The new Ta'Raach project featuring Blu will instantly appeal to listeners of classic instrumental hip-hop, but it should also resonate with a newer generation: fans of Gnarls Barkley's eclectic rap-pop-gospel. These tracks are built in diverse, genre-bending, and deeply soulful fashion.
What is it that makes a proper power balladeer? WTL frontman Jason Paul could be used as a case study. Paul's vocals feel at once vulnerable but square-jawed--colored with emo but firmly in hard rock territory. Backed by sturdy--yet not overly aggro--melodies, they nudge the group over the top.
Imagine Antony's kid sister on a Portishead kick and you'll be fairly introduced to the lulling tones of Shara Worden. In her MBD persona, Worden headlines a snatchy attic orchestra--part dream-pop troupe, part postmodern drum circle--with a whorl of quivering vocals.
If you were to create a bionic band that compresses together the dazzling rhythms of B.T. Express, the sexy vocals of Prince, and the electro-funk sensibility of Afrika Bambaataa, you'd wind up with something similar to Plantlife. It's hard to pigeonhole the L.A. band's style, but like predecessors James Brown and Sly Stone, Plant Life has a knack for capturing the true essence of heartfelt soul music.
The Scottish group's improvement on second LP "The Midnight Organ Flight" is simple: They do a better job of being themselves. The shrill indie-punk moments now are closer to drama than melodrama, and the group's mixing of dense rock texture with acoustic folk becomes truly deft.
How come disco never sounded this good when we were stuck in the middle of it? These NYC folks are helpfully selective with their '70s history, giving the old sleazy beats new cool by pointing up their soundtrack heritage. Beneath sharp blues licks, scented with city energy, these rhythms stick.
The San Francisco freak folkers, regular riding buddies of Devendra Banhart, silence concerns about the genre--deemed precious by some--on new LP "Thing of the Past." The set of obscure late-hippie folk covers is utterly convincing: a dignified and noble bow from youths to elders.
Madonna claims she's only got four minutes to save the world, but Nina B manages to squeeze out an extra 40 seconds or so. How like the remix heroine. The latest from Nina proves she has mastered the lyrical overlay, in which fierce flows get catapulted from unlikely host tracks.
Russ Ledford and comrades have found a high-energy middle-ground between steamy, blues-fired Southern rock and more angular indie strains, with arcing vocals to top it off. A Georgia double-bill of the Whigs and Morning State would amount to a rock aficionado's dream show.
O'Brien is known for his traditionalist outings (2005's "Fiddler's Green" is a stunning tour of classic folk varietals). But even then he's looked a lot like a modern solo bard, and it's that persona that appears in "Chameleon." The LP is nearly ideal: coffeehouse ruminations with a serious folk grounding.
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