July 31, 2021

Bif Naked - Purge (2001)

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Country: Canada
Language: English
Genre: Indie Rock
Label Number: CD 83509

© 2001 Lava/Atlantic
For Canadian "riot grrrl" extraordinaire Bif Naked, mixing punk, pop, and the sound du jour has become second nature. Although many dismiss her embrace of more accessible forms of punk as selling out, she's out to prove that it's more a result of her growth as both a songwriter and an individual. With each album, she seems to get more comfortable opening up musically and emotionally, and Purge is no exception. With the album's prevailing theme of self-empowerment, Bif Naked walks a fine line between wanting more and having enough. On songs like "Tango Shoes" and "I Love Myself Today" (the latter being co-written by über-producer Desmond Child), Naked is bold, self-assured, and optimistic. On "October Song" and "You Are the Master," she explores her humility while searching for acceptance and guidance. She leaves a lasting impression with the album's final song, "Religion," exposing a raw sincerity while singing "I am naked before you. Look at me." Musically, Purge soars. It's a polished and more realized update of the raw and energetic sounds that made Naked's previous releases so enjoyable. The album does have some slower moments, but they are neatly slipped between the large helping of all-out rockers. Combining slick songwriting with a set of some of her most honest and self-explorative lyrics to-date, Bif Naked intrigues and entertains with a worthy follow-up to I Bificus.

tags: bif naked, purge, 2001, flac,
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Juliana Hatfield - Made In China (2005)

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Indie Rock
Label Number: YOR-002

© 2005 Ye Olde Records
Around the summer 2005 release of Made in China, Juliana Hatfield posted a gutsy, revealing letter on her website. In it she writes proudly of the album's ragged feel, of her role as producer, of having released it through her own Ye Olde imprint. But there's also a weird, rambling defensiveness to the note. "People can buy this record or not," she writes. "I don't care. Or at least I pretend not to care. But I do care." She goes on to condemn artistic greed, industrial pollution, and the pressure on female artists to market themselves sexually. And then in her usual cynical fashion Hatfield winks at the whole notion, putting a photo of herself in a bathtub into the album's booklet. Made in China is as honest and unadorned as that letter. It unmasks her empty feelings on love (the slithery, dispassionate breakup song "On Video") and hate for a poisoned world ("Rats in the Attic," which musically is this record's closest amalgam to her past work), and in its strikingly direct recording quality it reacts to 2004's In Exile Deo, which despite being her strongest album in a long time was a little over-produced. For all these things China is terrifically rewarding. It's raw -- like a home-recording genius blistering the dry wall with four-track recordings, the solo confessionals "A Doe and Two Fawns" and "Send Money" shatter silence with twining tones and sly lyrics. ("If you want to pray for me, tell God to send me some money," goes the latter.) It bashes -- "What Do I Care" features the Boston band Unbusted and mulls over Hatfield's alternative rock darling past. And she considers whether any of it mattered, whether she was exploited, and whether or not she even cares in retrospect. She's accepting of those days, but rightly pissed that she'll be compared to them forever. In Exile Deo was her arrival as a mature, seen-it-all-and-still-wondering songwriter. But China is the truly unguarded version of that idea in both sound and song. Opener "New Waif" establishes that. As the music builds and bristles, Hatfield sings of love and missed chances, and the filter on her voice makes a total nonfactor of that girlish quality everybody used to fawn over so much. She's the new version of herself, the now version, and what does she care if you don't like it? But you will.

tags: juliana hatfield, made in china, 2005, flac,
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Juliana Hatfield - How To Walk Away (2008)

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Indie Rock
Label Number: YOR006

