OutKast - Speakerboxxx

Arista: 2003

To write about OutKast’s double-LP opus Speakerboxxx / The Love Below is ultimately an exercise in doubling one’s word count, the two ‘solo albums’ so radically different from each they demand divided attention. Fortunately for me, I’ve long set a precedent of reviewing individual CDs of multi-disc releases, and if there’s ever an album that needs this, it’s OutKast’s technical last album (to date). No, I don’t count Idlewild, the soundtrack merely one part of that project’s main focus: making a movie about OutKast, set in an old-timey ragtime era, because of course they would.

Before venturing into Big Boi’s album, here’s a bit of forgotten trivia first. When the double-disc came out, the CD you’d see upon opening the tray was André 3000’s The Love Below. This, despite Speakerboxxx long considered the CD1 due to its position in the main title, being the advertised front cover, and the name everyone automatically associates with this release. I bring this up because it points to one of the idiosyncrasies that made OutKast such a unique entity within hip-hop’s landscape. They thrived on dashing expectations, whether something big and bold like genre fusions on their albums, to something simple like tricking hip-hop heads into playing the disc they wouldn’t care for if they weren’t paying attention.

Speakerboxxx though, they’d be totally fine with, especially all those trunk rattling Southern bass jams. Big Boi always was the more ‘traditional’ hip-hop part of OutKast, and with a full LP to indulge himself, unleashes plenty of beats for the booty and body, and tons of rhymes for the lyrical heads. Ghetto Musick, Tomb Of The Boom, Flip Flop Rock, and Last Call have no problem getting rowdy and crunk for the sake of it, while funky soul worms its way in Unhappy, Bowtie, The Way You Move, and Reset. And though Dré 3000 doesn’t do much in the way of rhyming on Speakerboxxx, he does lend his production to a few esoteric cuts (Ghetto Musick, War, Church), bringing this CD as close to the vibe most point as vintage OutKast.

Not that Big Boi lacks lyrical back-up without his partner in crime afoot. Mr. Patton has plenty on his mind to spit, getting a few street tales and perspectives out on War, Knowing and The Rooster. He’s not hesitant in calling in some outside support too, Speakerboxxx featuring one of OutKast’s biggest guest spots ever with Jay-Z dropping in along with your usual plethora of Southern rap names (Killer Mike, Goodie Mob, Ludacris, Lil’ Jon & The East Side Boyz). At a time when crunk was primed for its takeover of all things hip-hop, it’s quite refreshing hearing such bass heavy music with some effort put into lyrics. Hell, Last Call with Lil’ Jon is probably one of the best non Lil’ Jon-produced Lil’ Jon tracks out there (pst, it was André 3000 at the console there too). Oh, the wonders we could have visited upon had OutKast kept going this route in the ‘00s.

The Beach Boys - Sounds Of Summer: The Very Best Of

Capitol Records: 2003

First, it was The Police and Boney M. Then, it was Raffi and Disney singalongs. After that... not a whole lot. Music, which had been such a vital part of my early childhood, ceased having much influence. It was those darn Transformers, you see, taking my attention away for a few years, soon replaced by all sorts of marketable cartoons and media. Who has time for bands and songs when there's more The Real Ghostbuster toys to get, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bubblegum cards to buy, or Star Wars movies to obsess over? I still played the odd CD from my folks' collection, but seldom gave it much more thought than a passive distraction. One day though, after listening to a cheery compilation called Sun Jammin', the final track caught my attention like few songs had for a very, very long time. I had to hear more from this group, those sweet vocal harmonies, those starry-eyed lyrics of fun in the Caribbean sun and holiday bliss. The song was Kokomo.

Look, it was the '80s, and The Beach Boys’ most recent hit, so it was about the only way I'd have 'stumbled' upon them back then. Man though, after hearing that song, I scoured for more, the first time in my life I started digging for a specific group. It probably didn't hurt I was heavy into Archie Comics at the time (shad'up, we've all been there!), and saw kinship between the two representatives of clean-cut, all-American youth culture as envisioned by the late '50s and early '60s. I even compiled my findings onto my very first mixtape. True, all I had to work with was whatever was in my father's CDs, but as an initiation into the glorious world of music hunting obsession, The Beach Boys wasn't such a bad place to start.

Of course, had Tween Sykonee been around when Sounds Of Summer came about, I wouldn’t have needed to bother. There were numerous ‘Best Of’ and ‘Greatest Hits’ and ‘Essential Sounds’ on the market up through the ‘80s, but it didn’t seem The Beach Boys were quite done scoring the occasional charter even long after most figured their music way dated. Then the ‘90s hit and, well, yeah. With no new hits for a decade, the new millennium seemed as good a time as any for an authentic, definitive gathering of all their memorable, classic, vintage, glorious tunes. And Getcha Back, for some stupid reason (ugh... those ‘80s drums, so bad).

Sounds Of Summer is about as perfect a collection of Beach Boys music you could want without splurging on a zillion LPs for three or four great tunes surrounded by filler. It’s got all the surf rock hits, the hot-rodding car odes, the rowdy party tunes (Barbara Ann, so drunk), their introspective aging songs, and an assortment of odds and sods in the ensuing years. The only thing missing is selections from their wonderful Christmas album, but that’d defeat the ‘summer’ theme, wouldn’t it.

Various - Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café III

Wagram Music: 2003

Shortly after I finished writing a review for the first Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café, I found the third in the series while browsing a used shop. That… can’t be a coincidence! Either the Music Gods guided me to this encounter, or the Collector Deities blessed me on that day - depends which faith you follow. Or you don’t believe is such things, and it really was just dumb circumstance that this occurred.

Hell, despite their dwindling numbers, I wager the same thing could happen if I went to almost any ol’ used CD shop. The Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café series strikes me as the sort of compilations that are almost always the first to go when folks cull their CDs. An initial purchase made because the cover seemed hip and cool, and turns out the music is hip and cool, but as you age, you grow less hip and cool, and the need to have hip and cool music playing to appear hip and cool grows less of a concern; so, you sell off your hip and cool CDs for some cool, hard cash. Or maybe you really do enjoy jazzy, lounge music with an ‘electro’ bent, but then you’d probably keep such CDs anyway.

