March 16, 2009

Git Some Cosmic Rock [3.5/5] With the last acrid hit still burning lungs and killing brain cells, Git Some have completed smoking the ashes of Planes Mistaken For Stars in order to keep Denver on the national rock radar. Bassist Neil Keener and guitarist Chuck French bring all the ferocity of their old band, and...

Tim Barry Manchester [3.5/5] Two things that hold true about Tim Barry are that he knows how to tell a story and that he is a man faithful to his convictions. These attributes stay strong on the Avail frontman’s second solo album, Manchester, and help Barry stand out in the sea of punks-turned-cowpokes. The best...

ohGr Devils In My Details [4/5] As a member of Canadian industrial pioneers Skinny Puppy, Nivek Ogre spent more than two decades working hard to corrupt and disturb the world’s youth with cold, electronic beats and nightmare soundscapes. If Nine Inch Nails and Ministry were putting industrial music into the minds of metal kids during...

Oddateee Halfway Homeless [3.5/5] Hailing from Union City, New Jersey-the grimy, dispiritingly gray Latin ghetto situated on the Hudson’s shore like Manhattan’s backwash-Oddateee feels at home in tinny clatter, cluttered with noisy, bottom-scraping beats propelled more by faltering will than consistent rhythm. His follow-up to 2001’s Steely Darkglasses retains the spooky, sputtering swagger and multi-syllabic...

Madvillain Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix [3/5] The ideal listener for this album would be someone who’s never heard Madvillainy, the 2004 pairing of rapper MF Doom and superproducer Madlib, that’s now considered an underground hip-hop classic. That person could appreciate Madlib’s rethink of the entire disc on its own considerable merits, and would likely...

Jake One White Van Music [3.5/5] Raving about an album’s coherence might be damning with faint praise. But when the disc is the debut of Seattle producer Jake One-best known for working with mainstream antihero 50 Cent, and now recording for indie stalwart Rhymesayers-then the hyperbole makes sense. Yet it’s the way Jake bridges the...

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone Town Topic EP [3.5/5] For the past 10 years, film school dropout Owen Ashworth has carved a niche for himself with his unique brand of lo-fi pop under the nom de plume Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. He sings catchy, melancholy lyrics over a backdrop of fuzzy keyboards and busted...