Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

To be honest, I started out liking Julie Dexter and Khari Simmons’s Moon Bassa.  Its title song, which is track one, was easy, smooth listening.  At times it strayed into the muzac style, but, for the most part, it was nice.  It put a smile on my face.It ...

“And if you rise to the top again …don’t forget about all of us little people,” taken from the track Little People off of the album Asterisk 4, by QN5. This line pretty much describes my first impressions of this album, without a doubt achieving notoriety and rising to the top- ...

Rasheeda is the self-styled “Queen of Crunk.” No argument there --- why would one say such a thing, unless it was true? --- though commercial success has eluded her, a situation which may change with the release of DAT TYPE OF GURL, her fourth solo release. A major component of ...

Yikes!Here is what most of what YOU BROKE THE CIRCLE sounds like. Take some fairly good dance tracks, with some top flight mixing and mastering, and then let Flip Wilson in his “Geraldine” persona sing over them on a karaoke night in a no-name basement dance club in Chelsea. “Testing, ...