Uptown Magazine Online - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News

Uptown Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News

August 31, 2007


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2007-08-31

Dennis Alcapone

Forever Version

(Heartbeat/Studio One)

A+

Website: http://www.heartbeatreggae.com

Dennis Alcapone's brilliant Forever Version may not have been the first DJ record, but when tracing back the roots of modern dancehall - as well as the development of rap - it's an important landmark. Alcapone's sing-song chatting over Coxsone Dodd's finest rhythms was created more than 35 years ago, but this set is as exciting today as it must have been then - especially with the new stereo mixes of each song, never before on CD. Alcapone's obvious influence was the great U-Roy, as evidenced by Version You to the Ball, but his style is phenomenal, especially when you consider he's just chatting over remixed versions of records by other groups. The subsequent Guns Don't Argue may have earned Alcapone his fame, but Forever Version highlights such as Run Run and Version I Can Feel are even stronger. A classic by any standards.
— Sam Thompson

Doyle Bramhall

Is It News

(YepRoc Records)

Website: http://www.yeproc.com

Texas guitar notable Doyle Bramhall is one giant step closer to creating the definitive Texas hard-rock-and-rumble album his fans have always hoped for but have never gotten. Bramhall has had more chances to crack the code than most - he and Charlie Sexton formed The Arc Angels with Stevie Ray Vaughan's rhythm section and he's even paid dues with god-of-sorts Eric Clapton. Thus Is It News boils and burns exactly as it should. Bramhall's tasty licks, crushed from the dusty bones of everyone from Albert King to Freddie King and back again, really do satisfy immensely. But licks alone don't make an album and the guitarist's penchant for somehow stretching verses and choruses just that one heartbeat too long keeps him inches away from being the complete, fiery package. I'd say his best is yet to come.
— Jeff Monk

The Guggenheim Grotto

Waltzing Alone

(UFO Music)

B+

Website: http://www.guggenheimgrotto.com

Stealing a complete page from the stylebook of long-lost, 1970s folk/rock singer/songwriters comes a sweet 'n' mellow trio from Dublin, Ireland with a more-than-mouth-filling moniker. If you know who England Dan, John Ford Coley and Seals & Crofts were, then this moody little masterstroke will surely deliver what you're craving. Shane Power, Mick Lynch and Kevin May make no bones about their influences and create spellbinding songs that also owe plenty to trad British folk - and they lay it out at least as well as some of the higher profile American scenesters getting most of the attention in those 'groovy' music publications. They may not have the hair and beads-bells-incense burner (for which we can be truly thankful) but they blend shimmering, clear instrumentation with light, totally engaging arrangements to provide perfect musical stress relief for whatever ails ya.
— Jeff Monk

Th' Legendary Shack Shakers

Swampblood

(Yep Roc Records)

Website: http://www.yeproc.com

When it comes to a certain ability - panache, as it were - for a band to create legitimately dirty, swamp rock and back-porch boogie, the coolest purveyors are unfortunately few and far between. Nashville's red-hot Legendary Shack Shakers deserve the Billy Gibbons Award of Merit for their overall excellence in being damn-straight, git-down Motherfathers on their latest Yep Roc dozen-tracker. Opening track Old Spur Line careens off the rails like some lost and weathered Ten Years After track, and from that point on these glorified gypsies of grit rival the enigmatic Southern Culture on the Skids for sheer fun times delivered with the requisite amperage and action. Easter Flesh and the title track are festering pools of harmonica-driven, swampy goodness and, on balance, listening to this album will evoke images of neon graveyards, lackadaisical alcohol consumption and rural route, hot-rod huzza in equal amounts.
— Jeff Monk

Olav Larsen & The Alabama Rodeo Stars

Love's Come to Town

(Hyena Records)

