For years, British rappers were ridiculed in the States for mimicking our American hip-hop traditions. Recently, however, as they’ve begun to firmly embrace their own distinct culture, authentic UK hip-hop has blossomed across the pond. Wiley is the latest personality to break out from this still-nascent community, offering a unique…
It’s so easy to be jaded when you’ve heard all the great jazz of the twentieth century and can sing Miles Davis’s solo on “So What” in your sleep. It takes a really special artist to snap you out of your nostalgia, forcing you to hear fresh things. Enter Grammy…
It seems like a lifetime ago when DJ Craze was acknowledged as one of the best, and most controversial, hip-hop turntablists in the world. He has seemingly abandoned boom-bap beats for boom-clack tracks, cutting up junglist tracks with the same dexterity he once applied to Super Duck Breaks. His new…
What’s up with all the freestyle concerts lately? First, there was a concert at Bongo’s Cuban Café; then Miss “Funky Little Beat” herself, Debbie Deb, showed up at crobar for an Eighties flashback. Now comes Freestyle Reunion Concert Uno, an electro-pop blowout with Debbie Deb, Lisa Lisa, Shannon, Joyce Sims,…
The man behind the Bedrock empire needs little introduction in these parts; as one of the chief beneficiaries of the American rave explosion of the late Nineties, his epic trance tag-team sets with Sasha, captured on mix CDs such as Northern Exposure, helped define electronic music for a generation. Today,…
M.I.A.M.I. (Money Is a Major Issue), the debut album from super-prospect Pitbull, arrives in stores with considerably high expectations. There is his reputation as one of the most industrious MCs in Dade County; the ubiquitous presence of Lil’ Jon, who produced and appears on much of the disc; and the…
What makes for a healthy local music scene? Is it a spirit of friendly competition, or one of cooperation, that brings out the best in musicians? Do major labels and big money help or hinder creative development? Where can you get a good bag of pot? These are questions that…
In a sense, More Adventurous is what Rilo Kiley has been building toward since the rickety country licks of 2001’s Take Offs and Landings and the sugar-spun indie-pop heartbreak of 2002’s The Execution of All Things. The L.A. band’s first disc on its own imprint is a startling modernization of…
Erin Moran, a Jersey girl who calls herself Eddy, writes the kind of songs steeped in a melancholia so deep they suggest dark clouds perpetually circling overhead. Drawing on personal experience, the pretensions of producer Richard Hawley, and myriad inspirations (Scott Walker and the Carpenters, as well as more recent…
The Stuttgart, Germany, combo of producers and DJs known as Dublex Inc. has finally released its debut album after four years of slowly merging into the worldwide club scene with three Latin-tinged singles and numerous remixes. Eight Ears sounds a bit like their freestyle DJ sets, combining jazzy uptempo tunes…
The New Jersey duo known as Blaze remains the pinnacle of what it likes to call “soulful house music.” Infused with a spiritual quality and grounded in faith without proselytizing, Blaze’s tunes are light-years away from the typical hedonistic clichés driving any given dance floor on a Saturday night. In…
It might trip some people out to discover that there are some lucky individuals who have an uncanny ability to see sound. Whereas the rest of us must ingest massive amounts of acid to Technicolor our world, these people are born with a gene that produces kaleidoscopic visuals 24 hours…
For the past several months, design firm Tekmind, Inc. has been releasing a smattering of twelve-inch records, positing the company as the newest local electro imprint on the block. Its flagship artist is Xerodefx, a collaboration between two brothers, Amer and Khar. The duo’s three releases, including their latest, the…
Boston birthed some of the most influential groups of the hardcore scene. Gang Green, a founding father of East Coast hardcore, was one such band. But even in the trenches of anger and pubescence unrest lay an equally youthful need to have a good time. There were the Dogmatics, Stranglehold,…
Leroy Sibbles, Frankie Paul, Judy Mowatt, the Mighty Sparrow, Alkebulan, and Kenyatta perform during the Jerk, Roots, and Yam Festival at noon Sunday, August 22, at Hialeah Park, East 4th Avenue and East 22nd Street, Hialeah. Tickets range from $5 to $30. Call 954-438-7467.
Humbert’s follow-up to its 1999 self-titled disc is a pop gem. Mature and sensitive, the eleven tracks of Plant the Trees Closer Together qualify as some of the sweetest euphonic cuts to circulate South Florida. Elements of lounge, early alternative, and postpunk are treated through sprinkles of Fifties rock and…
On most nights, I’d rather stay home with friends, smoke kryppie, and watch a mean horror movie, the gorier the better. Clubs can become obnoxious after a while. Still it’s always worth visiting an establishment with a liquor license, some form of music, and people. Once you get there, even…
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On Thursdays, couples engrossed in an intimate candlelight dinner conversation at the Design District’s One Ninety Restaurant may be surprised when a slightly miffed elderly woman, wearing a red sequined dress and fishnet stockings, tells them to shut their traps because she’s going to sing. Their surprise may turn to…
Like most tourists who fly down to South Beach for a vacation, Marianela Pereyra was on a mission, but she wasn’t necessarily seeking out surf and sun, which was a good thing since those were in short supply during her rain-soaked trip. Instead she came here to promote her fast-rising…
In a sweltering gym at the Wall-2-Wall Soccer building in Miami, a crowd of about 50 young men and women, a few small, squealing children, and one really brave grandma gathered on a Saturday night, plopping down in a small, informal circle. In the middle of the circle stood roughly…
From August 4-6, Billboard magazine, the industry bible of the American recording industry, had its fifth annual R&B and Hip-Hop Conference Awards at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach. The three-day event drew some 500 registrants from across the Eastern seaboard for several panel discussions and enthusiastic, if occasionally…
Last March 18, the L.A. multicultural funk band Ozomatli ended its show at Austin, Texas’s Exodus club during the annual South By Southwest (SXSW) festival by leading the audience in a traditional samba line around the club, a customary conclusion to its rousing and kinetic performances. But that night, as…
