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Album Reviews

1——>3—–>5
Terrible—>Fantastic

5
Benga - Diary of an Afro Warrior
Maclean, Juan - Less than Human

4
Adams, John Luther - Light that Fills the World, The
V/A - Arabian Pop
Blue Scholars - Bayani
Booka Shada - Cinematic Shades (The Slow Songs)
Hedburg, Mitch - Hits and Misses
Hedburg, Mitch - Mitch All Together
JTT the Most - Unknown
Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali - Supreme Collection, The, Volume 01
Merzbow - Electric Dress
Philips, Washington - Key to the Kingdom, The
V/A - Evening Ragas

3
Garnås, Agnes Buen - Rosenfole Medieval Songs from Norway
Gong - Gazeuse
Herbaliser - Solid Steel Presents Herbal Blend
Hot Chip - All Filler, No Killer!
Hot Chip - Barbarian EP
Limp Twins, The - Tales from Beyond the Groove
Log Cabin Crew - Log Cabin Crew
Losoul - Getting Even
Vishaal - Gemini

2
Lonnie Smith Trio - Purple Haze Tribute to Jimi Hendrix
Manzanero, Armando - Lo Mejor de lo Mejor
Matisyahu - Youth
Members of Mayday - Sonic Empire single
Minotaur Shock - Maritime
Minotaur Shock - Rinse
Shakti - Best of Shakti, The

1
Martin, Steve - Steve Martin Brothers, The
Moggs, The - White Belt is not Enough, The
Morse, Steve - Stressfest
Sixpence None the Richer - Divine Discontent

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2009 05 28 Jason Album Reviews
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Album Reviews

1—->3—->5
Terrible—->Fantastic

5
Johnson, Robert - Complete Recordings
Shackleton - Soundboy’s Nuts Get Ground up Proper EP
Skream - SSDubstar007
Skream - Traitor BW Angry [ITAL001]
Technical Itch - Winter Stone Breaker
Thievery Corporation - Radio Retailiation

4
GMOS - West African Heat Mix [20080700]
Johnson, Blind Willie - Complete Recordings, The
Lil Wayne - Carter III The Rebirth
Mustard Pimp - Demolition March Mix
NASA - Spirit of Apollo
Prine, John - Great Days
Robinson, Miles Benjamin Anthony - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
Rok, Tes la - Cold Blooded Broken Reality
Gunshot Ritual Murder
Mental Block Warehouse [MODE002]
Rok, Tes la - Uprise Kill Demo [BD002]
Rok, Tes la and Innasekt - Archetype No Need 2 Be Nasty [RVOL002]
Rusko - SNES Dub [dp005]
Shackleton and Mordant Music - I Want to Eat You
Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline
Telepath - Contact
Williamson, Sonny Boy - Real Folk Blues, The
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz

3
Allen, Lily - It’s Not Me, It’s You
Baker, Chet - Embraceable You
Mackaveli - Fabric Live Promo Mix
Mal O Dua - Aching Fingers
Martin, Steve - Crow New Songs for the Five-String Banjo, The
Mills, Alan - Songs of the Sea
V/A - Mirex C8 Wasted
Mr. Beatnick featuring Ahu - I Know All the Bitches
Peverelist - Live at Phonica
Plastician vs Chimpo vs MRK 1 - Kryptonite 12 inch
Prodigy, The - Invaders Must Die
Ramadanman - Each Time
Religious Knives - Door, The
Reso - Toasted and Holograms 12 inch [pitch003]
Round, Carina - Disconnection, The
Scorn - Whistle for It [une40]
Scuba and Distance - Scuba and Distance [abucs001]
Shackleton vs Applebim - Shackleton vs Appleblim [skull002]
Shackleton vs Applebim - Soundboy’s Ashes Get Chopped Out and Snorted 12 inch [skull006]
Shackleton vs Applebim - Soundboy’s BOnes Get Bured in the Dirt, Volume 02 [skull005]
Skepta - Greatest Hits
Skream vs Distance - Skream vs Distance [TEC006]
Skream vs G Squad - Skream vs G Squad
Sno - Disturbance Back Yard [Earwax001]
Sunz of Man - Last Shall Be First, The
Super Flu - Sugarplum Hum Mix [20081216]

