Candied Pop

I first discovered the two names behind this double-disc set one trip to NYC where on a hot August afternoon a clerk slid copies of DJ Heather’s Tangerine and Colette’s In The Sun over the counter and with much gravitas recommended them both. Colette and DJ Heather at the time were part of Superjane and their work was generating plenty of buzz but sadly as life caught up I fell behind on their work along with everything else going on on the club circuit. Needless to say when I saw the two of them collaborating again and on the heels of last year’s sublime Hypnotized I found myself dancing like only a middle-aged white man from the suburbs can.

House of Om features many of the Om Records royalty from Caldwell to Kaskade and the first disc, a breezy and light journey, belongs to Colette. Her track selections are warm and expansive carrying that fat, round San Francisco sound out to the setting sun in a blissfully trance like way. “What Will She Do For Love”, from 2005’s Hypnotized, makes an early appearance with a high energy remix by Andy Caldwell that bangs its way from beginning to end with a huge back beat and an early 80’s Disco flair in the last couple of minutes which gently slips into the sublime minimalism of Late Night Alumni’s reworking of “I Knew You When”. The Latin tinged “No Problem” with its shuffling rhythm section and bouncing piano line, vaguely reminiscent of Rhythim Is Rhythim’s “Strings of Life”, provides a sharper flavor to the mix.

DJ Heather’s set settles into a late night Deep House mix that is at once spare and soulful; her aim appears to keep bodies moving and she does this through a tight mix with a focus on razor sharp beats. In contrast to Colette’s set, Heather’s is built around transitions and mixing artistry as she works groups of songs that are shorter and closer related yielding a greater sense of continuity. The passage from “Jus Trippin”, “Getting There”, to “To Do” is a great example as she steps from stiff tech driven beats to a warmer soul sound driven by a organ and saxophone line that will put a hitch in your step. Heather also takes a turn at the mic on the East Coast Boogiemen’s track “Picture of You” where she floats in indistinct and hazy with breathy vocals adding to the overall stickiness of the cut.

House of Om is a solid set and both discs stand well on their own buoyed by their individual strengths, be it Colette’s vocals or Heather’s instincts behind the decks. Highly recommended. You can grab a copy over at eMusic.

These guys draw from the same influences as the Elephant Six bands, especially The Beach Boys, as well as from the collective itself. They play sunny, mildly psychedelic pop steeped in harmonies and kitchen sink instrumentation. Apparently they split up as a band when some members moved from their Memphis home base. In a neat twist they agreed to share the Snowglobe moniker and record albums “directed” by individual members with some amount of long distance collaboration. This is the first effort of that name sharing experiment and was spearheaded by Brad Postlethwaite.

Oxytocin has some catchy material but can come across as stiff and a bit too studied. It’s meticulously crafted and occasionally stifling as a result. You really get this sense with the vocals that are often fussily decked out with harmonies and/or multi-tracking. The rare time that there’s a pure vocal is like a breath of fresh air. I’m a sucker for Beach Boys-esque harmonies but it can be cloying if not metered out judiciously. “Rainbow” is a good example of a song that stumbles in its Pet Sounds pop masterpiece aspirations.

Sometimes they get it just right as on the bouncy orchestral pop gem, “Dry.” And the best song, “Happy,” stands out not only for its quality but also because it’s atypical of anything else on the album. Irony abounds as the approaching mid-life crisis sober self-assessment lyrics are set to a boppy beat with cheesy 80’s-sounding horns and a ridiculously catchy sing-along melody. These two tracks are easily the highlights of a generally agreeable album.

Mixtape tracks- “Happy” and “Dry”
Freebies- No mp3’s but you can stream “Happy” at the Snowglobe MySpace page.

Why don’t I love this album? Sonic Youth is one of my favorite bands and Rather Ripped is rather good. I really do enjoy it every time I give it a spin. The problem is that I need to prompt myself to play it. As in, “I should listen to that Sonic Youth some more and give The Unicorns and Islands a rest.” It’s more out of loyalty to the band that I choose to play their new one than a need to hear the songs again.

Not that there’s anything “wrong” with Rather Ripped. It’s really not all that different than the bulk of their considerable body of work. All of the key SY elements are in place: alternate tunings that define their unconventional sound, songs that veer off on brief, unexpected tangents, and lead vocals alternating between three singers. This time around their approach is more streamlined though and the result is mellower and more accessible. Most of the songs are in the three to four minute range so there’s a conciseness to the proceedings as well.

At the risk of sounding like an indie rock snob (all the more preposterous since Sonic Youth has been on a major label since 1990), I think their friendlier sound is what I find off putting and prevents me from really connecting with the album. I miss the noise and experimental adventure that usually permeates their releases. Rather Ripped finds the band refining their approach and I’m slightly less interested as a result.

Mixtape tracks: “Reena” and “Incinerate”

DJ Cheb I Sabbah’s La Kahena, which dropped last year, was a wildly intoxicating blend of traditional North African rhythms and modern production techniques. On La Ghriba: La Kahena Remixed Sabbah revisits the same sonic territory but with an increased focus on breaking those tracks down further and folding them into beats anchored in Dub and House through the work of artists such as Bill Laswell, Fnaïre, Yossi Fine, The Chakadoons, Temple of Sound, and Bassnectar.

Stand tracks include Laswell’s work on “Esh ‘Dani, Alash Mshit: The Constantine Remix” which brings the track into an expansive sound that is at once dark and exotic but still inviting; the vocal samples peppering the song are reminiscent of Juno Reactor’s more ethno-flavored work on Bible of Dreams. Makyo’s re-envisioning of “Madh Assalhin (The Zen Breaks)” stretches the track out to a drifting trance infused Dub that is deeply hypnotic while DJ Sandeep Kumar opens the album with a fiery remix of “Toura Toura” that adds a touch of swing and sway to the underlying beats.

La Griba makes a great addition to La Kahena, ostensibly it could be packaged as a second disc if it sees a re-release down the road. Highly recommended and La Griba certainly has a place on my “Best of” list for this year as it maintains the artistry and integrity that made La Kahena such an incredible listening experience.