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“Drips To Sip… Refills”

3 February 2010 No Comment

By Dj Pelau (Swagger Lifestyle DJ)

djpelau@swaggerlifestyle.com

…drips to sip…

By dj pelau

Ratings:

5Star (St. Regis) – King George V, Gran Patron Platinum or 1775 Sherry Massandra wine

4Star (Waldorf Astoria) – Blue label, Patron Silver, 1800 Silver or 1919 Angostura rum

3Star (Westin) – Green label, 1800 tequila Reposado or greatly mixed mojitos + caipirinhas

2Star (Best Western) – Black label, your typical Bacardi & Coke, Heineken or apple martini

1Star (Motel 6) – Red label, Jack Daniels or free water at the bar from tap!

refills!

FELA KUTI, The Best of The Black President – 2CD (Knitting Factory)

Menu: afro-beat

Tastes like: timeless and classic socio-political classic Afro-beat from Nigerian royalty

Ingredients: A 13-song collection of some era-defining, popular masterpieces that today, many of you might have heard in the coolest party-settings, from Philly to LA, and from London to Lagos. Like Bob Marley is to the Caribbean, it’s safe to say Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is to the African continent. Fela fever even hit mainstream New York, thanks to the new Broadway musical FELA! So having this 2-CD collection of majestic tunes grooving you back to the future, with such songs as “Lady”, “Water No Get Enemy”, “O.D.O.O.” and more, soak in the spirit and soul of Fela’s insight and genius. Keep in mind also, a DVD featuring segments from the film, Music Is The Weapon, accompanies the ‘deluxe edition’ of this LP.

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star

V.V. BROWN, Traveling Like The Light (Capitol)

Menu: retro-soul, pop, swing, jazzy-funk

Tastes like: vibrant, original soul songs sung & produced in yesteryear’s old school vein

Ingredients: Just a listen to “Game Over” and you’d want to see V.V. Brown perform this live! Her energy and power in delivering this uplifting and defiant track, moves you (as everything else around you shifts too)! Entirely produced and written by V.V. herself, this young Brit now embarking on breaking through to the States, comes equipped with the lead single, “Shark In The Water” and you can’t help but feel her determined type of soulful expressiveness, fashion direction and blessed talent destined to be compared or mentioned in the same circles of other diva dames like Shingai Shoniwa (of Noisettes), Alicia Keys, Amy Winehouse and others. It’s always exciting to see the path of a new rising star, and with an assembly of strong songs as the swinging “L.O.V.E”, the delta-quality rich dampness of “Back In Time”, the destined-to-be remixed energy of “Everybody” and the lovely ballad, “I Love You” on her debut here, expect V.V. Brown to soon be a household name in the U.S., something she’s already conquered in the UK.

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star

GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW, Kings Ballad (Ubiquity)

Menu: organic soul, electro-funk

Tastes like: an organic and modernly-rich, deep soulful blend of yesteryear’s negro-spirit

Ingredients: The title of this album is an ode to Michael Jackson. As Georgia Anne Muldrow sings on its title track, lyrically respectful of MJ’s death and his contribution to the world almost in a gospel-like, funeral hymnal form, she solemnly spills her emotions as the groovier, more electronic “RIP” interlude-instrumental follows. However, this LP is in no way totally dedicated or a capitalization on MJ’s death or popularity. That’s just one song, and it’s as far as it goes. On “Thrones” she trades her emcee skills and soulful singing between verse and chorus, refreshes the soul scene with pure originality on “Live” and with consciousness and addictive melodies, she disappears into thin air over “Industrial Bap,” one of the LPs few yet strong-points in futuristic, black-tronic funk!

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star

STRONG ARM STEADY & MADLIB, In Search of Stoney Jackson (Stones Throw)

Menu: west coast, non-gangsta, underground and indie hip-hop

Tastes like: east coast-influenced, soulful, sample-heavy beats w/ a high-level of intellect

Ingredients: Strong Arm Steady (consisting of rappers Krondon, Phil Da Agony & Mitchy Slick) join beat maestro Madlib in a natural progression, with welcomed inspiration on the concept of this LP, coming from J.Rocc (of World Famous Beat Junkies), making it irresistible for guest lyricists such as Phonte of Little Brother on “Best of Times” to deliver anything but a heavenly chorus-hook and a killer verse echoing: “Everybody got da blues n’ it’s evident/Got workers losing their jobs n’ their residence/And overseas niggaz filing out, straight wildin’ out, tossin’ their shoes at the President!” With other partners in crime like Planet Asia delivering the fresh, non-expiry rhymes on “Chittlins & Pepsi,” Talib Kweli raising the bar on “Get Started” and Madlib’s border-crossing daggers denting your speakers on “Chants”, search no more: Stoney Jackson has been spotted!

