3rd JULY 2008, No.256
QUARTET
THE ORB - Mother Nature
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caramel - ｳｯｰｳｯｰｳﾏｳﾏ(ﾟ∀ﾟ)
Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)
Katerine - Je suis fete
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Nothing's quite as good as a solid, soulful R&B record to chill you down or warm you up, depending on your mood or...ahem, your company. But real R&B has been hard to come by lately. Sure, artists like Rihanna are often identified as R&B, but that kind of hip-hop-influenced R&B is but a pale shade of the real thing that crooners such as Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Barry White, Grover Washington Junior, and Deniece Williams have put out. Fortunately, thanks to the good folks at Little Dizzy Records, a Sherman Oaks, CA-based independent urban digital record label, aficionados of real R&B--the smooth and soulful kind--will find their palates sensuously courted by newcomer Angie Whitney, whose first solo album, That's What Love Is All About, is out now.
Angie Whitney's been singing since the age of four. A native Californian, as a child she began singing duets with her twin sister Rachel, and soon became members of their father's church choir in Vallejo, California. The twins were soon in demand by many local groups and organizations, but Angie's career as a professional singer really gained credibility and notice when she and her sister and cousin formed their own group, The New Horizon, and were also selected as background singers for one of my alltime favorite soul groups, the legendary Spinners. Whitney now performs with the Angie Whitney Jazz & Blues Clique and Easy Street Big Band Orchestra, but her debut solo album is all her--and she's all you really need.
Despite its almost clichéd title, That's What Love Is All About is a lovely collection of soulful tunes that will heat up dancefloors and bedrooms. The lead track, "Don't Tease Me Now," is an upbeat, funky, almost disco-like dance track propelled by Whitney's smooth, silky voice and a sultry sax accompaniment. The song has a distinctly '80s kind of sound and calls to mind Sade, which is a very good thing--but Angie Whitney has a vocal identity all her own. The music, composed of soul staples bass, piano, and strings, is accented uniquely with smoky saxophone accents that play off of Ms. Whitney's voice as if she's actually singing a duet with the instrument in the intro to "Now Baby or Never," a finger-snappin' little number with a jazzy, 1920s Cotton Club sound. The title track, "That's What Love is All About" is a lovely romantic ballad, but is somewhat overshadowed by the minimalistic beauty of the eminently-soulful "Love Me By Name," which is smooth as eighty-year-old scotch and just as heart-warming. And definitely check out the straight-up elegant funk of "Excuse Me (I've Got A Life To Catch)" which features the slickest interplay between synths and sax that I think I've ever heard.
All in all, Angie Whitney's first solo effort is a sexy, sophisticated, accomplished album that gives its listeners a true, unadulterated soul/R&B experience. Her voice is not as powerful as Aretha Franklin's, but is much more energetic than Sade's, so I would say she covers a middle-ground between each...a territory little explored by soul singers these days, who all aspire for Aretha's mighty pipes or Sade's slinky purr. So put this album on the next time you come home from a long day at work. Mix up a martini, relax with yourself and a significant other, and let the music give you a nice mental massage that might...well, who knows what it might lead to, if you get my drift. ;)
Links:
angiewhitney.com
myspace.com/angielwhitney
www.littledizzyrecords.com
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Labrador Records (labrador.se) once again turned to Pirate Bay to help distribute their Labrador Summer Sampler 2008. If you remember, they did the same thing last year after their servers crashed due to a high volume of demand.
If you already use BitTorrent, then downloading it from Pirate Bay is easy enough, but unlike most people, I don't use the torrents. Instead, I had to get the files from a friend. If you're in the same boat, regarding not using bittorrent, I have made the free sampler available for download: sendspace.com/file/2yaj76 (154 mb).
Please note: I am acting under the assumption that Labrador wants as many people to download their sampler as possible. So please share this with your friends.
Although compared to last year's massive 68-track-sampler, this year's new 30 tracks is smaller... but it is still a lot of music to listen to. Since we've covered many of these bands (see corresponding links to previous W♥M articles), I was more interested in the bands I hadn't heard of: Leslies, Caroline Soul, and Johan Hedberg. Although Leslies previously appeared on their 2007 Sampler, this is the first time I paid attention to them due to their poppy "Dear Friend" song.
01 [Ingenting] - Här Kommer Solen |
11 Chasing Dorotea - Dark Angel |
21 The Radio Dept. - Pet Grief |
In other news for this past week, we find Devo asking "Are We Not Toys?" after suing McDonald's for using their likeness in one of their McToys. CNN reports that "Kid Rock Was Only Kidding" when he told people to "steal everything". This tells me a lot about Kid Rock fans if he had to EXPLAIN that it was only a joke. Duh?
