Best New Music - May 2008
June 01 2008

The monthly mixtape is ready again. New music of good quality for 08, you can sample these tracks here.

Kidz in the Hall feat. Pusha T and Bun B – Drivin' Down the Block (Remix) Welcome to summer. Well, if you're in the USA or the rest of the northern hemisphere where emerging from hibernation come the seasonal creatures that are rappers. It's time to shed the puffy jackets, hop in your ride with bass pumping and the windows down. Actually, Kidz in the Hall probably prefer blazers to puffy jackets when they deliver their brand of sophisticated Hip Hop on their sophomore The In Crowd. But when they sampled Masta Ace's Born to Roll and invited Pusha T and Bun B to make guest appearances on the remix it's apparent they wanted to at least attempt a cross over between their intricate beats and intellectual rhymes and the loud, thumping party sound. And so seeing today is the first day of summer, or for the southern hemisphere, the first day of wishing it was summer this track is the stand out on the album.

Bun B – I Luv Dat
The southern rapper/producer Bun B also released his second solo album IITrill this month and it's intriguing to hear him expand on his club filling, dirty south sound by spending some tracks detailing his life experiences, self doubts and dealing with the loss of UGK partner Pimp C. That said, party time tracks are still his expertise and I Luv That is pure club music. It's filled with the thumping, glass-rattling bass and sharp, contemporary synth stabs that get everyone off the walls and onto the dancefloor. From the opening violin fill it opens up a portal into the fantast club experience where there's no line for the bar, there's more girls than guys out drinking and no one is yawning or smelling of body odour. Bun B channels the magic environment where beats are pumping loud but it's still completely reasonable to have a normal conversation with a girl on the dancefloor. I don't even like dancing, but I want to go to Bun B's club.

The Roots – Rising Down
Continuing this month with a bevy of quality Hip Hop and I would pick Rising Down as the standout LP of the month. It features The Roots, plus a strong back up entourage of guests including former Roots members and a star studded line up of East Coast heavyweights such as Talib, Saigon and Mos Def. The Roots target a different echelon of intelligence, with Rising Down the album featuring more political and cultural themes than this month's earlier choices. On cuts like the title track he prefers telling it like it is to glorified clubbing tales over more subdued beats. Producer ?uestlove has engineered beats that are more subdued but just as catchy, with polished guitar work being a trademark album wide and a horn section and other instrumentation standing out across the whole LP.

Big Boi feat. Andre 3000 and Raekwon – Royal Flush Another group who you could class as owning a few trademark sounds would be Outkast. And that's what you can pretty much classify this new track from Big Boi as, calling in Outkast partner Andre 3000 and the raspy Raekwon to drop verses over smooth grooves, a hot slap bass rhythm and compressed hand claps. It's actually from the forthcoming Sir Luscious Left Foot solo album but the hotness of this track is, well, so Outkast. Every verse on Royal Flush is tight though the Andre 3000 closer borders on ridiculous, covering commercialism, introspection, self-promotion and probably a lot of stream-of-consciousness with ridiculous flow.

Ratatat – Falcon Jab
I'm a massive fan of Ratatat and their riff filled, hook laden beats. In 2006 their sophomore Classics was a heavy album with a collection of meandering instrumentals designed for sailing down rivers to, or slow dancing with historical figures. OK, I'm not trying to classify the Ratatat sound here. There's no way to classify the Ratatat sound really other than to say that their multi-filtered guitars, sliding organs and percussion are generally instantly recognisable in their studio releases and their remix efforts. That said, their latest LP3 sounds like they've taken the trademark Ratatat sound and stretched, squished and smashed it into as many different boxes as possible. They send it underwater, into noir plays and compile it into binary before shooting it into space. This all sounds very hectic and multi-directional for one album and that's true, with things spinning and glittering in parts before slowing and creeping like continental drift in others. One of the faster ones is Falcon Jab, which rumbles in sounding like a revision of Loud Pipes for about 15 seconds before alarmingly bubbling over with extra funk and disco groove, a nice welcome to a new album.

