Media Junkie

Essential Albums: Funkadelic - Maggot Brain

Funkadelic
Maggot Brain
Westbound Records
1971

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"Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time, for y'all have knocked her up.  I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe.  I was not offended.  For I knew I had to rise above it all, or drown in my own shit."

This eerily poetic statement opens Funkadelic's second full-length album.  Maggot Brain is, quite possibly, the quintessential Funkadelic record - a psychedlic, apocalyptic trip that effortlessly blends hard rock and funk and establishes what would become the band's signature sound.

Essential Albums: Cee-Lo Green - "The Lady Killer"

Cee Lo Green
The Lady Killer
Elektra/Roadrunner
2010

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Cee Lo Green must own a time machine.  That is the only way I can explain how he managed to pluck an album from the Motown Records vault during its heyday and brought it back to those soul-seekers and true R&B fans who remember the good old days.  Those of you who grew up on modern day imitators and think that's the best the genre has to offer don't deserve The Lady Killer, Cee Lo's third full-length solo record. 

Green and his cadre of producers have managed to make an album that sounds both vintage and contemporary, mixing elements of soul, funk, doo-wop, and R&B.  Infectious hooks, liberal use of horns, and beats right out of the 1960s and 70s will thrill people who grew up with the true greats like Stevie Wonder and The Temptations.  Despite the multitude of producers, this is not a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth.  This is a rich, full-bodied, soulful record that will make you move and will move you.

Essential Albums: The Album Leaf - A Chorus Of Storytellers

The Album Leaf
A Chorus Of Storytellers
2010
Subpop Records

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Discovering music is a funny business.  Oftentimes it follows a natural progression.  Someone somewhere recommends an artist or band based on your particular tastes, so you check them out and decide whether it suits you.  Perhaps you're the inquisitive type and you read the liner notes of your favorite CDs to see who makes guest appearances and what else they've done.  Still other times, a discovery can be as simple as flipping on your radio before you go to bed, just to make sure it's on the right station when your alarm wakes you up in the morning.

The latter is exactly how I fell into The Album Leaf, the progeny of San Diego's Jimmy LaValle.  Once a member of the mellow post-rock outfit Tristeza, LaValle originally began the Leaf as a side project until 2003, when he left the band to concentrate on it full time.  Since focusing his creative energies solely on The Album Leaf, he has released increasingly superb work, beginning with 2003's Seal Beach EP and a full-length album in the following year entitled In A Safe Place.

What I originally thought of as The Album Leaf's masterwork would come in 2006 with the release of Into The Blue Again.  This would also mark my discovery, only a day after the album's release when I caught my local NPR station playing the album's crown jewel, "Red Eye", on their late night show.  Instead of going to bed, I leapt to my computer and began searching for information and links to purchase The Album Leaf's music.

Into The Blue Again expanded the sound of the previous records and saw a stronger focus on vocals, a trend which continues with the band's newest release on Subpop Records, A Chorus Of Storytellers - another outstanding effort that somehow manages to improve upon its predecessor, and makes a strong case for The Album Leaf as the best band of their genre.

Essential Albums: The American Dollar - Atlas

The American Dollar
Atlas
2010
Yesh Music

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As I've said before, one of the unexpected fringe benefits of blogging has been receiving press releases and review requests from record labels.  However, I'll be honest and admit that they're often met with skepticism and general disinterest.  As much as I love blogging, I don't like being told what to blog about.  Then it becomes a job, and I don't want a job - I want this to be a hobby, just like listening to and collecting music.  In the last twelve months, I can't even count the number of requests for reviews of features I've gotten, and the vast majority of them go unanswered.

Occasionally, though, there's a big payoff.  When The American Dollar, a team of high school friends hailing from Queens, New York, contacted me with a download of their newest full-length album, Atlas - their fourth, incidentally - I decided I'd give it a go.  It's not often the band themselves sends me a message, and that personal touch has a strange way of catching my attention. 

