One (by which I mean me) immediately recognizes the Beatles in the Morning Benders' "Damnit Anna", the first track on the first album ever to be released on +1 Records, offshoot of the Brooklyn-based PR agency with the notable connection to the San Francisco music scene. So, is this just a destined-to-be-inferior-to-the-original rehash, or is there something new on offer here (isn't that always the question?) Fortunately the answer seems to be no.

Sounding like something that came before—besides the fact that the pointing out of which is the critic's favorite trope (allow me to kick out my own crutch)—is inevitable at this point. What is the theory about monkeys and typewriters and their eventual creation of War and Peace? Morning Benders, however, despite clearly borrowing from "vintage" popular rock, manage to do more than simply rip off their Bay-area heritage. Instead, they conjure a bit of nostalgia for the easy-going rock of the ages, concerned more with making music that sounds good than pushing any sort of critical agenda. Vocals and acoustic guitar occupy their traditional position at the very front of many of these tracks. Chris' voice and lyrics, mixed at a volume that gives them clarity and primacy, dominate each song. This is not to say that the rhythm and melody that back the guitar and vocal leadership is secondary. In fact, the often rollicking accompaniment make these songs more rock than pop in my own humble opinion, although they certainly have the ability to become "popular". The instruments seldom seem to take over the story, however, as with the guitar part at the end of "Boarded Doors", instead creating the atmosphere occupied by the vocals. These mostly short, tightly arranged tracks are infinitely listen-able, complex but catchy rock songs that are destined to grow on those who don't slough this off as nothing new. Put it on your speaker box and kick back.

—Fingers

In some sense, listening to Be Your Own Pet is the musical equivalent of watching Gossip Girl. And I mean that in the best possible way. For those of us who may be a few years past the age when they might relate to turning twenty-one, slumber parties, best friend drama, being bored insane by their hometown, or other particularly youthful experiences, bumping Get Awkward from your car speakers with the windows down might be a bit silly. But throw it on the headphones when nobody is paying attention and you'll have to admit, it's pretty fucking good.

—Walsh

I don't want to seem incredibly lazy, but to be honest we are understaffed and you could probably read reviews of this record from when it was first released in 1978, so instead of pretending I have something new to say, I will simply lift the pertinent information from the one-sheet verbatim and go back to figuring out how a new genre called new primitive actually seeped out of someone's brain. And I quote:

In early 2008 Gary Numan celebrates his 30th year in music and turns 50. To celebrate this, the pioneering electronic album Replicas will be re-issued as Gary Numan & Tubeway Army - Replicas Redux on March 18, 2008.   The album includes the breakthrough single 'Are 'Friends' Electric?', which gave Numan his first simultaneous UK Number 1 single and album when Replicas joined it at the top of the charts a few weeks later. 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' originally charted as a picture disc and Beggars Banquet are promising a very limited edition picture disc of the track plus 'Down In The Park' as the flipside as recognition that both songs have remained influential for three decades. The new Redux re-issue also features for the first time a complete earlier version of the Replicas album recorded in late 1978 and January 1979, along with the original B-sides and further out-takes, adding up to 27 tracks across the two CDs.

Released on the punk indie label Beggars Banquet in March 1979, 'Down In The Park' was the first single to be taken off the album, receiving great support from Radio 1 DJ John Peel who booked the 21-year-old from West London for two sessions in the same year. At the time Numan was still operating with a band name - Tubeway Army - although in effect he wrote all the songs and played
everything on the LP except for bass and drums. He changed to a solo act in time for his second number 1 single of 1979, 'Cars' (a top 10 hit in the US), which was swiftly followed by The Pleasure Principle so that he headed both album and single charts again. The next three albums, Telekon, Living Ornaments and Dance reached 1, 2 and 3 and in 1981 he sold out three nights at Wembley Arena but lost money because the stage set was the biggest moving structure
seen in this country at that point.

Different generations have identified with Replicas' atmospheric music, images of technology out of control and a ripped-up London of the near future. The imagination of one young man in Cleveland, Ohio, namely Brian Warner, was fired by the 'apocalyptic' imagery of 'Down In The Park' and as Marilyn Manson he later recorded the track with producer Trent Reznor (also a fan) from Nine Inch Nails. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain namechecked the guitar-led 'It Must Have Been Years' as an influence in his journal and The Foo Fighters covered 'Down In The Park' for the X-Files soundtrack, Songs In The Key Of X. In the late '90s Damon Albarn recorded the more obscure Replicas 'outtake' 'We Have A Technical' and of course Sugababes scored a UK Number 1 in 2002 by sampling 'Are 'Friends'
Electric?' for their single 'Freak Like Me'. Other acts who have covered tracks on the album include DJ Hell, Smashing Pumpkins, Beck and Moloko. As the NME argued recently, 'Numan's influence on electronic music is unparalleled.' In fact Mojo said of his 2006 album Jagged that the 'innovator of the late '70s never sounds like he's having to play catch-up' and Kerrang concluded after listening to the album that 'Numan is still as vital as ever.'

