The Aggrolites play ska, the Sixties rhythm that gave birth to reggae, with a hard-core dedication to the style that’s amazing. They capture the archetypal feel of the Upsetters and Skatalites while putting their own unique stamp on the music. They’ve earned props from Prince Buster, who said they play…
These gangstas are religious? Hav, Prodigy, and the crooning 50 Cent combine their commentaries on Heaven and Hell, backed by the soulful Rhodes of DJ Exile. Looks like the Mobb has been infected by D’Evils, and we’re not talking “Kirk” Franklins. See you on Judgment Day…
Sometimes sonics say more than words alone. This dynamite Canadian foursome rocks its significant-other separation anxiety like a toned-down Throwing Muses hurricane until all the band can muster is a lyric-free horde of evil-caterpillar keyboard patter punctuated by drum fills and random guitar scabs…
Roy Haynes, born in Boston in 1925, is one of the most recorded jazz drummers in history and has been a major name in the jazz world for half a century. His early work was with the Sabby Lewis big band, Frankie Newton, and Luis Russell in the late Forties…
Keep the intoxicating vibes going after Faktura Gallery’s artist-meets-alcohol exhibit “Spilt Over Sugar, Crushed Under Foot” with South Florida jam band Side Project. The seven-piece group will perform its acid fusion of funk, rock, and jazz for the afterparty. Side Project’s release, Our Last Album, features twelve tracks of trippy…
The Bible might not know much about rock and roll, but one fact of life was long ago established in it: “There’s nothing new under the sun.” Sure enough, every artist is a bit of a thief building upon the work of predecessors, but innovation has been rare despite the…
Eartha Kitt’s vowels, especially her a’s, drawl a beat, and her r’s roll. Imagine her speaking the word darling. Kitt is, at 79 years old, every bit the sultry cabaret diva she was when Orson Welles called her “the most exciting woman in the world,” every bit the feline seductress…
When Kamal “Radioinactive” de Iruretagoyena lets loose with a compressed, jammed rush of gobbledygook here — see “Refrigerator” or “Trouble” — it’s difficult to understand why this Los Angeles-based MC/producer hasn’t yet broken out of the backpacker scene that’s home to the Anti-Con contingent and its malcontent fellow travelers. Peep…
Babasonicos is so ready to finally cross over into larger markets that singer Adrián “Dárgelos” Rodríguez even writes it in one of the fourteen magnificent new tracks that compose Anoche, the eighth release of the Argentine rock band. “Song, take me away where nobody remembers me/I want to be the…
To match the record label’s delicate hand in signing electronic and world music acts, or both combined, Shrift’s debut offers a dreamy set of songs in which musical passages of electronic programming are humanized by a sweet girl’s voice. Singer Nina Miranda is the key British producer whom Dennis Wheatley…
Over the past 30 years or so, Alan Parsons has created a reliable musical brand by recruiting the talents of high-profile contributors and presiding over the proceedings with his name on the marquee. Valid Path follows the same formula, even as it marks Parsons’s continued transition from old-school to new…
Icon of Coil’s Andy LaPlegua continues his lifelong genre-jumping expedition, this time planting his flag in an uncharted section of Reznorland where a scent of Bowie is carried on the breeze. In antithetical contrast to IOC’s poppish EBM, the two albums released under the Combichrist banner were unholy noise truncheons…
Charley Pride was the first and, so far, only African-American country music superstar. He began recording in 1967, at the height of the civil rights movement, when race was a burning issue in America, and went on to enjoy a decade-long run of consecutive Top 10 hits. Fans and DJs…
Dr. John, a.k.a. Mac Rebennack, has undergone a number of incarnations in a career that spans nearly 50 years, from the acid-tinge voodoo of his Night Tripper persona to his role as one of New Orleans’ most revered champions of American musical tradition. Following several outstanding albums elaborating on the…
Like so many ragtag, fresh-faced (or willfully bearded) insurgents tarred with the freak-folk or New Weird America (the latter a genre tag so broad it’s almost useless) brushes, Philadelphia’s Espers draw melodic sustenance from a mind-boggling number of obscure and traditional organs and stringed things. A decided sense of purpose…
On this single, the cousins from Decatur show as much love for Gene Wilder’s portrayal of Willie Wonka as they did for Jennifer Holliday’s Dreamgirls hook earlier this year. Sho Nuff cites e.e. cummings as an influence in his rhyming, while Big Marc attends to a stripped-down rhythm track. The…
With all the reissues and edits of classic Afro-Latin and funk gems, one of the only bands to keep hitting you consistently with new flava is this one here, Brooklyn’s brilliant Antibalas. From the slept-on soundtrack to the basketball documentary 25 Strong, “K-Leg” — complete with dizzying horn arrangements and…
On the first single from his upcoming mixtape-album, Run the Streets, Vol. 1, Street murders the Donny Hathaway sample with a bevy of percussion rolls and chops, while Smitty spits that M.I.Yayo slang and Jae Millz counters with his Lenox Avenue swagger…
As any one of the several hundred insanely lucky converts who were on hand to hear Osunlade spin in Miami Beach this past February will attest, his sets are exhaustive, transforming, uplifting experiences that transcend the auditory, engaging all the senses and, Osunlade hopes, the soul. “I like to call…
Envelope pushers. Experimentalists. Nutters. Call ’em what you will, but when these three musicians sleep, they sleep soundly. Their “experiment” has been ongoing for thirteen years, and accolades and fans have grown exponentially. Meticulous, rambunctious, well-meaning anarchy — rather than free-form experimental jazz malarkey — characterizes their style. Despite operating…
During much of the year, the melancholy tango of Miami’s 60,000-strong Argentine community is often overpowered by the bubbling salsa of the much larger Cuban population. Still, when Argentines want to be heard, they know just how to shake it up — by rocking the city to its core at…
