Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

I'm not even going to pretend to be the sharpest blade in the box, particularly with respect to Eastern culture. My B-S detector, however, was giving me a three-alarm when I opened up MANTRICA and, while perusing the liner notes, found the statement "...this Sanskrit text is almost 4000 years ...

I was unfamiliar with Ancient Future before I ripped the cellophane off of PLANET PASSION. My bad. These guys, with mucho changes in personnel, have been around since the '70s, before Windham Hill, before Putomayo, recording and performing what they call World Fusion music. Now that the world has caught ...

The newest Boston-based Hard Rock/Punk battalions, Avoid One Thing, surge to the surface on this self-titled, contents under pressure debut that's a real kick in the ass to formulaic sneaker pimp Punk policies. Featuring bassist/vocalist Joe Gittleman of Mighty Mighty Bosstones fame and more significantly in this context, Gangreen infamy, ...

Pop music has been inundated by boy bands who sing, dance, entertain and grace the covers of teen magazines.  Many of these bands lack real talent; some lack abilities to harmonize well, or utilize their vocal abilities to display a full range of emotion.  B2K is a different sort of ...

"Home Sweet Home" rocks pretty hard, heavy on the three chord progressions and happy hum along harmonies-so we'll call 'em Power Pop with a punch… or if you prefer, "polished" Punk for the parenting types. There's some fan friendly, good time, uptempo character in their tunes on their current self-produced ...

Singer/Songwriter Billy Bragg joins up with his band The Blokes to prove that just because he’s getting up there in years, he can still rock out like Mick Jagger. And he hasn’t lost his ability to throw out a catchy phrase or two, even if he has to remind us ...

BLAZING ARROW is Blackalicious major label debut, but these gentlemen have been around for awhile. Based originally in the San Francisco Bay area, Lyricist Gift of Gab and DJ/Producer Chief Xcel of Blackalicious  were making waves on the West Coast underground scene for awhile prior to the debut of their ...

Eye For An Eye… Blood For Blood, see, simple. I like the title "Outlaw Anthems," shocking it's never been used before or at least recently and never more relevant than here. The Boston-based Hard-Core trio lets the blood flow fast and furious on these eleven cuts, their swan song as ...

"This record will make you want to play air guitar in front of the mirror again," reads the opening statement for Brand New Sin's brand new self-titled record. Okay, now that's something to get excited about. I take that to mean we've got some Eddie Van Halen like histrionics going ...

Honing in on a more diverse list of influences, Kyuss and Fu Manchu alumnus, and all around renaissance man Bjork, returns with his long awaited follow up to "Jalamanta." He, with his "Operators," featuring the likes of fellow desert-dwellers Schneebi, Lalli, and Stahl, all from various assorted tie-died, pie-eyed highwaymen ...

The "BT" is for Brian Transeau, a cutting-edge wunderkind in the realm of Electronic music. His remixing firepower can be heard criss-crossing through the digital underground and mainstream Pop music as well as creating his own instrumental and solo programming products that stand in close rank to the best in ...

A complex image of intensified representational sight and sound devices mixed into a journal (a journey) of computerized graphics, poetry, paintings, drawings and music. All composed within a twenty-eight-page, two CD book of metaphoric melopoeia (the melody of poems), THE LISTENER requires and deserves… your attention! A good description of ...

This is an interesting project from a promising band. Chain Poets are from Hotlanta; their self-titled full length debut (they released a four-song EP previously) is rolling along quite nicely, thank you, and it should. They've also had some really cool things happening, like recording The Beatles' tune "Help" for ...

Taking a cue from their moniker, Course of Nature would like you to believe their music is the result of natural progression. Don’t let their name fool you, however, as Course of Nature’s Superkala is a far cry from going back to basics.Course of Nature is everything you’d expect from ...

While the title of their second album is taken from the famous Zeppelin tune, Down band has a hell of a lot more in common with Sabbath than with those other four Englishmen. Fronted by Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo, the side project to end all metal side projects converged once ...

Eamon O'Tuama is a.) a new type of prostate cancer; b.) a species of underwater life that tends to become ensnared in dolphin nets; or 3.) an Irish  singer/ songwriter who has released BEHIND EVERY LIFE, his followup to 1996's DOWN WITH A SMILE?  If you guessed Number 3, you ...

This is a strange and muddled release. Evangeline should have been a classic all-star, cross-over compilation to acquaint other music lovers with the pleasures of the Cajun mystique and open the style to a wider audience, just as bluegrass became familiar following the breakthrough of the “O, Brother, Where Art ...

The bassist formerly known as Reginald Arvizu, more recently known as Fieldy from the band Korn,(one of the most successful and innovative bands in rock history), has invited all of us for a dark and sinister trip inside his head. From the opening shotgun blasts this album is a funk ...

G-spot is Gail Silverman. First of all, a word about the packaging. The theme of EXPERIENCE THE PLEASURE is, well, pleasure, with an artistic rendition of, uh, a pair of thin, half-parted lips repeated throughout the cover. Yeh, not those lips, THOSE lips. The theme continues throughout the CD, and ...

For Glenn Lewis, the world outside his window is a new world than what he was used to; this Canadian has not found the fame and warmth from his country as he has found in the US.  Epic Records has found another silky-voiced R&B singer to add to the Sony ...

I'm hard-pressed to explain my affinity with Great Big Sea and their use of water as their primary subject matter, especially considering that when it comes to a body of water any larger than a hottub full of Dixie Chicks, I'm a Great Big Wuss.  Maybe it's their unapologetic straightforward ...

Spastic Canucks attempt to alter the course of indiedom (as well as North American relations) with an outrageous twist of herky-jerky old wave, obnoxious trash glam and '60s garage dementia that'll rupture all reactions between the luv'-em or lynch'-em camps. How many times you can possibly mash the Rolling Stones ...

O BROTHER, WHERE OUT THOU? is not the only bluegrass CD out there. That selfsame CD, with hardly any radio airplay (WSM-AM, the rightfully styled "Air Castle of the South" being the notable exception) has of this writing sold over 5 million copies. Yet, despite this notable feat in a ...

The Indigo Girls go back to basics with the folksy, acoustic Become You.  Amy Ray and Emily Saliers provide warm, rich singing; their voices blend together in vivid harmony found in their first offerings.  Become You is a fine balance of sweet folk and more rocking tracks illustrating the hardships ...

If you look back only a few years ago, the Metal scene was fledgling; struggling to maintain its identity and the cause for which it championed twenty years strong.  With fans confused and confounded at the lack of media coverage and their many heroes seemingly disappearing or disgracing themselves trying ...