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DILATED
PEOPLES The Platform (Capitol/EMI) The connections run deep: DP have done production for SM; their band names could be taken to mean the same thing; and, most importantly, they patrol a lot of the same musical territory. In fact, The Platform's immense "Work the Angles" could be heard as a companion piece to Madchild and Prevail's stutter-funk master-cut "Lady Venom". Along with the likes of People Under the Stairs, these guys are bringing credibility back to West Coast rap. Although DP "love LA like Randy Newman" The Platform is solidly in the early-to-mid-'90s East Coast style of mind-bending samples and couplets over super-phat jeep beats. The music is in the clinical cut-up style of Gang Starr's DJ Premiere, only skewed slightly and bleached bright in the California sun. The rhymes, meanwhile, are abstract but intelligent and convoluted enough to keep headz guessing. This formula is hardly very original and, for many people, guest appearances from the likes of Cypress Hill's B-Real and the entertainingly charmless Alkaholiks will be the major points of interest. However, it's Dilated Peoples' energy, imagination, intelligence and sly humour that really mark them out from the rat pack. The Platform is packed with immediately appealing material that just gets better with every listen. Heads up and eyes open, people! MARC
RIBOT Y LOS CUBANOS POSTIZOS !Muy Divertido! (Very Entertaining) (Atlantic) Nobody has done more to communicate this latter point than arch Manhattenite Arto Lindsay. Perhaps as a result of working with Lindsay, guitarist Mark Ribot has been making his own excursions into Latin territory, with particular attention to the Cuban sounds so in vogue right now. Those expecting something along the lines of Lindsay's serious, sensual work will be in for quite a surprise, though. !Muy Divertido!'s light-hearted feel and Ribot's apparently quite conventional rock soloing conjure up images of Ween mocking Santana. "Las Lomas de New Jersey", in particular, compounds this impression as it features Ribot intoning a line-by-line translation of the ludicrous lyric. On repeated listens, though, it becomes clear that this irreverent approach is indicative of Ribot's great affection for the effervescence of Cuban music. What is more, his guitar work starts to reveal its playful, envelope-pushing subtlety. Witness the fantastic descent into mangled Arto-style dissonance on "El Divorcio". Once these elements click,
!Muy Divertido! more than lives up to its title. A welcome antidote
to both the po-faced reverence and the clueless exploitation that blight
these sounds elsewhere.
The brilliantly witty sleevenotes vividly depict the articulate energy of tracks like The Bizzie Boyz' "Droppin' It". They also provide insight into the historical importance of the selections. For instance, it's no surprise that Lord Shafiyq's "My Mic is On Fire" is listed in the book as one of DJ Premier's "Quaterpound of Underaknowledged Hip Hop Cuts". The spooky ambience of this pioneering masterpiece is strongly redolent of the Gang Starr producer's work with Jeru the Damaja. Great stuff but the compilers really save the best for last. "Beat Bop" by Rammelzee vs. K-Rob has to be heard to be believed. The product of an ill-fated collaboration/argument with artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, "Beat Bop" is an appropriately out-of-control experiment. It comprises 10 minutes of industrial-strength electro-boogie freakout in dub and would be worth the prices of admission on its own. There are plenty
of people with an interest in rewriting rap history to create an untroublingly
homogenous definition of "real hip hop". Tracks like "Beat Bop" and many
of the others here demonstrate that the truth is infinitely more complex
and weird than such revisionists are willing to accept. More
reviews Much of Tune Up's power stems from a pervasive atmosphere of aggressive confidence. This is doubtless an upshot of Kinnie's recent escape from the clutches of a manipulative major record label who, astonishingly, wanted to mold her into a Jennifer Lopez-style hoochie. It's also a sharp smack in the face for the bigoted Vancouver media hacks who consistently misrepresent her as a wholemeal "singer-songwriter" just because she has lots of hippie/lesbian fans. What it comes down to is that journalists have very set preconceptions about music with a message. But in the best of Kinnie Starr's work (to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan) "the music is the message". Tune UP's soundscape is the clearest expression of her personality and worldview yet. It's as brash, awkward, political, idealistic, sexy and full of life as she is. This remarkable synthesis of style and substance is most clearly expressed in the chorus of "Nearer" which mocks the corporate knuckleheads who lost their grip on Kinnie. It does this explicitly in its lyrical content ("We made it through boys, so what you gonna do/Knowing that we made it through without you?") and implicitly in the infectious catchiness of its melody. They should be kicking themselves. |
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