In Case You're a Dummy

Ever heard of this group? Yeah, well, their new Radio Relatiation is everything you’d want Thievery to deliver. If you’ve been recently disappointed with a Thievery release (which is possible, I’ll admit), get over it and plug this one into your Cochlea or other part of your ear. Returning to some of the downtempo roots that were a little ahead of their time, Thievery remind you of what you are missing in recent dub and downtempo electronica. This album sinks you into body-temperature bathwater, and provides aromatic bath-time treatment for its duration. Amazing, wonderful.

This one snuck up on me. And there it was. A Chapstick Weekly all-time favorite, Nightmares on Wax offers a prescription with its new masterpiece, “Thought so…” Another demonstration of instant toe-tapping goodness outlined in impossibly smooth percussion from all walks (i.e. samba, reggae, motown, and most importantly, drastically, hiphop), compelling loops of bass, and filled with a minimal bouquet of samples in between.

“The world is your’s, unless the world is ours.” This intravenous delivery of a pastiche, delicate to the lyrically delicate pallete, intrusive to your more secret searches for sonic sweetness, and abrasive to your previously developed concept of the limitations of a hiphop influence, will reorganize some neurons in a hurry. Gospel soaked, doo-wop permeated, clap-double-clapped, and unmistakeably excellent. You literally cannot go wrong with this.

They still have it! Monotone intonations over a bed of jumping beans, their no-nonsense approach to repetition will draw you in like a hypnotist’s swinging clock. Steady as she goes, this ship’s voyage has a dead-on rhythm like an electrocuted Johnny Cash, and they are evidently mindful of this surgeon-handed gait, as they have devoted this disk to a one excellent, marching track after another. A must have disk.

Buy the Ratatat, LP3 album. Just as you’d expect, there are swelling strings and guitars! Crescendos of drums and sound! Quirky arrangements that draw you in for a closer look then spring on you in jack-in-the-box fashion with the absurd ridiculousness of all things beautiful! Their album, Classics, was amazing and by all means, their most recent effort on LP3 is obscenely precise and wonderful!

Buy the Daft Punk, Alive 2007. I’ll admit, I was slightly reluctant to get this one. But as live albums go, this is phenominal in quality, energy, sound, and substsance. From the moment the proverbial needle hits the proverbial vinyl, this disk transports you into the futuristic, cartoon, liver-performance world in which they must live. Try not to sing along, in your best robot vocoder voice, to these songs as they get stuck in your head.

Buy the Hot Chip, Made in the Dark album! Hot Chip doesn’t disappoint, building you up to speed within two minutes of the album until you are jerking about, dancing like a cat’s toy on a string. There are even a few lovers’ songs for you softies out there! A little shiny tidbit: Todd Rundgren is sampled on “Shake a Fist” describing a game called Sounds of the Studio (In the words of Willy Wonka, “You’re going to love this, just love it.”). As if you needed a bonus, this album comes with a DVD that gives you a glimpse into the genius that is the Hot Chip live performance. It is indescribable, and you have to see it to believe it.

Buy the Beck, Guerolito disc.  But Tengan Cuidadolito! This album contains one of the most engaging, compelling remixes ever created by man or machine (Ghettochip Malfunction, the 8Bit remix of Hell Yes).  You will end up dancing on a table, couch, desk, or various other available pieces of furniture.  Did you like Guero?  O’ course ya did!  Who th’hell don’t!  This is the musical masterpiece follow-up with remixes from Islands, El-P, Adrock,Subtle, Boards of Canada, and Air.  What happens when you shove all these people onto a construction site with blueprints and schematics fromBeck?  Well, this does, duh.

With the exception of Pharrell’s appearance on Eye Water, this album is fantastic front to back. Catchy dance songs, driving dance songs, beat-driven dance songs, and funky French interludes fill this CD to the brim, and their no-nonsense joy-seeking spills the music over the edge! Another French album on my list here, but it’s just so good. So good! From the first track on, this re-emergence of Cassius is one that you wished you bought when it just came out.

The building, diving, powerful music is good for all occasions. Don’t be alarmed! It is instrumental. Four sets of cascading guitar riffs and melodies, harmonizing synthesizers, driving beats, and all-around well-produced effects. This album has some danceable tunes, but the most enjoyment can probably be had as driving background-music inspiration. Katie Jones once said that this would be one of the best CD’s to have in the background of a runway show. And she knows things like that.

Buy the Magic Numbers,Those the Brokes disk. This disc has been out for awhile in Europe, but its recent re-release in America sadly went relatively undiscovered. Every song on this album is great. Let me emphasize that again. Every amazing song on this precious album is delightful. They have the sort of hopeful heartbrokenness that can only be experienced by those people that have been there. This album includes some quicker songs that you can’t but to dance to, and some that will draw you in, pull you face down in the dirt, then make you feel better about life in the end.

You’ll laugh (When you hear ODB’s rendition on Toxic. Yes, the Brittany Spears song), you’ll cry (When you hear ODB’s rendition on Toxic), and you’ll burn a few calories as if you were on a spin master. His unique mixes and remixes combine influences from all around, but most noticeably from genres that include a large amount of horns, backbeats, singing soul girls, and getting in the mood to do something experimental. Sexually.