Album Reviews

Like Bill Laswell, whose Material project served as an early inspiration, Dub Gabriel makes trance music in the most traditional sense.

The Breakfast have been painting aural gems on Midwest audiences for years, but their instrumental gifts aren

DJ Spooky is no stranger to experimentalism or pushing the boundaries
of genre. Drums of Death creates a successful fusion of diverse
styles, a risky proposition which lives up to his ambition to create a
“rhythm dialog, building bridges between styles.”

New York-based 33Hz quartet openly embraces the years, somewhere between 1979 and 1982, when disco shed its cheese and began its transformation into a full-bodied, danceable pop.

Considering their (our) Athens, Georgia roots I

With Lost and Safe, Paul de Jong and Nick Zammuto of The Books turn in another loopy-dreamy collection of melodic narratives made up of snippets of found noises, spoken-word samples and acoustic instrumentation that carries on the

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: yes, the half-Italian, half-icelandic Emiliana Torrini sounds like Bjork. Just without the squeaking. Or high pitched sounds there for the benefit of dogs and – yes! – music critics. But hold on a minute, there surely can be room for both singers in this ever crowded world where, like London buses, you wait ages for one and then, well, two come along jostling for passengers? And if that doesn’t mix your metaphors, then who knows what will?

X&Y is by no means perfect. The specter of U2 looms large throughout and Martin’s turn of phrase isn’t quite what it once was.

Musically, he

I

this may well be the Zeppelin III of indie/CMJ-rock.

Thankfully, the improvisation plays second fiddle to the melodies and arrangements on Deep Forbidden Lake, which allows this incarnation of the Jazz Mandolin to shine in a new, yet familiar setting.

Unlike some

Sure, Def Leppard is synonymous with

Radio flavored rock in the form of Jet, though with a little 80

Animal Liberation Orchestra (ALO) is one of the most promising jambands on the west coast – or any other coast– today. Their latest offering, Fly Between Falls, is chock-full of impossibly upbeat ditties and laidback groove-soaked mood lifters.

With his stay at the Hotel, Moby returns to the varied styles and tempos found on Play. But he packs his bags a little lighter by eschewing his signature samples that were central choral elements in his previous two outings, opting to take the mic himself.

It seems artists with monikers reflect a prolific outburst of songs. Take Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes, Damon Gough and Badly Drawn Boy or Mark Oliver Everett, who performs slippery title of eels. Working under the eels name since 1995, Everett has been turning out songs to the indie underground and has even captured Tom Waits as a die hard fan. This time around, Everett, or “E” as he

Dave Schools is a rock and roll chameleon. While most recognized for his full-time job as virtuoso bassist for Widespread Panic, over the course of his career (and particularly in the past year while his band was on hiatus) his effortless, shape-shifting talents have bubbled freely from his fingers.

Following some growing pains, an apparent identity crisis, and an album with good intentions but questionable results, The String Cheese Incident release their fifth studio album, One Step Closer. But they inevitably sold themselves short on the title, ’cause this latest effort is far more than just a step – it’s more like leaps and bounds closer.