So, 30 years after Tubeway Army's first single in February 1978, Numan is currently recording a new album and has several releases already scheduled including the Jagged Live EP (www.musictvstation.com/acatalog/gary-numan.html) and Jagged Edge - a set of alternative versions and mixes from the 2006 CD, due out later this year.

Unquote. Word.

—C-note

Around the time Most Serene Republic released Underwater Cinematographer I sat down prior to a show at Southpaw with Ryan Lenssen and Adrian Jewett to discuss their album, putting school on hold because of touring schedules, and what it's like for one young woman (Emma Ditchburn) to be stuck in a van with a bunch of dudes for extended periods of time. For no good reason, we never published the interview and the micro-cassette tape seems to have disappeared into the ether. I am herewith chalking that up as a big mistake.

Two years, an EP, and a second full-length record later, Most Serene Republic climbed on-stage at Mercury Lounge no less enthusiastic than when I first met them. Their newest record, Population, was instrumentally complex and ambitiously arranged, and the vocal partnership between between Jewett and Emma Ditchburn had changed and elevated the band's sound so immensely it's almost ridiculous that she hadn't taken a more prominent role before.

At the time of the album's release the band made a point of talking about the contrast between the relatively bright and sunny instrumentation and dark lyrical underpinning, but as yet I haven't been able to decipher the lyrics in total, and that would be the one major drawback on the album: if the lyrics were so integral in creating such a calculated juxtaposition, it might have been a good idea to make sure they were mixed at a level that was more easily decipherable over the multiple instrumental layers.

Still, there is much to appreciate, and the work that needs to be done to suss out the lyrics gives the record some room to grow in the ear. Meantime there are the tight, complex rhythms that drive the album, and the soaring, multi-part harmonies swell and recede.

Yeah, we fucked up not publishing that interview.

Sheek Louch ain't a bad rapper, with his stressed out exasperated flow, dude never sounds too comfy. His new album, Silverback Gorillas is kinda what you would expect. He still sounds hungry, still sound like he has PTS syndrome. Basically there is only one bad song, "Keep Pushing", an R&B hook piece of radio friendly crap. The rest of the album is pretty grimy, and a few of the track really stand` out. "We at war" takes Capelton's "Living in the danger zone, in the battle field..." and flips its nicely. Gets you amped and makes you want to punch your neighbors in their face. "We Coming" also makes you wanna punch people. As you can see, punching people and Sheek Louch kind of go hand in hand.

The beats come from a handful of producers and they all knock, although over the course of an entire album the dependence on noisy backdrops can become a little tedious. "Good Love" and "Scrap to This" sound a little Cam'ron-ish, what with the super happy 70's samples. The rest are more on that D Block/Lox sound with lots of hi hats and heavy stabs. The tick tick ticks of the hi hats, and frequent drum rolls make for a darker take on Southern beats.

All in all Sheek still comes off as a soldier, energetic and uncompromising. He even has a heart felt kinda song "Mic Check" that reminisces about the history of rap and where it's headed. It's still thug music. Doesn't do too much to stimulate any brain cells but then again, I think the target audience is angry teenagers. Play it on your way to work, smack up your boss and tell em D-Block is still here (for now anyway).

J.B.

The Seattle-based Michigan native Othello has made several savior claims on his Alive at the Assembly Line project. Most of these claims come from a sincere place: hip-hop should be done in one artful way, with attention to instruments and rhymes. Granted, this is not a false premise or a faulty one. But execution has limited the scope of his contentious argument. There seems to be an underlying assumption that the way to regain the freshness of hip-hop is to rehash the common elements of its presupposed Golden Era. Of course, this proves problematic for Othello who is a Mos Def analogue, with his nasally delivery and the stock phrases plucked from the Black Star ethos. For one, his tendentious rhyming of "element" and "development" or "minimum" and "him again" make him a predictable emcee, an epigone of Dante whose cleverness falls short on too many counts. His raps often make topical striving futile as he falls prey to the cliches that make him seem bland even in the face of his bolder, sweeping metaphors. On "Raps" he issues a dedicated explanation of his heartbeat through hip-hop but the incessant turntable scratching, methodical beat and repetitive rhyme patterns render it a regretful template for jazzy hip-hop. The long boring journey of Alive at the Assembly Line may be ever more dulled by the thematic monotony, but the flute-horn-piano instrumentation for this coffee shop hip-hop story make it the perfect easy listening elevator music that rules the scene in the dreary Northwest quarter. The best part of the disc is the jam session on "Peripheral Drift" which (wisely) pushes Othello to the periphery in favor of his capable band.

