Mark Zip - Pooplist 2002
Steinski
- Nothing To Fear (Soul Ting Records)
I am just
a little ashamed to have this on the Pooplist, not because of the music, but
because the CD is almost impossible to find. Steinski is one of the great
DJ/Selector originators, responsible, along with partner Double D, for the
seminal "Lesson 1", "2" and "3". "Nothing To
Fear" is a CD of the mix he made for the BBC radio show "Solid
Steel". The primacy of the beat is the point here. It's not just that,
it's also the spoken samples he chooses (including one of my own favourites
from "Diner"), it's the mix of obscure and familiar. Perfect.
Laura
Cantrell - When The Roses Bloom Again (Diesel Only)
Her
second LP builds on the strengths of the first. A well thought out mix of
covers and originals. I'm not usually partial to voices mixed this far up in
the mix, but the precision of her tone and the clearness of purpose overall
make for a very special listen. Even more special give the current Nashville
tilt toward boring power ballads masking as "country". She lives in
Brooklyn and hosts a very good radio show on WFMU also. Maybe that's jsut far
enough away from Nashville's grasp...
Mekons
- Out Of Our Heads (Qaurterstick)
Most of
the songs were written before Sept. 11 2001, but this still reads as the best
response yet. Profoundly humanistic and open minded to the last.
Anti-Pop
Consortium - Arrhythmia (Warp)
Buzzes
blips and a few springy beats are the least of it. The most of it is the
barrage of words, ideas, concepts, motifs, rhymes, broken metre and
brain-busting vocal output. You might want a nice cup of soothing miso soup
after this one.
Royksopp
- Melody AM (Astralwerks)
Blips and
warm old-school synths over modernistic beats made for a slow learning curve
for me on this one. I came ‘round in the end. I wonder if this is really ever
as immediate as some supporters claim.
Salif
Keita - Moffou (Universal)
Acoustic
settings for one of the great voices in popular music anywhere. The synth
washes used on previous records worked in similar ways, but they also intruded
at times. Here we have a voice, and somewhere further down in the list of
priorities are the songs and then further down the list are the instruments.
Works for me.
Dalek
- From Filthy Tongue of Gods & Griots (Ipecac Recordings)
Ambitious
noise and boundary stretching hip hop. Is this what Public Enemy might have
sounded like without Chuck D’s insistence on the balance of noise and message?
Some false notes in the noise, but a great effort.
Underworld
- A Hundred Days Off (V2)
The
question of what direction they would take after the departure of Darren
Emerson was not really answered by last years' live record. This is the first
proper studio album in for the duo and they come off in fine form. Epic,
danceable and listenable too. Those are words which we sling about individual
tracks by certain artists, but these guys are among the rare few who can keep
it up over the course of a whole CD.
The
Streets - Original Pirate Material (Vice/Atlantic)
So sue
me, maybe it's the Brit in me. Can the New Wave Of Geezer Rap be far behind?
The beats may veer toward UK Garage and 2-step (or whatever that micro-genre is
called this week), but they hold up in the long run.
RJD2 -
Dead Ringer (Definitive Jux)
Who knows
what category this thing should be in? Should it be abstract beats? Mixology?
Hip-Hop? Must hear?
Orchestra
Baobab - Specialist in All Styles (Nonesuch)
So they
re-release "Pirates Choice" and it's marketed by the same team that
brought Buena Vista social Club to a coffee shop near you. It gets a
well-deserved break-out and does so well that the band re-unites, tours and
records a new CD. Good recipe for a lukewarm, even tepid, attempt to recapture
old glories but thankfully they go another route and approach the old stuff
afresh and add new stuff too. Even Ibrahim Ferrer, in great danger of over-exposure,
puts in a fine appearance. All in all a plain delight and overrides this
snobs' wariness of projects which take shape like this and are taken up by the
Volvo-driving, NPR-listening hordes it is this music’s fate to have as its'
major supporters.
Cee-Lo
- Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections (Arista)
Joyous,
funky, generous. He might have used an editor as the sprawl creeps too far in
places. Still, better to hear wild overreaching ambition than the safe beats
and bling which still afflict too much mainstream hip hop.