2
Byrd, Donald - Black Byrd
Chiefroca - CR4REAL
Flobots - Platypus
Frisell, Bill - Best of, The, Volume 01 (Folk Songs)
Ramadanman vs Conquest - Bare Dubs 001
Random Trio - Lost City (rtp001]
Random Trio - Tectonic [tec004]
Round, Carina - Slow Motion Addict
Rusko - Action Dread and Cockney Flute Remix 12 inch
Sanders, Pharoah - Shukuru
Scuba - Timba Sleepa
Scuba - Twosta [Hot Flush 013]
Shackleton vs Gatekeeper - Shackleton vs Gatekeeper [SKULL004]

1

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2009 04 24 Jason Album Reviews
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Trustbusting (To the Brooklyn Posse: TR was the Best)

Today’s NYT discusses some of the parts of Geithner’s new regulatory plan, including this paragraph from the article:

If regulators decided that a company had become “too big to fail,” as was the case with A.I.G. in September, they would subject it to much stricter capital requirements than smaller rivals and much closer scrutiny of its borrowing levels and its trading partners, or counterparties.

Isn’t the more tried and true method of handling these types of companies is to break them apart? And even better yet, prevent them from ever existing? That isn’t to write that additional regulations are a bad idea, just that let’s use some of the tools we already have.

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2009 03 26 Jason Finance/Economics Comments (0) Permalink

This is…Heavy

One day the other week, I listened to some absolutely great albums with incredible tracks, and I decided to make a quick and dirty mix of some of my favorite songs. That day, I found, chose, and mixed these songs into the mix below. It is nothing fancy, and just meant to get the word out on some stuff I like. Thanks to SD for the feedback. And, yes, I know most of this stuff is old.

This is…Heavy Mix (320kbps, 60MB)
(1) La Roux - In for the Kill [Skream Remix]
(2) Meconium - King Kong Ain’t Got Shit on Me
(3) Mochipet - Justin Timberlakecore
(4) Matty G - 50,000 Watts (Original Mix)
(5) Mathhead - Bonafide Killa
(6) Meconium - No Heroin, No Dubstep
(7) Matty G - Bitter Love

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2009 03 22 Jason Music Comments (0) Permalink

Album Reviews

1—–>3——>5
Terrible—->Fantastic

5
Mehldau, Brad - Art of the Trio, The, Volume 04 Back at the Vanguard
Reich, Steve - Music for 18 Musicians
Tjader, Cal- Grace Cathedral Concert
Wyatt, Robert - No. 11 Comicopera

4
Natural Self - Art of Vibration, The
Nomo - Ghost Rock
V/A - Luaka Bop 10th Annniversary_ Zero Accidents On The Job
Wiley - See Clear Now

3
Mathhead vs Elemental - Bleeb Stagger Dub
Nation of Ulysses - Plays Pretty For Baby
Others, The - Africa
Others, The - Hear Dis Style Underworld
Parts & Labor - Receivers
Penderecki, Krzysztof - Credo
Toasty - Cold Blooded One LIfe
Zion I - Take Over, The

2
Neon Neon - Stainless Style
Turf Talk - West Coast Vaccine
Tuss, The - Confederation Trough EP
Tuss, The - Rushup Edge
Vex’d - Lion Up
Weather Report - Heavy Weather
Weather Report - Tale Spinnin’
White Lies - To Lose My Life

1

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2009 03 19 Jason Album Reviews
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Album Reviews

1—->3—–>5
Terrrible—>Fantastic

5
Cut Chemist and Shortkut - Live at the Future Primitive Soundsession
Liquid Liquid - Slip In And Out Of The Phenomenon
Mantronix - Mantronix The Album
Mantronix - Music Madness
Mantronix - Best of Mantronix, 1985-1999

4
DJ Shadow - Four-Track Era, The, Volume 01
DJ Shadow - Four-Track Era, The, Volume 02
Kool Keith and Kutmasta Kurt - Diesel Truckers
Mala - Left Leg Out
Mathhead - Most Lethal Dance EP, The
Matty G - 50000 Watts 12″
Matty G - ARG007
Meconium - Muscular Dystrophy Disco EP
Mochipet - Girls Love Breakcore
Mochipet - Microphonepet
Moving Ninja - Formations
N Type - Street Justice