If you don’t know what’s up with the Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café, a handy review exists less than four months back detailing such trivia. And truthfully, not much has changed in the series two years between the first and third. There’s still a wide variety of nu-jazz sounds, from the sort of café music you’d expect to hear, to fusions with nearby genre cousins like trip-hop and acid jazz, plus a little sprinkling of ‘as real as real jazz can get in urban locales’ sort of tunes. Of course all these saxophones, pianos, trumpets, standing basses, drums, and singin’ soul sistas come coupled with a fair share of trippy synth sounds, squelchy acid stabs, and occasional sequenced rhythm sections, but more often than not the line is blurred between the natural and synthetic, you can’t tell whether that snare fill is programmed, sampled, or played live in the studio. Okay, the big giveaway is most of the acts in this compilation are solo artists, but man do they ever often sound like a five piece jazz band once a tune gets going.

Probably one of Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café’s greatest strengths as a series was their ability to keep the artist rotation fresh for much of its existence. You’d seldom see a repeat name with each volume, all the while mixing well known acts with relative obscure ones. Only De-Phazz makes a return for SGdPC3, offering something on the cinematic side of jazz with Downtown Tazacorte. Other names here I’m familiar with are DJ Cam, Patchworks, Tek 9 (aka: 4 Hero), and Moloko, who ends the CD with a Sing it Back. No, not the version you’re thinking of, but a totally swingin’ piano version care of Can 7, sounding lifted straight from a ‘30s speak-easy. Well, murder, little tomato cat!

Nurse With Wound - Salt Marie Celeste

United Daires: 2003

No freakin’ way can I do the Nurse With Wound legacy justice in a single review. This guy, Steven Stapleton, has been a staple (sorry) of the industrial scene since there was an industrial scene. He’s right up there with your Throbbing Gristles and Hafler Trios, and anyone worth their wacked-out experimental sodium chloride has had some passing exposure to NWW over the years. He has some one-hundred releases out, multiple collaborations, always having some new twisted sonic perversion to toy with our sensibilities of what constitutes music as abstract function. Oh yeah, the art crowd adores Nurse With Wound, and I suspect he has some affinity for them too, if only to take the familiar and warp them into something cheeky on his cover art.

That's the background out of the way, so the natural thing to do is get talking about one of his Very Important Albums. Ah, heh, maybe ask a Nurse With Wound scrub about that, because I honestly haven't a clue where to begin with his discography. I'm only covering this particular release, Salt Marie Celeste, due to it being a single-song LP, and in my back-up harddrive for that Guide thing. Mr. Stapleton deserves more attention though, so maybe I'll indulge in something else from him at a later date. Perhaps Acts Of Senseless Beauty, or To The Quiet Men From A Tiny Girl, or the charming Drunk With The Old Man Of The Mountains.

As for Salt Marie Celeste, there's not a heck of a lot to detail. This is dark ambient drone at its droniest. While not quite Jliat levels of mind-numbery, there isn't much to the endless synths playing for over an hour either. Some fifteen or so minutes in, something that sounds like a bicycle zips by. After a few seconds, it zips back the other way. This goes on for another two-thirds of the track's runtime. Somewhere around the twenty-five minute mark, soggy wood starts creaking, at first a few groans, then eventually almost an entire sea-bound vessel's worth. If Nurse With Wound was aiming at capturing the atmosphere of a derelict ghost ship, he definitely succeeded. Unfortunately, because these sounds just repeat themselves, it comes off like the VGM loops of a point-and-click adventure, and you're hopelessly stuck at an insidious puzzle. You were intended to solve it quickly, hence the short loop, but you can't, forever trapped in a broken game, unable to leave the Captain's cabin, unable to just turn the computer off. Oh, wait, you solved it after all, so here's some more synth drone to take you out. Yay!

If this sounds tedious, take heart that Salt Maria Celeste is the eventful version of this track, the original Salt from a couple years prior not even having the sound effects added. Yep, this album is a re-release of sorts, and Stapleton would go on to re-re-release variations of Salt a couple times after this as well. Talk about cheeky recycling of one’s back catalog.

Victor Calderone - Resonate

Statrax: 2003

Victor Calderone’s Resonate was not something I counted on reviewing, and I mean ever. Maybe there was a microscopic chance I’d stumble upon it in a used shop and, with few other options, pick it up because it was a music CD with the adjectives ‘electronic’ and ‘dance’ associated with it. Even then though, I’d be finicky, lest I grab Generic House Mix Number Ten-Thousand Ten – why settle for the obvious when a used shop can offer the bizarre and obscure? All those Hed Kandi and Ultra House collections can carry on collecting dust in the racks as far as I’m concerned, and if a few gems slip through as a result, so be it.

All this is just a long way of saying ol’ Victor’s output isn’t high on my list of Must Hears, nor would I go out of my way to indulge his records – just not enough minutes in the month to hear everything. Someone figured I’d vibe on his style though, and included this mix CD for free in an Amazon purchase. Gee, wasn’t that nice of him. Guess it’s time to suit up for a little Calderone action. Yay Discogs research!

T’was not long before The Lord That Knows All revealed where I’d seen ol’ Victor’s name before. See, this that dude who helped push New York City house music out of Strictly Rhythm’s garagey dominance into danker territory. Specifically, tribal tech-house of the sort Danny Tenaglia became synonymous with, and many prog DJs adopted into their sets after the turn of the century too. Hell, during my initial playthrough, I guessed Resonate was a 2002 release, so prevalent with the year that sound was (just a bit off). This I can definitely vibe on - if house music ain’t workin’ the disco funk, then it damn well better hit that Afro thump.

And sure enough, plenty of tribal action goes down in Resonate, with African chants, drum circles, and gnarly rhythmic groove dominating throughout. Towards the end, Calderone goes prog-prog, including King Unique’s remix of Underworld’s Two Months Off as a finisher, because of course you close a prog set with Underworld. On the way there, we hear two versions of De Loren & Color’s Alessa, an acapella mash-up of J Majik’s Love Is Not A Game upon Babilonia’s Impress Me (though since it’s Kathy Brown on the vocals, shouldn’t she get the credit?), and three of Mr. Calderone’s own productions. Oh, and can’t forget remixes from Superchumbo, Masters At Work, and D. Ramirez, because there’s always space for a few more namedrops in reviews!

If any of this sounds appealing to you, then by all means scope up Resonate wherever you happen upon it. Calderone treats his mix as though you’re arriving at a dark, sweaty club already in full swing, grabbing you by your dancing shoes early and not letting go until 6am dawn; New York house at its finest. No, I’m not saying that just because I got this free.

