The Jacka – The Jack Artist

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May 042009
 

More Crime (Barney) was one of the great standout tracks on Cormega’s Legal Hustle compilation. Listening through The Jack Artist, it’s clear that The Jacka got enough greatness to fill up a full length. He continues to lay down his raps with the understated, down to earth, reflective veteran confidence we learned to love on More Crime. And just like on that track the production is laidback and dreamy (sometimes even trippy; maybe that’s a Bay Area thing), built from the ground up with soul-samples that are treated with the attention and innovative spirit we know from a Ghostface record.

Feel This Clip displays a more hostile G-Funk, all pitched, psychotic Starchild raps and anger management synthesizers. You must balance the force. But when that fades into F@#k With the Mob we’re reminded a problem with one too many of these modern rap albums: too many guest raps.

Still, The Jack Artist is one of the more interesting rap albums of recent times.

Última Parada 174

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May 032009
 

In Última Parada 174 Brazilian veteran director Bruno Baretto tackles the explosive tale of homeless Sandro who one day will take a bus full of people hostage in central Rio de Janeiro, a theme already explored in José Padilha’s brilliant documentary Ônibus 174.

While far from as thrilling and orignal as recent Brazilian masterpieces City Of God or Padilha’s Tropa de Elite, it’s a well executed project and has some great scenes, including a very tense opening (and the actor that portrays Sandro looks like a young Will Smith, which is a bonus).


(Fresh Prince in Rio de Janeiro.)

You get a much clearer view of the social situation for the very poor in Padilha’s documentary, but retelling the story here, in a more easily acessed format, focusing more on a traditional, character-driven structure, also fills a purpose. The story deserves retelling, not just the story about Sandro’s path through poverty and crime and prison and cocaine to a violent but strangely communicative death, but the story about police that kills street kids like their were cock roaches (and the middle class that applauds them for doing so, the interviews with random people in the street about the Candelaria incident being the most shocking part in Padilha’s documentary).

Force Tracks for the summer

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Apr 292009
 

I dagarna ligger det väldigt nära till hands att lyssna igenom Force Tracks-katalogen. Techno, som vanligtvis hör natten till, har i den tappning som SCSI-9, Swayzak, MRI, Luomo och Dub Taylor serverar mer att göra med solsken och den urbana semesterns intensiva ljusupplevelser än industriområden och mörka, fuktiga nattklubbar (även fall det ena inte utesluter det andra).

Det här är den perfekta musiken en solig dag när du sitter på vagnen eller går nerför gatan, eller bara sitter rakt upp och ner i parken eller på en uteservering med en kall och kollar på folk; samtidigt oemotståndligt studsig och atmosfäriskt drömsk dansmusik.

Luomo – Body Speaking

MRI – Data Boogie

Scsi-9 – deep&fax

En låt som heter nåt med fax (också HST:s weapon of choice) får två tummar upp. Brytburken har alltid haft ett gott öga till arkaiska kommunikationsmedel – som ex. text-tv-tangentbordet och rörpostsystemet.

Cold Rob: A-Z mix series

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Apr 282009
 

Calfornian techno maverick Cold Rob, now living somewhere among the lush hills of São Paulo State, Brazil, sends us this:

I’M STARTING A NEW MIX SERIES A-Z.

HERE’S “A”. I HOPE YOU LIKE IT.

PEACE

zSHARE – Cold Rob A.mp3

Starting out tech-house, the set goes into some harder stuff. Dope shit all the way through. Now where’s “B”?

Playboy Tre – Liquor Store Mascot

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Apr 262009
 


Listening to this, it’s no longer relevant to talk about “southern rap”, as if it was a separate entity. This tape, like much other rap from the Southern states, transcends stereotypes and expectations. In a way it reminds me of Jay-Z, both the beats and the raps, except that I’d much rather listen to Playboy Tre. Ultramagnetic to the microphone, he got truckloads of charisma.

Other rap these days:

Max Minelli – Backpack Dreams & Hip Hop Wishes. Another southern over-achiever lays down technical raps over carefully selected slices of classic NY-boom bap. That’s a recipe for success.

And these days, when the weather is warm you have to listen to some svenska klassiker:

Ken – Underjorden

Ken – Situation STHLM

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