© 2008 Ye Olde Records
Age agrees with Juliana Hatfield, lending an alluring huskiness to her girlish voice, a weariness to her love songs, and an assurance to her writing. All this is evident on How to Walk Away, a candidly confessional work that perhaps not so coincidentally arrives just before the publication of Hatfield's autobiography, When I Grow Up. How to Walk Away abounds with self-examination but it's not a journey through her back pages -- it's a break-up album. Hatfield doesn't focus on the aftermath of a doomed relationship but rather the process of a messy split, turning in a loose song cycle about love, lust, and loss, filled with false finishes, halted new beginnings, retreads and reversals. Romance and reflection aren't uncommon to Hatfield -- she's never shied away from unrequited crushes or moments of self-doubt -- but here she reveals a resigned caustic wit and sly eye for detail, something that renders the slow dissolving romance on "My Baby..." quite heartbreaking and turns "Just Lust" into a withering dismissal. When Hatfield launched her solo career at the start of the '90s, she couldn't quite deliver such bluntly carnal tunes as her voice quivered with insecurities, which was an appropriate match for the fragility of her jangle pop. Such delicate situations seem in the distant past on How to Walk Away, as there's a tattered edge to her voice and a growing complexity to her craft. She still is foremost a pop songwriter, turning out songs as melodically bracing as "Now I'm Gone," but she balances this jangling pop with slower, folky tunes, occasionally dipping into jazzy after-hours textures, then channeling all her aggression into the nasty, sneering "So Alone," as powerful a rocker as she's ever cut. These shifts in mood are made vivid by a production that has just enough color and detail -- looped rhythms or synthesizers, duets with Richard Butler and Nada Surf's Matthew Caws -- to turn these recordings into full-blooded realizations of Hatfield's heartbreaking, witheringly funny songs, giving How to Walk Away a sense of musical momentum that suits its emotional heft. It's a tight, cohesive record with a subtle but undeniable resonance, a record that Juliana Hatfield always seemed on the verge of delivering and finally has.

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The Beatnuts - A Musical Massacre (1999)

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label Number: REK-11722 (Club Edition)

© 1999 Loud Records
The fourth offering from the rambunctious hip-hop junkies the Beatnuts is an all-out assault on the eardrums. This is crack-open-a-party music, with beats that have been chiseled with a Latin feel. Lyrics are rough, rugged, and raunchy. Songs like "Watch Out Now" and "Turn It Out" (featuring Greg Nice) are just plain fun, as close to feel-good music as hardcore hip-hop gets. Other tracks that will satisfy include "Puffin' on a Cloud," "You're a Clown" (featuring Biz Markie), "Buddah in the Air," and the Spanglish headsplitter "Se Acabo." Even the thematic "Look Around," a departure from the Beatnuts' usual hedonistic content, is a pleasant surprise. The true core of the Beatnuts' sound is their fleshy, textured beats, which are dense and dipped in cannabis -- flutes, synthesizers, and various percussion instruments seem to float over and around deep drum machine kicks and snares. Swelling with an eclectic assortment of hypnotic sounds, A Musical Massacre is among 1999's most entertaining hip-hop albums.

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tags: the beatnuts, a musical massacre, 1999, flac,
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LL Cool J - Walking With a Panther (1995 Reissue)

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*Reissued in 1995 by Def Jam Records. 
Contains 18 tracks total.
Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label Number: 314 527 355-2

© 1989-1995 Def Jam Records
Released at a time when hip-hop's anxieties about crossover success were at a fever pitch, Walking With a Panther found LL Cool J trying to reinvent his sound while building on the commercial breakthrough of Bigger and Deffer. Even though the album succeeded on both counts, it did so in a way that didn't sit well with hip-hop purists, who began to call LL's credibility into question. Their fears about commercialism diluting the art form found a focal point in LL, the man who pioneered the rap ballad -- and there are in fact three ballads here, all of them pretty saccharine (and, tellingly, none of them singles). Apart from that, some of the concerns now seem like much ado about nothing, and there are numerous fine moments (and a few great singles) to be found on the album. It is true, though, that Walking With a Panther does end up slightly less than the sum of its parts. For one thing, it's simply too long; moreover, the force of his early recordings is missing, and there's occasionally a sense that his once-peerless technique on the mic is falling behind the times. Nonetheless, Walking With a Panther is still a fine outing on which LL proves himself a more-than-capable self-producer. The fuller, more fleshed-out sound helps keep his familiar b-boy boasts sounding fresh, and force or no force, he was in definite need of an update. On the singles -- "Going Back to Cali," "I'm That Type of Guy" (inexplicably left off All World), "Jingling Baby," and "Big Ole Butt" -- LL exudes an effortless cool; he's sly, assured, and in full command of a newfound sexual presence on record. So despite its flaws, Walking With a Panther still ranks as one of LL's stronger albums -- strong enough to make the weak moments all the more frustrating.