3

DJ Shadow - Shcoolhouse FUnk II
Jaylib - Champion Sound
Lincoln, Abbey - Over the Years
Mala - Bury the Bwoy
Mala - Neverland Stuck
Milanese - One Up
Moving Ninja - Shellcode
N Type - Square Off
N Type - Way of the Dub

2
Landstrumm, Neil - Life of Grime, The EP
Martsman - Genom
Matt & Kim - Grand

1
Life without Buildings - Any Other City
Life without Buidlings - Live at the Annandale Hotel

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2009 03 11 Jason Album Reviews
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Favorite Music Reviews: A New Series (hopefully the City Paper won’t steal my idea this time)

Earlier today, I tried starting a blog post series of my favorite–note, not best–songs. The first one was going to be Reverend Gary Davis’ I am the Light of this World (which would have been followed by about eight other Davis songs; I sweat him hard), but the limits of blog software led me to a cup of coffee instead. In this spirit, I launch a new series of Favorite Music Reviews, of which this post is the first.

For the record, most music reviews make me sick. (seriously; I’ve had a near panic attack over one in particular; ask SF). In fact, my own album ratings is an ironic and functional spin on the review process, where thoughtless albums receive a tremendous amount of column space and incredible albums register only a few gazillion hits on Google. Furthermore, the only music critic who does not make me want to throw my Internet out the window is Sasha Frere-Jones, and even he decides to write about inconsequentials such as Neko Case.

Nonetheless, about once every decade, there is a music review that I find so absurdly great that I put it on my fridge, mental or physical. To these reviews, I dedicate this series. Typically, my favorite reviews are those that are ruthless (in either a positive or negative manner), to the point, and demonstrate a wide knowledge of music without coming off as clever. People who know me, know that I feel CMJ reviews are the antithesis of this.

The first is Richard Gott’s Liberation Music, which appeared in the March 12, 2009, issue of London Review of Books. Now, Gott’s article is great, but it’s not his work that ranks him in my favorite music reviews. No, it is who he quotes. Specifically, I am keen on a Rodney Bennett review of a January 1960 performance:

It took time, though, for the new experimental music to be widely accepted in London. Cardew and Tilbury had played pieces by Feldman and Cage at a concert at the Conway Hall in January 1960, and Rodney Bennett, who was present, recalled that the audience of 70 sat ‘transfixed with gloom’ while the two pianists produced, slowly and laboriously, ‘a series of small tired noises, not violent, not beautiful, not exciting, not even remotely interesting: the whole effect as soporific as an evening spent listening to the complete Methodist Hymnal’.

The entire article is filled with these sorts of gem, and I encourage some of you to read the entire piece.

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2009 03 09 Jason Album Reviews
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Album Reviews

1—->3—–>5
Terrible—>Fantastic

5

4
Alias - Resurgam
Baptista, Cyro - Banquet of the Spirits
Bembeya Jazz National - Syliphone Years, The
Budos Band, The - Budos Band II, The
Budos Band, The - Budos Band, The
Buraka Som Sistema - Black Diamond
Buraka Som Sistema - From Buraka to the World EP
Collins, Bootsy - Back in the Day The Best of Bootsy
Cranes - Cranes
Franz Ferdinand - Tonight

3
A Mountain of One - Collected Works
Adams, John - Road Movies
Astatke, Mulatu - Mulatu of Ethiopia
Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
Battles - Mirrored
Beans - Thorns
Cheveu - Cheveu
Durrty Goodz - Ultrasound
Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

2
Awesome Color - Electric Aborigines
Black Francis - Bluefinger
DJ Babu - Duck Season, Volume 03
Ipso Facto - Mannequin 7″
J Rawls and Middle Child - Rawls and Middle

1
Adele - 19
Against Me - tons
Glasvegas - Glasvegas
Jones, Grace - Hurricane

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2009 03 08 Jason Album Reviews
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Pitchfork Sucks (for real this time)

When pressed to comment about Pitchfork, I usually dismiss it as the stuff of hipsters everywhere. But if asked privately for general outstanding sources of music news, I always include it. Now, however, I am dropping it from my recommendation list, because the writing has sunk from elitist erudite dissections to snarky editorialized drivel. Although the past month or so has been filled with news posts along these lines, this dis on Miley Cyrus is the straw that broke my two-humped camel back.

