Netherlands-based producer Nicolay began e-mailing beats to Little Brother’s Phonte four years ago, forging a relationship that would eventually give way to the Foreign Exchange’s Connected. Their Web-spawned hip-hop collaboration showcased Nicolay’s mastery — silky strings and brass backed by software-launched beats — and followed mixtape-style post-Connected releases. Here marks…
The Game puts a twist on Reed’s reggae classic, calling for unity among people and turning his version into survival of the fittest, with himself as the victor. Hurling disses, this single is true hip-hop — keeping the beef on wax instead of taking it to the streets…
Jessica Simpson follows the recent retread trend with her remake of Dead or Alive’s dance-floor staple. Her signature breathless tone gives the song a refreshing update…
This extended fit of arrhythmic bit-crush, courtesy of Mouse on Mars’ Jan St. Werner, is a lot like listening to someone make an IDM martini — James Bond-style — for seven and a half minutes: scuffing beats breaking and rattling against each other; a kooky, wobbly synth squeak; and choppy,…
The sultry sounds of bossa nova are eternally soothing. One whiff of this music and you will instantly find yourself transported to a beachside café on Copacabana, enjoying warm sea breezes and strong coffee under a glowing moon. Derived from samba, but a bit slower and less complex, bossa nova…
In this hyperaccelerated digital age, when old methods of musical delivery quickly become outmoded relics, Q-Burns Abstract Message (born Michael Donaldson) is bringing the eight-track back! First he remixed Lawrence Welk, a strange bedfellow to other mixes he has done for the likes of the Chemical Brothers and Meat Beat…
Electric Six probably shouldn’t be taken seriously, because it’s obvious the bandmates themselves don’t: They go by pseudonyms like Dick Valentine and Rock N Roll Indian, and rhyme the words “Taco Bell” with “gates of Hell.” The sextet from Detroit keeps a little of that city’s signature garage fuzz-guitar sound,…
Raven-haired beauty Ivete Sangalo is the queen of Brazilian Carnaval. She made her break with the group Banda EVA before exploding as a solo act in 1999. A native of Bahia, Brazil’s seductive and sweltering northern state, she is known to draw crowds in the thousands to see her shows…
Born in Tacoma and bred in Seattle, Donald Glaude is a Washington man through and through. He has stayed in his home state throughout a blossoming career and even though more frequent trips to California might have easily led him to go Hollywood. Glaude has long held the Pacific Northwest…
Indie-rock quartet Aberdeen City’s sound is not particularly unique but perfectly appropriate for a rainy day. The group gained notoriety in Boston with the album The Freezing Atlantic before it was re-released nationwide in 2006. Atlantic is an accurately titled work, featuring instrumentations as big as an iceberg and droning…
The Square Egg is taking urban music from Cristal-sipping, club-banging hits that make you grind, to smooth, soulful poems that make you think. The antithesis of mass-produced pop ditties, the ten-piece band’s socially aware lyrics and musical inclination are a far cry from the crass lyrics and machine-produced beats ubiquitous…
When Brazilian Girls singer Sabina Sciubba took the stage at Studio A this past March for one of the club’s inaugural shows, she strutted and preened while burbling her signature five-language lyrics in an Avengers-era white mack. The sound system and the enthusiastic crowd offered support, and Sciubba — along…
Since a change of ownership late last year, South Beach stalwart Laundry Bar has retooled itself as a tucked-away last bastion of underground electronic music. Its Friday-night party, Basshead, has especially attracted a number of notable out-of-town acts. Adding to the so-far sterling roster tonight is One Self, making the…
A Colombian folk version of Norah Jones — boasting stunning looks that make her an almost identical twin to Nelly Furtado — Marta Gomez infuses traditional roots with a modern femininity. She is a master of the complexity of Latin music, and her second and latest album, Entre Cada Palabra,…
Wicked!” Richard Winn exclaims as he stands on Seattle Center’s Broad Street Lawn during Bumbershoot, expressing appreciation for the French band Nouvelle Vague. “That’s weird — I got goose bumps on that one.” He pulls up the sleeve of his blue sweat jacket to prove it. The bubbly 42-year-old British…
Having grown discouraged with the cutthroat practices of the record industry, Lisa M. decided it was time to investigate a career change. So in 2003 the Puerto Rico-born rapper decided to head for Miami, quickly securing a gig as host for the Telemundo show Jamz. But just as M. was…
The best live albums bring something new to songs that have been heard only in a studio incarnation, new performances that transcend the recorded versions and connect with striking immediacy. By that standard, Okonokos, My Morning Jacket’s first concert set, is a stunning success. An able followup to last year’s…
Southern California’s Saosin (rhymes with Laotian) is the latest great emo hope. The band’s metal-plated 2003 debut EP, Translating the Name, featured singer Andy Green, former Slayer drum tech Pat McGrath, and current Ashlee Simpson band bassist Zach Kennedy. The disc was the beginning of a grassroots sensation, and as…
Muffled Sevendust-ish death-droning announces goth diva Tina Root’s slinky entrance. Her veil parts, the mike floats to her astonishing lips, and she channels Layne Staley’s personal Shiva, belly-dancing her way over via implicit promises to spike-heel your heart into turkeyburger. Spears hover over jugulars to the accompaniment of an orchestral…
The expiration date for stupefyingly average vocals by distressingly do-able babes has to be fast approaching, but in the meantime, Deb Fogarty has teed up another Siouxsie-fronting-VNV Nation slam-dunk cut with so much Flock of Seagulls truthiness that even Robert Smith is raving about it. Fans of whip-snap drums and…
Less constrained than last year’s rousing but rigid Shakey, Pyramids nonetheless feels cut from the same jib, snorting of goth cream soda staining a black velvet cloth template: Fay Jeffers-Davis’s too-perky keyboards, Rob Doran’s lithe bass-work, and Butchy Fuego’s nuanced drumming in a three-way cage-match no one is trying to…
Slug-slow shoegaze augmented by Black Tambourine-esque vocals fighting through mighty cobwebs of reverb. This album would like to be some sort of meditation-class fractal-soundscape study, and is being marketed as such — from the CD cover to Latenight’s press blurbs (“a visual” blah blah blah “translated into an aural” blah…
