Category Archives: Hip Hop/Rap
Praxis – Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness) (Music Review)
Praxis
Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness)
M.O.D.
Rating: 2.3 out of 5
Link: M.O.D. Technologies home page (currently inactive)
When this stuff was new (back in the early 90s, in the middle of the grunge revolution), Praxis was something of a revelation.
Keyboardist Bernie Worrell (Parliament-Funkadelic) was the mainstream anchor to a weird bunch of misfits that included famed producer Bill Laswell (Material), a session drummer who goes by the name “Brain,” and the enigmatic speed guitar virtuoso, Buckethead (who to this day performs wearing a featureless white mask and a bucket on his head). Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) explored the space where speed metal, hip hop, and free jazz met. It was a skronky, sprawling mess of a record that was nevertheless able to captivate the adventurous listener.
By 2005, thirteen years later, the Praxis project had apparently run its course with the recording of Profanation: Preparation for a Coming Darkness. The core lineup of Lasswell, Worrell, Brain, and Buckethead, was on board. High profile guest vocalists (Iggy Pop, Serj Tankian, Killah Priest, and Mike Patton) were brought in to breathe fire into several of the songs. And then… nothing. It took three years for the record to see any sort of release, and when it did, it was in Japan only. Although by 2009 the record was available digitally in the US, it wasn’t until this year that Laswell himself was able to physically release the record here.
One of the rules of rock and roll is if a record’s release gets held up for more than a year, there’s a reason for it. And if it’s held up more than five years, that reason will be painfully apparent when you finally get a chance to listen to it.
Profanation is not an exception to that rule. It’s a sprawling mess of ideas and unfocused execution, made listeneable by the sheer talent of the guys in the room. Not surprisingly, the strongest tracks are the cluster featuring the high profile guest artists. “Furies” would fit in nicely on any latter-day Iggy Pop record, as he croons over Buckethead’s aptly crunchy licks. Killah Priest rhymes over a fairly traditional funky/jazzy hip hop track that sounds entirely out of place as an intro to Serj Tankian’s wailing “Sulfur and Cheese” — which itself sounds like nothing more than a System Of A Down studio outtake. And therein lies the main problem with this record: it very much sounds like it was recorded in the mid-aughts, and its datedness is a distraction. A listener’s tolerance for this sort of wankery depends to a great degree on the nostalgia associated with the time and place it was first experienced.
Profanation suggests a seven year gap (even a cognitive one) is a bit too much to overcome.
The Jukebox – alpha.live (Produced by J. Brookinz) – Smokin’
(Click on label to listen to the song)
Links:
alpha.live – http://twitter.com/alphaisforever
J. Brookinz – http://twitter.com/jbrookinz
Heavy Gun – http://heavygun.blogspot.com/
Indiana’s self-proclaimed rap leviathan, alpha.live has treated 2011 like a lion. This smooth-tongued lyrical master’s gentle roar is like a train only to pick up steam. Lately, he has teamed up with the creative and talented beat producer J. Brookinz to create a powerful song that fuels classic Hip Hop style with a progressive twist that will be sure to make you want more. alpha.live’s experience in lyrical freestylin’ only pays off on a song like this.
The Six Shot EP is alpha.live and J. Brookinz at their finest and is sure to please everyone. Confidence is the game, and their confidence shines on these songs.
Philadelphia Slick – Everything’s Game (Music Review)
Philadelphia Slick
Everything’s Game
Paper Garden Records
Rating: 3 out of 5
Link: http://philadelphiaslick.com/
Snubbing their nose at all the fantastical Rap and Hip Hop that saturates the radio airwaves, Philadelphia Slick believes in a better place; a place of realism and hard-lined philosophy that is there to help all of us become better people. Everything’s Game is not here to throw a bunch of “Yeahs” at you or build a song based on repetition, but they do want you to throw your hands up in the air and that’s a good thing.
