CD Reviews
Warsawpack Stocks and Bombs G7 Welcoming Committee, 2003
Hamilton's Warsawpack offers up a superb blend of jazz, rock, hip-hop and political venom on their sophomore release, an exceptional collection of tracks that owes as much to Rage Against the Machine and George Clinton as it does to Noam Chomsky. The failing of many political bands is their focus on message over medium, that is, using music as a mere propaganda tool and not investing the time nor possessing the skill required to craft great songs.
Warsawpack's lyrics, though clever, don't contribute many new or interesting ideas to the world at large (themes of rampant consumerism, resistance to globalization, and anti-Bush sentiments that are commonplace these days), but their biting delivery and the strength of the band's music adds power to a political message that would seem a preachy burden to a lesser band.
The inclusion of the odd instrumental number confirms that the members of Warsawpack have not only genuine musical talent but unequivocal devotion to their art; they don't force political diatribes into musical spaces where they don't belong. The album's opener, "Lump of Coal," embodies the essence of the band, a rocking, rousing, biting anthem protesting against the consumer paradise that is the Christmas season, a track full of rancor but not devoid of humour.
4½
Enigma Voyageur Virgin, 2003
Beautifully detailed, interesting, clean and unique, this album's packaging has it all! Unfortunately, mother was right when she told you to never judge a book by its cover.
Michael Cretu, the man behind Enigma, produced, arranged, performed and engineered this album almost completely on his own. In a sense, that makes this album quite an achievement. However, I suspect that even the most devoted Enigma fan would agree that this work hardly compares to his best.
Luckily for his fans, Cretu slipped in a sample from his biggest hit, "Sadness." To be fair, "Following The Sun" and "From East To West" are highlights on the disc, but that does not mean they are all that brilliant. Adequate would be a much better description.
A mere 47 minutes in length, Voyageur lacks the expected Gregorian chants and pan flutes that dedicated listeners are used to hearing. Nevertheless, it does deliver breathy female voices, guitars, pumping bass lines and what can only be described as an elderly man whistling through his dentures.
The lyrics attempt to be spiritual but only succeed in sounding as if a child armed with a thesaurus had written them. As much as I wanted to like this album, I simply could not. However, I did discover it to be tolerable as a very quiet background noise that is remarkably less annoying than the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard.
1
David Owen Red Hot Kisses Independent, 2003
Ottawa native and blues enthusiast David Owen puts forth his contribution to the country-blues tradition in this self-produced first album, Red Hot Kisses. Consisting entirely of cover songs, he covers them quite ably and professionally, harping, sliding and plucking his way through such standards as Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain," Big Bill Broonzy's "Mississippi River Blues" and Stevie Ray Vaughn's "I'm Crying."
However, while Owen is quite capable in his performance - as I hoped he would be since his biography states he has been playing since the '80s - I am languishing over the fact that those in the blues business seem to lack the ability to re-invent and re-invigorate it. Must blues go the way of classical music and become irrelevant to all except those who treat it like wine? Must blues collapse into dust because of those blues players who insist on making a golden calf out of it?
The disc is three stars worthy only because Owen's low-fi recording and an absence of pitch-correction technology on his scratchy voice give his work a little raw gravitas. Otherwise, his music is so much wallpaper.
3
Apollo 440 Dude Descending a Staircase Sony, 2003
Combining the talents of a studio engineer, classical pianist and guitarist may just be the key to musical success. From their start as remixers in the early '90s (better known at that time as the Stealthsonic Orchestra), Apollo 440 have collaborated with a multitude of artists who have each contributed to a structurally strong musical base. Contrasting vocals allow the band to experiment with their style and leave listeners with an impressive definition of versatility.
Dude Descending a Staircase is an eclectic two-CD set which include elements of jazz, blues, breakbeat and laidback house, which are complemented by a wide spectrum of vocal styles. Making a cameo on the album's title track are The Beatnuts, who lay their quick, easy rhyming style over top of a piano heavy breakbeat. "Bulletproof Blues" sets the guitar and harmonica on an electronic base, while "Christiane" instigates an ethereal battle between soaring vocals and a turntablist.
Too deliberate not to mention are the parallels between the tracks "Suitcase '88" and "Children of the Future," which are comparable - if not identical - in beat and saxophone strains. "To gain inner peace instead of stress and strife," as said by Jalal Nuriddin on the latter track, is to pop these CDs into your stereo and listen to them with an open mind.
4½