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star

JAMES PANTS, Seven Seals (Stones Throw)

Menu: uncategorized electronica, electro-pop, nu funk, rock-inspired disco

Tastes like: a nibble out of a musical genius’s undiscovered and timeless discography

Ingredients: It’s a wonder how producer/performer James Pants’ work isn’t one of the most sort after. After all, some of his work on this LP reminds me of an edgier vein to Mayer Hawthorne’s “Green Eye Love (Classixx Remix)” – which is one of my favorites for 2009! Commencing with the bizarre, yet growingly satisfying “The Eyes of the Lord” followed by the short and funky-pounding beat of “A Chip in the Hand,” his unique blend of somber notes, almost dark enough to depress you, delightfully and rightfully conflict with the excitement of drum snares and rhythms pushing the sunshine through the grey clouds, such as on “Sky Warning” and the title track’s theme. As you allow “Thin Moon”, “Not Me” and “Wash To See” to grow on you, you’ll be eager to guide someone else through to his ‘simply weird’ light…

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star

NNEKA, Concrete Jungle (Decon/Epic)

Menu: global hip-hop, soul, reggae, world beat

Tastes like: rage suppressed by a beautiful & hopeful spirit looking to a brighter future

Ingredients: By no means is Nneka a newcomer – maybe to the US fan base she is – positioning this LP as her first US release. But just about in every corner of the globe, specifically Europe and Africa, her name and music is widely known and played. Get with the program and allow her unapologetic stance for justice and revolution on “The Uncomfortable Truth” to penetrate your old, limited ways of thinking. She raps just as well as she sings, but don’t compare her style or think she’s piggybacking off of Lauryn Hill’s absence. Her emotions overflow incredibly on the cardiac, hyper-tension of “Heartbeat” as the pace of the chorus rushes the flow of blood all over your body, then relaxes you back into her mellow verse. This track’s so HOT! She hardly eases up, and takes almost every opportunity to express any form of consciousness and defiance. Intense on “Africans” where she pleads to her country to wake up, she also allows her outer beauty to shine on probably the LP’s second strongest track, “From Africa 2 U,” where she unleashes that festive spirit all in the hope of highlighting the preciousness of her roots from the people of Warri and the Niger Delta of Nigeria. She sings this song as if she’s shedding tears of pure pride and joy…

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star

MASSIVE ATTACK, Heligoland (Virgin)

Menu: downtempo, trip-hop, chill-out

Tastes like: a soundtrack to a traumatic twist in a suspenseful plot in overcast weather!

Ingredients: You had the teaser EP back in the fall of 2009 to grab, now here’s the entire LP, armed with some of the same tracks from the EP, and more of course. Speaking of tease, it’s a crime to cut short the bridge within “Pray For Rain” featuring Tunde Adebimpe, which leads off the album! While the song transitions into the most remarkable, heaven-sent bridge, shut your eyes and don’t tell me you’re not in actual heaven? Man… Moving along, the strange and bizarre, sometimes caustic-sounding blandness bores you on tracks such as “Babel” and “Saturday Come Slow”, but the Massive Attack duo of 3D and Daddy G make up on much stronger cuts including the ghostly sounds of “Splitting The Atom”, “Girl I Love You” featuring longtime Massive Attack contributor and collaborator Horace Andy, the sweet singing of Martina Topley-Bird on “Psyche” and the groove of “Paradise Circus” featuring Hope Sandoval, just all the more reason to dive into their depth, far away from the predictable…

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star

VARIOUS ARTISTS, Back to the Beat Vol. II: Old School Classics – Remixed (Latchkey)

Menu: classic hip-hop, lounge, chill-out remixes

Tastes like: gourmet versions of golden era hip-hop, palatable for mature audiences

Ingredients: With the infamous lyrics to these classic hip-hop jams revived on this compilation, the productions that shaped one of the world’s most vibrant artforms are trashed, replaced and recycled with lounge/chill-out grooves that still on tracks like “Cinderfella Dana Dane – Remix” by Dana Dane and “Just A Friend – Remix” by Biz Markie, carry these head-nod delights into the 21^st century easily and enjoyably. Soulful and political vocal samples within the productions of others such as “I Cram To Understand U – Remix” by Mc Lyte or “Stop The Violence” by Boogie Down Productions aid these gems to shine them just as bright amongst your carefully stored Fila polyester sweat suits, rope-neck chains and comic collection, all treasured away like the valuable memories they equate…

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star

HENRY ‘JUNJO’ LAWES, Volcano Eruption (VP)

Menu: early classic dancehall, post-Rockers roots, lovers rock

Tastes like: foundational classics of earlier ‘original versions’

