Talvin Singh first rose to notoriety running a popular Monday night London club, Anokha. [Entire article]
A collection of four Junior Byles tracks from his post-Lee "Scratch" Perry era and seven tracks from lesser-known artists like Rupert Reid, Pablo Moses and others, 129 Beat Street highlights some of the best cuts from the little-known House of Music studio operated by Dudley "Manzie" Swaby and Leroy "Bunny" Hollett. [Entire article]
Mark Nelson of Labradford fame has gone solo under the name Pan American. Splinters of whispers, chilly organs, faint hints of guitars, space-dub bass and ratcheting electronic pings and blips recall early Aphex Twin, but the spacewalking sound is warmer, richer and more bewitching. [Entire review]
Backed by a band comprised of ex-Jesus Lizard drummer Mac McNeilly and ex-Hairmaster bassist Dan Maister, P.W. Long, formerly of Wig and Mule, takes a full-on, head-bangin', hard-drinking electric sound on his second outing. [Entire review]
Good Humor has Saint Etienne back cooking up more delectable lolli-pop. From "Woodcabin," the dubby, bass-heavy opener, Good Humor is a typically arch Saint Etienne album full of easy-listening dream pop. [Entire review]
The oft-used comparison to Sonic Youth doesn't really hold a lot of water, as Blonde Redhead's music has always been a bit less swirling, more spontaneous, and rougher around the edges. [Entire review]
After their highly acclaimed Kranky debut, Astralmoonbeamprojections, and their blissful second release, Perceptions, on Darla Records, Amp continues to bridge the gap between ambient guitar rock and trance electronica. [Entire review]
Trade in all those other Bob Marley and the Wailers compilations, because this three-CD set, in tandem with the companion box Pt. 2: 1967-1972, renders them all obsolete. [Entire review]![]()
Sometimes a record comes along that sounds as if it had been beamed from another dimension. [Entire review]
Imagine a soulless, post-apocalyptic world where a lack of musical vibrations has twisted universal karma in all the wrong ways. [Entire review]
You have to give a guy credit for trying. In an age when most of the old blues players are either dead or too old to play, R.L. Burnside, the 71 year-old Mississippi native, can still rip dirty, juke-joint blues in convincing fashion. [Entire review]
Cadallaca, in the same vein as fellow Pacific Northwesterners Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney, writes bare-bones pop songs using a Farfisa organ, electric guitar and a simple drum kit. [Entire review]
Out Of Your Mind is a disturbingly schizophrenic second full-length release from D.N.S.S. From their swinging first outing, Boot Party, the group has developed a more menacing, scraping guitar sound while keeping some of the bare-bones R&B and funk suppleness which made Boot Party both edgy and thumping. [Entire review]
Alpha Blondy storms back with his best release since Apartheid Is Nazism. Nothing much has changed stylistically for Blondy, as he is still able to pound out throbbing, international reggae laced with sharp messages of peace, love, and universality. [Entire review]
While Son Volt's first two albums, Trace and Straightaways, received critical acclaim, they are both very restrained and sparse works underlain with languidness. [Entire review]
Lee "Scratch" Perry is the undeniable mastermind behind some of reggae's greatest moments. These days, however, it's hard to say whether he is still the genius he once was or whether he has assumed the role of reggae's clown prince. [Entire review]
It's hard to take a Rastaman dressed in an Armani suit seriously. [Entire review]
Recorded in London following an attempt on his life, Exodus shows Bob Marley mellowing a bit. [Entire review]
While Rasta Revolution contains the duplicate cuts "400 Years" and "Duppy Conqueror" from African Herbsman and is from roughly the same early-'70s period, there is a distinctly mellow feel to the record. [Entire review]
While it might be sacrilege in reggae circles to say that any artist could challenge Bob Marley's mastery of the genre, Alpha Blondy fires a dead-on shot literally heard around the world with Apartheid Is Nazism. [Entire review]
After the critical acclaim Alpha Blondy received from Apartheid Is Nazism, he was quick to put out another album the following year. [Entire review]
Probably only of interest to the most diehard reggae fans, Dance Crasher traces the Jamaican music scene from fast-paced ska to slower rock steady. [Entire review]
A follow-up to the highly acclaimed dub opus Super Ape, Return of the Super Ape, like most sequels, never reaches the heights of its predecessor. [Entire review]
A collaboration between dub mixmaster/studio whiz King Tubby and dancehall tough Jah Screw, Dangerous Dub is a ten-track collection of some of the heaviest roots dub around. [Entire review]
While Augustus Pablo is the genius behind what is probably the best dub record ever, King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown, One Step Dub, with Junior Delgado, falls decidedly flat and arch. [Entire review]
On this, the second installment in the Dub Me Crazy series, Mad Professor opens simply by saying, "Tune into Dub Me Crazy Pt. 2," just before plunging headlong into ten tracks of space age dub that are sure to twist your brain up nice and tight. [Entire review]