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tags: ll cool j, walking with a panther, 1989, 1995 reissue, flac,
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LL Cool J - Radio (1995 Reissue)

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*Reissued in 1995 by Def Jam Records. 
Contains 11 tracks total.
Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label Number: 314 527 352-2

© 1985-1995 Def Jam Records
Run-D.M.C. was the first rap act to produce cohesive, fully realized albums, and LL Cool J was the first to follow in their footsteps. LL was a mere 17 years old when he recorded his classic debut album Radio, a brash, exuberant celebration of booming beats and B-boy attitude that launched not only the longest career in hip-hop, but also Rick Rubin's seminal Def Jam label. Rubin's back-cover credit ("Reduced by Rick Rubin") is an entirely apt description of his bare-bones production style. Radio is just as stripped-down and boisterously aggressive as any Run-D.M.C. album, sometimes even more so; the instrumentation is basically just a cranked-up beatbox, punctuated by DJ scratching. There are occasional brief samples, but few do anything more than emphasize a downbeat. The result is rap at its most skeletal, with a hard-hitting, street-level aggression that perfectly matches LL's cocksure teenage energy. Even the two ballads barely sound like ballads, since they're driven by the same slamming beats. Though they might sound a little squared-off to modern ears, LL's deft lyrics set new standards for MCs at the time; his clever disses and outrageous but playful boasts still hold up poetically. Although even LL himself would go on to more intricate rhyming, it isn't really necessary on such a loud, thumping adrenaline rush of a record. Radio was both an expansion of rap's artistic possibilities and a commercial success (for its time), helping attract new multiracial audiences to the music. While it may take a few listens for modern ears to adjust to the minimalist production, the fact that it hews so closely to rap's basic musical foundation means that it still possesses a surprisingly fresh energy, and isn't nearly as dated as many efforts that followed it (including, ironically, some of LL's own).

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tags: ll cool j, radio, 1985, 1995, reissue, flac,
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LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out (1994 Reissue)

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*Reissued in 1994 by Def Jam Records. 
Contains 14 tracks total.
Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label Number: 314 523 477-2

© 1990-1994 Def Jam Records
Increasingly dismissed by hip-hop fans as an old-school relic and a slick pop sellout, LL Cool J rang in the '90s with Mama Said Knock You Out, a hard-edged artistic renaissance that became his biggest-selling album ever. Part of the credit is due to producer Marley Marl, whose thumping, bass-heavy sound helps LL reclaim the aggression of his early days. Mama Said Knock You Out isn't quite as hard as Radio, instead striking a balance between attitude and accessibility. But its greater variety and more layered arrangements make it LL's most listenable album, as well as keeping it in line with more contemporary sensibilities. Marl's productions on the slower tracks are smooth and soulful, but still funky; as a result, the ladies'-man side of LL's persona is the most convincing it's ever been, and his ballads don't feel sappy for arguably the first time on record. Even apart from the sympathetic musical settings, LL is at his most lyrically acrobatic, and the testosterone-fueled anthems are delivered with a force not often heard since his debut. The album's hits are a microcosm of its range -- "The Boomin' System" is a nod to bass-loving b-boys with car stereos; "Around the Way Girl" is a lush, winning ballad; and the title cut is one of the most blistering statements of purpose in hip-hop. It leaves no doubt that Mama Said Knock You Out was intended to be a tour de force, to regain LL Cool J's credibility while proving that he was still one of rap's most singular talents. It succeeded mightily, making him an across-the-board superstar and cementing his status as a rap icon beyond any doubt.