Weezer – Troublemaker Seventeen years and now six albums bring Weezer to this. Their self titled "Red" album toys with Queen style genre hopping throughout, but opens with punchy, rapscallion pop-rock. The good news is it's laden with chunky, infectious riffs. But the problem I have with Rivers is he bounces all over the Maslow Needs Hierarchy in his lyrics. Sometimes he's seeking self-actualisation while others he gets stuck singing about his simplest needs. From a band that promised much philosophising in its early days it seems Rivers is now happy to pursue philosophical subjects like Vipassan? meditation and celibacy in his private life and reserving music for party songs with tracks like Beverly Hills and now "I wanna be a rockstar, yeah" Troublemaker.
So there are no real insights or references to Madame Butterfly in these lyrics though he does manage to rhyme "biatch" with "kids" which I can't really say is good or bad. Weezer seem like sugary breakfast cereal these days, they pop and pack a crunchy punch, but you wouldn't classify it as a real meal.

Cazals – To Cut a Long Story Short
Cazals are an indie rock band from the UK but seem to have a tenuous connection to the French Electro scene. In fact, given that they've toured with Erol Alkan, Digitalism and the legendary Daft Punk it seems Cazals are on some kind of musical diplomatic mission to bring rock music and electro together. So on their album What Of Our Future they have big, crazy riffs but without the filters and loops. And they have a dancefloor drumbeat but without the clubby thump. They do have the same energy as anyone on the Ed Banger record label though, and have been able to successfully create the atmosphere needed opening for Daft Punk on last year's Japan tour with songs like To Cut a Long Story Short.

Surkin – Next of Kin
Surkin is another French artist on the Electro scene who might feature in a Cazals show in the near future. But although the electro scene is not enjoying the heyday it did in 2007 Surkin comes across as one of the only producers in France who can sound fresh in its decline. The 20 year old former art student probably has his influences to thank for this, coming from a youth of Hip Hop and rap before turning to electro while still keeping his ear to house music, current house music not 90s house music. Actually he claims he listens to the whole spectrum. Personally I think the fact that he's signed to Institubes and not Ed Banger is the reason why he's producing polished club hits like Next of Kin.

Wiley – Wearing My Rolex
And okay, we'll stick with the club/rap sound for just one more track this month because this is a song you're likely to hear on coming evenings out. It's from UK Grime artist Wiley who emerged as the "esky boy" (ice man) and was big on the London grime scene prior to this release. But this cut is more goofy fun dance than his ice cool early work. The bassline is overloaded with electro-grime and it pounds away as Wiley discusses the finer points of meeting women in clubs who seem so nice but really are just out to get free drinks and more if they can. Poor Wiley, he's a party guy and everyone knows it, apparently. With hooks like this and his new direction landing him in the number one most downloaded list on the UK's iTunes's listing I think he can afford it. Also, lol.

Black Hollies – Paisley Pattern Ground
Alright, clubbing's over and you've let's now experience some classical music. The Black Hollies would like to welcome you to the Sixties. It's a cliché to say that if you remember the sixties you weren't really there, but the music that defined a new awakening in the west was recorded and is fancily framed on their album Casting Shadows. Most obviously it's the fuzzy guitars, which are interwoven into the fabric of Paisley Pattern Ground. This is a band that claims their sound as "psychedelic garage" and lists their influences from beyond the mainstream. But The Black Hollies have an album that doesn't have to feel embarrassed for featuring riffs like Cream or groove like Hendrix because they pull it off like a time machine.
You could pick any track off Casting Shadows as a highlight. Sure, they stand alone because countless moments feel like they'd fit perfectly in poignant moments of films like Forrest Gump, Platoon or less colourful points of Austin Powers. Yet the fact that they have a sound that can be so easily integrated into a generation passed proves that there's no gaudiness in this tribute, it's more simply the spirit of the sixties living on.