I try not to induct albums into my Essential Albums right off the bat too often.  It does happen, but a record has to be something very special, very unique, and damn near Earth-shattering for me to truly say "Yes, THIS is an album that everyone should hear and have in their collection."  Atlas is just such a record, and it is that rare payoff amidst a sea of requests for generic bands whose labels are trying to pass them off as the next big thing.

Essential Albums: All Thieves - We Are All Thieves (Promo)

All Thieves
We Are All Thieves (Promo)
2009 (Unreleased)
Chrysalis Music

Buy This Album (Unavailable)

The very first record I ever inducted into my Essential Albums category on this blog was Dusted's When We Were Young.  Dusted was the side project of Faithless creator and famous electronic music producer Rollo Armstrong and his friend Mark Bates, and it was a far cry from the dance music that made Faithless an international success. 

Far more introspective and melodic, When We Were Young was something of a musical storybook with artwork that recalled Maurice Sendak's classic childrens' tale Where The Wild Things Are to boot.  It was, and remains, a beautiful, brilliant album with layers of sounds and samples that yield new discoveries with each listen even years later.  Peaceful and serene at times, dark and sinister at others, When We Were Young remains my favorite work from Rollo to date, despite the wonderful output of his far more famous band.

Several years later, When We Were Young was rerecorded and retitled.  This time, Rollo's kid sister Dido provided vocals for many of the songs, several were removed and replaced, and the ones that remained had been heavily reworked.  The thematic elements of the music were even put into a companion book.  This album, retitled Safe From Harm, was still worthwhile, though it lacked the magic of the original recording on which it was based.

With Faithless on hiatus, Rollo has turned his attention to producing more new acts, beginning with British singer/songwriter Kristian Leontiou's One eskimO, who are currently getting some heavy buzz as an opening act for Tori Amos on her U.S. tour.  Their debut CD, All Balloons, is slated for release this fall, and the circulating 10-track promo is nothing short of spectacular.

So what happens when Rollo, Mark Bates, Leontiou and female vocalist Bailey Tzuke (daughter of singer Judie Tzuke) join forces for a new project?  Magic.

Essential Albums: The Summer Pledge - You Are You

The Summer Pledge
You Are You
2009
Woodbridge Records

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I have a confession to make: I hate writing music reviews.  Obviously, it's a love/hate relationship because I enjoy writing for this blog.  I love getting responses to my posts or e-mails from record companies and bands thanking me for my kind words, but when it comes time to sit down and write a review I often struggle with what to say.

I often feel my reviews are too redundant and I reuse the same phrases over and over again.  I am by no means a music expert or a master linguist; I know what I like, and I try to describe it in an enticing way so that the reader may be intrigued enough to check out whatever it is I'm raving about.  Sometimes, however, I hate writing reviews because there simply is no way to describe the experience of listening to a CD.

There's no way to convey the power, the emotionality, the depth, or even the technical aspects such as the production or mixing.  Sometimes words just aren't enough.  Sometimes you just have to hear it for yourself.

Essential Albums: Jason Lytle - Yours Truly, The Commuter

Jason Lytle
Yours Truly, The Commuter
2009
Anti-

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In May 2006, the fourth and final full length LP from one of indie rock's most forward-thinking, original, and downright brilliant bands was released.  Just Like The Fambly Cat was Grandaddy's swansong, but though it was met with more of the critical success that followed the band for most of their existence, it also failed once again to capture the public's attention. 

Just over three years and a change of scenery later, the man most responsible for Grandaddy's electronic-infused rock is finally releasing his first of hopefully many solo albums on May 19th.

Yours Truly, The Commuter is the album Fambly Cat should have been.  Not that the latter was a terrible album, but as compared to the three records preceding it, it was easily the band's weakest.  It sounds just like what it was - a band at the end of their rope, tired and frustrated.  It's clear right from the first listen to Yours Truly that the time spent in his new Montana home has done Jason Lytle a world of good.

