|
//_Record reviews
“Black Dialogue” is the debut of Mr. Lif, Akrobatik and DJ Fakts One – together the three artist form The Perceptionists. Unfortunately the smell of inovation are’nt noticeable: Musicaly, this piece stagnates between the typical, electro-influenced Defjux-sound and tracks, which development ends after the first loop. Therby some tracks have got more potential – maybe victims of a evident loveless production. Only the El-p produced b-boy track “People 4 Prez” and the groovy “5 O’Clock” reach burner qualities. Despite of the clearly critical messages towards the bush government this album brings along nothing new.
Tony Rotton aka Blak Twang releases his forth album – called “The Rotton Club”. Not only the lyrics, also the prevalent components of the music are produced by himself. His obvoius, gripping voice is moving between raps and ragga styles. These influences are as well perceptible when it comes to the reduced beats – unfortunately most of the music is neither galvanic or creative. The booklet is filled up with unpleasant gender steretypes: Pictures show cool, poker playing men and women, which are only posing as pretty add-on at the background. Not a conclusive work at all. 
|
__Impact of worlds ends up in sweet insanity
13&God - 13&God (2005, Album, 
Themselves (Jel, Doseone and Dax) meet The Notwist (Markus and Micha Acher plus Martin „Console“ Gretschmann). The borders of hip hop meet a former punkband, mutated to a “electronic-rock-pop-group”. After first contact on a them concert and a common USA-tour in 2004, the allegiances between both collectives become more intensive. Mutual dispatches of first musical sketches follwed. After all that, a masterpiece – including ten tracks – was created at the brandnew Alien Transistor Studios near munich. Thereby 13&God were supported by further artists like Steffi Böhm of Ms. John Soda, Valerie Trebeljahr of Lali Puna or the anticon-members Why? and Pedestrian. When it comes to describing music which is defintively cutting the edge, it often ends in meaningless word-constructions of sub-genres (like “dub-dream-hop”) or comparisons with other bands – without coming closer to the concrete piece of music. Of course it’s not easy to give a description of 13&God: Soundscapes between glitchy dub, classic instruments and dreamy rock-pop, escorted by a sweet melancholy, meet a tangle of slanting voices, ingenious arrangements and hip hop beats out of Jel`s SP 1200. The result: An outstanding musical expriment that is combined with surprisingly much emotion. Sweet insanity … yeah, and it works.
“Fast Cars, Danger, Fire & Knives” expands the large release schedule of the energetic, NY indy-rapper. A really nice bonus of this EP : The firtst 20,000 copies will include “The Living Human Curoisity Sidesow”, a lovingly designed 80-page book of Aesop’s lyrics – an invitation to study his written thoughts and metaphors. What about the music: Like always Aesop convinces with a stirring voice and eccentric art of rhyming. Musicly, the quality of the seven tracks strongly varies – Blockhead and Rob Sonic deliver the beats – and Aesop himself did has produced two instrumentals. The openig track “Fast Cars” is a groovy bomb, filled with heavy funk – Blockhead did a quite interesting production. “Holy Smokes”, on which Aesop reflects his conflicts with the church, comes along with a happy, but similar stunning sample-landscpape. “Rickety Rackety”, which features El-p and CamuTao, is a rocking uptempo-track with an oldschool-touch. The other tracks are rather streaky.
DJ Format releases his second album, a follow up to his debut “Music For The Maure B-Boy”. It comes along with twelve new tracks – but the concept stays the same. He doesn’t use spectacular effects or synthesized sounds – it’s just about the classic way: “diggin’ the crates” and ingenious sampling. Format’s Style is expressly based on funk-samples, floating basses and dirty drumms. And everything is sourrounded by a certain “oldschool”-feeling … converted in a seasonable way that’s only known from a few artists like Jurassic 5 or Ugly Duckling. Thus it`s a logical consequence that the J-5 members Chali 2Na and Akil delivered the raps for “The Place”. The main supporters for rap-parts are Abdominal and D-Sisive, another canadian MC. Highlights of his album are the plain instrumental tracks, on which DJ Format combines tons of samples proves his taste for songstructures. And not to forget the nice cover-artwork. By the way, the album will be also available on a Special Edition CD which comes packaged with a bonus DVD including four videos from Format’s tracks. Overal rating: A well produced longplayer - especialy friends of straight hip hop and analog sounds will like this one. 
Record