DMX is arrested (again), "Fly - The Musical", Adele won some awards and people seem to be happy she doesn't want to kill herself like Amy Winehouse, and you also found out that Kanye West LIKES TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS, DUDE! His defense blog on the whole Bonnaroo fiasco comes down to the venue's ability to setup the stage and that Pearl Jam was an hour late. That's right, Vedder is a slowpoke.
See links below for news source:
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3rd JULY 2008, No.255
DUO
Stars - Moto Blanco Remix
NEZUMI SENPAI - GIROPPON
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Coco B's originates out of California, which is very evident in their music. Many similarities could be made to Californian grunge and alternative rockers. Coco B's has captured the alternative rock sound perfectly. Though at first their music may sound very generic, they could be easily described as the very definition of alternative rock. The vocals borderline the emo sound, but those who can't stomach emo rock will likely still be able to appreciate Coco B's for its alternative side. Their general composition is held together by strong baselines and hypnotizing choruses.
On their 2007 album, songs like "Hot Pantz" and "Sunset City of Dub" demonstrate Coco B's relaxing side, which is very earnest yet relaxing. Tracks like "I Live In L.A." and "Access To No.'s" are good examples of their more upbeat songs, which usually have much stronger and rhythmic drum patterns.
In general Coco B's doesn't execute much variety, but they've definitely captured a noteworthy sound. Coco B's debut album (Fast Trak Holy Nova Symphony) was released under the label Grand Theft Autumn, since then they've released two EPs and their 2007 self-titled album under the K-Double Recording Co. label. Their "Basement Songs: Firehawks and Dirtybirds EP1" was also released cooperatively through RCRD LBL. Coco B's is definitely a band to be checked out by any fan of the alternative genre.
Links:
www.cocobs.com
myspace.com/cocobs
It's kinda cool in a weird way. ^_^V
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07/04/08 1982 Bar Gainesville, Florida
07/04/08 The Atlantic Gainesville, FL 07/05/08 Big Monster Fest Jupiter, FL 07/06/08 Eclipse Riverside/Avondale, FL 07/07/08 Secret Squirrel Athens, AL 08/29/08 Bottletree Cafe Birmingham, AL |
I hate punk. I loathe "garage rock." And flatout despise any sort of music that is described as *-core. I like my music professional, well-crafted, and slick: none of that "lo-fi" recorded-in-some-jackasses-basement-on-a-Tascam-4track shite for me. So why, then, do I actually like We Vs. The Shark?
We Vs. The Shark is a loud, wild, thrashin' kind of pseudo-punk band from the music capitol of the southern states, Athens, Georgia--so it's only right that their music has a very strong B-52s influence. Information about the band is scarce, though we do know the group is composed of Luke Fields, Samantha Paulsen (why does the keyboard player always have to be a girl, and vice-versa?), Scott Smith, and Jeffrey Tobias, and they are mostly known for their energetic, ca-razy live shows. Jeff Tobias also works with Pegasuses-XL and Dark Meat, neither of whom I've ever heard of, but that's neither here nor there. What is here is a band whose latest album, Dirty Versions (on Hello Sir Records), was recorded "nearly live" in only two days to capture to spirit and power of their live shows...and if this album accurately captures the essence of their live performance, then I definitely want to see this band live.
Dirty Versions sounds like the twisted, mutated result of a high-speed collision involving the aforementioned B-52, Mister Bungle, and The Melvins. Despite being recorded "almost live," the mixing and production on this record is slick and clean: every instrument is clearly heard, which is vital when you're dealing with complicated arrangements like these. The music of We Vs. The Shark courts certain definitions while always ducking and weaving through them. Some songs have a grinding, heavy-metal feel to them; others are jumpy, almost poppy tunes. None of them sit still long enough to pin a definite classification to them, though, which makes songs like "Gothic Y'all" and "Mr. Ego Death" almost impossible to describe. There are grinding guitars, crashing drums, screams, howls, weird electronic sweeps. There are blast beats that would make Dragonforce proud followed by slow, quiet sections. There's a lot of energy packed into these songs, and it literally explodes from your speakers in tracks like "I Am The Contempt Machine" and "Keep It Wolf."
I hate The Dillinger Escape Plan, and in some ways, We Vs. The Shark reminds me of them--but in a good way. If you take Dillinger and strip out the abominable hardcore elements, but keep all the power of their music while adding a dose of melody and humor, you've got We Vs. The Shark, a band that exceeds all reflexive comparison and has an identity all its own. Fortunately, that identity is close enough to a number of different genres to draw a diverse crowd, all of whom will find something they like in We Vs. The Shark's music...and that's about the best thing you can offer as a band these days, especially one from a regional music Valhalla like Athens.