Essential Albums: Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine

Rage Against The Machine
Rage Against The Machine
1992
Epic Records

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The 1990s are best known for the emergence of grunge rock.  Bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam changed the face of rock music and helped define the decade with their angst-ridden sound.  However, the 1990s also hosted one of the most important releases of an entire generation - Rage Against The Machine's self-titled debut album.

Combining hard rock, hip-hop, and funk, Rage Against The Machine's sound was every bit as heavy and influential as their politically-charged lyrics, shouted with unbridled, indignant anger and passion by frontman Zack de la Rocha.  Tim Commerford's low, rumbling bass would test the limits of your speakers, and guitar virtuoso Tom Morello shredded his axe with crunchy riffs and tweaks to produce a variety of unique sounds.  Anchored by steady, powerful drumming from Brad Wilk and proudly proclaiming "no samples, keyboards or synthesizers used in the making of this recording," Rage's fusion of heavy guitars and hip-hop came years before more commercially viable posers like Limp Bizkit, or the nu-metal craze of Linkin Park.

This wasn't some overproduced studio schlock trying to pass itself off as hardcore or anti-establishment; Rage were the real deal.

Essential Albums: Hybrid - Wide Angle

Hybrid
Wide Angle
2000
Distinctive Records/Kinetic Records

Buy This Album / Wider Angle UK Special Edition

In 1999 Moby released his critically acclaimed album Play and went from being a popular underground techno and dance artist to a member of the public conscious.  Every song from Play was eventually licensed for use in various films and television commercials, Moby videos were suddenly being shown on television, and the once obscure self-proclaimed Little Idiot from Connecticut embarked on a worldwide tour that spanned two years. 

In 2000, Moby teamed up with a duo of electronic producers/artists based on out Swansea, Wales to support him on the second leg of the Play tour.  This duo of Mike Truman and Chris Healings called themselves Hybrid and had recently released their debut LP, Wide Angle.

My brother and I were in the midst of a five city road trip to see Moby, starting in Chicago, Ill.  Unfortunately, confusing directions and terrible traffic caused us to arrive late, catching only the last few minutes of Hybrid's opening set.  As we walked into the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, I was immediately taken with what little I'd heard and we vowed to arrive early for the next night's show in Ohio.

Planning ahead, we did indeed arrive with plenty of time to catch Hybrid's full set and what I saw was intriguing.  Little more than three members - Truman, Healings, and Alex Madge, their live drummer - and a stack of keyboards, Hybrid had a unique sound I'd never heard before - a mishmash of progressive house, breaks, and what appeared to be sampled strings.  I walked away impressed and in the day between the next show, this time in my hometown of Detroit, I ran to the local record store to purchase Wide Angle in order to better know Hybrid's music.  By the time the road trips were over, capped off by a wonderful show in Toronto where I purchased my first (and still favorite) Hybrid t-shirt (affectionately named "Old Bluey" due to it's blue-on-blue color scheme), I began looking forward to Hybrid's set more than Moby's.

This discovery has since resulted in the realization of one fact: Hybrid are not only the greatest act in electronic music today, but one of the best groups in any genre.

Essential Albums: The Future Sound Of London - Dead Cities

The Future Sound Of London
Dead Cities
1996
Astralwerks

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A long, long time ago there was a channel called MTV, which stood for Music Television.  That channel is still around today, but to suggest they still play music videos is both silly and inaccurate.  However, over a decade ago, MTV had a late night show dedicated to electronic music videos called Amp.

Amp was largely responsible for introducing me to many of the electronic music artists that I would go on to love.  I first heard Orbital's "The Box" on the program.  It was where I discovered DJ Shadow after they showed the video for his classic single "Midnight In A Perfect World", and it was where I got my first taste of The Future Sound Of London, the British duo of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans, in the form of "We Have Explosive" - a grinding, pulsating, visceral tune with a siren-like keyboard, funky chicken-scratch guitars, a ferocious, mind-blowing drum pattern, layers of buzzing noises, and a shouted vocal sample from Run DMC's "Tougher Than Leather", among other things.

It was a life-changing experience.