Gilles Peterson - Broken Folk Funk Latin Soul

Muzik Magazine: 2003

The title's a pisstake. It must be. True, the music within this CD does fit the mould of what a 'broken folk funk Latin soul' collection would sound like, but using five descriptors as a genre is plain ol' silly. Not that Gilles Peterson couldn't get away with it though. As the guy who coined the term ‘acid jazz’ when he threw events called Acid Jazz promoting material on his label Acid Jazz, why not go for the ultimate in redundancy, especially as everyone was making up ridiculous genre names for magazine CDs? Muzik had released a 'hooligan house' disc just prior, while rival Mixmag featured 'disco d'nb' with their freebie the same month this came out. Damn it, The UK, stop trying to invent new genre names all the time. It's too confusing for us North American bumpkins.

Wait, is this the first time I’ve talked about Mr. Peterson at this blog? Crap, gotta’ turn this review proper serious now. Not only was he influential in making acid jazz a thing in Britain, but he exposed many a young ‘90s English post-clubber onto various cultured music scenes from the world abroad. Mostly they were jazz fusions from the realms of New York, Latin America, and Afro Nation, but he helped bring some degree of class to the UK’s early garage movement too. No matter how far off the beaten path his records were culled from, ol’ Gilles always kept one foot in London’s urban jungle too.

Still, if you’ve a passion for bringing such music to a willing audience, heading an influential label and DJing out at events is limiting. Nay, to reach the maximum potential earholes, one must go to the airwaves, radio that is. And, at the turn of the millennium, that’s what Mr. Peterson done did, getting him a show called Worldwide on the omnipresent Radio 1 of BBC fame, which he’s maintained to this day. It was about the time this Muzik CD came out that Gilles had firmly cemented itself as a broadcaster on peer with the likes of Tong and Peel, even earning himself an award for Top Radio Show from the magazine that year. Why yes Broken Folk Funk Latin Soul is totally designed to promote that fact, why do you ask?

More compilation than DJ mix, this disc holds a nice assortment of the movers and shakers of the UK’s jazzy urban-soul that consistently bubbled in London’s underground. Mr. Scruff is here! Harmonic 33 is here! The Cinematic Orchestra is here! Roots Manuva is here (because he was everywhere in the early ‘00s)! Talib Kweli’s here! Nirvana’s here! …er, I mean, their song Come as You Are is here, by way of a soul cover care of Dani Siciliano. There’s also conscious rap from Lone Catalysts, jazzdance from Micatone, soul-shuffle jazz from Kuusumun Profeetta, and a cool groove thing by some duo called Underworld. Perhaps you’ve heard of them? You haven’t? Oh, you’re here for that Osunlade joint. Fair play.

Fluke - Puppy

One Little Indian: 2003

Progressive house, big beat, trip-hop, UK rocktronica - whatever had delicious critical buzz in Britain, Fluke were at the forefront of it. Hell, they dictated where the trends would go as much as any Chemical Brother or Underworldler. In the end though, they just couldn't shake their '90s-ness, but it's not their fault they got stuck with the 'electronica' tag like everyone else. T'was simply a price paid for signing with the mighty Virgin – bigger exposure meant being marketed how they wanted you presented. Sweet deal for the time though it was, folks in the new millennium were quick in turning their backs on any musical group that reminded them of cyber-thriller action movie soundtracks. Matters probably weren’t helped either by having a new single associated with one of the more ludicrous scenes in Matrix: Reloaded. Zion’s a great track – really, it is! – but man was that ever dumb in the movie. Not that Juno Reactor cut though, that one’s totally dope. Hail Ben Watkins, the only producer to escape action movie soundtracks with dignity intact!

Speaking of Puppy (finally), it really is a shame this never caught on, most likely for all the stupid reasons I rambled on about above. The great production and craftsmanship from Fluke can’t hide the fact it still sounds like a ‘Nineties’ electronic music album. While some of that is simply down to the group’s style, there aren’t any trendy, (then) new genre bandwagon jumps either. Fluke was known for progressive house, but the stuff on here is of the groovy, chugging sort (Electric Blue, My Spine, Another Kind Of Blues, Hang Tough, Switch/Twitch) that defined early Sasha and Digweed sets, not dubby ‘dark prog’ or poppy crossover fluff. Breaks are here too, though are reminiscent of big beat (Snapshot) or proggy ethnic-fusion (Nebulus), fashionable stuff years prior but not as buzz worthy as nu-skool was in 2003. And what’s this? Nary an electro house/clash/anthem cut found? No wonder so few gave Puppy a damn!

I wonder though, has this caught any retrospective love? Has Puppy lately earned the respect it deserves now that we’re far enough removed from the days it was mostly ignored? Fluke has their die-hard followers, sure, and those I know who’ve heard it do sing its praises, but my sampling size is small. Hell, even when Fluke were at their commercial peak, the most my peers could immediately namedrop was Atom Bomb (because obviously). At the least I’d assume those weaned on ‘90s progressive house have come around to it, as it has everything they could hope for in a ’00 album, a natural evolution of that sound without succumbing to flash-in-the-pan genre bandwagon jumps. Well, okay, maybe the gospel-leaning closer Blue Sky has shades of Faithless, but even that sounds more at home in the UK acid house era than anything post-2000.

Damn, that’s another ‘90s reference. Wait, isn’t that decade in the midst of a retro-return? Best excuse to get Puppy if you haven’t, then!

Jefferson Airplane - Platinum & Gold Collection

BMG Heritage: 2003

It may be the biggest fucking cliché having Jefferson Airplane in a music collection, but what was an aging counter-culture chap to do? I was already in my mid-Twenties, man, feeling my grimy raver’s roots slipping away as the allure of proper clubbing beckoned in the big city. But I was still hip, yo’, still down with the folksy, psychedelic sounds that pot smokers and such couldn’t get enough of. I’ll prove it! There, that CD sitting in the bargain bin of this supermarket we’re currently rummaging through. It’s got a couple bona-fide classics of the San Fran’ ‘60s scene – heck, some of these members were utterly adamant that they built that city – built it – built that city – built – built that city on – built it – ‘n’ ro-o-o-l-l-l-l! Head trip, yeah.

Seriously though, the Jefferson Airplane story is a crucial one in understanding how influential their brand of folksy psychedelic rock became, endearing itself to a generation, and several others after who admire the hippie lifestyle (*cringe*). It's only fitting that the band came to an end as the '70s took hold, creative differences leading to a split – one became Jefferson Starship, because '70s sci-fi and shit; the other became Hot Tuna, because '70s progressive, drugs and shit. And then there was just Starship in '80s, which was a huge commercial success and represented all that went wrong for '60s rockers in that decade. Let us never speak of it again.

