For all the acrimony and backbiting The Iconz’s demise caused, the once-ascendant conglomerate continues to yield prospects. Luc Duc was the first, debuting with In My Own World back in 2002. That album didn’t perform up to expectations, though, so he’s back on the grind, issuing mixtapes and building up…

In a recent issue of Rolling Stone, Snoop Dogg was portrayed as a brand, a man who uses his persona to sell all kinds of products, from adult DVDs (Girls Gone Wild) to Internet providers (AOL). It’s probably the most accurate allegory for the multiple roles any successful artist must…

As a card-carrying member of Germany’s Sonar Kollektiv, Steffen “Dixon” Berkhahn spins and makes the kind of soulfully blissed-out jams fans of Jazzanova have come to expect. But unlike that better-known group, he champions four-to-the-floor grooves, remixing artists such as Fauna Flash and Atjazz into Rhodes-inspired beats that reverberate with…

For the past ten years, Buck 65 has been a B-boy, confessional rapper and hip-hop bluesman while gathering acclaim in his native Canada and, now, here in the States. This Right Here Is Buck 65, however, introduces him to Americans as the “talkin’ honky,” bypassing other works to begin at…

With the indie rock generation coming of age, it is only fitting that its standard-bearers would advance from the aggressively intellectual postpunk screeds of youth to the grandiose postgraduate statements that come with maturity and hubris. But …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead has always been…

Michael Donaldson, better known as Q-Burns Abstract Message, has had a long and varied career. During the “electronica” hype of the late Nineties, he cranked out everything from turntablist tracks (for the memorable Deep Concentration compilation) to breezy jazz & bass and downtempo. If his latest compilation of remixes, Future…

Every school season brings a fresh pack of young rockers eager to strut their stuff. Most of them hail from the University of Miami, that hothouse of lawless footballers and modeling coeds. It is from these parts that Dead Hookers Bridge Club, a band that may be as dangerous as…

Since the Nineties, Anthony B has brought a cool, relaxed savoir faire to the Bible-thumping wing of the reggae world, garnering a steady stream of hits since his classic “Fire Pon Rome.” Nowadays, however, he may be best known for “Lighter,” the Wyclef Jean collabo that worked its way onto…

As far as punk albums go, Strike Anywhere’s To Live In Discontent is slightly above-standard stuff, with chants of “Oi!” adorning its anti-capitalist lyrics and buzzsaw rock. True to its title, the album is contradictory in nature, advocating self-sufficiency in the face of societal oppression. “In this world you must…

The Octopus Project will ring familiar to anyone conversant in the dynamics of indietronica and Postal Service poptronics. But there’s no Jenny Lewis cooing pretty-girl vocals, nor Ben Gibbard whining about his god-awful life, just peppy instrumentals that are deceptively smart. When Josh Lambert strums his guitar, he actually plays…

Lab Waste, a project between solo rapper Subtitle and MC/producer Thavius Beck, can be as cryptic as the title of its debut, Zwarte Achtegrond (Dutch for “Black Background”). At least the music is: Beck’s beats knock along, sly and off-kilter, even as they sometimes miss their mark. Meanwhile, the two…

The Christmas season has come and gone, but you wouldn’t know it by the astonishing lack of new music to hit stores. In fact, beyond a trickling of EPs, soundtracks, and miscellaneous works by relatively unheralded artists, little of note will be released until January 25, making for a very…

Felix da Housecat’s soundtrack for the video game Playboy: The Mansion harkens back to the straight-ahead house DJ’ing he used to do back in the Nineties, before he became an electroclash star. Fans of 2003’s A Bugged Out Mix and his selections of key Ladytron and Metro Area tracks will…

The original soundtrack to Appleseed, the new anime film from the creators of Ghost in the Shell, initially promises to be more interesting than the emo-rock blowouts that usually accompany action films. It boasts cuts by Basement Jaxx (“Good Luck”), Adult. (a special “Appleseed’ version of Carl Craig’s brilliant “Hand…

Until her “O.G. Bitch” joint last year, Esthero was best known for her appearances on other people’s songs, including some by Ian Pooley (“Balmes [A Better Life]”) and Black Eyed Peas (“Weekends”). We R In Need of a Musical Revolution, a 30-minute teaser for an album scheduled for release this…

If Blueberry Boat was the Who’s Tommy modernized, resurrecting the self-indulgent carcass of the Seventies concept opus, then the new The Fiery Furnaces EP is a fleeter, more focused beast. It finds brother-sister duo Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger returning to the complex, rollicking compositions of their marvelous debut, Gallowsbird Peak…

At the opening of The Roots’ 1999 album Things Fall Apart, esteemed writer Harry Allen remarked, “Inevitably, hip-hop records are treated as disposable. They are not maximized as product, even, not to mention as art.” Nearly six years after the Media Assassin made this statement, it has become cliché among…

Most pop music fans have probably never heard of Erick Morillo. He is a top DJ and producer, one of the few American leaders (alongside Christopher Lawrence, Danny Tenaglia, Deep Dish, and others) in an international dance scene traditionally dominated by Europeans. But Morillo doesn’t produce the cheesy trance shit…

Russell “Ol’ Dirty Bastard” Jones died from a drug overdose on November 13, 2004. This week sees the arrival of his first posthumous release, Osirus: The Official Mixtape. This is not unusual. Tupac “2Pac” Shakur’s Don Killamunati: The Seven Day Theory was released on November 5, 1996, almost two months…

Yes, New Year’s Eve is a great time to get wasted, make promises you won’t keep, et cetera. Why not get down to some great dance music while you’re at it? After her high-water mark as an R&B/pop princess in the mid-Nineties, Deborah Cox has remade herself as a house…

When I visited New York several days ago, the streets were mostly abandoned. A few revelers braved the winter breeze, a prelude to the snowstorm that was about to hit. Until I made my way to Times Square, where holiday shoppers crowded the sidewalks and stood in lines that snaked…

Our second annual survey of the best music of the year is marked by a tie between Björk’s Medulla and Kanye West’s College Dropout in the top albums category. They couldn’t be more different: Medulla is perplexing and occasionally beguiling avant pop, while College Dropout is classic, radio-friendly hip-hop. Other…