Word: sonics
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Does it matter that the sonic quality of the Columbia set leaves something to be desired? A little, sure. When the company last reissued these cuts in 1988 and '89, the engineers got rid of the hiss but in the process lost much of the music. Some tunes sounded as if they had been recorded in an aquarium. Now you can hear the instruments--and the hiss, alas, too. But the irresistible force that is Louis Armstrong rockets through it, as he does through all of American music...
Artistically, Wyclef is still on the move. His sonic curiosity has broadened since The Carnival, and his songwriting skills have sharpened. He's like a pop-music search engine, filtering through genres, highlighting what's melodious and spirited. For Wyclef, it's important to come up with varied material that showcases his skills as a rapper and a singer. His reasons are personal: "My mom, she's not impressed with any of the rap stuff that I do. She's always, like, 'What songs are you singing...
...part, and Kenny Kimbrough wails on a conga. The instruments chase each other around the barn, hanging on a single chord and repeating a riff over and over with subtle variations and rising power while the folks outside dance in the dirt. This is trance music--the kind of sonic moonshine that has been served up for decades in the juke joints of north Mississippi--and it raises a question: How did these shaggy Dickinson kids learn to play it so well...
...Helden, Keoki and BT--are artists, celebrities, superstars. "If Stravinsky were alive today, this is the kind of music he'd make," says BT, who composed music for the rave movie Go (1999) as well as the PlayStation game Die Hard Trilogy. "It just affords you a broader sonic palette to work from...
Scary headline of the week: "Keanu Reeves Sings The Carpenters." Apparently, Happy Ending, the upcoming album from his band Dogstar, features a cover of the Carpenters' "Superstar." I shouldn't be allowed to read such things before lunch. In any case, a superb cover version by Sonic Youth already exists, on the If I Were a Carpenter tribute album. And then there's always the original. All together now: "Don't you remember you told me you loved me baby...