Jurassic
5 - Power in Numbers (Interscope) || Blasters - Testament: The
Complete Slash Recordings (Rhino) || Neko Case - Blacklisted (Bloodshot)
|| Luna - Romantica (Jetset) || Elvis Costello - When I Was Cruel (Universal)
|| Kelly Willis - Easy (Rykodisc) || Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow (MCA)
|| Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights (Matador) || The Doves - The
Last Broadcast (Capitol) || Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up on Me (Fat
Possum) || Tom Waits - Blood Money (Anti) || The Hives - Veni Vidi
Vicious (Warner Bros.) || DJ Shadow - The Private Press (MCA) ||
Sleater-Kinney - One Beat (Kill Rock Stars) || Bjork - Live in Japan November 2001 (Bootleg) || Donnas
- Spend the Night (Atlantic)
RECORDS
I MIGHT NOT BE CLEVER ENOUGH TO "GET" --
Wilco
- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch)
1 giant Leap - 1 Giant Leap (Palm
Pictures)
RECORDS
I DONT CARE TO "GET" - -
Coldplay
- A Rush of Blood To The Head (Capitol)
TWO
ALBUMS ARE NOT BETTER THAN ONE - -
Badly
Drawn Boy - About A Boy Soundtrack / Have You Fed The Fish? (Artist
Direct)
"Have
You Fed the Fish" starts with a skit of an airline pilot telling his
passengers that there's a cloud outside the plane which looks just like Badly
Drawn Boy. "Wow" says a passenger, "that guy is
everywhere". And that's the trouble. If you mashed these two CDs together,
you'd get one very good CD. As it is, they are overlong, thin and tantalizing
in their weaknesses.
GUILTY
PLEASURE - -
2 Many DJ's - As Heard
On Radio Soulwax Pt. 2 (Pias)
Dolly
Parton meets Royksopp meets Skee-Lo meets The Stooges meets a blender meets too
many others to mention makes for a mash-up a bootleg scene from hell. Yeah,
some of the electro-revival shit is tired, but this one was a blast from
beginning to end. Will we be listening in 5 years? I doubt it, but that's pop
music for you...
RECORDS
I PROBABLY DON'T NEED BUT WISH I COULD AFFORD - -
Dwight
Yoakam - Reprise Please Baby: The Warner Bros. Years (Rhino)
FILMS --
24 Hour Party People
Remarkable
example of telling the truth through lies. The talking to the camera conceit
wears just a little thin, but small niggles like that paled when my heart burst
a the sight of “Joy Division” doing "She's Lost Control".
Far
From Heaven
The use
of dialog like that heard in 50s TV sitcoms to expose the hurt underlying the
perfect life made the movie for me. Also, man, can Julianne Moore act!
Melodrama must have music and Elmer Bernstein was on the button.
LIVE
SHOWS - -
Robbie Fulks / Laura Cantrell (Mercury Lounge)
Robbie
Fulks, armed with a guitar and the sharpest of witty songs, offers a show in
support of Cantrell's record release party. His songs are pointed, funny and
concise. He even does the fun sing along "Godfrey" ("the sickly,
unemployed, amateur children’s magician...") from the awesome Bloodshot "The
Bottle Let Me Down" kids album. The request part of the show takes
over and he does my choice, "She Took A Lot of Pills", also a chance
to see some of his fiery guitar playing. Then Cantrell comes out and introduces
new songs and covers from the new CD. Great.
Djelimady
Tounkara (Symphony Space)
The lead
guitarist for Mali's Super Rail Band in an acoustic concert with a small
chamber music style band. Just guitar, bass guitar, ngoni, percussion and
voices fill Symphony space with such effortlessness as to make the audience
question exactly how many people there are on stage. Such technique would be
useless in the service of anything but the most soulful of performers, and
these folks have it spades. A very special night.
Mark Zip, Box 568, Woodstock NY 12498-0568 USA
zipszig@ulster.net || www.zipsziggurat.com || in lieu of radio blog || pooplist blog