin describing the epic importance of Fela Kuti is to write a doctoral thesis on the history of African music from before his birth to the present day. To understand the impact the music of a person such as Fela is to consider the history of struggle, prejudice, racism, and political disenfranchisement as an understandable whole.  In the music of Fela Kuti, we see these positive undercurrents of political awakening, consciousness, activism, empowerment and liberation.  These values are what make the messages embedded in the work of Fela ...

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Feb21

Factor – 13 Stories (Review)

Factor

13 Stories

Released by Side Road Records


Collaborations with Myka9 and Awol One may have opened doors for Factor, but he remains true to his humble roots producing for oddball regional rappers around Saskatoon, Canada. He hooks up with some of these old friends on 13 Stories, his 13-track compilation comprised of emcees telling their own stories in their own styles, and held together by his smooth production. The melancholic and mellow soul that makes up the last two-thirds of the album is dominated by tracks like Nolto's tale of a tormented child evolving into a tormenting killer on the slightly uptempo “Pulling the Wings Off Angels” or the alternative stress relief of Def3's “Luck Ducks.” The front half of the album holds the hard funky grooves, like opening track “Sounds Good to Me (Hip Hop),” an organ-heavy roller-rink anthem to hip hop that features Ellay Khule, Medusa (haven't heard enough from her recently!) and Joe Dub, who absolutely kills it with his hip hop history lesson.

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