Until Missy Elliott purchased sampling rights to Cybotron’s “Clear” for her “Lose Control” single in the summer of 2005, more people had heard of Juan Atkins than actually heard him. Over the past two decades, fans and music scholars have cast him in mythic proportions, reciting his achievements like oratory…

Cut Chemist’s The Audience’s Listening could be from a time capsule buried in 1998, when epic instrumental albums like Return of the DJ and Q-Bert’ s Wave Twisters were all the rage. And that’s a good thing. Unfairly maligned in recent years as a province of bedroom geeks disconnected from…

Long considered one of the most popular dance artists in the nation, with a Grammy to his credit (he won in 2002 for remixing No Doubt’s “Hella Good”), barrel-chested Roger Sanchez is a health nut who likes to decompress in the gym. He’s beloved by some Miamians for hosting the…

Anthony Hamilton wants to tell you something. “God is more important than I am in my life, more important than my wife, my kids, my family, and my friends. God centers me.” So there it is. Hamilton wants to spread the Word of God. The 35-year-old singer readily admits, “He…

Much of Calexico’s Garden Ruin is bland and muted. Many of its songs are slow and sonorous, but not in a good way. It isn’t because of Joey Burns’s small, unassuming voice, which is evocative in a heartfelt way, nor is it the band’s musical abilities, which are sharp. It’s…

“What you know about purple drank/What you know about poppin’ trunk, neon lights, and candy paint,” raps Paul Wall on “They Don’t Know,” his 2004 kaleidoscope of Houston’s rap landscape. “What you know about white shirts, starched-down jeans with a razor crease/Platinum and gold on top our teeth/Big old chains…

With Expressions (2012 a.u.), Los Angeles MC-turned-crooner Dudley Perkins improves on his solid 2003 album, A Lil’ Light. For one, he sounds more comfortable singing and harmonizing, and even allows his rapper guise “Declaime” to take over at times (particularly on “Dolla Bill,” an effective reprise of A Lil’ Light’s…

Murs’s new album, Murray’s Revenge, is a followup to his last collaboration with underground producer 9th Wonder, 2004’s critically acclaimed Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition. Although that album was moodily introspective — its cover image featured Murs under a streetlamp, tipping his hat toward the night sky — Murray’s Revenge…

Arab Strap, Scotland’s answer to Leonard Cohen, has spun a web of unhappy relationships and bitter regrets for nearly a decade. But the band’s music has evolved dramatically from the slow, churning sparks of its initial releases to The Last Romance, which presents full-bore rock numbers alongside that early sound…

Scott Herren’s recent work has drawn criticism for sounding too similar to his early breakthrough recordings (particularly Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives). He often uses the same melodies — a soft, melodic arpeggio of keys — on all of his recordings, a tendency that frequently appears on Security Screenings, his…

It has been nearly ten years since Coldcut issued its last album, Let Us Play. The wait was worth it. Eschewing the cut-and-paste turntable antics of the duo’s last album, Sound Mirrors pairs deep (if slightly glitchy) instrumentals over which a host of guests — from Ninja Tune stars like…

Based in Montreal, Canada, the Italian-born Barbara “Misstress Barbara” Bonfiglio has been DJing for a decade, playing everywhere from Singapore to the Dominican Republic to London. DJ magazine ranks her as one of the Top 100 DJs in the world, and she draws hundreds of people to her club gigs,…

“Get set, now everybody rhyme,” announces Low Deep at the outset of “Get Set,” the jumpoff on Run the Road Vol. 2. “This is the new-age grime/Who’s gonna be next with sixteen lines?” Last year’s critically acclaimed edition introduced Lady Sovereign and Kano to American listeners. The new volume isn’t…

Firewater is billed as the fifth and final release by the Alkaholiks, a group that has, despite issuing several good albums, never achieved critical mass outside its California fan base. You wouldn’t know this from the group’s music, however, since the trio — Tash, J-Ro, and producer E-Swift — rarely…

Audio Bullys are two British producers who sing and rap over garage house and hip-hop tracks. Sometimes on Generation, the group’s proper album, that description sounds exactly as you’d imagine, with Simon Franks delivering the hook (like in “I Won’t Let You Down”) over a kinetic beat. In contrast, “Shot…

It is clear from the opening riff of “Nü Rock” that Morningwood is not trying to make a grand statement. The quartet’s self-titled debut album is supposed to be good, trashy fun and nothing more. The music is derivative, with guitarist Richard Steel playing second-hand riffs and aping your favorite…

50 Cent may be the most hated star in the game, inspiring more dis records than LL Cool J in the “Rock the Bells” era. But it’s difficult to front on records such as “Outta Control,” which is all floss and snake oil charm. The beat approximates the sound of…

Remember the winter of 1999? Eminem and Royce Da 5’9″ had just dropped “Nuthin’ to Do/Scary Movies,” a twelve-inch so hot that DJs spun it even though the shit wasn’t on a major label. Em was on fire, kid, and rattling cages with wit like “Any man that dares to…

Like most on Eight76’s roster, Evette shuttles between her native Jamaica and South Florida, using both territories to foment her music career. As a result, her debut Lately is smooth and compressed like American R&B while bearing an effortlessly light touch atypical of the best reggae records. Working with in-house…

Dan “Doormouse” Martin is one of the only local producers making breakcore, the latest twist on experimental electronic music. Operating in a post-Schematic environment, the producer is more likely to be found spinning hip-hop records at Buck 15 and Purdy Lounge than cranking out his cut-and-paste splatter tracks, which is…