Obviously with such timeless classics like White Rabbit, Somebody To Love, and... um... mmm… (*checks track list*) ah, Watch Her Ride, the Thomas Aviator Band's seen tons of official and unofficial greatest hits collections over the years. This is one of them. As I recall, the Platinum & Gold Collection series was BMG's excuse to trot out their catalog every so often, just in case you didn't already have these songs on CD or in this order yet (buy the albums? Pft, what are you, a vinyl enthusiast?). There really isn't much else to say about this particular compilation that a rock historian hasn't tirelessly detailed elsewhere.

The main take-away I got from Platinum & Gold Collection is how succinctly it summarizes the San Fran' music scene. The first couple tracks are incredibly folksy, which makes sense since Jefferson Airplane was only a small group of folk musicians when they debuted. Then the psychedelia rode in on a rainbow wave, and they got all trippy good – half this disc features songs from Surrealistic Pillow, from which their most memorable hits came about (adding Grace Slick to the line-up didn't hurt). Then everyone went crazy against war and all that bad stuff, protest rock the new hotness. Figures the final track on here, Volunteers is of the band chanting that there's a revolution going on (Woodstock anthem!). Appropriate for the Jefferson Airplane story ending there, then, before glum reality settled in for the starry-eyed hippie generation. Or a fitting conclusion to this CD. Take your pick.

Tiësto - Nyana

Nettwerk America: 2003

Say what you want about Tiësto’s career trajectory – no, go ahead, its fun! - but for a brief while in the early '00s, it seemed the Dutch icon was poised at breaking into the mainstream with critical credibility intact. To do so though, a bit of reinvention was required, taking his first steps in distancing himself from the euro-trance that had defined much of his musical output. After all, single-CD sets were fine for anthem rinse-outs, but Tiësto are serious DJ now, so he needs two discs spotlighting his muse. And what better way to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, you are serious DJ than by playing serious techno bollocks, opening with the same track Hawtin began Sound Of The Third Season, no less!

He pulls it off. I'm serious! The opening stretch of Nyana is one of the best CD1 starts I've heard from Mr. Verwest, plus I can't help giggling at the thought of his traditional 'cracker fanbase utterly aghast at all the techno, perplexed over what happened their trance hero (oh, if only I had a time-machine to show them what was to come...). True, there's little here Adam Beyer would tremble over, but for a Dutch trance DJ taking a step into the unforgiving underground, Tiësto handles himself well. The rhythms are kept brisk with momentum on a steady climb, and getting Oliver Lieb (The Ambush's Acapulco) and L-Vee (Planisphere's Totem) as some of your peak tech-trance bangers for this section is mint!

Then he fucks it all up with Darren Tate and Jono Grant’s collaboration Let The Light Shine In, as cheeseball a chedder-trance track as cheese trance could cheese out in 2003. There’s no reason for such an abrupt change in tone either, other than Tiësto had a pile of vocal tunes to cram into this two-discer somewhere. What, the Indoor disc wasn’t good enough for Cor Fifneman’s Venus or Conjure One’s Tears From The Moon? Damning things further is Outdoor returning to the tech-trance business with Ton T.B.’s Electronic Malfunction regardless, rendering the middle portion of CD1 a pointless diversion. That said, I still like Tijs’ remix of Venus, despite serving no purpose in the context of this mix.

As for CD2, this one’s famous for having three huge, gigantic, massive, McProg anthems on it – Hell, these tracks practically helped kick-off that sub-genre! Of course, I’m talking about Andain’s Beautiful Things, Motorcycle’s As The Rush Comes (tunes that Gabriel & Dresden never topped), and Holden’s Nothing (93 Returning Mix). And with that said, do you even care about the rest of the CD? There’s a few nice tunes scattered between, and the final stretch of Balearic trance vibes is charming enough, but come on, we all know what folks remember most about Nyana to this day.

That’s right, the techno! It makes one wonder where Tiësto’s career could have gone had he dared remaining on that path instead. Cue Bizarro World scene of Mr. Verwest playing Bergheim and Circo Loco.

Inspectah Deck - The Movement

Koch Records: 2003

As a point man in the Wu-Tang Clan, Inspectah Deck is without equal, many all-time classic cuts featuring him leading the lyrical charge. When doing guest verses, Rebel INS can often steal the show, and I wonder the only reason he doesn’t is because he’s just classy that way. As a solo artist, Mr. J.K. Hunter is, ah… not as good. Maybe it’s not so surprising, as this trend's been the solo-Wu narrative since seemingly forever; or at least Wu-Tang Forever. It’s also an unfair narrative, one blinded by the brilliance of the Clan’s first half-decade of work and near-impossible expectations put upon the ensuing years. Some still meet those lofty peaks (oh hi, Ghostface), while others, not so much (um, yo, Method Man).

Inspectah Deck always seems stuck in the middle that mountain, albums that never outright suck but lacking in the highlights that’s defined the best of his peers. I’ve only gathered up three of his four LPs, so I can’t say this holds true with Manifesto, but seeing how his first three disappointed when they first came out, I can’t say I’m in a hurry to get that one. Of those first three, they’re different beasts to tackle, so let’s get going on Rebel INS’ sophomore album, The Movement.

First, context. The year was 2003 and hip-hop had basically buried the beefs and gone about promoting itself as a culture only concerned with attaining bling status - the Jay-Z-slash-50 Cent fallout, if you will. While some rappers had no problem remaining street or conscious, nearly everyone was obligated at providing club bangers on their LPs. Okay, fine, the Wu’s had a few hits in this regard, and- well, no. I like beats that bang, for sure, but what Deck offers here comes off as lip service. Going on about Shorty Right There with Street Life, or Bumpin And Grindin… ugh, INS, you’re better than that. Much better.

Okay, the good shit. Proving he’s lyrically above and beyond his peers is always mint, and we get a few tunes of that type. Stories of hustling and taking hip-hop back to the proper streets? Yeah, there’s a bunch of that. Not much else, to be honest, but that’s fine, since these are topics Deck’s always been ace at. Unfortunately, while Deck doesn’t falter with his verses, some choruses are just pants. That Shit and Get Right are two of the worst (that’s not the aforementioned club junk), and unfortunately come early in the album, never a good way of holding an already suspicious listener base suspecting another disappointing Wu effort.

Get past that though, and you’ll find plenty of New York funk and soul loops to enjoy, and lyricism to match. If The Movement can be faulted for anything, it’s a few too many tracks and wonky pacing (Vendetta is a perfect closer, yet is nowhere near the end). This is an album that’s good enough from Deck, but it still wasn’t the awesome fans kept hoping for.

