It can boil down to the question on whether or not the distillation of the raw energy of sound in a open space competes well with that of the closed session. It may even determine the movement of the masses or the travel of the bits downstream to the many peer-to-peer network jackers. Jacked in and into the stream of consciousness that can be given and taken from the aural stimulants found breathing and pulsating on the shiny side of things to come. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, regrets and misgivings for the future to come.
Belvedere Jehosophat - Sunday, December 24, 2006
Squarepusher - Hello Everything
If Ultravisitor — s f pecifically the title of Ultravisitor — was any indication of what Ultravisitor was going to sound like, then the art, and to a lesser extent, I guess the title, of Hello Everything should give you an idea of what Hello Everything is about.
Read the rest of Squarepusher - Hello Everything review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Thursday, October 26, 2006
God, I love this man. Doom, Daniel Dumile, the villain lays it down like the best-laid plans. Danger Doom is Danger Mouse and MF Doom.
This concept makes so much sense it's almost intuitive: take MF Doom, pair him with Danger Mouse's excellent beats and have him rap about Adult Swim cartoons. Being that Doom's bread and butter has always been pop culture and other dork-related matters we're not really talking too much of a stretch as far as subject matter is concerned.
Read the rest of Danger Doom - The Mouse and the Mask review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Thursday, October 12, 2006
El-P handles production on eight of the eleven tracks, with Mr. Lif producing two and Nick Toth producing the last.
OK, so, the first three songs are good but I'm starting to feel a little odd about how this record is progressing. It's turn for "The Fries," now, and the breakdown and segue into another beat is surprisingly refreshing, a little too refreshing... I wonder why? By the time we get to "Take, Hold, Fire!" however, which, given the guests (Aesop Rock & El-P) should have been a monster track, things are starting to get a little stale, and things are also starting to make sense. It's not that the music is bad, it isn't; it's that, simply, there's been too much of the same thing. In fact, I'd say that "Take, Hold, Fire!" does exactly what El-P was trying to do with this record best: the heavy beats, the stuttering funk, the dirty music, etc, but, being that it's the fifth song, it has lost a lot of its impact.
Read the rest of Mr. Lif - Mo' Mega review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Monday, October 9, 2006
Sonic Youth is now Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley. Jim O'Rourke has left the band.
A few weeks before this record was released I visited the Sonic Youth website. Judging by the relative brevity of the songs and by the cover art, which reminded me of Fear's The Record, I assumed, full of hope, not hopefully, that Rather Ripped was going to be a punk record — an honest-to-god punk record.
Read the rest of Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Holy shit, where did this record come from?
I've heard Fab Four Suture described as both Stereolab's latest LP since Margerine Eclipse and as a collection of singles and/or EPs. I think I will, at least until told otherwise, assume it's the latter: "Suture," the cover, which features bits and pieces, and the thin slice of cardboard that serves as a booklet convinces me thus.
Read the rest of Stereolab - Fab Four Suture review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Songs of a Dead Dreamer, though released in 1995, deserves a review because it really is one of the classics of the genre. I'm not, now, going to get into exactly what that genre is (Illbient) or who exactly coined the term, created the idea, etc, except to say that in such a genre Songs of a Dead Dreamer must at least figure as one of its cornerstones.
The booklet deserves a mention because it holds the key to the concept around which the record is created. The quotes of a number of historical figures envelop the snippets of a Spooky essay regarding the role of the DJ in conceptualising and redefining culture, society, the city, etc. To quote DJ Spooky, "To me, assembly is the invisible language of our time and DJ'ing is the forefront artwork of the late 20th century." This mission statement, furthermore, is supported by different paintings, collages and pictures. It is helpful to recognise the spirit in which Songs of a Dead Dreamer was created I order to better understand the music. In short, the music, like the packaging, is a collage.
Read the rest of DJ Spooky: that subliminal kid - Songs of a Dead Dreamer review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Friday, June 9, 2006
Beats - DJ Muggs
MC - GZA/The Genius
Guests - Raekwon and RZA individually then together with Sen Dog. Masta Killa and Prodigal Sunn on the fourth
Read the rest of DJ Muggs vs. GZA/The Genius - Grandmasters review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Monday, June 5, 2006
I didn't know this record was being made, so not only was I surprised when I saw it in the store I didn't even get to savour anticipating its release. I guess it was the appearance of no less than two DVDs (including the essential Fearless Freaks documentary) and that whole Squarebob Spongepants soundtrack-thing that distracted me from the fact that it had been four long years since The Flaming Lips had released Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.
It's because you're still kind of reeling from the robust "yeah yeah yeahs" of "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" and the weird Prince-like vocals and Pure Guava guitars of the second song, "Free Radicals," that you find yourself feeling a little dubious about just how this record is going to turn out. These two songs, however, not only redeem themselves with a little time, they lead to more familiar territory and to – what I think is – the high point of At War with the Mystics, the three gorgeous ballads, "The Sound of Failure," "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion" and "Vein of Stars."
Read the rest of The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Monday, May 8, 2006
NOFX albums have always started out badly for me, and I've always been convinced that this was going to be the first really shit record since Punk in Drublic. "Linoleum" and "It's My Job to Keep Punk Rock Elite" I never really liked; though both grew on me. "And Now for Something Completely Similar" was annoying, partly because it mentioned "Linoleum," though not so much so as that sample at the beginning of "The War on Errorism," but, fuck, both were over and done with pretty quick. And, following that pattern, "60%"is a pretty bad song that's becoming more tolerable with each listen.
And, a week's worth of listening usually has convinced me that the songs on Wolves in Wolves' Clothing are as good as anything else that NOFX have released.
Read the rest of NOFX - Wolves in Wolves' Clothing review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Thursday, May 4, 2006
Where The Power Out seemed a hyper-literate record, what with its lyrics borrowed from Nietzsche, Juan Boscán and Siegfried Sassoon, Axes is a mostly instrumental affair in which only five of the thirteen tracks feature vocals.
The record is a little self-indulgent at times - be honest, that second last song isn't actually a song, gals, it actually doesn't deserve its own track or title; and the eighth song, "Business or Otherwise," is salvaged by pretty, though, unfortunately, intermittent melodies.
Read the rest of Electrelane - Axes review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Wednesday, May 3, 2006
orchestrated by DJ GMAN
The ubiquitous intro done & over and we're in.
Read the rest of Bigg Jus - Poor People's Day review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Tuesday, November 8, 2005
Trimming down the somewhat epic sprawl and silliness of Primitive Plus into a concise thirty-four minutes Edan has produced a monster of a record with Beauty and the Beat.
The sound is old-school hip hop married to 60’s and 70’s psychedelic rock and roll, so... loops and distorted guitars, breaks and backwards instruments, rhymes and Pink Floyd samples, etc and etc, and so on.
Read the rest of Edan - Beauty and the Beat review
Belvedere Jehosophat - Thursday, November 3, 2005
Released quite soon after One Word Extinguisher, Extinguished is made up of "outakes + different versions of tracks" from the former CD.
Sure enough Extinguished flies through 23 tracks in 37-odd minutes with only two or three songs lasting longer than three.
Read the rest of Prefuse 73 - Extinguished review
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