Tag: album reviews
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New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh album review – Erykah Badu
Badu’s 2008 album, New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War, attracted heaps of press, perhaps because it was her first release for five years. New Amerykah Part Two (Return Of The Ankh), in contrast, struggled to raise a murmur until… Badu got her kit off in a video. Cue much head scratching as fans tried […]
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Yesterday You Said Tomorrow album review – Christian Scott
Judging from Scott’s scowl on the album cover, you don’t want to mess with this dude. And when you hear his moody opener K.K.P.D. — which, incidentally, stands for “Klu Klux Police Department” — that impression is reinforced. Add to that, tracks entitled Jenacide and American’t, and you sense this 27-year-old New Orleans trumpeter has […]
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4hero presents EXTENSIONS – various artists (4hero)
When an artist records someone else’s song in the pop world, it’s called a “cover”; the same thing in dance circles is a “remix”. Now, judging by this release, there’s a third category: an “extension”. Strictly speaking, it’s neither a cover nor a remix because the original artists — in this case, Marc Mac and […]
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Two album review – Silhouette Brown
If you’re reading this review, you almost certainly belong to a clique of musos that already owns the eponymous debut album Silhouette Brown. Congratulations on unearthing that recording because Kaidi Tatham and Dego’s 2004 CD is among the world’s best kept secrets. It was the archetypal “cult hit” — fervently loved by few — and […]
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The Light album review – Deborah Jordan
If Janet Jackson had been born in England, she might have wound up sounding like Jordan. There’s a delicate quality to Jordan’s voice that brings to mind the wardrobe-malfunctioning starlet. Those similarities were never apparent when Jordan sang with broken beaters Silhouette Brown, but on this debut album the parallels are apt. The Light is […]
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Got The Bug 2 album review – Bugz In The Attic
Like Domu’s One Offs, Remixes And B Sides compilation, which shows off Dominic Stanton’s talents better than his solo album, Got The Bug 2 does the same for this west London collective. Their 2006 album Back In The Doghouse doesn’t quite reach the heights of 2004’s Got The Bug compilation or this superb follow-up. From […]
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Kamaal The Abstract album review – Q-Tip
There are several theories as to why the music industry is in a bind. One reason points to record company greed: it helped stoke the flames of piracy. Judging by the tortuous history of Kamaal The Abstract, we should add A&R incompetence to the list. In 2002, Arista Records shelved the album because it was […]
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BLACKsummers’ night album review – Maxwell
Eight years after Now, the Brooklyn-born sex god is back, minus the afro, to serenade any female within earshot. But before Maxwell became a statuesque bundle of erotic energy, it’s worth noting that there was more to him than a chiselled jawline and taut buttocks. Back in 1996, he released Urban Hang Suite, a coolly […]
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One Offs, Remixes And B-Sides album review – Domu
At the turn of the century, it seemed that on a weekly basis, another broken beat track was released on ground-breaking labels such as Bitasweet and Main Squeeze. The likes of IG Culture, Bugz In The Attic, Seiji, Mark de Clive-Lowe and Kaidi were putting out scores of singles. But what was unique about those […]
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The After Suite album review – Elan Mehler
This New York pianist looks like a jazz man, sounds like a jazz man, and yet makes music non-jazzers will love. The numerous vocal tracks on this album will reassure those who flee at the hint of a sax solo. Adam McBride-Smith’s voice perfectly complements the floaty, melodic ballads of The New Breed and I Want To Leave […]