The Breeders – It's the Love
While we're dealing with the past we'll cover The Breeders' latest which expands on the sounds of 90's classics Pod and Last Splash. They're a band it's hard not to like. They're fronted by identical twin sisters and how many acts can claim that? Well, Tegan and Sara can… and B*Witched I guess… But they rock and shit all over those groups respectively. But on an album which is initially kind of disappointing after a six year hiatus, Mountain Battles slowly grows beyond its occasionally clumsy songwriting into a worthwhile revision of last decade's furry grunge sound.
Funnily enough the absolute best song is one written by others. It's The Love is a cover of fellow Dayton band The Tasties and it carries poppy riffs and the old Breeders' attitude from start to finish.

CSS – Rat is Dead
It seems in the three years since Brazilian based pop troupe CSS made their electro-bubble-rock album they've been listening to a few 90's grunge artists like The Breeders. It's an influence that shows on the first single from July's Donkey with shades of Courtney Love and Pixies guitar work centre stage for at least the first 20 seconds. Then the Japanese-Portuguese combination that is Lovefoxxx's cute, punchy accent drops over the guitars to raise questions about the two sounds juxtaposition. But with detailed guitar artistry and deft production work Rat sounds pretty good and adds a heavier element to the CSS indie-dancefloor sound where it will surely be heard for the rest of the year.

The Last Shadow Puppets – Calm Like You
The Last Shadow Puppets will mainly be received as a glimpse of how well Arctic Monkey Alex Turner can carry a Midas touch. But that just neglects the other talent on offer in this band. Okay, not so much Miles Kane from The Rascals as he's relatively obscure but half of Simian's Mobile Disco – James Ford – rocks up to drum and produce The Age of the Understatement. Turner's done a solid job on a few similar sounding UK indie acts such as Duels over the last few years but none have achieved the kind of success that could come with Turner on vocals and lead guitar.
In comparison to the Monkeys, The Last Shadow Puppets is a more complex, forgivably wanky sound than the frenetic rock on their two LPs, maybe helped by the 22 piece London Metropolitan Orchestra filling in all the gaps and cracks. There is a noir, kind of espionage feel to the album on tracks like Calm Like You. Turner still sings like he's not sure if he's writing songs or reading passages from novels sold at gas stations and it still works for him.

Death Cab for Cutie – Cath...
The two strongest points behind Death Cab for Cutie's style are their harmonic, easy to listen to pop-rock melodies and the strength of Ben Gibbard's storytelling. It's a well laid trap, as exemplified on Cath.... As they've done before, the track opens with sweeping riffs and rhythms that are easy to relax into before the song snaps you back to attention with the tale's twists sung so subtly that it's not even clear it's a story until the song is done. The beauty of Cath's tale comes from a single image painted from the first line of the first verse. The image is then slowly fleshed out into context and detail by Gibbard, going from a tale of happiness to a moving one of doubt and fear. And as the story reaches its peak the band combines strongly to drive the point home in swells of guitars and percussion.

Adem – Hotellounge
It's an interesting move for London based, Turkish born Adem to make his third album one of covers, transferring his unassuming, acoustic blend of pretty folk into an assortment of songs that influenced him as a musician. The twelve chosen tracks on Takes come from a developing period in his life and are picked from all over the spectrum, with versions here of The Smashing Pumpkins and Low sitting alongside Aphex Twin, Björk and this cover of dEUS.
It's titled Takes because the songs are another attempt on an existing song. However, it's also an appropriate name because Adem takes so much from each, stripping them down to just guitar, singing and feeling. Well, that's not entirely true; he has compiled an intriguing collection of instruments and sound effects to feature as backups in the recordings. Appearances include glockenspiels, harmoniums, vibraphones, ukuleles and an EBow. You might suspect he just chose the instruments with the funny names but when hearing them on the album each bring their own timbre to their chosen song, cleverly giving each arrangement unique character.
The track selection is kind of worrying though. There are a just a few too many songs originally by female artists singing about loneliness and wanting their man back. So it's obvious Adem's a sensitive lad. But on Hotellounge he, as he so consistently does, injects subtle emotion and beauty into everything he sings. So while the album is named Takes it can't be said that he doesn't also give.

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