Not as cool and unified as Automato and not standing out like A Tribe Called Quest, although they probably lean more toward The Light Movement than anything else, they make modest Hip Hop that is accessibly pleasing, yet by throughing in enough “f” words it gives the illusion that they mean business.
Not that you won’t find any resolve here by the end of it all, their album is a gritty approach that serves as favorable indie Rap. Hang the DJ is right in their eyes because those rap stars on the radio do nothing for their lives, and they will be the first to tell you.
The Glitch Mob – Drink The Sea Part 2: The Mixtape (The Jukebox)
Click the label to download the mix
From the stage to the dance floor to America’s Got Talent, the electronic powerhouse has been storming the world with their dance-infected grooves and deep-cut bass.
As a bonus to their well-received release Drink The Sea, the band — along with Мишка — presents Drink The Sea Part 2: The Mixtape. Expect the party to keep going when you put this blend of Glitch Mob-fused electro glitch and Hip Hop vocal stylings in the stereo. Here’s a play-by-play:
1. ANIMUS VOX vs. NAS, JAY-Z, LIL WAYNE & DR. DRE
2. FORTUNE DAYS vs. LIL WAYNE, BUSTA RHYMES, THE GAME, DAFT PUNK & DRAKE
3. WE SWARM vs. M.I.A., MOBB DEEP & DAFT PUNK
4. HOW TO BE EATEN BY A WOMAN vs. THE GAME, FABOLOUS, JAY-Z, PAGE, WALE & DRAKE
5. A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM vs. LFO, FREDDIE GIBBS, & YOUNG JEEZY
6. BETWEEN TWO POINTS feat. SWAN vs. LIL WAYNE
7.BAD WINGS vs. LIL WAYNE & LA ROUX
8. FISTFUL OF SILENCE vs. RAPPER BIG POOH, JAY-Z & BLACK ROB
9. STARVE THE EGO FEED THE SOUL vs. PAUL WALL & BIRDMAN
10. DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT vs. BIRDMAN, DRAKE, COLLIE BUDDZ, THE GAME, JAY-Z, DR. DRE, JIM JONES & BOO
Glitch Mob will be invading The Vogue in Indianapolis, September 13 on the End of Summer Tour.
The Disco Biscuits – Planet Anthem (Music Review)
The Disco Biscuits
Planet Anthem
Diamond Riggs
Rating: 3.3 out of 5
Link: http://www.discobiscuits.com/
Here in their fifteenth year of activity, The Disco Biscuits continue to load up ubiquitous genres in the trunk with their fifth studio album Planet Anthem. Once holding deep roots in the soils of jammy incongruity, this collection flutters high in the sky with breezes of melody and intelligent song craft. Featuring plenty of East Coast hip hop vibe, Planet Anthem is a rambunctious busybody; the fruits of which spawned from collaborations in the recently purchased Philadelphia studio space once owned by DJ Jazzy Jeff.
Appointing big name producers and other outside hands, such as Don Cheegro and Dirty Harry and Roc-A-Fella’s co-founder Damon Dash, maintains the fatty sheen of gaudy production. How appropriate, however.
Electro hop “On Time” is on deck for the pop charts with the lead vocal track sheathed in dripping Auto-Tune and one of the most toothsome breakdowns you will hear. “You and I” sounds 3OH!3-approved with pandemic hooks and teasing drum breaks. Arabian nuances add refreshing mystique to the otherworldly trance of “Über Glue”. Tracks “The City” and opener “Loose Change” can be heard influenced by countless white-boy underground hip hop records of the past decade and a half.
Verse for verse, “Fish Out of Water” is as close to indie rock as they get; however, the chorus falls back upon something that could of come from the Fun Lovin’ Criminals canon—minus the politics, of course.
The Disco Biscuits run the gamut from synth-rock to electronica to alternative hip hop. So wildly all over the place, it’s amazing how everything gels together. While lyrically nothing to write home about, Planet Anthem is still replete with convivial, radio-friendly pop songs.
