Grooves
October 2004 By John Murph
Tangle Eye: Alan Lomax's Southern Journey Remixed
Zoe
One of the more fascinating and heartfelt remix projects to come along is Tangle Eye's Alan Lomax's Southern Journey Remixed (Zoe). Imagine if Lomax brought along maverick producers Craig Street and Moodymann to his field-recording excursions and found out...
October 2004 By John Murph
Enter the Mowo!
Mowo
Mocean Worker's Enter the MoWo! (MoWo!) is an uneven tribute to jazz boogaloo. Despite such esteemed guests as Bill Frisell, Houston Person, Jane Monheit and Steve Bernstein, the CD can't shake much of its kitchiness. Worker is actually Adam Dorn, the son...
October 2004 By John Murph
Lounge Story 2
Dreyfus Records
Although Lounge Story 2 (Dreyfus) features some outdated acid jazz-Moondog's 1969's "Lament I, Bird's Lament" is now used to peddle SUVs-gems like Carol Ventura's "I Want to Be With You" pop out here and there. With a heavy emphasis on understated-vocal...
October 2004 By John Murph
Street Signs
Concord Records
Ozomatli is a Southern Californian multicultural group that blends Latin rhythms and melodies with hip-hop, funk and jazz. On its third disc, Street Signs (Concord), Ozomatli adds North African and Arabic music to its sound as the band tackles social issues...
October 2004 By John Murph
N.G.G.R. Please
Flavateria
Indigenous People's Native Go-Go Rhythms Please (Flavateria) is perhaps the best go-go-fueled jazz-funk excursion since Miles Davis' Amandla. Having already proven a mastery of deep house, drum 'n' bass and funk with his outstanding 2000 disc, Rhodes Ahead...
December 2003 By John Murph
Feed the Cat
Giant Step Records
Toward the end of the '90s, when drum 'n' bass was seemingly driving itself into an aesthetic brick wall with its obsession with cardiac-arrest-inducing velocity, overt rhythmic complexities and nihilistic lyrics of premillennium tension, the genre known...
December 2003 By John Murph
Open Rhythm System
Uncle Junior
Avant-jazz drummer Guillermo E. Brown has caught wind of broken-beat's Afro-futuristic rhythms. He's no stranger to electronica, having already participated in such avant-jazz/electronica hybrids with Spring Heel Jack, not to mention his own idiosyncratic...
December 2003 By John Murph
Blue Series Continuum: GoodandEvil Sessions
Brown's fellow sonic explorers at Thirsty Ear are continuing their expedition of post-Downtown scene avant-gardism mixed with electronica. The bewitching GoodandEvil Sessions (Thirsty Ear) spearheads Thirsty Ear's Blue Series Continuum, which highlights...
December 2003 By John Murph
Turn It Out Remixed
Velour
Soulive affirm their kinship to hip-hop, loud and clear, on the excellent Turn It Out Remixed (Velour). Whereas many confused the band's riveting organ-trio sound as emblematic of the jam-band scene, they've always contended that they're more likely to wear...
December 2003 By John Murph
Many in High Places Are Not Well
Bubble Core Records
One of the most transportive and subtle mélanges of electronica and live instrumentation is on HiM's magical new CD, Many in High Places Are Not Well (Bubble Core). Led by drummer and electronic wizard Doug Scharin, HiM resembles Peter Apfelbaum's Hieroglyphics...