Various - Mixed Goods XVI

(~): 2003

TRACK LIST:
1. Radar - Flying
2. Heller & Farlay - Deep Sensation (Peace Division Mix)
3. Holden & Thomposn - Nothing (Vocal Mix)
4. Golden Girls - Kinetic 2001 (Vincent de Moor Mix)
5. Blaze featuring Palmer Brown - Do You Remember House? (Bob Sinclar Mix)
6. Luomo - Tessio (Moonbootica Remix)
7. The Future Sound Of London - Slider
8. Future Prophecies - Stalker
9. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax (Jam & Spoon Hi N-R-G Mix)
10. Holden & Thompson - Nothing (93 Returning Mix)

I've been too hard on commercial compilations in the past. Reliving these Mixed Goods of mine, I realize its bloody difficult maintaining a consistent theme when there's limited choices for track lists. At the start, I had plenty to work with, my initial downloading spree spoiling me for ideas on each CD. Here, however, at the end, all I've left are a couple new tunes I could snag, and a bunch of scraps. Mixed Goods XVI may have solid songs on it, but as a listening experience, it's a total mess (yes, even worse than Mixed Goods IV).

That Holden & Thompson classic is the obvious standout here, though I had no idea that the 93 Returning Mix would become the anthem it did. Heck, does anyone even remember the original version (mistitled Vocal Mix here)? The whole chopped vocals gimmick was just that, a quirky effect that turned decent lyrics into something quite unique for the time (and endlessly copied thereafter), and still holds up a decade on. It’s completely understandable why so many Holden fans are, erm, beholden to him, longing for a ‘03 returning stylee.

Hellar & Farlay bring the final 'dark prog' track to the series (more of a tribal outing this time), Future Prophecies the final d'n'b cut, Vincent de Moor’s mix of the classic Kinetic a final bit of trancecracker trance, Radar one more old-school trance tune, and the Bob Sinclar Mix of Do You Remember House? for the last true bit of house (Luomo's track is kind of electro-house though). Meanwhile, a pair of totally random songs in Slider and Relax round things out. I simply had nowhere else to put them until now (then). Huh, quite a coincidence to end Mixed Goods with such a summation; funny how it turned out that way.

That’s finally over though. Thanks for putting up with this nostalgic excursion into my year of personal CD burning. I was leery about this stretch, knowing full well it’d be almost nothing but anecdotes, which I prefer avoiding when possible. Still, maybe younger readers gleaned some interesting insight into that brief era of AudioGalaxy’s glorious heyday.

Okay, I’ve a huge pile of alphabetical backlog to get through now, on account I picked up another CD tower from a friend, under the condition I relieve him of his CD collection as well. Some of the releases and artists coming up, I thought I’d never review. This… is gonna be fun.

Raekwon - The Lex Diamond Story

Universal Records: 2003

Only Built For Cuban Linx is a classic, of that there's no debate; Part 2, released in 2009, was heralded as the follow-up everyone hoped of Raekwon. Unfortunately, no one knew whether we'd get such a sequel, so fans of Mr. Todd's music made do with what was sporadically offered instead. When it came out, Raekwon's third was received warmly enough, if not as a return to form then at least a decent effort. That perception's somewhat changed though in recent years. Unlike other 2000s LPs from the Wu-Tang, The Lex Diamond Story seems to be receding further from the collective hip-hop memory.

As an assortment of 2003 eastcoast criminology rap, Lex Diamond suffices. There aren't many surprises on the production front, though the tone does frequently jump from track to track – guess that's the price one pays for no longer having RZA providing all the beats. Instead, names like Brutal Bill, Andy C (no, not that Andy C), Crummie Beats, Zephla, Hangman 3, Ez Elpee, and Mizza handle the decks. Um, I don't know any of these names – I think I heard of Crummie Beats somewhere, but Lord Discogs lists Lex Diamond as his (their?) only entry, so I may just be blowing hipster smoke. Whatever, everyone involved (and nearly every track has a different producer credit) pretty much work with cinematic or jazz-n-soul loops and samples that'd been an eastcoast staple for over a decade by that point. Again, fine for the tone Rae' wants for this album (street raps by his street gangsta persona), but nothing particularly innovative for that year.

In fact, the few tracks that do break mode stand out from the rest for that very reason. That doesn't mean they're good tunes though. Ice Cream, Pt. 2 seems like a bad idea on paper – don't mess with a classic, right? - but DJ Khalid (who's done work for Dr. Dre's Aftermath print) provides a charming, silly cut for Rae', Method Man, and Cappadonna to once again use tasty frozen treats as pick up lines. Mike “Punch” Harper, on the other hand, creates a synth-heavy club jam on Wyld In Da Club, also featuring Raekwon's then-new pet project Ice Water Inc. (what happened to American Cream Team?). It sounds like a total trend-jump and in both cases, I wonder how either of them relates to a story about Lex Diamond's crime days.

And really, that's where this album suffers and quite possibly will continue to be relegated to forgotten solo-Wu joints. Say what you want about Immobilarity, but like both Cuban Linx, it maintains its theme for most of its running time – it feels like you're listening to proper long player. The Lex Diamond Story doesn't, often jumping from a Lex-related story to something totally unrelated. The final track - Once Upon A Time with somber pianos and singing from Tekitha (such a soulful voice) – is an admirable effort to tie everything together, but it's not enough.

Various - In Trance We Trust 008 - Ton T.B.

In Trance We Trust: 2003

Now this is a surprising mix. While Ton T.B. (Antonius H.M. Ton van Empel to his birth parents) is best known as one half of Three Drives (On A Vinyl) and numerous other productions, he’s never been seen as a DJ, and for good reason. This here In Trance We Trust 008 remains his only major mix CD credit at Lord Discogs, and while I’ve no doubt he does the occasional gig as most producers are wont to do now, all the glory he’s gained comes from the music he makes.

A little less surprising is the style that ended up on this mix. As you’d expect of a guy that became synonymous with the height of progressive trance’s late ‘90s peak, the early going of his set features some choice cuts of the genre, including Joker Jam’s blissy Traffic, and even breaks care of the San Project Remix of Coda’s Under Control. And here I thought this stuff was dead by 2003. It all reaches a mini-peak with his and DJ Enrico’s Air Traffic, a tune with a whiny hook that’ll have you initially scratching your head, yet somehow makes sense once all the other elements are in play. Say, why didn’t the other half of Three Drives get a mix as well?

