ALBUM REVIEWS
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QUICKIES…
Cio D’Or Lindstrøm & Christabelle
Die Faser Real Life Is No Cool Gift of Gab Mordant Music Blakroc
Prologue Smalltown Supersound Escape 2 Mars SyMptoMs Blakroc
Cornerstone Mordant Music V2
Going for Gold The album you hoped he’d make
Classy stuff Turn the dark up Hip-hop gets the blues
Cio is a leading light in the ‘headfuck’ techno After the self-indulgent mess of last album
scene, a loosely grouped collective of DJs ‘Where You Go I Go Too’, it really seemed Why Blackalicious never The new album from Mor- Ohio rockers The Black Keys
and producers. But don’t let the title put you Norwegian cosmic disco pioneer Lindstrøm made it is one of hip-hop’s dant Music’s enigmatic ‘Bar- have cajoled Mos Def, Q-Tip,
off. Inspired by early-’90s trance and mnml’s had fallen off. But Hans-Peter is back with great imponderables. And on’ sounds as Underworld Ludacris and most of the
microscopic detailing and featuring found a vengeance, with chanteuse Christabelle while they seem on perma- might if Karl Hyde lived in a Wu-Tang Clan to rap for
sound samples, D’Or’s sound is both warm in tow to give us the full-fat psychedelic nent hiatus, lightning speed haunted mansion, turning them on this magnifi cent
and organic but carries dancefl oor clout. electronics he’d tantalisingly hinted at many rapper Gift of Gab is still electronic symphonies into collaboration. With such
‘Goldbrokat’ evolves gradually, husky percus- times, but had never quite delivered. thankfully releasing records. shadows and more prone star MCs combined with
sion spilling over a rumbling bass before A strutting, sexy record, ‘Real Life Is No His second solo LP explores to screams of existential raw-fi ngered riffs, ‘Blackroc’
dreamy keys and palatial chords descend. Cool’ dips into all aspects of Lindstrøm’s more synthetic territory despair than shouting “La- is a garage rock and gangsta
‘Mohair’ sounds like an update on early-’90s eclecticism to deliver memorable, irresistible, than usual, but his complex ger, lager, lager’. Which is a rap recipe that works much
tech-trance, with minor key hooks and epic ostensibly pop songs — all led by Christa- Usain Bolt-paced raps are good thing, in case you’re better than you’d think.
synths climaxing over a surging rhythm, while belle’s alluring tones. still intact. Jim Butler wondering. Paul Clarke Paul Clarke
‘Organza’ focuses on a scuffl ed, driving dub. ‘Lovesick’ is a grinding throb of buzzing
D’Or also delivers a series of powerful sound- squelch bass, massive synths and dirty, opiat-
tracks, like the piano utopia of ‘Zellulose ed guitar, ‘Let It Happen’ is a hallucino-house
Wind’ and the resonating woodwind and cover of prog brontosaurus Vangelis, while
fragile melodies of ‘Seide’. ‘Baby Can’t Stop’ is an audacious, horn-led
It may be couched in a high-falutin’ concept, slab of electro-funk freestyle — a pile up of
but ‘Die Faser’ certainly delivers. ’80s Michael Jackson and Lisa Lisa, destined
Richard Brophy to be a hit on Venus soon. Ben Murphy
Jamie Lloyd TBA_Natalie Beridze Scott Hardkiss
Beware Of The Light Pending Technicolor Dreamer
Future Classic Laboratory God Within
Techno disco vocal curio Curious alt.pop magic Electro nightmares
Australian Jamie Lloyd has If a slightly curious and For an album to make you
an unusual musical ap- incohesive fi rst listen, by question your own sanity is
Mr. Chop Riva Starr proach. A singer songwriter second the many highlights an achievement of sorts. We
For Pete’s Sake If Life Gives You Lemons, Make in thrall to electronics and across this beautifully could have sworn that Scott
Five Day Weekend/Now-Again Records Lemonade disco, his sound is beguiling melodic, avant-garde pop Hardkiss was previously
Made To Play in places — particularly on LP glow with an unnerving responsible for some fi ne
Rock back the clock the gorgeous, dusk dappled, brightness. By third, you’re material. Something has
Gypsy-a-go-go galactic bump of ‘Wolf’s marvelling at Beridze’s gone catastrophically wrong
A tribute act of sorts — albeit one unlikely to Sun’ or the playful, Yellow effortless avant-garde mas- as ‘Technicolor Dreamer’ is
be gracing your local karaoke competition House music has had something of a gypsy Magic Orchestra-alike ‘One tery. A serious grower with laden with risible electro
soon — ‘For Pete’s Sake’ is British multi- spirit of late, with Samim and Basement Jaxx Little Sand Storm’. Worth a hidden magic and depth pop that is impossible to
instrumentalist and MF Doom collaborator wandering around the fi elds of Balkan, folk butcher’s. Ben Murphy aplenty. Allan McGrath like. Ben Arnold
Mr. Chop’s homage to veteran New York accordions in hand.
hip-hop producer Pete Rock. Italian producer Riva Starr has also hitched
The twist here being that where Rock refi ned his horse to this caravan, and his debut LP
REPEATTHE LPS WE CAN’T LEAVE ALONE...
a style based on sampling old jazz and funk throws in fi ddle reels and other sounds more
records, Chop instead reworks his hero’s clas- usually heard around campfi res in Andalusia
sic beats in the fashion of the ’60s and ‘70s than on house LPs.
funk bands that Rock plundered. He fl ogs the idea on tracks like ‘I Was Drunk’
So what we get are tracks like ‘T.R.O.Y’ and and ‘Bulgarian Chicks’, but can also offer King Midas Sound Joe Goddard Matias Aguayo
‘Mecca And The Soul Brother’ played with gnarly acid tracks like ‘China Gum’ so he Waiting For You Harvest Festival Ay Ay Ay
a swampy psychedelic vibe familiar to fans doesn’t sound like a sampling one-trick pony. Hyperdub Greco-Roman Kompakt
of The Heliocentrics, who make a couple of That does however have the unintended ef-
guest appearances. fect of making his more obvious steals — like Much of this appears Mega mixed up but perfectly This is a mini-masterpiece,
As instrumentals they loses potency and the same horn sample Masters At Work used paranoid on fi rst listen, but balanced, this debut solo LP mothered by innovation and
purpose without the original rappers like CL for ‘Jus A’ L’il Dope’ on ‘Black Mama’ or the persevere and you’re re- from the Hot Chip don has invention and realised by a
Smooth on top, but it’s a diverting curio for straight cover of Mr. Fingers’ ‘Can You Feel It?’ warded with true diamonds something for all tastes. maverick talent.
those who care to collect such things. that is ‘Tribute’ — seem like slightly knack- in the darkness.
Paul Clarke ered nags in comparison. Paul Clarke
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DJ481.albums.indd 94 1/12/09 17:49:20
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