Indulgence in all things retro has almost always been a modern staple of cool, and Raw B Jae and the Liquid Funk are no exception. For more than a decade the ever-changing eight-member group has embraced Seventies soul sensibilities while eschewing disco cheese. Psychedelic guitar man and local band-hopper Buffalo…
Thanks to the ever-present Aquabooty crew, Osunlade is a familiar face in these parts, traveling down from New York every so often to spin records. The man behind dance classics like Eric “Erro” Roberson’s “Don’t Change” and his own Paradigm album is a prime force in Afro-house, from his fierce…
Since giving his first solo recital at age eight and making his orchestral debut at twelve, Ben Kim has gone on to become one of the most acclaimed young pianists in the world. Kim is a master of demanding works by Brahms and Schumann and is especially noted for his…
Octogenarian Cuban musician Candido Camero, who celebrates a birthday with a return engagement in downtown Miami, works today at the same job he has had for the past 65 years: A-list conga player and innovator. He needs no resumé. But if he did, it would read something like this: Previous…
Old-school house heads know King Britt for early-Nineties smash dance hits like “Tribal Confusion,” coauthored with Josh Wink in 1993, as well as his latter-day DJ sets of deep, jazzy beats. As for everyone else — well past their teen years, that is — they probably remember “Cool Like That,”…
ArtOfficial delivers a sound that shatters the line between jazz and hip-hop. The unification of the remnants of local hip-hop group Soul What? merged with reggae funk band Defoncé, spawning rich lyrics and instrumentals. Danny P., Ralf Valencia, Manny Patino, Keith Cooper, Newsense, and Afterlogic make for an interesting, inspirational…
On the Saturday before the Monday that was Memorial Day 2006, the poolside party at Hotel Victor in Miami Beach was off the chain, even by hip-hop holiday standards. In a swelter of humid human heat thick with pot smoke, unmoved by even a breeze from the ocean across the…
Latin freestyle lives in the hearts of those who are still daring enough to rock fluorescent spandex, Jheri curls, and Scünci scrunchies. But for most of the population, there haven’t been too many signs of the gaudy electro offshoot that peaked in the late Eighties and caught a second, more…
Either Andy Partridge has way too much time on his hands or he’s simply too prolific to be reined in by the confines of XTC, the proto-punk band-turned-Beatles/Beach Boys disciples he founded nearly three decades ago. It’s likely a bit of both; after all, it has been practically 25 years…
It’s tough to encapsulate the sounds of a city into one medium, let alone an eleven-track disc. However, through the mixture of Colombian cumbia, Cuban rhythms, Caribbean steel drums, good ol’-fashioned rhymes, and melodic vocals, Suenalo smacks any wannabe jam band right in the grill with its multicultural sabor on…
In Flagranti aspires to be the glacial, disaffected edge of New York club life. On Wronger than Anyone Else, Sasha Crnobrnja and Alex Gloor bang out seventeen tracks with wonderfully sardonic titles like “We Make Love in a House Made of Glass” and “Reputation or Notoriety.” Mixed together like a…
Luomo’s 2000 debut, Vocalcity, was a landmark dance record and a cornerstone in the minimal movement. Produced by Sasu Ripatti (better known as Vladislav Delay), it emitted sensuous tech-house songs as airy and delightful as a cloudburst. After a major-label effort, 2004’s The Present Lover, which mostly revisited Vocalcity’s achievement,…
It’s just weird when Danish people spout trite lines like “until the break of dawn” and “make the ladies scream” over gratuitous scratches of vinyl. Yet these are the sounds that kick off Vincent Van Go Go’s debut, Do U Know? If you’re thinking the quintet is doing its version…
The Horrors’ look will surely generate more attention than their sound, though large masses of spiked black mops and crazed, kohl-rimmed stares are things worth discovering. A deep-throated vocal leads the punky, psychy, sounds-like-it-was-recorded-in-the-garage-on-a-portable-tape-recorder-with-the-help-of-a-Bontempi-keyboard five songs that make up the group’s first offering, a brief but powerful EP. Fur-lined feedback…
With its 2004 debut album, Bright Like Neon Love, Australian band Cut Copy created a late-period relic of postmillennial New Wave revivalism. Fabriclive.29, the group’s contribution to the essential club mix series, extends its future romantic aesthetic to the dance floor with predictable results. Tracks from the cream of the…
Had it been ready for consumption earlier this year, Ken Gibson and Ian Read’s skeletal clapping mishmash of plinks and photon blasts might have fit nicely on Matthew Dear’s Audion Fabric mix. Its minimal getup snarls with the same Jurassic Park velociraptor throat-belches that rattled Dear’s Suckfish in 2005, and…
The Just Blaze-produced track that features a slowed-down, percussion-infused version of Wreckx-in-Effect’s “Rumpshaker” announces that the King of Rap is back. — Megan Silvera…
Fat Joe had teamed up with Miami’s superproducer Scott Storch and Cash Money’s Lil’ Wayne to unleash a fury of words, a smooth flow backed by a throbbing bass beat and a reminder that Terror Squad knows the perfect combination for a hit. — Megan Silvera…
Taking a sample from Wayne’s chart-topper “Fireman,” Currency breathes new life into this Runners-produced track. Listen carefully to every rapper’s flow on this one. — Megan Silvera…
The Waterford Landing was voted Best Pop Band in this year’s New Times “Best of Miami” issue. In 2005 it was selected as a Personal Best, won the Readers’ Choice award, and picked up Best Electronic Group. But Alex Caso, keyboardist and singer, remains somewhat mystified about the acclaim. “I’ve…
Metal signifiers prominently figure into the music of Italian duo Ovo: Bruno’s snare ‘n’ tom bash-dash underscoring Stefania Pedretti’s strained (sometimes churlish), demon-possessed vocals bring to mind Linda Blair in The Exorcist and Old Time Relijun’s Arrington de Dionyso alike. Yet metal they aren’t, really. On their latest recording, the…
Putumayo’s reach is truly global. What began as a clothing line has morphed into a world music label that for more than ten years has been producing compilation albums that highlight artists from nearly every continent. Named for a Colombian river valley, the label has enjoyed a hearty serving of…