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tags: ll cool j, mama said knock you out, 1994, flac,
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LL Cool J - 14 Shots To The Dome (1993)

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Style: Pop Rap
Label Number: CK 53325

© 1993 Def Jam Records
It's not the tour de force of Mama Said Knock You Out, but 14 Shots to the Dome is a solid effort finding LL Cool J maturing gracefully and strongly, without selling out. 14 Shots may not have sold as well as Mama either, but at least half of the album ranks with his best work.

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Bitch Magnet - Ben Hur (1990)

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Post Hardcore
Label Number: COMM 21CD

© 1990 Communion Label
On their final recording, Bitch Magnet moves away from their streamlined noise attack to wallow in a messier, more open-ended sound; their songs stretch out as well, with the opening "Dragon" clocking in at over nine minutes in length. Ben Hur also exhibits a considerable expansion of the group's sonic range -- "Mesentery" is a blast of pure noise power, while the beautiful "Crescent" presages Sooyoung Park's more atmospheric work in his next project, the superior Seam.

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She Stole My Beer - Sparks off The Guardrail (1993)

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Country: Canada
Language: English
Genre: Indie Rock
Label Number: SMCD 608

© 1993 Spinner Records
*No professional reviews are available for this release.

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She Stole My Beer - Mule (1995)

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Country: Canada
Language: English
Genre: Indie Rock
Label Number: SSMD6148

© 1995 FACTOR
*No professional reviews are available for this release.

tags: she stole my beer, mule, 1995, flac,
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S.H.E. - 3's A Charm (Promo C.D.) (1997)

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*Promotional disc. 
Contains 14 tracks total. 
A photo of the disc is included in the RAR file.
Country: U.S.A.
Genre: R&B
Label Number: INT3P-6162
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© 1997 T.W.IsM./Tauma/Interscope
*No professional reviews are available for this release

tags: she, 3s a charm, promo disc, 1997, flac, s.h.e.
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Buddha Klan - Big Al Presents Da Buddha Klan (1996) ⚓

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*A photo of the disc is included in the RAR file.
Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Style: G-Funk
Label Number: PRO-1468-2
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© 1996 Profile Records
*No professional reviews are available for this release.


 
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tags: buddha klan, big al presents the buddha klan, clan, 1996, flac,
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July 30, 2021

Menelik - Je Me Souviens (1997)

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Country: France
Language: French (le français)
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label Number: SMA 487858 3

© 1997 Small/Sony Music France
*No professional reviews are available for this release.

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Doggy's Angels - Pleezbaleevit! (2000)

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Style: Pop Rap, Gangsta Rap
Label Number: TVT 2130-2

© 2000 TVT Records
Doggys Angels, proteges of hip-hop superstar Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle Records, are out to dispel any stereotypes about girl-group passivity. The girls throw down from song one on their debut, PLEEZBALEEVIT! Powerful rhymes, thumpin' tracks and cool hooks are everywhere.

Snoop calls on some of the West Coast's finest producers to put beats together, including Battlecat ("Baby If You're Ready"), Fredwreck Nassar ("Bet I Never Slip"), and Meech Wells ("Frontline"). He also cajoles guest appearances from homies such as Nate Dogg ("Curios"), Tha Eastsidaz ("Game to Get Over"), and Layzie Bone ("Pleezbaleevit!"). PLEEZBALEEVIT! is a sharp, impressive debut.

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tags: doggys angels, pleezbaleevit, please believe it, 2000, flac,
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Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030 (2000)

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*U.S. first pressing. 
Contains 21 tracks total.
Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label Number: 75033