The middle of this CD’s all a-muddle though, as if Ton T.B. didn’t have the knowhow to link the first third of his mix with the banging latter portions. Rather awful among this bunch is Tillmann Uhrmacher’s Friends, which includes a woeful saxophone solo in the breakdown. Ugh, smooth jazz and trance: a hideous combination. Fortunately, once things pick up again with Midtone’s Pearl, it’s high-flying energy to the finish, with galloping trance rhythms galore. Sweet, there’s even a nod to German trance of yore in Tyrome’s Bad Magic, and Tiësto’s remix of Jan Johnston’s Venus remains one of my few vocal trance guilty pleasures (yeah, that Cor Fijneman guy had a hand in it too).

So a solid mix of progressive and high-energy trance from Ton T.B. Name notwithstanding, I admit being unprepared by this turn of events, given the low expectations I had for the In Trance We Trust series going in. I wonder if the rest will turn out this good. (spoiler: nope)


A classy, efficient effort from a trance veteran? Only World Champion Ryu can give proper perspective in this guest review.

Ryu: “The way of the DJ is the way of the warrior, tirelessly striving for perfection of skill and craft. One must be consumed by an almost obsessive determination to be the very best, practice with patience, lest he is consumed by their darker desires. This Ton T.B., he displays these qualities here, for which I must commend. It is-”

Ken: “Geez, Ryu, lighten up. It's dance music, tunes for cutting loose and having fun. Stop being so uptight. Let go once in a while.”

Evil Ryu: “You're right. I must give into Satsui no Hado...”

Ken: “Wait, that's not-!”

Various - Klassic Kickbacks 4

(~): 2003

Having gotten (mostly) credible classics out of the way, you’re damn straight I’d make an all euro-dance burned CD. Everything on here had been on a previously owned disc before, but when the Great Pawning Of 2002 started, most of my generic commercial dance CDs was the first to go. Don’t worry, they wouldn’t be alone - even those backwoods used stores had ample Dance Mixes, MC Mario, and Chris Sheppard compilations taking up shelf space. But man, it wasn’t long before my heart grew fond for the cheesy delights of Haddaway, Black Box, and Captain Hollywood Project. Why oh why did I toss the What Is Love? man’s debut album into the microwave during that one party? Oh yeah, because there were only three good tracks on it. Woo, look at those sparkles fly!

Those three tracks were What Is Love? (duh), Life (Everybody Needs Somebody To Love), and Rock My Heart, which were about as euro dance as euro dance danced (if you cannot dance). The rest of the album was totally forgettable (no, really, I can’t remember how the other tunes sounded), but at least it wasn’t as abysmal as Captain Hollywood Project’s Love Is Not Sex. More & More is a bonafide classic of euro house music, encapsulating everything glorious and pure of the genre (stop sniggering, you). Lord help me though, the subsequent eleven tracks off that album are an utter blank. You’d think Nosie Katzmann – he of Abfahrt Records fame – would have produced at least one more killer cut on Love Is Not Sex, but nope, not a damn thing I can recall.

If there is an album I might seek out again, it’d be Black Box’s Dreamland, they of the brilliant Italo house tunes Strike It Up and RRBLIIIIDDEE On Time. I only had a tape of it (pro pawning tip: if you’re offered peanuts for a tape, take them, because at least it’s food), so wasn’t sorry to see it go. Another house act that had huge hits was Reel 2 Real, of whom I snagged up a dub version of I Like To Move It. Seeing as how Erick Morillo somehow maintained a credible career following the commercial success of this project, I’m somewhat curious to hear the album proper, Move It!. Odder dance hits have held up to modern scrutiny, after all.

Speaking of odd dance hits, that’s what rounds out the rest of Klassic Kickbacks 4. The Goodmen’s marching-band romp of Give It Up, the sports stadium chant-anthem Fluxland from XL, Afrika Bambaataa’s euro dance hit Feel The Vibe (because really, the Planet Rock guy doing euro dance…?), and Robin S’ Show Me Love. Oh wait, that one’s not odd at all, though definitely an odd-girl out on this CD. I also had the ’94 remix of Hithouse’s Jack To The Sound Of The Underground, but lost it due to the eventual degradation of the burned disc. If only there was a way to get that track again…

Various - !K7150

Studio !K7: 2003

I got this for exactly one track, which is a pretty ludicrous investment for a double-CD release. Oh, I had faith most of the other tunes would turn out good, as !K7150 came highly recommended by all the rags I gave a shit about, but I probably wouldn't have picked it up had Tiga's Hot In Herre not been among the cuts. And like Hell I’d pick up Ministry Of Sound’s The Annual 2004 for it. If I’m going the 2CD route for one song, I sure don’t want a case where it’s the only song I’ll like. Besides, everyone knows Studio !K7 is all sorts of class, and MOS is... whatever the opposite of ‘class’ is.

It didn't hurt some of the other names dropped in write-ups for !K7150 were acts I was mostly familiar in name only. What better way to finally check out Herbert, Trevor Jackson, Recloose, Funkstörung, Ghost Cauldron, and Tosca (what, I was a late to the Kruder & Dorfmeister party)? Pairing them with personally proven names – Swayzak! Princess Superstar! DJ Hell! Guy Called Gerald! Earl Zinger? - and this was about as far from a risky purchase for yours truly as I'd ever made back in my financially lean times.

More than just a celebration of one-hundred and fifty catalogue releases from Studio !K7, this double-CD collection serves as a strong statement of what the long-running German label had musically been up to. Quite a bit, turns out, with plenty of diversity between genres, though skewing towards the downtempo side of things more often than not (must be that K&D influence). Conveniently, these genres are mostly lumped together as things play through, so if you get tired of hearing dub or electroclash (hey, early 2000s), just skip some tracks and you’ll be hearing something entirely different instead.

Dunno why anyone would want to skip these tunes though. The opening stretch of jazzy downtempo oozes inner city cool, while brisk upbeat cuts like Guy Called Gerald’s jazzstep Humanity and Ashely Beedle’s remix of Smith & Mighty’s Same will get your festive vibes in full swing. And alright, the dub-cuts at the end of CD1 hit all the right head-bobbin’ centers in my noggin’.

CD2 goes into less familiar territory where Studio !K7 was concerned, but then electroclash in general still had plenty of unexplored ground to discover (and a shame it barely did anything in the following years). Most of the tunes included here’s closer to icy microhouse (because Swayzak) and techno, so more of an evolution from the coy irony that defined the genre in its early years (though Trevor Jackson calling his remix of Behind The Wheel an Electroca$h Mix screams it).There’s also some hip-trip-hop at the end that’s... um, there.

