Although techno (and its subsequent sub-genres) is now associated more with its white European exponents than its black American progenitors, Ultra Records’ new series of Public Enemy remixes (finally available in CD form this week) will remind you as much of Todd Terry and Derrick May as Paul Van Dyk or Ti DJ/remixers Don Diablo and Ferry Corsten (both Dutch), along with Benny Benassi (Italian), have updated two trenchant hip-hop manifestos for optimum exposure on multicultural dance floors around the globe. Continue reading “The Public Enemy Remix Project’s “Bring the Noise” b/w “Give It Up””
Tag: Village Voice
Solea Completes Jean-Claude Izzo’s Trilogy of Mediterranean Noir
With Solea, the third and final volume of his groundbreaking “Marseilles Trilogy,” out this month in English, Jean-Claude Izzo’s dark, revelatory portrait of the city of his birth is complete. Izzo died of cancer in 2000, but his strategically multiracial and pop-culture-savvy French crime novels spearheaded a Mediterranean noir movement that has since spread to Italy, Spain, Belgium, Algeria, and beyond. Although full of picturesque seasides, beautiful women, gourmet foods, and thriving rai and reggae nightclubs, Izzo’s town isn’t exactly the southern France of glossy tourist brochures or President Sarkozy’s conservative agenda. This is the young, disenfranchised, and disgruntled Marseilles that ultimately exploded in 2005’s nationwide race riots, provoked by National Front agitation and years of institutionalized oppression. Continue reading “Solea Completes Jean-Claude Izzo’s Trilogy of Mediterranean Noir”
Op-Education
| The Devil & Dave Chappelle By William Jelani Cobb Thunder’s Mouth Press, 321 pp., $15.95 |
If any of the topical essayists currently appearing in New York dailies were graced with the wit, sensitivity, and insight of William Jelani Cobb, I’d rush to the newsstands every morning. Never annoyingly glib, cranky, or prolix, this former Queens resident brings persuasive humor and scope to a range of topics that beggars the often sloppily framed polemics of Gotham’s op-ed-page pundits. Continue reading “Op-Education”
More Melting Pot Jams From Jovial L.A. Hip-Churners
| Ozomatli Don’t Mess With the Dragon Concord |
If you’re a giddy optimist like me, you hope to one day hear Ozomatli’s cheerfully rebellious politi-pop wafting from every car radio in New York City. Don’t Mess With the Dragon is a celebration of their native L.A. in all its multicultural vibrancy and socioeconomic volatility. Singing in both English and Spanish, toying with Tower of Power horn fills during “City of Angels,” paying homage to the polymorphous funk of New Orleans during “Magnolia Soul,” and lobbing tight rhymes amid their jam-band virtuosity throughout, Ozo’s 10-man crew salute the aural mosaic of ethnic signifiers that makes our country great. Continue reading “More Melting Pot Jams From Jovial L.A. Hip-Churners”
Various Blues Interpretations, From the Nuanced to the Masochistic
| The Holmes Brothers State of Grace Alligator Coco Montoya Vesta Williams |
When Led Zep covered Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie’s “When the Levee Breaks,” they thought they were making “rock ‘n’ roll.” When the Pointer Sisters covered Koko Taylor’s “Wang Dang Doodle,” they thought they were making “pop soul.” And when Kanye West looped a famous Ray Charles riff, he thought he was making “hip-hop.” This only goes to show how the blues has always been wide and dynamic enough to contain and/or presage almost every subsequent American musical style. So naturally, these three albums manage to sound very different but remain recognizable as fruit or flower of the same tree. Continue reading “Various Blues Interpretations, From the Nuanced to the Masochistic”
Pure Percussive Pleasure
Kenny and Louie’s joyous retro reboots dominate clubs and living rooms alike
Gotham’s hippest and happiest underground nightlife owes its origins to the ever-streetwise and affable duo of Brooklyn’s Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez and Bronx-bred “Little” Louie Vega, known officially (and appropriately) as Masters at Work. Consider Vega’s parties at Cielo, co-produced by West End Records honcho Kevin Hedge and attracting a who’s who of underground production talent from around the world, all dancing, drinking, slipping demos to the DJs, and networking like mad. Kenny, meanwhile, recently funked up the venue with a solo DJ set mixing r&b rarities with new and remixed tracks, days after his Masters at Work cohort returned from a festival stint in Europe. Continue reading “Pure Percussive Pleasure”
Outward Is Heaveward
Presenting gospel’s modern sounds in praise and worship
There’s so much going on in gospel music today that you may have missed when Kirk Franklin paused from promoting Hero, his latest chart-topping CD, to go on The Oprah Winfrey Show with his wife to discuss his triumph over video porn addiction. His point? To publicly reduce himself to an imperfect everyman who overcame a troublesome vice with the support of prayer and faith. Continue reading “Outward Is Heaveward”
Princely Digs
At home with His Royal Badness, who shows us his secret stash
| Prince 3121 Universal |
In his long-ago heyday Prince complimented Kid Creole’s backup girls by admiring how Adriana Kaegi “used every beat of the music in her choreography.” Evidence of that admiration loomed large this February on Saturday Night Live, when Prince’s new band broke into a fierce little fit o’ funk called “Fury” in which Mr. Nelson’s own distaff trio adopted several signature Coconut moves. Támar and her crew do Ikettes meet Isadora Duncan, while Adriana’s Coconuts did Ikettes meet the I-Threes. But you get the idea — just the way Prince wanted you to. Because as with all of Prince’s stylistic borrowings over the years, every strategic cross-reference is intentionally transparent. Continue reading “Princely Digs”
Slightly Grey Feisty Females Strut Their Sassiest Stuff: Saffire — The Uppity Blues Women’s Deluxe Edition
| Saffire — The Uppity Blues Women Deluxe Edition Alligator |
If you buy only one acoustic blues album this year, why not a best-of from a self-affirming trio of feisty females? Culled from six previous Alligator albums, Deluxe Edition by Saffire — the Uppity Blues Women lets these slightly gray ladies strut their top-drawer vocal and instrumental licks on an array of sassy originals and vintage covers reverentially resurrecting the “wild woman” legacy of Victoria Spivey, Ma Rainey, Sippie Wallace, and Bessie Smith. Where contemporary pop “bad girls” from Shakira to the Pussycat Dolls evoke the sensuality and spunk of the blues but none of its wisdom, Saffire lyrics provide all three. Their allegorical “Silver Beaver” is as sexually explicit as anything Lil’ Kim or Foxy Brown might record, just more elegantly phrased. As players they embrace every shade of difference between country, urban, and vaudeville blues, even veering toward country swing and gypsy jazz in “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby.” Omni-American and young at heart, Gayle, Anne, and Andra are as soulful as Alicia Keys, as defiant as the Runaways, and as heroic as the Dixie Chicks, with none of the career drawbacks of callow youth. Continue reading “Slightly Grey Feisty Females Strut Their Sassiest Stuff: Saffire — The Uppity Blues Women’s Deluxe Edition”
The ‘Other’ R&B
Sophistipop at summer’s end, remembering the glboal fusion of the ’70s
| Solu Music Affirmation Solu MusicSalomé de Bahia Brasil Tommy Boy |
Summer’s end provides the perfect release window for albums like Solu Music’s Affirmation and Salomé de Bahia’s Brasil. Deceptively light, eminently danceable club music, they feature the kinds of sexy, soulful arrangements I term “sophistipop” — and which might otherwise be dismissed as archaic, especially during a radio season wherein classic r&b quotes can sound woefully atavistic unless fronted by some amazingly skillful white vocalist or a rap star. Continue reading “The ‘Other’ R&B”