TAG: Review

Mar20

K. Sparks & G.C. – A Day In The Life (Review)

K. Sparks & G.C.

A Day In The Life

Released by HiPNOTT Records


With XXL unveiling their "Top Ten Freshmen" in hip-hop earlier this month, there have been many smiles, many frowns and many "shoulda-beens." Not to jump on the bandwagon--okay, that actually is EXACTLY what is going on here, but please pay attention--K. Sparks is definitely worthy of being a freshman next year (should XXL choose not to change the line-up after this review, of course). With A Day In The Life, this New York artist teams up with producer G.C. to give listeners just that: an album that illustrates a day in the life of the/an aspiring MC. Most of the time, people cringe whenever the word "conceptual" and "album" are put together (kinda like "romance" and "novel," right?) but Sparks actually does a great job.

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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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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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Mar06

Josiah Wolf – Jet Lag (Review)

Josiah Wolf

Jet Lag

Released by anticon.


Josiah Wolf steps out of the long shadow cast by WHY? band mate (and younger brother) Yoni Wolf with Jet Lag, an emotive and catchy solo debut. Wolf eschews the stream-of-consciousness vérité of his brother for a more straight-forward approach en route to what is an early contender for album of the year. An expansive canvas of guitar, kalimba, bass, Hammond organ, bells and drums crescendo and fall over twelve brilliantly-arranged tracks. Many wondered if the release would sound like another WHY? album with a different frontman, but multi-instrumentalist Wolf clearly has his own auteristic approach outside of the band. Songs like "Is The Body Hung" and "In The Seam" excel through excellent writing and understated psychedelia. Though it is a great departure from the WHY? sound, Jet Lag certainly shares the mellow, melancholy aesthetic of last year's Eskimo Snow. Themes of love, death, and failure lurk behind every autumnal note on the album.

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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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