B+

Website: http://www.hyenarecords.com

The next big name in alternative, insurgent (whatever) country music hails from Norway, of all places. Perhaps it's all the pining for the fjords that has 'Lazy' Olav Larsen and his hopalong pals in such a fine state of affairs, but this 2006 album is stylistically ahead of the last half-dozen Ryan Adams albums by a country mile. Larsen finds his particular groove somewhere between the easy slide of Gram Parsons' moodiness and the ragtag tumble of classic Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones' countrified highs of the '70s. Sounding vocally not unlike the late Jerry Garcia, Larsen delivers track after track of old-school goodness. It may be a stretch to imagine this kind of 'real' music coming from such a country, but with the music world now becoming smaller than a nun's libido, perhaps it's time to open your hearts and minds to Nord 'n' western, ja?
— Jeff Monk

R. Kelly

Double Up

(Jive)

Website: http://www.r-kelly.com

The most ridiculous thing about R. Kelly is his hardcore gangsta attitude - delivered in the softest R&B croon possible. It's like hearing a lullaby about doing a drive-by. His whole persona may be ludicrous, but on his latest opus, Kelly proves once again he has a knack for addictive hooks. Considering Kelly is facing statutory rape and child porn charges, releasing an entire album full of depraved sex tales isn't perhaps the best idea he's had, but he's hit on a formula that works and with guests such as Chamillionaire, T.I, Nelly and Ludacris, Double Up is likely to pay his legal fees and then some. Make no mistake, though - this is a sick, sick man... but damn, does he ever know how to sell a chorus.
— Sam Thompson

Sheri Hawkins

Love's Sad Stories

(Black Sheep Productions)

C-

Website: http://www.blacksheepproductions.ca

Jazz black sheep Sheri Hawkins has the voice of an angel, but if the tattooed, gun-totin', black cocktail-dressed image inside is any indication, she also carries the attitude of a badass biker chick - and the juxtaposition is more unsettling than cool. Opening with a stirring cover of Burt Bacharach's This Guy's (Gal's) in Love with You, Sheri sings with passion and emotion, evoking a heartache achieved only through a life lived hard. She also covers Rodgers and Hart's classic My Funny Valentine but then follows up with an uneven mix of originals; some fail spectacularly, while others such as Autumn Leaves and Before It's Too Late are just beautiful. As with many independently produced discs, there needs to be more thought put into the song selections, the writing, and getting the pitch perfect.
— Chris Brown

Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Trip the Light Fantastic

(Fascination)

Website: http://www.sophieellisbextor.net

Pop diva and dancehall darling Sophie Ellis-Bextor returns with a groove that hints at the airy pop of the Eurythmics, the quirky dance/disco beats of the B-52's, the Europop of ABBA and the new wave of Blondie. This record aims to get you into your dancing shoes and shoot you spinning onto a dance floor in a swirl of lights and pounding bass. Synths swirl, sweep, sharp-edged guitars bite and the beats are relentless. Sophie's voice recalls that of Annie Lennox and with the help of many overdubs, she easily commands each track. Hooks abound and, if you're not careful, they will stick like glue and invade your daily showers with maddening regularity. If you don't mind your roommates giggling when you sing, "If I can't dance, if I can't dance, then I don't want any part of your revolution," you are cleared to buy this recording.
— Chris Brown

Various Artists

Rumble in the Jungle

(Soul Jazz Records)

B+

Website: http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk

Soul Jazz Records is good for introducing underappreciated music to new audiences; Rumble in the Jungle compiles 13 tracks of a distinctly British mash-up, combining roughneck Jamaican ragga vocals with hard-hitting electronic jungle rhythms. Remixes of established dancehall tunes such as the disc's standout - a reimagining of Barrington Levy's Under Mi Sensi - are likely to draw the listener in, but some of the lesser-known material will keep you hooked. English ragga jungle artists such as the Ragga Twins and Shut Up and Dance deliver on No Doubt and the raging, high-energy Ragga Trip, but for the uninitiated, the lightning-speed drums and digitized basslines might be too much of a good thing. It's such a manic style that it's difficult to jump right into, especially if you're coming at the music from a more relaxed, reggae perspective.
— Sam Thompson

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