Okay, !K7150 isn’t perfect from end to end, but there’s more than enough mint material to justify nabbing this compilation should you stumble upon it. Exclusive, unmixed DJ-Kicks cuts? Hells yeah, that’s worth some digital-ca$h.

Various - Four A.D.

Waveform Records: 2003

Dammit, my alphabetical stipulation strikes again. Instead of delving into Waveform's A.D. (Ambient Dub) series in any sort of practical order, here we are dealing with the fourth (and likely last) edition first. And it's not like this gives me an opportunity to get all the history out of the way, saving me valuable self-imposed word count for the earlier volumes later - the next one's all the way down in the 'O's. It's taken me nearly two years to make the progress I have already. By the time we hit One A.D. (if ever), this review'll be long forgotten.

Or maybe not, but to be honest, Four A.D. didn't garner the same sort of buzz as its predecessors, for reasons that are both obvious and not as much. A.D.s One through Three had the benefit of being rather unique when they came out, the idea of ‘chill-out’ compilations for the clubbing generation still in its infancy. Heck, the Ambient Dub series from Beyond is often credited as kicking off the whole enterprise way back in ’92, and Waveform essentially served as their Stateside distributor for those releases. Taking things a step further, however, Waveform snagged a few exclusives of their own, setting themselves apart from their UK brothers while memorably launching their label.

So that Waveform would see fit to make an ‘anniversary’ fourth edition’s fair play; unfortunately, the dubby downtempo market had long since been flooded with options when Four A.D. came out, so standing out from the glut would take some doing. Which this does not, sadly.

Check that: this CD will get your attention, though in a way you’re not expecting. First, that Jake Stephenson guy’s on here, twice under two more aliases (of course). Okay, so only I really noticed that, but only because I couldn’t escape the chap on those Goa Trance 4CD packs. Long-time listeners of ambient dub, however, will be surprised by the inclusion of two cuts from the original Beyond series, G.O.L.’s Angelica In Delirium (think early Enigma in dub) and Rockers Hi-Fi’s Push Push, a remake of Underwater World Of Jah Custeau which they did as Original Rockers. Again, a nice nod to A.D.’s source, but considering how up-to-date the rest of Four A.D. is, their inclusion’s rather odd.

How up to date are we talking? Following right after G.O.L.’s ’92 cut is Asura’s XP Continuum. Yes, that Asura (if there’s another, Charles Farewell may be interested to know). If that’s not enough of a coincidence to Ultimae, Mystical Sun’s Blue Magnetic Ocean also appears here, which first saw compilation duty on Fahrenheit Project, Part 3 the year prior.

And I get it, Waveform linking a pioneering chill label of the past to one of the leaders of the present. In doing so though, Waveform sold themselves short, Four A.D. almost coming off gimmicky rather than standing tall and unique like the earlier A.D.s did. Pretty much only a completist’s option, this. *cough*

Carbon Based Lifeforms - Hydroponic Garden

Ultimae Records: 2003/2011

I could go on and on about how brilliant Carbon Based Lifeforms’ Hydroponic Garden sounds, to which those who know will nod in agreement, and those who’ve instead discounted my praise of Ultimae Records shall remain in the dark. It's a given fact at this point that little of what I say here will convince the doubtful, but trust me, if you’ve yet to drink of the Ultimae cup, it shall remain your loss for it is quite delish'.

No, screw that. Selling Carbon Based Lifeforms should be easy, especially to old schoolers as the act’s sound harkens back to ambient techno of the early to mid-'90s: simple, laid back rhythms, haunting synths, samples of dialogue and nature, and TB-303. Hell, even the album's title and tracks sound scientific and futuristic, like something you might have found on Beyond, Recycle Or Die, Apollo, or Fax+. If you're one of those folks yearning for more of a vintage ambient techno sound untethered from the modern obsession with laptop noodling and glitch (*cough*), Hydroponic Garden really is a no-brainer, especially with the lush Ultimae Mixdown included in the deal.

Alright, I'm getting ahead of myself. Who even are Carbon Based Lifeforms, and what sort of particulars can we find on their proper debut album? The act itself is a Scandinavian duo comprised of Johannes Hedberg (sounds like a hockey player) and Daniel Sergestad (or is that Ringström?), who’s also the chap behind Sync24 (how’d you miss that tidbit of info, 2012 Sykonee?). They’d released prior material on MP3.com and CDr, though went mostly unnoticed. Their luck considerably changed when they got to showcase their talents on the Fahrenheit Project series from Ultimae, stealing the spotlight on the third edition with the track MOS 6581. Hot anticipation followed, and within a year came Hydroponic Garden.

Whether the album met expectations, I haven’t a clue, as that was a decade ago now (scant reviews of it are positive though). Even if for some absurd reason it didn’t, Hydroponic Garden’s held up perfectly fine as an entry into the ambient techno canon. There’s pulsing dub numbers like the opener Central Plains, the titular track, and Silent Running, blissy acid with Tensor, Neurotransmitter, and Comsat, and lovely, spacey ambient passages on Exosphere, Refraction 1.33, and Artificial Island. The two highlights, of course, are a revamped version of MOS 6581 – the lovely synth melodies are given extra weight and space – and Epicentre (First Movement), essentially an ambient version of the same tune found on Fahrenheit Project: Part 4.

I guess the only fault to be had with Hydroponic Garden is that similar versions of The Big Two can be found elsewhere, somewhat diluting whatever special quality they have within the album itself. That, along with a small drag in the middle, are the only quibbles I have, but whatever. I’m preaching to the choir, aren’t I. If not, this is a worthy addition to any ambient techno collection, so get on it, folks.

Various - Heroes! Rewind!

Muzik Magazine: 2003

Muzik Magazine was nearing its one-hundredth edition and, like any long-running music publication, was straining for original content. What had once been a fun, if somewhat snarky, alternative to Mixmag, was now (then) turning into just another electronic music rag, floundering to find the next genre zeitgeist to help push papers from newsstands. And when the scene doesn’t provide such material for coverage, there’s only one thing left to do: retrospectives.

But Muzik had done a “Top 50 Dance Albums” issue just a year prior – a similar article would be redundant (to say nothing of Mixmag’s 2001 “Top 100 Tracks …Ever” list, which ranked Energy 52’s Café Del Mar tops …such innocent times). Instead, they opted for a look back at influential musicians of the dance music scene’s past; in this case, focusing on ‘80s acts that helped define club music. The article included such names as Kraftwerk, Prince, New Order, Larry Levan, Run DMC, and, um, Madonna.