© 2000 75 Ark
The heir apparent to eccentric production wizard Prince Paul, Dan the Automator's left-field conceptual brilliance rapidly made him a hero to underground hip-hop fans. For the Deltron 3030 project, he teamed up with likeminded MC Del tha Funkee Homosapien and turntablist Kid Koala, both cult favorites with a similarly goofy sense of humor. Deltron 3030's self-titled debut is exactly what you might expect from such a teaming: a wildly imaginative, unabashedly geeky concept album about interplanetary rap warriors battling to restore humanity's hip-hop supremacy in a corporate-dominated dystopia (or something like that). It's difficult to follow the concept all the way through, but it hardly matters, because Deltron 3030 is some of the best work both Del and Dan have ever done. In fact, it's the Automator's most fully realized production effort to date, filled with sumptuous, densely layered soundscapes that draw on his classical background and, appropriately, often resemble a film score. For his part, Del's performance here revitalized his reputation, thanks to some of his best, most focused work in years. Long known for his abstract, dictionary-busting lyrics, Del proves he can even rhyme in sci-fi technospeak, and the overarching theme keeps his more indulgent impulses in check. Plus, there's actually some relevant commentary to be unearthed from all the oddball conceptual trappings; in fact, Deltron 3030 is probably the closest hip-hop will ever come to an equivalent of Terry Gilliam's Brazil. The album boasts cameos by Damon Albarn (on the proto-Gorillaz "Time Keeps on Slipping"), Prince Paul, MC Paul Barman, and Sean Lennon, among others, but the stellar turns by its two main creators are the focus. It's not only one of the best albums in either of their catalogs, but one of the best to come out of the new underground, period.

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tags: deltron 3030, deltron 3030 album, 2000, flac,
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The Juliana Hatfield Three - Whatever, My Love (2015)

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Country: U.S.A
Genre: Alternative Rock
Label Number: ALR-0035

© 2015 American Laundromat Records
The Juliana Hatfield Three released only one album, so it's hard to say that the trio built a long legacy that warrants a comeback 22 years later. Nevertheless, the JHT's 1993 album Become What You Are did mark a high point of sorts for Hatfield, becoming her first album to chart in the Billboard 200, so it's a touchstone for a significant chunk of her audience and, as it turns out, there is indeed a difference between a Juliana Hatfield album and a Juliana Hatfield Three album. Whatever, My Love -- the two-decade-delayed second album by the JHT -- is her first to trade so heavily in stripped-down, hooky guitar jangle since Become What You Are, so the album immediately demonstrates that bassist Dean Fisher and drummer Todd Philips form a genuine band with Juliana and don't merely function as her supporting cast. If the sound of Whatever, My Love does indeed contain echoes of 1993, it's also very much its own thing, a tougher, flintier, and better record than its predecessor, one that benefits from the explorations Hatfield has made in the past decade. By marrying her wry, world-weary songs to the brighter, optimistic punch of the JHT, Hatfield winds up with a record that delivers a hard, immediate hit -- particularly on the cynical pop "Ordinary Guy" and grind of "If Only We Were Dogs" -- but leaves a lasting scar that's soothed by the melodies and that ringing, hooky pop that is often labeled as collegiate but now feels deeper and richer in the hands of rockers who never deny their impending middle age. In other words, it's the best kind of reunion because it's not only lacking in nostalgia, it shows that some things can be better the second time around.

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Various Artists - Independent 20 - Volume 14 (1992)

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Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock
Label Number: TT014CD

© 1992 Beechwood Music
*No professional reviews are available for this release.

tags: various artists, independent 20 volume 14, vol 14, 1992, flac,
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Juliana Hatfield - Bed (1998)

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Indie Rock
Label Number: 01143-1001-2

© 1998 Zoë Records
Despite a promising start, the world of major labels did not treat Juliana Hatfield well. Become What You Are generated a handful of alt-rock hits, but its follow-up, Only Everything, barely registered, and her third album for Mammoth/Atlantic, God's Foot, was never released. Frustrated, she severed ties with Mammoth/Atlantic and released a tension-breaking EP, Please Do Not Disturb, for Bar/None in 1997 before following with her fourth official solo album, Bed, in late summer 1998. Recorded in just three days, Bed has an immediacy lacking in all of her albums since Hey Babe, but truth be told, there's little to stylistically differentiate it from any of her records. Hatfield remains loyal to jangly guitar pop dusted with the occasional grungy guitars, and she still balances precariously between charmingly innocent and cloying, which can often disguise the subversive themes or tortured emotions of her songs. For much of the album she's in good form, delivering strong songs with memorable melodies, but she fails to keep the momentum going throughout Bed, which has been a common problem on all of her records since Hey Babe. There are enough good songs to make it worthwhile for the committed fan, but at this point, unfortunately, those are the only ones who are still listening.

