WVUM-FM (90.5) is easy to overlook. Housed on the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus, the only sign that it is broadcasting from its windowless building that looks like a barracks are the discordant sounds — organ drones, off-key melodies — that waft from behind a locked door. Inside the…
The kids are dancing to LCD Soundsystem’s eponymous debut. Conceived by DFA Records co-founder James Murphy (known for originally producing dance-punk phenoms the Rapture and a crateful of remix tracks), the New York quintet champions a lusty, driving sound that is sure to inflame all the trendy indie rockers stuck…
“I’m mistaken for the next Kool Keith/Because I interbreed indie-rap acts and groom them at the pet boutique,” rhymes Busdriver on “Sphinx’s Coonery.” As far as tangents go, Fear of a Black Tangent is an elliptically ferocious one, riddled with trenchant commentary on the state of black art and intellectualism…
If multitasking is the byword of the new millennium, Damon and Naomi have mastered it. Since dissolving their ethereal ensemble Galaxie 500, the couple has released five albums; jump-started both a record label and a publishing company; pursued side projects in writing, poetry, photography, and graphic design; and overseen their…
The Brazilian legend began his career with “Mas Que Nada,” a bossa nova classic which was since re-recorded by virtually everyone in the movement. During the Seventies, he helped to revolutionize pop music in Brazil by blending the sounds of Rio samba with styles inspired by the likes of James…
As far as new-school remixers go, Dutch-born, New York-based producer the Scumfrog is one of the best. His tracks, typified by standout work for David Bowie (“Loving the Alien”), Missy Elliott (“Pass That Dutch”), and Kylie Minogue (“Love At First Sight”), and collected on 2003’s Extended Engagement, are sharp enough…
Although Marcia Griffiths attained her greatest international exposure as a member of the I-Threes, the female trio that backed Bob Marley on his albums and concerts from 1974 until his passing in 1981, her 41-year career is most remarkable because she is the only singer of any gender to have…
DJ 2Nen Sundays, Club Deep DJ 2Nen, the self-described Miami mixtape champ, is one of the hardest-working jocks in Miami. In addition to producing coveted mixtapes such as Rick Ross: The Future of the South and the Ready to Strike series, he’s got his own record label, Tha Union Entertainment,…
It was probably the only time I’ve ever seen break dancers spontaneously rock out in a big South Beach nightclub. Sometime after midnight on Friday, January 21, you could find Angelo and Sito pulling backflips and headspins as the crowd formed a circle around them, oohing and aahing and clapping…
If U.K. acid house and drum and bass pioneer Gerald Simpson (a.k.a. A Guy Called Gerald) was in top shape on 1995’s Black Secret Technology, then To All Things What They Need finds him soft in the middle. At best, To All Things What They Need has the distinct sound…
Thanks to consistently head-nodding beats and an inspired performance by Opio, the Oakland rapper’s Triangulation Station is a solid debut. His themes range from protesting gun violence (“Viva Main Vein!!!”) to eschewing drug abuse (“Roxxxana”). Like most indie hip-hop albums, the music sounds too busy and frenetic at times as…
Looking for something different? Sample some of the 70 bands appearing at this year’s International Noise Conference. Organized by local iconoclast Rat Bastard, the annual conflagration of extraordinary, entertaining, and just plain annoying experimental acts ranges from the vaguely familiar (Otto von Schirach, Alex Diaz/Xela Zaid) to the provocatively mysterious…
Sarasota’s Stone Soup is actually a group of barefooted singers who just happen to play instruments. The members of this rockabilly quintet take turns singing lead vocals; making violin and mandolin-tinged snippets of rap, comedic a capella, and campy duets; and offering up harmonies tighter than a glee club. On…
As one-half of Luomo, Vladislav Delay is best known for his micro-house tracks. The music on Explode, however, his collaboration with vocalist Antye Greie (AGF), sounds more akin to Brian Eno or David Sylvain. Like those artists, AGF and Delay steer clear of perfect software and sequenced looping and allow…
Nashville’s Blue Merle should suffice nicely while you wait for the next Coldplay album. It is eerie how much singer Lucas Reynolds’s tenor sounds just like Coldplay leader Chris Martin’s voice. Named after a Led Zeppelin lyric (not the Australian sheepdog), this foursome somewhat distinguishes itself by using a mandolin…
Tony Kelly doesn’t look like the king of the dancehall. A soft-spoken man in his late thirties, he could be anybody enjoying an early-afternoon lunch at Segafredo’s on South Beach’s Lincoln Road, casually watching the tourists and other pedestrians stroll by. Save for the large, expensive Cartier Roadster watch on…
New Times is currently holding a DJ contest to coincide with the imminent arrival of this year’s Winter Music Conference and the Ultra Music Festival. The winner, to be chosen by yours truly and Jonathan Zwickel, my counterpart at New Times Broward-Palm Beach, gets to spin at Ultra. But fret…
Back in the days when the U.S. dollar was strong, Sabina Sciubba, a young chanteuse of German and Italian parentage, decided to emigrate from the south of France, where she had been singing atonal free jazz, and settle in New York City. “I had already worked here a little bit,”…
The sun is rising in Havana amidst a picturesque, orange-hued sky. The people are awake, sitting at their windows (Qué pasa chiquita?!), smoking gigantic cigars, and playing dominoes as the waves from the Gulf of Mexico furiously crash onto the coastline rocks. And, of course, music — the country’s spirit…
When Chic told dancers to find a spot out on the floor and “Awwwwww, freak out!” it’s doubtful the group expected anyone to take it quite as literally as MU frontwoman Mutsumi Kanamori. Like a career diva on a perpetual comedown, Kanamori hits the ground (make that four-on-the-floor) ranting. With…
Tiefschwarz (Ali and Basti Schwarz of Stuttgart, Germany) are long-time favorites of Chicago house guru Derrick Carter (who has released an album and several singles from the brothers), sharing his love for crafting cheeky and irrepressibly booty-shaking club hits and DJing in fashionable spots around the world. This release includes…
Hood, a Leeds-based cast of musicians revolving around brothers Chris and Richard Adams, has been in existence for fourteen years, exhibiting an evolving sound of glitchy, melodic murmurs that bridges the distance between the placid, dubby, yet meticulously dappled broad strokes of Bark Psychosis and Fridge/Four Tet’s prickly psychedelia. Hood’s…