One can't detail such influential musicians without some audio support though, so for that month's free CD, Muzik rounded up a number of current players and shakers and got them to make cover versions of classic cuts. I think. Maybe these covers had already existed and Muzik simply managed to gather the rights to use them here. I can't recall the specifics from that issue (its sadly missing from the .pdf archive) and I’m lazy, so no verifying the track release dates in Lord Discogs.

The CD includes thus: two covers of Prince; one of Joy Davidson (Squarepusher doing the honors – it’s not as frenetic as you’d expect); that wacky Señor Coconut having a go at Kraftwerk's Showroom Dummies; Rae & Christian getting their Funkadelic on; an almost unneeded stab at Marl Melle's White Lines by Grandmaster Flash; and hopelessly obscure duo Open Door take on Pink Floyd's Breathe. As a pet project, all these interpretations are perfectly fine, some of which you could even play out today if you're up for turning heads.

Oddly, Muzik didn't fully commit to their 'covers' idea, as few original tunes show up too, all from the relative new '90s new school of electronic music. LTJ Bukem's Music is here, though in stupid edited form. DJ Sneak's You Can't Hide From Your Bud is here, truly an important record for the filter-loop house movement, but out of place on this disc. Coldcut also shows up with Atmoic Moog 2000, though in a funkier form compared to the one I'm familiar with. And finally, Soul II Soul shows up with an exclusive track titled Soul II Soul Special. I've never been fond of the group though, so moving on.

Oh wait, that's all, isn't it. Not a long freebie, this one, and not the strongest collection of music either without the accompanying article detailing why these producers are represented here as heroes of the past. Then again, if you know your electronic music history, you likely don't need such an article to begin with.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Greendale

Reprise Records: 2003

I mean, what else was Neil Young gonna do in his career? He'd explored rock music in nearly all its forms: country, punk, grunge, etc. He did classic rock before it was ever 'classic', and he even did proper classic rock, rockabilly. Folk music? Done it. Blues music? Conquered. Electronic music? Damn straight he went there! Death metal? Well, okay, maybe not that one – I can't imagine ol' Neil's 'baying at the moon' singing working too favourably when Cookie Monster growls are the norm. Still, Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) isn't too far off from power-chord distortion metal...

Anyhow, what I'm getting at here is, after a long, long history of having done about all one could ever hope to in rock music, taking a stab at a rock opera wasn't so daft – no less odd than his other quirky ventures over the years. This being Neil though, Greendale wasn't going to be a performance piece on the scale of The Wall. Rather, it was a small, intimate effort, relying on just him and Crazy Horse’s brand of kick-ass country-blues rock to tell the tale, though the tunes are musically simple, even for them. Incidentally, so was the production itself, almost on the level of a community theatre show, which makes sense from a thematic standpoint, as it's all about a small town and a series of events that shake a family to their very core.

Spoilers? Well, since I know barely anyone reading this on an electronic music blog is likely to listen to Greendale - even long time fans were rather confuddled over it – I may as well let you in on the story that takes place.

A family called the Greens lives in a sleepy town called Greendale. About the only major ruckus they caused was when Edith and Earl Green changed the name of a rancho they bought. Sacrilege! How can anyone change the Double L to the Double E? Aside from that though, not much happens for the first few songs of Greendale. Then, in a chance pullover by Officer Carmichael, he catches Jed Green drug running. No one knew Jed was a bad apple, and he only makes things worse when, in a panic, he shoots the policeman! Oops.

As you can imagine, the townsfolk aren’t too pleased, and following Carmichael’s funeral, the media seeks to interview Grandpa Green about the incident, an old curmudgeon traditionalist (with a sense of the Fourth Wall no less, often complaining about “that guy singing”). Just as the old man literally tells the media to get off his lawn with a shotgun, he has a heart attack and dies.

Sun Green, the firebrand young activist girl, doesn’t take kindly to seeing her family fall apart due to the media, and... oh dear, I’m running out of self-imposed word count. I’ll just leave on the note that by the end, the FBI kills a cat, and the final song, Be The Rain, is all kinds of awesome!

Hieroglyphics - Full Circle

Hiero Imperium: 2003

During the mid-'90s (yes, always with the '90s), the Hieroglyphics crew were gods among the backpack contingent of hip-hop fans. First to break out was that funkiest of homo sapiens, Del, soon followed by Souls Of Mischief (A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai). When label conflicts halted all their momentum for a while, the posse eventually took matters into their own hands and began self-releasing material through their website. As the decade came to a close, the Hiero crew made a definitive statement with 3rd Eye Vision, an instant classic among underground heads. The group's proper LP debut showcased everything that made Hieroglyphics such darlings of that scene, with sharp lyricism in the form of solo freestyles and group raps, plus great production that built upon the Golden Era's fun, free-wheelin' vibes. For those tired of mainstream rap's glamour and gangsterisms, it was a breath of fresh air.

Then the group went silent.

Oh, individually, their careers carried on successfully (especially so Del's), but as a posse, Hieroglyphics seemed to turn more wayward from each other with every passing year. Dammit, can't let rumour mongering tarnish their legacy. Half a decade after 3rd Eye Vision, it came time to release a new full-length, make yet another definitive statement; silence the doubters and reclaim hip-hop back from the new growing popularity of bling and crunk.

Or not.

Truth is, rap collectives have a difficult time beating the sophomore slump, possibly more so than any other form of music. The fire that initially united a group almost always fizzles out (or, in the case of an act like Jurrasic 5, never flares as bright as their breakout). Plus, solo careers make things difficult in drawing everyone back, other commitments demanding their time.

This is definitely highlighted on Full Circle by Del's presence; or rather, his near lack of it. Whoever you felt was the strongest emcee of Hieroglyphics, there's no doubt Tha Funkee Homosapien was a driving force on many a Hiero cut. Here though, he barely shows up, and when he does he comes off sounding bored, as though he's got other things to do (Halo’s the only exception). Maybe it was simply a case of creative burnout after so many successful projects in the years between, but his lackadaisical raps hurt the album.

But a crew doesn’t die just because one member ain’t on his A-game. Sadly, this feeling permeates throughout the album. Nothing comes across as outright awful (except that ridiculous Jingle Jangle cut), yet there’s something lacking on Full Circle. Steve ‘Flash’ Juan of rapreview.com called it missing ‘dopeness’, and I can’t think of a better term for it. Those moments that make you skip back to hear a track or verse again - filled on so many Hiero projects - just don’t exist on Full Circle. For the most part, it’s an album that sounds fine as it’s playing, but is easily forgotten once finished, with little incentive to replay any time soon.