If this album has you itchin' to see the band live--as I (and they) no doubt hope it would--then you've got ample chances to see them in the next few days.
Guess it's about that time again: REFLECTIONS. With yours truly.
This is the beginning of my third week at home, without having to work, without being able to drive, without being able to do anything. It seemed like it wasn't going to be that bad at first, but after the first week I was ready to hurl myself off a cliff... and back into work. I figured, "Hey, more time with my boyfriend, more time for drawing, more relax--" NOPE. I hate this, and I wish I were working. I wish I could drive. I wish I could walk. I wish I could play dancing games with my friends. I wish I could leave this place and sit by the ocean for a few hours, because this is Florida and I live five minutes from one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I wish I weren't here so damn much.
Ash has spent a bunch of time watching movies with me, and helping me with art, and playing games with me. Those times are okay. I like those times. I wish those were all of the times.
I hate not being able to walk without holding onto stuff. I like holding on to Ash, but not when I walk. I don't like having to hobble to check my mail.
If there was ever a frustration in my life, this is it.
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I was pretty thrilled when I received Connected: 90's 12" Mix to review, as I was already well familiar with all the songs and artists on the two promo discs. In fact, I had the review written weeks ago, but waited until it got closer to the release date of July 7th to post the review. I'm glad I waited because by the last hour, they decided to upped the anti and added a third disc and changing the cover artwork (and not to mention that they reshuffled the track listing). As you can see with the links to artists we've previously covered on W♥M, that we really like the first disc.
One of the major differences I've noticed right away was that they had replaced Electronic's "Getting Away With It" with New Order's "World in Motion", which is fine as they are more or less Bernard Sumner. If there were other artists and songs that were dropped, it's probably due to licensing issues.
I have to say that I did agree that "World in Motion" is better fitted for this compilation, because this song is so closely associated with the 1990 World Cup. It just feels good to hear the competitive "it's one on one", a song that's sure to be played at every World Cup.... although whenever I hear that rap from Jamaican-born football player John Barnes, it just drowns the songs in late 80s/early 90s.
In 80s and going to the 90s, the three major releases for singles were: 7", 12" and cassingle. The 90s introduced us to the CD single (and eventually the double CD singles, parts one and two), but this compilation collects all the 12" mixes. Usually the 12" mix were special because they're often exclusive to the 12" and were catered to underground DJs who needed them in this format to scratch and live mix.
Even if you know all these songs from hearing them on the radio, these dance remixes always adds something new to something already familiar.
These tracks demonstrate England's evolution of dance music. You see, in the early 90s, there was a breaking point in the music timeline. One group became what you might know as Britpop, while the other group focused more on dance (raves and techno). You hear the second group's diverse music on these tracks.
From early Madchester (Stone Roses, Happy Mondays) to funk (Deee Lite) to house (M People, Nuyorican Soul) to big stadium dance rock (U2, Primal Scream) to even trip hop (Tricky, Massive Attack, Portishead), it's all here: all the big hits!
There are a few outstanding tracks from the two discs: the remix of Deee Lite's funky "Groove Is In The Heart", the Bottom Won Mix of Stone Roses's amazing baseline of a dance classic "Fool's Gold", Stereo MCs' "Connected" (of course!), Snap's extended mix of "Rhythm is a Dance", and Soup Dragons' trippy "I'm Free" the 12" mix.
The new tracks that were added to the album, included two that I already know and love: Moloko's "Fun for Me" and Beats International's "Dub Be Good to Me". Since I've already mentioned Moloko's song in a previous article, I should tell you about Beats International.
The guy behind Beats International is really Norman Cook - aka Fatboy Slim. As you can hear from his remix of "Be Good to Me", he really knows how to manipulate the song. Check out that bass and the mixing of a DJ introducing the song "Tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty, you're listening to the boy from the big bad city. This is jam hot" and also the outro.
There is one song that kind of bothered me, not that it isn't good (because I love "Jump Around"), but because it seems to me that House of Pain shouldn't belong here. You see, looking at all these artists, they all seem to be based in the UK and they're mostly dance, and House of Pain is from the US and leans towards rap. If you listen to this album, this song should definitely "jump" out at you.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable collection that made me a feel a little nostalgic of yesteryear.
Below are the final track listing.
Disc 1 |
Disc 2
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Disc 3
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Connected: 90's 12" Mix will be released July 7th in the UK by Universal Records. Fans of 90s dance music will want to check this out.
Links:
www.umtv.co.uk