Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

1000 Miles from Home’s 6 song EP, Collusion, is a good, solid collection of songs that fits well as a CD to throw into the player when you’re looking for something different, but can’t put your finger on anything in particular. If you’re not blown away the first time you ...

Bobo Bazinsky in the Bronx will scare you in the same way that a big city scares an out-of-towner.  It’s loud, hectic, in-your-face, and diverse.  But behind the beeps and traffic is a silver lining of humanity and culture.  All of this, believe it or not, is actually captured by ...

Far & Wide, the debut album by U.K. jazz guitarist Andreas Hagiioannu (pronounced “hajianu”), rings with warm, lyrical tones and clean, crisp licks. Backed on a little over half the tracks by bassist Dirk Griffin and drummer Alan Savage, the album swings in an unpretentious groove as Hagiioannu explores harmonic ...

What do you get when you add a previously unheard of language, virtuosic African drum solos, a Caribbean beat, a strong set of vocals and exceptional guitar playing? An incredible audio experience called Watina, the new album by Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective. This is an exciting and interesting ...

Beat Pharmacy is Brendon Moeller, a South African expatriate who is primarily self-taught. STEADFAST, Beat Pharmacy’s third proper long play release, continues Moeller’s exploration of various genres of electronica and dance music joined in a gumbo of other styles, including jazz and afro.The tracks on STEADFAST flow seamlessly, creating a ...

Bebel Gilberto’s Momento is an album that fits moods like a chameleon. Plug in your earphones under the thatched roof of a beachside cantina, and watch the world go by in an easy samba. Back at your flat, and put the CD on while you shower up, mix martinis and ...

Bouncer Crew is a group of MCs who claim a wide range of origins but seem to be based primarily out of Detroit. XTASY FOR LADIES, their initial project, is produced by DJ Cam, whose production values tend to the minimalist, which is good, very good, actually. Most of the ...

The first song on Brian Buckley’s For Her begins with a one and a half minute guitar solo that, surprisingly enough, both captured and held my attention. Buckley can wail on a guitar, to say the least, but there’s an intensity and urgency in those first few seconds of Little ...

Young California rookies Brown Shoe do a decent job on their sophomore album Vanity. Don’t expect any surfing bubblegum pop here. Although the band hails from the sunny coasts of CA, their sound is of another, better world. Instead, an almost polished British indie-rock is heard. Roaring guitar solos and ...

Bryan Ferry announced recently that he is not going to tour the United States in support of DYLANESQUE, his new CD consisting entirely of covers of Bob Dylan. DYLANESQUE: LIVE --- The London Sessions, a DVD of studio performances of the songs contained on the CD, will ease the pain ...

As I like to do ever so often, I screened this album on several people before writing this review.  This is possibly because I like to show off my pre-release goods at every possible occasion or because I can’t think for myself.  Assuming it’s the first, I was pleased as ...

Light Longing is an ethereal journey into the beauty of progressive classical music. For anyone who thinks violins are boring, this album will prove you wrong. It leaves you mesmerized by the peace and serenity an excellent violinist can give. The melodic pop feel of the album only adds to ...

Cody McCarver has the type of problem that 95 per cent of the guys playing the back room at Tootsie’s in Nashville wish they had. McCarver is the guy who recorded “Red Flag,” a fabulous modern country cautionary song about the “red flags” a woman should watch for when they ...

Ancient dynasties enamored with a deep grace I could never once imagine amongst today’s jaded regimes.  Colossal, grey mountains acting as mantels for intricate walled-cities.  Swords, unsheathed, glistening even while under skies of misty charcoal.These are the cinematic visions I am able to discern through Shigeru Umebayashi’s score ...

Davis Coen’s fourth album is nothing short of a well-crafted blues gem. With a deep, clear, hollow voice, Coen leads the listener down country roads and Chicago streets with tunes that showcase a refreshing blend of innovation and respect for tradition. This is not rock pretending to be blues, or ...

ON THE FRINGE, Deborah Lombardi’s debut full-length release, mines territory usually associated with the likes of Tori Amos and Sheryl Crow. At least one of the tracks from ON THE FRINGE should sound familiar: “My Dog’s Life” was featured on the Animal Planet program Horse Power: The Road To Maclay. ...

Most people know Deniece Williams for one of two reasons. Either they remember her entreating vocals from heartbreak ballad “Silly” or they recall the catchy pop freshness of “Let’s Hear It For the Boy.” Besides that, there’s not much to remember particularly since Williams hasn’t released a new album since ...

Synchronized, the debut cd from the trio Dial, an alternative/progressive rock band from the Netherlands, starts out soaring in the heavens and ends up in the gutter.  To be fair, there are several great tracks.  The album as a whole starts out strong but is weakened when the band loses ...

All right. This is more like it. A movie soundtrack that is properly aimed at the film’s target demographic, filled with tunes that complement, and don’t distract, from the movie (which is a drama cum slasher flick), yet sounds great on its own. What’s not to like?Reviewed by J… Oh. I ...

Jim Coles,aka dj2Tall, prefers to be known as a dj and turntable musician, and has won several accolades in his native UK as such. BEAUTIFUL MINDZ, his latest project, is a collaboration with two Stones’ Throw vocalists, Dudley Perkins and Georgia Ann Muldrow. Muldrow, of note, is the only female vocalist ...

Songs for Dark Days, the new album by Dori Turner is modern- folk--a woman with her guitar. This is not the genre of music I usually choose to listen to but I have occasional sweet spots for listening to artists like Bonnie Rait, Carol King, Neko Case, and Joni Mitchell. ...

A new Erasure CD? Oh, The Humanity! I had heard that they were no longer together, that Vince Clarke, instrumentalist extraordinare, had, uh, gotten married, to a girl, no less, and that vocalist Andy Bell was dead or gravely ill. Yet, here we are, in 2007, and a new Erasure ...

All right. You figure the last thing you need is another electronica/dance CD. You’re right. But you do need HAPPY HOUR IN THE GENE POOL, the debut CD by Evolve. It’s a down-tempo project, absolutely, and absolutely good.Let me tell you where I’m coming from, if you didn’t know already. ...

It is hard to describe this debut album by rock trio Ferocious Eagle as anything other than completely nuts.  Hailing from Portland, Oregon, these guys have created a sound that is primarily noise-rock in nature with a touch of the totally strange mixed in.  The band works as a tight ...

Gene Butler is of indeterminate age, though his leather voice would seem to be indicative of a 70 pack year history of cigarette smoking. He certainly does not fit into the Nashville pretty boy box --- he is based, at first blush improbably, out of Los Angeles --- so his ...