First, Cyrus criticizing Radiohead is not news. Second, slamming Cyrus at every opportunity is child’s play. Third, making her out to be an idiot is a bit odd when taking into account that she’s got gajillions of dollars over anyone associated with Pitchfork; this is essentially my Paris Hilton defense: Who’s the stupid one if she’s raking in the bucks and you’re sitting pinching pennies so you can buy another Miller Lite?

My last problem with the post is the assumption she is incapable of holding a worthwhile conversation about music just because she is involved in the pop machine. The decision to make that type of music does not mean she is clueless about music (or anything else for that matter). And if you work the logic backwards, does Pitchfork assume that everyone who listens to “sophisticated” or “good” music is a musical genius worth reading? If we were to simply dismiss anyone based on their musical tastes, I would be the first to dismiss Pitchfork for their schoolgirl obsession with Kanye, whose one-trick-pony production style and crybaby antics put him in the pantheon of spoiled overrated undertalented noisemakers.

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2009 03 06 Jason Music Comments (1) Permalink

Album Reviews

1——>3—–>5
Terrible—–>Fantastic

5
Clinic - Do It!
Craig, Carl - Sessions
Flying Lotus - 1983
Flying Lotus - July Heat
Flying Lotus - Reset EP
Gas - Nah und Fern
Hancock, Herbie - Complete Blue Note Sixties Sessions
Hooker, John Lee and Miles Davis - Hot Spot, The
V/A - Music of Islam, Volume 10 (Qur’an Recitation, Istanbul, Turkey)
V/A - Music of Islam, Volume 11 (Yemen, Sanana)
V/A - Music of Islam, Volume 12 (Iran, Karaj)
V/A - Music of Islam, Volume 13 (Pakistan, Lahore)
V/A - Music of Islam, Volume 14 (Mystic Music)
V/A - New Orleans FUnk, 1960-75
Rodriquez Lopez, Omar - Calibration

4
A Place to Bury Strangers - A Place to Bury Strangers
Bear in Heaven - Red Bloom of the Boom
Cave, Nick and the Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig
Dae Holland Quintet - Prime Directive
Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
Ellen Allien - Sool
Ghetto Don, The - Ghetto Don, The
Insect Factory - Air Traffic Control Sleep
Insect Factory - Snowflakes
James Pants - Welcome
Kuti, Seun and Egypt 80 - Many Things
Loefah - Mad Ruffage [DMZ009]
Loefah - Roots Goat Stare [DMZ006]
Loefah and Skream - TEC003
Mitchell, Elizabeth - You are My Little Bird
Mogwai - Hawk is Howling, The
Portunondo, Omara - Flor de Amor
Psapp - Camel’s Back, The [Instrumental]
Psapp - Tiger, My Friend
Soulja Boy - SouljaBoy Tellem
TITS - Throughout the Ages
TITS - Tittie Tour Teaser
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Wiley - Wearing My Rolex

3
Blood Red Shoes - Box of Secrets
DMBQ - Annular Music
Dorian Concept - Seek When is Her
Elzhi - Preface, The
Emynd and 4AM Jess - Shake Whut Ya Got
Heliocentrics, The - Out There
Jake One - White Van Music
JME - Famous
Kuti, Seun - Live at Festival Lugano in Switzerland [2007]
Loefah and Coki - Deep Medi Musik [MEDI003]
Loxy and Usual Suspects - StalkerFracture
L-Wiz - Girlfriend
L-Wiz - Strength
Psychosis - TempestInner Sense
Roberson, Eric - Appetizer, The
Roberson, Eric - Collection, The
Roberson, Eric - Left
Roberson, Eric - Vault, The, Volume 1.5
Samuel, Jeff - Bork
Shaggs, The - Philosophy of the World
Young Knives, The - Superabundance

2
Ay? - Joyful
Crystal Stilts - Alight of Night
Dirtbombs - Ultraglide in Black
DMBQ - Esoteric Black Hair
Fabulous Diamonds - Fabulous Diamonds
Greyboy Allstars, The - What Happened to Television
Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair
V/A - Jazz and ’80s
Loefah - Jungle Infiltrator [BAM006]
Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I
Orient - Look at My Eyes EP
Ra Ra Riot - Rhumb Line, The

1
Elias, Hanin - Future Noir
Ghetto - Freedom of Speech
Mya - Sugar and Spice
Open City - Birth of Cruel, The
Risque Bouquet - Flood
These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid
Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls

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2009 02 22 Jason Album Reviews
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