Posted on 07/06/2009
An octahedron is a solid three-dimensional figure with eight plain faces, each one easy to point out, clearly visible and simply identified. Octahedron is also the title of The Mars Volta’s latest recording, and its eight songs are anything but simple to decipher. Instead, listeners are forced to peel back an intriguing onion and push their minds to limits beyond what is heard on the surface. What they will find...

Posted on 07/06/2009
When I critique an album, I normally listen to it over and over to get a complete and thorough feel for the music, a process that can take several days. But DJ Mutamassik’s The Commo, an instrumental EP, presented a very different challenge. Both the runtime (4 songs, 13 minutes) and the artist’s abstract production style initially made the album difficult to review. So I decided to get creative with...

Posted on 07/06/2009
Hip-hop has always been an art that is best experienced when lyrical skill and self-confidence (also known as swagger) collide. If either element is missing, the rapper runs the risk of coming across as corny. I’m usually a pretty good judge when it comes to calling out corn and cheese, but with DeGo’s new album, The Album, I’m riding the fence.

Posted on 06/29/2009
Listening to The Phenomenal Handclap Band's self-titled debut is like listening to an explosion of greatest hits from some of the music industry's most celebrated pop, disco and rock-n-roll luminaries, except this group has an uncanny ability to emulate what others have done and make it sound fresh. That's not to say the PHB copycats industry legends. Rather, this band successfully incorporates the intricacies of musical yesteryear to mold its...

Posted on 06/29/2009
Del the Funky Homosapien has a different definition of "funk" than most. Despite him carrying the word in his moniker for nearly 20 years, the funk that makes you think of Funkadelic and other traditional slick grooves is no longer a staple in Del's music. Del now represents the funk by remaining untouched by trends, at least when it comes to his sound. His distribution strategy is quite current...

Posted on 06/29/2009
Slakah is getting around the Canadian hip hop and R&B scene quite nicely. Working with everyone from Drake to Shad to Divine Brown to Melanie Durant, he’s obviously put work in various styles of production and even drops some great vocals on most of the work he is involved with. Soul Movement Volume 1 is his latest endeavor, and since it made such a splash in Europe in 2008 (selling...