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Juliana Hatfield - Beautiful Creature (2000)

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Indie Rock
Label Number: 01143-1011-2

© 2000 Zoë/Island Records
Considering that Juliana Hatfield hadn't been a serious contender for either the alt-rock charts or critical acclaim since 1995's Only Everything, her simultaneous release of two new albums in the spring of 2000 was slightly puzzling. Surely, her dedicated cult would purchase both at once, but it was too much music for anyone outside of her hardcore following. To her credit, Beautiful Creature and its sibling Total System Failure was not one album spread over two lengthy records, but two albums with their own distinctive characters. Beautiful Creature is a return to classic, Hey Babe-era Hatfield, whereas Total System Failure is a loud rock album. It was almost as if Hatfield couldn't decide which approach would make for a stronger comeback in 2000, so she put them both out. Of the two, Beautiful Creature is not only the superior record, it's the best album she's made since made since the heyday of Hey Babe. Melodic, wistful, whimsical, reflective, yet clever, the album showcases Hatfield at her peak, crafting fragile, endearing post-jangle pop songs that reveal themselves shyly and sweetly. Her girlish voice and almost painfully introspective vantage may still be an acquired taste, but she hasn't sounded as focused and consistently tuneful as she has here in many a year.

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Juliana Hatfield - Juliana's Pony: Total System Failure (2000)

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Country: United States
Genre: Indie Rock
Label Number: 01143-1012-2

© 2000 Zoë/Island Records
If Beautiful Creature captured Juliana Hatfield at the peak of her powers, its companion piece Total System Failure -- a band effort by her latest power trio, Juliana's Pony - is its polar opposite. Messy, noisy, directionless, and painfully shy on both tunes and purpose, it's the sonic representation of Hatfield's id unleashed. She makes a lot of noise, releases a lot of angst, tries to rock -- and winds up sounding a bit like a parody. Take a track like "Houseboy," where she tries her hand at satire with a bit of reverse sexism as she pines for a boy that will wait on her hand and foot. On paper, this reads well, but the lyrics are thuddingly obvious, plodding nearly as heavily as the lumbering music. This is not an isolated example, just the most egregious misstep on an album full of them. Arriving at the same time as the lovely, measured Beautiful Creature, Total System Failure is a reminder why Hatfield never became the star some predicted she would be at the height of alterna-mania in 1993: her desire to rock undercuts the very gifts that make her tuneful, ringing guitar pop appealing. This time around, it's rather fortunate that she divided the two parts of her personality between two records. It may result in a dud like Total System Failure, but it's also given us the fine Beautiful Creature.

tags: juliana hatfield, julianas pony total system failure, 2000, flac,
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Juliana Hatfield - In Exile Deo (2004) ☠

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Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Alternative Rock
Label Number: 01143-1037-2
 ☠: Selected by Lass
© 2004 Zoë Records
Juliana Hatfield's solo career has been a bit erratic. Touted as the next big thing at the peak of the alt-rock revolution of the early '90s, as the genre fell out of fashion in the latter half of the '90s, so did Hatfield, acrimoniously parting ways with her major label, Atlantic, and returning to the indie leagues. It took her awhile to find her footing as an indie cult artist, but as the new millennium began, she released the appealingly modest Beautiful Creature, which suggested the beginning of a comeback. After a detour with the female alt-rock supergroup Some Girls, she returned refreshed with In Exile Deo, her strongest album in years, rivaling her indie pop breakthrough, Hey Babe. Where that record was sweet and innocent, an outgrowth of the collegiate jangle pop of the '80s, this is a harder record in nearly every sense, from the louder guitars to her world-weary attitude. In the best sense, Hatfield sounds mature for the first time, bringing together the precious pop and ringing rock that she had compartmentalized on the simultaneously released Beautiful Creature and Total System Failure, and writing with a wry, knowing sense of irony. The love affairs and failed relationships she chronicles on the 13 songs resonate with revealing details, reflecting a bruised, bittersweet heart. Her voice has rough edges, lending the album a sense of gravity, and the production is similarly lively and ragged, and that's why In Exile Deo is exciting and fun even if all the songs are about dysfunctional relationships. Plus, it doesn't hurt that the songs are assuredly melodic and memorable, arguably her most consistent set of tunes to date, making this not just a pleasant surprise but an album that grows in stature with repeated listens. Even though this is surely one of her two best albums, it's possible that Juliana Hatfield in the mid-'90s is no more than a cult artist -- frankly, it suits her better than the ingénue of the early '90s -- but listeners who came of age during the alt-rock revolution and were disappointed, even outraged, at Liz Phair's Matrix makeover in 2003 should find In Exile Deo is exactly what they were looking for.

