Boredom and a disdain for the status quo is often the child of invention. Embracing the moniker of Daedelus, the cunning worker in Greek Mythology (spelled with a variance), Alfred Darlington has veered far left into the bush whilst many others in the world of making electronic music are following the tired, and yes boring, […]
The Bug’s debut album London Zoo is very much influenced by the dancehall music scene. This is especially expressed on the opening cut “Angry,” which features veteran reggae artist Tippa Irie. With driving percussion and sweaty synths, this song was made to move the body. However, the mind is moved as well, as Tippa follows […]
You Don’t Know: Ninja Cuts (Disc Three)Ninja TuneAside from the mysterious missing track, and out-of-order songlisting on Disc Three of the Ninja Tune compilation You Don’t Know: Ninja Cuts, this disc was pleasing from the start. Lucky for me, I knew what Coldcut’s “Atomic Moog” sounded like from their previous 97’ release, Let Us Play, […]
From the opening sample of Sixtoo’s second Ninja Tune release Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man, its obvious he’ll be giving every geek head electronic junky the fix their collective veins beg for: a quirky little mindfuck of beat-laden experimentalism. What the Montreal-based sound maestro (aka Six Vicious) does on JaViEoM is completely fascinating. […]
It’s difficult to recall any band that has left me as hypnotized as British psych/space rock greats Ozric Tentacles. Aside from certain goa-trance or even Brian Eno’s Another Green World, Super Numeri has done just that. On their second Ninja Tune release, The Welcome Table, the Liverpool collective convincingly operates on a higher plane of […]
If there was ever a close cousin to DJ Shadow, Blockhead is definitely part of the family of culturally captivating and artistically complex hip-hop artists. As a producer for himself and on other projects, including Aesop Rock’s Labor Days and the new album, Blockhead actually gets outside of his head, drinking in his urban surroundings […]
Attention Coldcut fanatics! Let us all take a moment and Replay in our minds the pleasure of listening to Journey’s By DJ-70 Minutes Of Madness mix CD and Let Us Play. Remember when these brilliant concoctions of electronica left us in awe? And how Coldcut manages to combine elements of hip-hop, funk, electro, jungle, and […]
Really not a fan of funk, the self-description of Deptford (London)’s Pest leads off with the word scarily up-front; but I braved it, and I think you’ll be interested too. Fortunately, All Out Fall Out takes a surfeit of cues from good disco and old R&B—with its Wah-Wah’s and its killer-quick drum fills and its […]
About two decades ago, one of Rap music’s greatest champions (a guy named Russell) was working with Profile Records; he had helped to get his brother Joseph “Run” Simmons and two of his friends a record deal. Well, before you knew it, the trio called Run DMC broke this fledgling music genre wide open and […]
