Album Reviews: August 2013 Week 3

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - "Mind Control" 2013

I had found out about this band from their previous album, "Blood Lust", so I kind of knew what to expect, but this album still blew me away. Their sound falls in a pocket somewhere in between garage rock and stoner metal, and they have a unique way of sounding like a band that could be from the past while still sounding fresh and new. I would recommend this band to anyone who listens to stuff like The Sword, but is maybe a little bored with them and what they do, and are looking for something a little more psychedelic. Check out this dope video for "Mind Crawler". Also check out "Devil's Work", "Desert Ceremony", and "Poison Apple".

Mr. Moods - "The Nature Of Sounds" 2013

I'm torn about what I think about Mr. Moods as an artist. He is literally not treading ANY new ground with his music. This is the same style of jazzy "trip-hop" that DJ Cam and DJ Krush were pumping out throughout the 90's. The thing about Mr. Moods is that he's SO DAMN GOOD at making this style of music, and has a seemingly endless amount of songs to choose from as well. He seems to pump out a high quality album almost every month. I was first introduced to him as an artist from an album a couple years ago that was very sloppy and amateur sounding in comparison to this material, so I had kind of dismissed him slightly, as someone who wasn't special, but that was a misjudgement on my part. This is a superb album, and you can download it for free here..

John Zorn - "The Concealed (Esoteric Secrets & Hidden Traditions Of The East)" - 2012

I think with all the experimental releases he puts out, and just the sheer amount of releases he puts out (like an album every 2 weeks it seems like), even following John Zorn can be an almost daunting task. This is the first album i've heard from him in a little while (keep in mind i'm only half assed checking them out) that isn't weirdo experimental stuff that 99% of the population will hate. This album is incredibly lush sounding with some superb instrumentation. Lots of strings being played different ways. This album is never boring or difficult, it's fits in a nice comfortable zone. I guess this is technically a jazz album, but with the absence of brass instruments, it doesn't really seem that way. There's almost a weird gypsy feel to this album, but that's still a terrible way to describe what it sounds like, so you'll just have to check it out for yourself. Here's "Towards Kafiristan", "Passage To Essentuki", and "A Portrait Of Moses Cordovero".

Free The Robots - "EP- Vol. 2" 2012

Every time I check out another release from this guy, it always blows me away. It's really good to see someone out there that's creating the exact type of thing i'm constantly craving. I always remember the times in my life when no new music was exciting me, and it actually made me depressed, and i'm thankful that right now is not one of those times because of artists like Free The Robots. I don't even know what exactly it is about his style that seems to set him apart from a lot of other people in the beat scene to me, but there's definitely something. His sample sources, melodies, techniques, programming...everything, he's just hittin it out of the park. Check out "Live In A Dream", "Moonchild (Plant Edit)", and "Diary (Exile Mix)".

Major Lazer - "Free The Universe" 2013

Major Lazer is a fictional character created to represent the production team-up of Diplo and Switch. The end result is Handsome Boy Modeling School style WTF collaborations between people who normally would never collaborate, except instead of being hip hop and rock based, Major Lazer is mostly reggae and electronic based. Major Lazer is also well known for their outrageous videos and this album already has a whole new crop of them. I think this new album is a lot more solid throughout than the first one, but at times I get the feeling that it could have been a little bit better than it is too. Check out the videos for "Bubble Butt" featuring Bruno Mars, Tyga, 2Chainz, and Mystic, (so ridiculous, the beginning part with the seapunk girls especially cracks me up), "Watch Out For This (Bumaye)" featuring Busy Signal, The Flexician, and FS Green, "Original Don" featuring The Partysquad, (I love the butterfly knife/sword routine in this, haha), "Scare Me" featuring Peaches and Timberlee, (it's like a preview of an action movie starring Terry Crews as Major Lazer and also featuring a bunch of other people including Blake Anderson and Nick Kroll), "Get Free" featuring Amber of The Dirty Projectors, and "Jah No Partial" featuring Flux Pavilion.

Free The Robots - "In Other Worlds EP" 2013

Scroll up a little bit to see what I had to say about him as an artist. This is a new offering from him and is just continuing the streak of quality he has going. Check out "In Other Worlds", "Take It Slow", and "Transmission".

Odd Future - "The OF Tape Vol. 2" 2012

This is a compilation of a bunch of random songs by members of the crew. Not much of this at all is very entertaining or memorable and this album kinda comes off as a leftovers compilation of songs that didn't make the grade for other projects. They also seem to want to use this album to highlight more of their ignorant side, which should be more funny than it actually ends up being. It just becomes sort of tiresome, which is a shame because I think most of these guys are talented, but are just kinda musically masturbating at this point. Check out the video for "Oldie", which is a 10+ minute posse cut featuring the whole crew. Also check out the hilarious and well done video for "Rella".

John Frusciante - ""PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone" 2012

This album took me by surprise a little. It's still got the same style of falsetto vocals from previous albums, and there's some pretty slick guitar work going on, like you'd expect, but the drum programming on this album is pretty awesome and different from his many previous releases. I would say this is easily one of my top 2 or 3 favorite albums by him. Check out the video for the uncharacteristically poppy "Mistakes". Also check out "Intro/Sabam", the video for "Ratuig", which features some awesome slo-mo skateboard shots and an unnecessary rap verse, and the video for "Sum".

DJ Kentaro - "Contrast" 2012

 DJ Kentaro is a former DMC world champion from Japan who is currently releasing music on Ninja Tune. This album seems pretty evenly dull, unfortunately, as he is sticking to doing different electronic music style "standards" instead of showcasing much turntablism, outside of a couple tracks that have good guests like Kid Koala, D-Styles, and DJ Krush. Check out "North South East West" featuring Matrix and Futurebound, "Next Page" featuring C2C, and "Kikkake" featuring DJ Krush.

City Of Sound - "L'Implosion" 2009

This CD was passed to my girlfriend by one of her co-workers, so I really had no idea what to expect, but this is some high quality stuff. It's really unfortunate how much they try to sound like The Mars Volta, but at the same time it's probably what makes it so instantly likeable for me. I'm a pretty big fan of The Mars Volta, so hearing something very similar is going to still catch my ears. Down to the song titles and production techniques and song structures, they really do seem to be trying to emulate a combination of The Mars Volta and At The Drive In, but the thing is that they're really fucking good at it. I actually think I enjoy this album more than I enjoyed the last Mars Volta album in all honesty. These are some talented dudes laying down some good songs, and I just found a newer album by them from last year on their bandcamp page, so i'll be checking that out soon for sure. Download or listen to this album here.

Brotha Lynch Hung - "Mannibalector" 2013

This is the 3rd part of his Coathanga Strangla trilogy, and honestly as each album has come out of his from these, they seem more and more forced. I'm not saying a lot of these songs don't sound good on the surface, but it just feels like he's going through the motions of making albums, and he's still entertaining enough to carry an album and Strange Music's production people have enough great beats to go around to last forever, it seems. Most of the songs come off like they might be some good shit to play at a Halloween party, but I don't know so much about regular everyday listening. Still worth a listen if you're an old fan. Check out these brutal and well done videos for "Krocadil" and "Meat Cleaver". Also check out "Disappeared" and "Mask & Knife" featuring G-Macc and Bleezo.