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DJ Krush - 漸 Zen (2001)

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Country: Japan
Genre: Hip-Hop, Instrumental
Label Number: 498027 2

© 2001 Columbia Records
For Zen, Japanese producer/mixer DJ Krush works his way into a vision of sublime, downbeat hip-hop that's a snug fit with the title. The opening "Song 1" is an irresistible slice of trance-state trip-hop, with the cascading notes of a vibraphone and flute perfectly complementing the atmospheric grooves. Krush also continues the collaborational bent of previous LPs, with hip-hop heads Black Thought and ?uestlove from the Roots (appearing on separate tracks), Company Flow, and DJ Disk alongside left-field choices Zap Mama, N'Dea Davenport, and trumpeter Kazufumi Kodama. On these tracks, the beats and effects are more pointed than on the opener and, as in the past, DJ Krush proves he's a stellar jack-of-all-trades trackmaster. The tuneless bassline and production gloom surrounding "Vision of Art" are the perfect bedrock for hardcore paranoiacs Company Flow, while the frenetic, quasi-jungle programming on "Sonic Traveler" only highlights the incredible flair of guest Tunde Ayanyemi (on kudi and bata drums). And while any other hip-hop producer would burn out on at least a few collaborations, Krush just keeps turning out excellent song beds: for DJ Disk on "Duck Chase," for Zap Mama on "Danger of Love," and for Kazufumi Kodama on "Day's End." All these great appearances make any disappointment caused by the lack of solo jaunts after "Song 1" practically nil.

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DJ Krush - 深層 The Message At The Depth (2002)

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Country: Japan
Genre: Hip-Hop, Instrumental
Label Number: WK71052

© 2002 RED Ink
In the world of independent hip-hop, artists either trailblaze like Quasimoto and El-P or salute their forebears like Blackalicious and Jurassic 5. Japanese breaks maestro DJ Krush is a curious exception to the rule; he seems virtually unaffected by trends yet encompasses many of them in his productions, and offers something different with virtually each release. Similar to lauded underground labels from Def Jux to Big Dada, The Message at the Depth is underground rap for the digital age, far removed from the moldy crates and dusty beats of Krush's Mo' Wax classic Strictly Turntablized. His beats are digital, heavily resampled and quantized, splintering off like drum'n'bass patterns but possessing a depth and clarity not seen since the heyday of Massive Attack. And with far fewer collaborations here than on his last record, Zen, there's more room to hear Krush at his best. A pair of instrumentals, the dark breaks symphonies "Sanity Requiem" and "The Blackhole," fare much better than the high-profile vocal features for Antipop Consortium and Anticon, which add surprisingly little to the proceedings. Anticon's collaboration, the stoner nightmare "Song for John Walker," is a sub-Cannibal Ox performance; even DJ Krush can't put together a production to make them sound relevant. The best rapping comes from Japanese MC Inden, who gets his point across on "Toki No Tabiji (Journey of Time)" without needing to resort to English. "But the World Moves On" is the only track to look back to the same grooves heard on Zen, with bassist D-Madness and alto Masato Nakamura helping Krush conjure a dark Asiatic vibe.

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tags: dj krush, the message at the depth, 2002,
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