Amplified Review
September 5, 2009
Artist: Q-Tip
Album: Amplified
Released: November 23, 1999
Label: Arista
I have talked about A Tribe Called Quest Before, and this is a solo effort by one of the group’s three members. Q-Tip, Kamaal the Abstract, and sometimes referred to as simply “the abstract rapper” followed A Tribe Called Quest’s 1998 breakup with his debut album Amplified a year later. I use the album as my primary running music, but friends are skeptical as to that use. I like to groove with my music while running instead of using it to push me forward forcefully, but to each her own.
Amplified personifies Q-Tip’s laid back abstract style masterfully with its cavernous grooves and staccato beats. The first track “Wait Up” is aptly named, melding Q-Tip’s smooth flow with a faltering drums and jazz-reminiscent piano. “Higher” takes the groove deeper and shows the rapper’s skill in both abstract material and classic hip hop swagger. “Breathe and Stop” offers an even trippier and heavier beat, while “Moving With You” takes that confidence to the romantic level. “Let’s Ride” offers an extremely intelligent jazz guitar riff that underlies Q-Tip’s chill atmosphere and lives up to its name as a cruising song.
The well-travelled hit of the album is “Vivrant Thing,” and is a true and tested hip hop ode to one amazing woman. As a long time friend of A Tribe Called Quest and Native Tongues, Busta Rymes makes his appearance for “N.T.” a decidedly more intense song than the rest of the album. “End of Time (ft. Horn) uses a strange fusion beat that makes it very difficult to describe and closes out Amplified on a note of new things to come from Q-Tip. There’s also a hidden track, but I won’t spoil that surprise completely.
The combination of disjointed beats and the suave flow of Q-Tip are a perfect mix that was never captured on his two later albums, and although both are solid albums, neither one reached the level of Amplified. Whether he was still coming off his high with A Tribe Called Quest or just on his game, this is one album any Tribe fan should own.
The Liberty of Norton Folgate Review
September 4, 2009
Artist: Madness
Album: The Liberty of Norton Folgate
Released: August 18, 2009
Label: Yep Roc
Madness was responsible for filling much of Britain’s billboard charts during the early 1970s to mid 80s. In fact, they hold the record – along with UB40 – for most weeks spent by a group in the 1980s UK singles charts: 214 weeks. Arguably one of the greatest ska bands ever, this goofy ensemble was also the author of the international hit “Our House,” which was so popular it inspired a musical by the same name. The group broke up while recording a new album in 1988 citing artistic differences, but continued to reunite for their Madstock festivals and several other events. In 1999 they released Johnny the Horse to moderate success. Then in 2007 Madness announced a new tour and the result of their last two years together is a masterpiece.
The Liberty of Norton Folgate is an intimidating 2-disc testament to the evolution of Madness. Although still arguably within their 2 Tone style, the album is breaks largely from their old sound and defies easy genre identification. The Liberty of Norton Folgate begins with an overture almost reminiscent of Mussorgsky, but transitions smoothly into “We Are London.” That second track pulses with heavy bass and keyboards, punctuated by the horns’ flashing melody. “We Are London” makes it clear that the band found a new sound, but retained their skill and arguably improved on it. “Forever young” provides a whisper of the old Madness and moves into “Dust Devil,” which sounds the most like their older work. Guess what? It’s their single for the album. But since being radio friendly is no crime and the group’s former niche, it is carried out with a grace befitting their experience from bludgeoning the radio industry with hits during the 70s and 80s. However, “Dust Devil” still fits snugly into The Liberty of Norton Folgate along with stranger songs like the title track.
“The Liberty of Norton Folgate” finishes the first disc with an astonishing 10 plus minutes of ska. Topping the glorious vocals of “On the town” with its sweeping piano, and “Clerkenwell Polka” with it’s insane beat and shouting, the title track of the album is probably the most epic piece of ska ever written. This is not a word that is generally applied to ska music either, but this track earns it. Pictures of London streets are painting in Madness’ dark and haunting music. This is not the madness of youth, but the madness of a wild age and a city of split personality. Breaking into whistling and a piano having a romp through the song, Madness sings of the freeing effect of the “Technicolor world” most people live in. The track picks up momentum and carries on its opus into a confrontation of immigration in Britain and the fears of its inhabitants. Strings and a chorus back up the singer’s description of the conditions immigrants fight through and their need to belong and seek freedom.
As bands grow and mature, especially the more popular ones, the pattern seems to be to write increasingly more contemporary music. Once that plateau is reached, the group continues to write skillfully, but they succumb to the influence of experience and the almost homogenous synthesis of the vast amounts of music they have come to know and play. After years of residing within nostalgia and even cover concerts under the band name The Dangermen, Madness have reinvented themselves and produced an album of true craft.
Enjoy Eternal Bliss Review
June 17, 2009
Artist: Yndi Halda
Album: Enjoy Eternal Bliss
Released: Jan 23, 2007
Label: Big Scary Monsters
Yndi Halda is a post-rock group much in the same vein as Explosions in the Sky and Caspian. The group hails from Canterbury, UK and is characterized by what may be called a more positive thematic than many other post-rock groups. As opposed to the guitar heavy landscapes of Explosions in the Sky, Yndi Halda paints its panoramas with seas of strings, punctuating their pieces with guitar and banjo among other instruments.