Ingredients: Henry ‘Junjo’ Lawes, with the help of engineer ‘Scientist’, The Roots Radics and High Times Band, two session bands that churned out grooves and riddims in the mid-1970’s to mid-1980s, produced these tracks, all 40 of them here on 2-CDs. There’s no regret in hauling n’ pulling this LP in, even though a similar release with the same tracks, just under a different title, was released some years back. Barrington Levy who on “Prison Oval Rock” and John Holt who on “Police in Helicopter” both explain the hardship and tribulation of ghetto-living in Jamaica which continues to define a certain type of non-tourist lifestyle to this day. The songs, the bass lines and the style oozing out of this is authentic, and with others such as “Gunman” by Michael Prophet, “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt” and “Zunguzunguguzungguzeng”, both by Yellowman, you’ll begin to realize the chronological importance of these songs, its similarities, and their precious contributions in also shaping hip-hop’s birth!

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star

VARIOUS ARTISTS, Calypso Dreams (Kaisoul 1112)

Menu: calypso

Tastes like: the foundation and authenticity of calypso’s true roots by its originators

Ingredients: Just as samba is to Brazil, or cumbia is to Colombia, or reggae is to Jamaica, well, calypso is to Trinidad & Tobago. This is the soundtrack to a documentary film of the same name, which features VERY rare footage of such a gathering of original calypsonians who shaped and formed the artform, though today much of what you’ll hear on this through the likes of names such as Lord Relator, Mighty Duke, Calypso Rose, Poser, The Mighty Terror and more, is sadly lost. Enjoy a different, slower-paced and more comedic form of lyricism, even ‘extempore’ (freestyling) by expanding your musical exploits to yet another part of the world, where back in the day with just raw vocals (sorry no auto-tune) and guitar in hand, the happiest results were just as entertaining. Even Harry Belafonte comes clean!

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star

SAADI, Bad City (Paper Garden)

Menu: big city pop, electro-pop, electronica

Tastes like: definitely a sexy sound if you didn’t have a chance to salivate, you’d smell

Ingredients: With the title track getting a much deserved ‘Serious Business Remix’ from her in-house band of the same name, SAADI (born Boshra AlSaadi in Damascus, Syria) resides in New York City (the East Village to be exact) where over the last decade or so she’s scraped up, soaked up, absorbed and shoveled up the various influences, continuing to shape her sound. As you leave the gritty, electro punk-rock influenced title tracks and “Birds” behind, she also shows her pillow-soft side by swinging into the pop life on “Pollen Seeking Bees” which makes you start to dream… and float… and to imagine what if?

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star

PERFECT, French Connection (Tiger/Chalice Palace)

Menu: roots and dancehall-reggae

Tastes like: stale ackee & saltfish – which means avoid because of its poisonous effect!

Ingredients: What an ironic name for this artist, who on this release, is far from! Produced by Romain ‘ Sherkhan’ Chiffre, Perfect’s delivery and style of chanting/deejaying is so feeble, you’d think when he sings/singjays on one of the most overused covers on earth, “Aint No Sunshine,” he’d at least have no trouble. WRONG. It’s straight-up sacrilegious, but it gets worse when he tackles “Son of Jamaica,” which makes the song embarrass any Jamaican-born, Jamaican-dating or Jamaican-associated prideful person on it’s greatest export, reggae music. It’s amazing how records such as these even get released or past the gate. Desperation, possibly? Too many ‘YES’ men in his camp? Whatever the case, avoid this connection, si’l vous plait!

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star

VARIOUS ARTISTS, Ziggy Marley Presents: Dancehall Originators Vol. 1 (Tuff Gong Worldwide)

Menu: old skool dancehall

Tastes like: yesteryear’s “Hot This Year” grooving steady throughout the entire LP

Ingredients: Now, there’s no denying this “Hot This Year” riddim produced by producer Phillip Smart, and widely popularized in the late 1980’s by Dirtsman’s big smash of the same name, as well as Red Foxx & Screechy Dan’s “Pose Off” hit, as a powerful, party-rocking anthem that rocked the world in the past and still continues to get dance floors crowded, instantly. But there’s a reason these were the ONLY two songs that put all the others to rest, some two decades ago. Simply because the rest were no test, and it’s with this fact, there isn’t much worth in the rest of these attempts by the likes of Chaka Demus, Coco Tea, Pinchers and even Buju Banton. When this riddim passes through in the juggle by the many selectors worldwide, trust me when I say, it’s only necessary to keep Dirtsman alive, sometimes keeping Red Foxx & Screechy Dan’s “Pose Off” nearby in the crate (or on your itunes). If anything, selectors are already just heisting the riddim by itself, throwing their own hip-hop/R&B mash-ups over it, definitely not these.

Rating: 5Star 4Star 3Star 2Star 1Star