Andrew Ricketts

As far as New Yorkers go, rap could be dead to the MTV airwaves and BET mix lists. Karniege is not dead by any means, however. His aggro proclamations remind you of Bronx beat-breaks, Queensbridge solemnity, and post-apocalyptic electronic knells sung through gloomy mists. The songs on From the Left match their title in light of their dissonant quality. "People's Anthem" surfs over damning guitars asking us to 'stop! I'm about to ruin your day; make your sky turn gray; throw your records away!' mostly because the tune shreds any expectation of politesse immediately. To put it lightly, Karniege's wordplay does not fuck around: "I'm Martin Luther/my smarts is a ruger/aimed at the foolish/they frame left soupy". Other than Vast Aire of Cannibal Ox, there are few who could compare to Karniege's vocal gruffness and metaphorical dexterity. The self-named "summer school attendant" inspires anarchical behavior and careful study of certain lost crafts, writing being one. Hip-hop by demonstration achieves more than blankly declarative hip-hop. From the Left challenges you to become the invective and the melancholy held within the verses. But it is not a lamentation, not an exercise in recollection or recovery. Karniege does not allow for a passive comprehension, all while averting the preachy or depressing affinities of other post-millennial rap oeuvres.

Andrew Ricketts

Curumin's Japanpopshow is the world's disc. As in, the music belongs to Sao Paolo, the place of origin, but also exists in the traditional music of the Caribbean, the States and elsewhere. "Compacto" is the lead single on Japanpopshow, and it combines the skanking dub rhythm of a bass guitar the fluffy mandolin hums and Curumin's cries fleshing it all out. Rather than become a genre, the Portuguese-bending rapper and singer makes decided turns throughout the journey. "Kyoto" flirts with a rap foundation but often veers to broader representations. The infusion of reggae patois in particular articulates the influence of the West Indies and Guyana on the imagined musical terms he has laid forth. Although most of the tracks ride the down-beat, "Caixa Preta" and "Sambito" are samba madness for dance lovers. Curumin is a singer whose vocal fluctuations transport tropical dreams to sheet music. His prowess as a balladier invokes the romantic essence of summer, but his choices remind us that his main allegiance is to funk and movement. Perhaps his pop-rock stylings play better live, as evidenced by "Mal Estar Card" which seems to take strange risks in lieu of the better developed grooves on the early part of the album. Even so, Japanpopshow is made for you to find your lover, whisk her off to that exotic locale you've been daydreaming about and pretend urban existence fails you on a visceral level.

Andrew Ricketts

Let me preface this review by mentioning that the Holy Fuck album has been out since last October and sometimes that's just how it goes.

The record kicks off a bit like a soundtrack to a paranoid episode, maybe something in black and white, like an apartment scene from Pi. "Milkshake" sees our character feeling a bit more comfortable, maybe he/she is out in the streets now, but certainly the blood is still up and the dissonance lurks around the fringes, even when the xylophones break through toward the end—the sun is out, but someone might still catch a bullet.

"Frenchy's" lays down a more chilled out, confident vibe, a real neighborhood strut, but the unease persists through winding high-pitched, notes. "Lovely Allen" nearly ditches the dissonance for a carnival-esque melody, but still there is the feedback swirling underneath, even through the late string-driven build.

"The Pulse" continues the narrative theme of building melodies over darker sounds, and maybe because the Roots are on the mind right now, but the synthesizer on "Royal Gregory" instantly reminded me of "The Seed 2.0". "Echo Sam" has a bit of a throwback drum n' bass affect, and "Safari" sounds a bit like the soundtrack to a secret level on a videogame: lots of crazy fun but definitely some deadly creatures and maybe a moat or some spiked pits to avoid.

The last track, "Choppers", uses the syncopated rhythms of it's namesake to set up a pretty sick bass groove, again employing the contrast of melody and dissonance, this time taking the form of overhead authoritarianism.

So there you have it. A hot-ass electronic record imagined as a soundtrack to various scenes from our wonderful world. And as such its cool and interesting and just pessimistic and dark enough not to be totally fake. Yay!

—Fingers

I am not actually going to review this albums songs in depth or anything. I am not a huge Atmosphere fan (although I respect their work and I really liked Overcast back in 97) and honestly, they don't need my help to sell records or convince their fans of anything. The songs sounded good, Slug sounded like normal and the beats were cracking just like you expect. This is all irrelevant since they dont need my review and they also don't need new fans as they apparently are the only indie rappers moving units in these dark days. However I do want to take the opportunity to thank them for sending me a copy of their Deluxe edition album which is possible the greatest CD packaging I have ever seen*. It's a hardcover childrens book written by Slug himself and illustrated by Judy Blume**, with the CD and a live performance DVD inside. I dont even particularly like Atmosphere and it kicked ass, so if you like Atmosphere you should buy the deluxe edition and be thankful your favorite band is so generous. All I get from Ghostface nowadays are really terrible layouts that undoubtedly were conceived, shot and photoshopped overnight by Shawn Wiggs.

*On a regular release, not a box set or something.
** Judy Blume did not illustrate it but that is how awesomely awesome it is.

R. Ripperton