With only four tracks “Enjoy Eternal Bliss” clocks in at an impressive hour and five minutes long. These aren’t songs you should listen to on a quick drive to get milk, but don’t let the length of the pieces intimidate you. The album begins quiet and wavering until guitar, drums and a single violin kick in a couple minutes through. One of the last things this album is, is rushed. The song gradually picks up momentum as the guitar intensifies into searing high notes and the violin follows the dynamic. Short pauses in the song keep the force of the music fresh and allows it to gain more power every time it intensifies.
Halfway through the track, the power ends and you are left with only intermittent melodic guitar chords. The second half of “Dash and Blast” builds in much the same way as the first, but then becomes a driving piece, powered by the drums as well as two guitars trading harmonic pickings. Finally, a clarinet appears above the wall of music and guides it into a grand chorus that concludes with an expected and welcome quiet guitar outro.
“A Song for Starlit Beaches” features wistful stretches of strings and a banjo, slowly and wistfully being plucked. The piece assembles more instruments including piano and guitar and moves gradually higher. The song builds toward several crashing crescendos like an ocean in unfavorable weather, but always avoids becoming a squall. In between the two thunderous upsurges is a point where only quiet piano guides the work, until a violin takes up a poignant melody before rejoining the other strings as a guitar tears the piece into another culmination. The track is brought to a close through a reemergence of banjo, which is then joined by a ear-piercing slide guitar and finally the strings.
“Enjoy Eternal Bliss” functions as well as a whole album as it does within the ambitious songs it contains. Perfect for a rainy morning, or strangely, a bright sunny afternoon, this album is sure to help you reach a pensive state that can break your writer’s block or spur you to take out that instrument you have neglected.
The Low End Theory Review
May 14, 2009
Artist: A Tribe Called Quest
Album: The Low End Theory
Released: September 4, 1991
Label: Jive
A Tribe Called Quest is: Phife Dawg, Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad.
There is no way I can express the importance of this album sufficiently. If you like rap, and confess to it, then this album must be sitting on your CD rack at home. Otherwise it’s like producing the American Dollar without backing it… hey, wait a minute.
Jazz and rap have never been combined so well. Jurassic 5 even went so far as to name what is in my opinion their best album, “Contact,” after a sample taken from the final track on this A Tribe Called Quest album. In the 90s when many of the commercially successful tracks were gangsta anthems (Straight Outta Compton, etc.), A Tribe Called Quest prided itself on provided intelligent and abstract lyrics. In fact, “The Abstract Rapper,” or Q-Tip, has that spirit imbedded in his moniker, referring to their sense of intelligent rhyme.
“Show Business” is about exactly what it sounds like, the struggle for fame, and its downfalls of attaining it. ATCQ assert that you have to play the game, but make it plain they are above it. Rapping about the breaks is nothing new and Kurtis Blow was doing it eleven years earlier, but not like this. “What” strings together a list of questions that illustrate what things would be without, um, other things. And the answer is: nothing. ATCQ is all about the love, and this record predates the East Coast – West Coast rivalry that consumed hip hop later on. It’s about the music and the rhyme, and is often referred to as true hip hop. As the Abstract Rapper said, “Rap is not pop, if you call it that then stop.”
This is an album that has only increased its appeal with each listen I give it. If you are an avid rap listener, but are not familiar with “The Low End Theory,” then brace yourself – afterwards you will see throwbacks to this record constantly. Maybe in albums you have owned for a long time.
Actor Review
April 21, 2009
Artist: St. Vincent
Album: Actor
Released: May 5, 2009
Label: 4AD
First of all, I would just like to ask: why hadn’t I heard of this woman until now?!
Apparently her 2007 debut “Marry Me” generated a lot of hype; however, clearly not enough. I obtained that album in order to hear it in its entirety before listening through her impending release: “Actor.” The most arresting thing throughout the album by far is Annie Clark’s voice. I have a feeling she could sing “Over the Rainbow” and put Judy Garland to shame. At times I began thinking I was listening to one of the incredible singers of the 50s like Ella Fitzgerald, but before I could slip completely into that notion I’d be bowled over by a discordant guitar and/or a sporadic drum break.
Annie Clark’s arrangements are hard to describe mostly because of their strangeness. The oddity of her writing is somewhat inherent, as she combines guitar, strings, various percussion, brass, piano, and the list goes on. Upon investigation, I found that Clark was a guitarist for Polyphonic Spree, and then in Sufjan Stevens’ touring band. This is some serious indie cred, but then she played drums, bass, and guitar on “Marry Me,” proving she is a skilled multi-instrumentalist to boot.
Her upcoming record “Actor” has been posted on NPR Music as separate tracks, and all of them are there and free to listeners. Most of the instruments heard on “Actor” are still played by Clark, but her collaborators include musicians who have played for Sufjan Stevens, Bjork, and Phillip Glass, while her producer has done work for Modest Mouse and Polyphonic Spree.
“Actor” is less dreamy than her debut, although it does contain that wonderful essence on songs like “The Party” and “Just the Same but Brand New.” “Marrow” is exemplary of the raucous irregular bursts that are especially powerful on “Actor.” I can imagine that track becoming one of her supreme live songs. The songs are even more complex and still feature a wealth of different instruments, but are arranged into increasingly byzantine layers. Her guitar seems to have gained quite the attitude since 2007, so the quieter melodic portions tend to be dominated by piano instead. All in all, there is just a lot more going on in “Actor.” The sounds range from raging guitar and walls of noise, to pure heavenly vocals, which are often both present in a single song, as heard in “The Strangers.”
The only real drawback I see for listeners of “Actor” is that it may be too much for some people to take in at first. If you have that feeling, then I urge you to listen through the whole album before you make any final judgments. Any suspended criticism will pay off, and you’ll realize what a gem it is.